The basic premise of the story (no spoilers) is that the majority of the world’s population lives in underground bunkers after a nuclear war. The war is conducted on the surface by high level beaureacrats while the average Joe hunkers down in cramped quarters and lives a meek and meager lifestyle underground.

Except here comes the usual Dick twist; The war ended after two years, yet the population has been kept underground for fifteen years. This is of course, a carefully managed conspiracy by faking war-related broadcasts and news. But why would anyone want to pull such a conspiracy on the public living in bunkers? For power of course. To control the resources of land and manufacturing, while keeping the rest of the population in poverty below.

Most of the story revolves around two characters. One character lives below, and must travel to the surface to find a medical supply for his community. The other character lives above, and works in the agency responsible for creating false war news and propaganda.

I’ve told you virtually nothing about the story’s actual plot, in case you want to read it. The reason I bring all this up, is because I found it interesting how a convoluted conspiracy affects the characters–or more importantly, how it doesn’t.

My issue with the storytelling is purely a character problem. Several of the characters who exist on the surface and help to perpetuate the conspiracy do not actually believe in the motives or goals of the conspiracy itself. They have no ‘buy-in’ to the conspiracy. Yet, these very same characters act day-in, day-out, without giving their role in the conspiracy much thought. To me this doesn’t seem very realistic.

The question for me which shatters the illusion, or shatters my suspension of disbelief is this; “Why wouldn’t they just walk away? Or worse, work to undermine the conspiracy?”

Indeed, one of the central characters helps to do this, but he seems to do it in complete paranoia, and without much scruples as to why and how he should care to begin with. In other words, he defies the conspiracy in a less-than intentional way. This makes him less of a hero, and more of a bystander who simply tries not to hurt the tankers as much as his peers do.

The same is true for the character who must travel to the surface. Once he discovers that the war is over, and has been over for a while, he does not seem greatly distressed by this news. Dick’s explanation seems to be, this ‘tanker,’ as the bunker-dwellers are called, has become so accustomed to life in squalor underground, that he doesn’t know what to think when he finds out about the reality of life on the surface.

I don’t buy it. Because Dick later explains that the conspiracy could not be exposed to all the tankers at once, as it would ‘shock’ them and cause a revolution. Of course it would! And I believe it would with the main characters as well.

Keep in mind, the characters did not grow up from childhood in these surroundings. The entire framework of the premise takes place over 15 years. Unless the characters are all fifteen years old, there is no way they would go about their routine so mindlessly when it comes to something as important as freedom, and a conspiracy to infringe upon it.

None of the characters seem to take a hard emotional stand, or fight for anything they believe in. This not only makes the story less believable, it denies the reader an identification with a hero. It hurts both the logic of the conspiracy, and the characterizations.

It is an excellent example where the author could have asked himself, “What would I do in this situation?” Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem Dick asked such a question. If you read it, you might agree that a character affected by conspiracy is a penultimate truth.

Rebel Without a Crew is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

Anyone interested in storytelling ought to give it a read. Truly inspiring.

I could go on and on about how inspiring the book was for me, but that won’t do it justice. Just read it.

I’m about midway through Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammet, and it’s really fantastic stuff. I would say even if you’re not writing a detective story, his pacing is something every writer should study. The story literally starts with a bang and doesn’t stop. There is no dead time, long pages of backstory, not a terrible amount of character’s musing or internal monologues. It’s all straightforward, solid, coherent, logical, exciting, rich storytelling. I can’t wait to read more.

As an aside, the Library of America publisher has done a great job with these books. Very slickly hardbound with smooth thin pages and an attached tassel bookmark.

I started watching Firefly last night. I couldn’t really understand what all the buzz was about, as it seems difficult if not impossible for Firefly fans to summarize what’s so cool about the series in a single sentence that conveys the concept accurately. After watching the pilot Serenity 1 & 2, I’m starting to grasp what’s so damn cool about it. For one, the characters are all interesting. They’re properly aligned in conflict with one another in interesting ways; Real Drama.

The pacing is also excellent. Something new, dangerous, or interesting is happening literally every second of screen time. If all his writing is like this, I’m beginning to understand why Joss Whedon has a decent sized gaggle of worshippers.

What’s with Understanding Comics and Writing for Comics? I don’t really intend to write one, although that’s an interesting idea. I think comics as a medium demand an attention to detail and structure that other mediums may not, with the exception of film of course. Take storyboarding and make it an official medium and you’ve got the world of comics. Because I’m interesting in script-writing along with novel-writing, comics are a very rich place to stick your literary nose.

Having recently finished Preacher I must say I’m on CLOUD NINE with all this great writing. I’m starting to get many, many ideas for how I want the construction of my NaNoWriMo story to play out over the course of November.

These are truly exciting times!

Schrödinger’s Kittens by John Gribbin

I apologize in advance for any butchering here.

There are some truly bizarre theories in quantum physics. One of the more interesting ones involves an explanation of quantum entanglement. Two particles connected over space and time, but how? There is no evidence of any communication going on, and this is one of the greatest mysteries of the field.

One theory postulates a ‘handshake’ across both space and time, possibly backwards in time for each particle, which, in effect, cancels out the evidence of communication.

Instead of communicating across distance NOW, the particles are intertwined at their origin, which means any information about speed, location, values, and rotation is instantaneously transmitted back in time to the origin point, erasing any evidence of it.

This is pretty far out, and a bit difficult to wrap your head around. Keep in mind; it’s just a theory, but an interesting one.

Caves of Steel by Asimov

Earth societies live in giant steel caves. This frightened me a bit at first, because it’s similar to an idea I was exploring in my own works but the more I read I began to see marked differences between the caves of steel and my, uh, structures.

Bailey is very rational for a human, capable of great leaps of logic. This is one reason the spacers chose him to solve a murder on their turf. The dialogue and logical interplay between a human with strong understanding of logic, and the robot R. Daneel whose logic is perfect makes for an interesting dynamic.

Preacher graphic novels (1-9)

There’s a reason I’m not much of a comic fan. I’m not all that fond of superheroes with magical powers.

Garth Ennis has a lot of guts, setting Preacher within the Christian mythology. The series is extremely violent, blasphemous, heretical, and I thought that any Christian would probably be greatly offended by it. But if you read reviews online, surprisingly, there are many Christians who appreciated the series despite some of its more heretical content.

But let’s get to the meat of the matter…

The writing is just plain solid. Garth Ennis shows himself to be a very strong storyteller within the Preacher series. After reading the very first issue, my interest was piqued. By the third book, I couldn’t put it down. I was more engaged in Preacher than I’ve been in any fiction novel for a long time.

Preacher has great plotting, excellent twists and surprises. One thing I took special note of was little seeds planted in the story as to what would happen later. It wasn’t foreshadowing in the classic literal sense, but more illustrative foreshadowing. For example, you turn a page to find a completely new series of panels depicting people, things, or places you haven’t seen before. All you get is that one page to make sense of, which leaves you wondering. Of course, by the end of each book that ‘teaser’ is fully explained.

The series keeps you on your toes, and is well constructed. I dare say it’s an excellent example for any aspiring novelist as any well-written novel. The structure and pacing is simply superb.

All of these are having an interesting effect on the way I view my own work. I’d like to go through the Preacher series again and examine the story structure a little more closely. I think this one is going to have a pretty long-lasting effect on me.