This was one of the stories I enjoyed most. No soldiers ripping the guts out of aliens, just good, old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness dystopian glimmer of hope.
I’m glad you liked it, and yes - I must confess that I am bad with “glimmer of hope” stories. I tend to do “valiant sacrifices” more often! Maybe something to keep in mind for the future tales.
I’d noticed :) Do all those things exist (I can’t even think of any of the names off hand) the spaceship stuff, weaponry and atmospheres? Or do you make them up? I admit, I skip all the fighter pilot conversations and the descriptions of the different missiles and what not. But I’m intrigued to know if you’ve made up all that jargon. Intrigued and impressed!
Most of it is either existing terms (things I’ve learnt over the years from studying military history and reading biographies from people who served), or science-related and -adjacent (things that could plausibly exist in the future, given some predicted growth in our technology base). If you blend truth and myth in that way, you end up with something that comes across as far more genuine and believable overall - and for fiction, that’s always a win as far as I’m concerned!
It all sounds horribly plausible to me. I’m sure you know your audience, but if you wanted to widen it, maybe in the next collection add a few more stories that don’t have an entirely male cast. I like the human drama aspect of some of your stories, and the descriptions of worlds that aren’t just going up in flames and gouts of blood. I’m not drawn to the military stories, the band of brothers-type scenarios. The quiet heroics are more moving. Military science fiction is limiting your readership. But you know that. I just want everybody to write the kind of stories I enjoy reading :).
I will absolutely need to expand my typical characters, yes! I stick to writing what I know, which - based on my previous explanation - is mostly military men doing military things; however, I’m sure I can expand that into other areas too. I might feel like a bit of a fraud initially, but I’m sure that will pass too.
Have you by any chance had time to read “Dogma Days?” (published last week) It was a bit of a new setting and theme for me, and I’d like to hear your feedback on it sometime. It veers away from the Band of Brothers theme for once, albeit still with an all-male cast :P
Why would you feel like a fraud? You’re a writer. Nobody insists that you pick a lane and stick in it. I’d like to see you exploring some of the more subtle emotions. Maybe you could experiment with taking a story you’ve already written, stripping out all the references to what type of weapons people are using, what their capacities are, and the results of using them. Take out the glorious sacrifice, and see what’s left. Delve into motivation, the why not the what, and build a character and a story from there. It might turn out very different to the original.
I missed ‘Dogma Days’. It’s the algorithm, I suspect. If I respond to a note or read a post, I see posts and notes from that person for days, and the people subscribe to are harder to find. I’ll find it though and let you know.
Spur-of-the-moment term on my side, honestly, it just flowed out while I was writing. Slang and contractions make a lot of sense in an informal, “degraded” situation like this though, so… accidental gold, I guess :P
This was one of the stories I enjoyed most. No soldiers ripping the guts out of aliens, just good, old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness dystopian glimmer of hope.
I’m glad you liked it, and yes - I must confess that I am bad with “glimmer of hope” stories. I tend to do “valiant sacrifices” more often! Maybe something to keep in mind for the future tales.
I’d noticed :) Do all those things exist (I can’t even think of any of the names off hand) the spaceship stuff, weaponry and atmospheres? Or do you make them up? I admit, I skip all the fighter pilot conversations and the descriptions of the different missiles and what not. But I’m intrigued to know if you’ve made up all that jargon. Intrigued and impressed!
Most of it is either existing terms (things I’ve learnt over the years from studying military history and reading biographies from people who served), or science-related and -adjacent (things that could plausibly exist in the future, given some predicted growth in our technology base). If you blend truth and myth in that way, you end up with something that comes across as far more genuine and believable overall - and for fiction, that’s always a win as far as I’m concerned!
It all sounds horribly plausible to me. I’m sure you know your audience, but if you wanted to widen it, maybe in the next collection add a few more stories that don’t have an entirely male cast. I like the human drama aspect of some of your stories, and the descriptions of worlds that aren’t just going up in flames and gouts of blood. I’m not drawn to the military stories, the band of brothers-type scenarios. The quiet heroics are more moving. Military science fiction is limiting your readership. But you know that. I just want everybody to write the kind of stories I enjoy reading :).
I will absolutely need to expand my typical characters, yes! I stick to writing what I know, which - based on my previous explanation - is mostly military men doing military things; however, I’m sure I can expand that into other areas too. I might feel like a bit of a fraud initially, but I’m sure that will pass too.
Have you by any chance had time to read “Dogma Days?” (published last week) It was a bit of a new setting and theme for me, and I’d like to hear your feedback on it sometime. It veers away from the Band of Brothers theme for once, albeit still with an all-male cast :P
Why would you feel like a fraud? You’re a writer. Nobody insists that you pick a lane and stick in it. I’d like to see you exploring some of the more subtle emotions. Maybe you could experiment with taking a story you’ve already written, stripping out all the references to what type of weapons people are using, what their capacities are, and the results of using them. Take out the glorious sacrifice, and see what’s left. Delve into motivation, the why not the what, and build a character and a story from there. It might turn out very different to the original.
I missed ‘Dogma Days’. It’s the algorithm, I suspect. If I respond to a note or read a post, I see posts and notes from that person for days, and the people subscribe to are harder to find. I’ll find it though and let you know.
I didn't realize post-apocalyptic cyberpunk was something I needed in my life. Also that lead beer is legitimately horrifying.
“It won’t kill you if you don’t know any better” - right? Right…?
An interesting dystopian escape story. If you wanted to continue you could take this in many entertaining directions.
I’m definitely going to keep the story open for future expansion, yes!
Grungy, gritty, dirty. Great vibe going on here!
Glad to hear you’ve enjoyed it. I felt like getting back into the one-shot mood last night, and this piece just seemed to pour out all on its own.
"reznecks," is beyond lovely. there's something beautiful about creating slang for the worlds we are tasked to build. Well done, sir. Keep on. +1
Spur-of-the-moment term on my side, honestly, it just flowed out while I was writing. Slang and contractions make a lot of sense in an informal, “degraded” situation like this though, so… accidental gold, I guess :P
All gold is definitive. There are no accidents in this craft, old man. +1