Predicting versus Contesting

Few, if any, readers and writers of science fiction believe it exists to predict the future. Strikingly on-target foretellings of future events and technology are occasional, serendipitous accidents. Rather, it speculates on the questions "What if...." and "If this goes on...." Cory Doctorow's latest LOCUS essay delivers a slightly different, more radical perspective on what science fiction does:

SF Doesn't Predict

This article consists of the text of a speech he gave in June 2023, when receiving an Honourary Doctor of Laws from York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies in Toronto. He begins with an anecdote from his educational career. At the age of seventeen, already professionally selling short science fiction, he inquired at York University's humanities department about getting into the creative writing program. He was turned down because, as he was told, "they only teach literature." I had a similar, although less blunt and final experience, as an undergraduate. After taking the introductory course in creative writing, I enrolled in an advanced, workshop-type fiction writing course. At the end of the first semester, the professor hesitated to let me into the second semester because I'd submitted only fantasy and horror. He reluctantly let me continue, and I dutifully wrote a slice-of-life story about a military wife coping with a toddler and a baby while her husband was deployed. Nobody could have asked for a more spot-on "write what you know" work. As far as I can recall, it was an okay story and certainly didn't lack vividness or realism. But that wasn't the path I wanted to follow; the marketplace abounds in writers of realistic fiction, and I knew I'd never measure up to most of them. While I sometimes enjoy reading about contemporary settings and characters with no trace of the fantastic, I have no interest in trying to write that genre. (Yes, even though it claims the status of "mainstream," it's a genre.)

Doctorow later rejoiced in belonging to a community, the tech realm, whose members didn't view his science-fiction output with disdain. Rather, he "was surrounded by people who thought that SF writing was literally the coolest thing in the world." The rest of this blog explains why he agrees.

He defines optimism and pessimism as "just fatalism in respectable suits. . . .Both deny human agency, that we can intervene to change things." He subsumes both under the category of "inevitabilism, the belief that nothing can change." This attitude, according to Doctorow, is "the opposite of SF," whose purpose is to imagine alternatives. What it contests is the assumption that there's no alternative to the status quo or the predicted future, that "resistance is futile." He lays out several examples, climaxing with his metaphor of a bus speeding toward the brink of a canyon--unless we take the risk of swerving. The essay concludes, "Hope begins with the ability to imagine alternatives. And there is always an alternative."

That affirmation reminds me of something that irritates me about the fantasy and SF shows I watch on the CW network. A continually recurring line of cliched dialogue laments, "We haven't got a choice!" (I've often wondered whether the same writers compose the scripts for all of those series.) I keep wanting to yell at the screen, "Yes, you featherbrain, you always have a choice."

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Blood as a Youth Potion

Could techniques that restore markers of youth to old mice have any effect on human subjects?

Blood Transfusion Experiment in Mice

Cellular senescence, a "state in which cells stop growing and dividing," contributes to the aging of various tissues in the body. In one experiment, two mice were surgically spliced together, like Frankensteinian conjoined twins. The younger mouse showed signs of aging, while the old mouse gained some of the young one's youthful health. To distinguish blood-borne factors from other effects, the blood of old mice has been transfused into young ones, causing the recipients to show "increased expression of senescence biomarkers in the muscle, kidney, and liver." They also suffered loss of strength and endurance.

Senolytic agents, "drugs that eliminate senescent cells," when infused into the blood of the old mice, reduced the ill effects on the victims of the age-to-youth transfusions.

Conversely, transfusing the blood of young mice into old ones "decreased tissue damage in the liver, kidney, and muscles of old mice."

These studies remind me of a classic quasi-vampire story from 1896 (one year before DRACULA), "Good Lady Ducayne," by Mary Braddon. The wealthy title character has a reputation for being generous to her young, female paid companions. But why have they all mysteriously wasted away and died? It turns out that her villainous personal physician has been drugging the girls with chloroform and secretly draining their blood to transfuse it into their elderly employer, maintaining vigor unnatural for her advanced years. This method of forestalling the ravages of age sounds like obsolete pseudo-science. How surprising to learn that such a method might actually work, to some extent at least.

Unfortunately, neither senolytics nor the vital fluids of vigorous young people can presently act as a fountain of youth for human patients. If healthy blood could serve that purpose, negative social consequences such as exploitation of the incarcerated or the poor could result. Money or reductions in prison time might offer an irresistible temptation to "donate" blood to the privileged classes.

Special people whose blood confers health or immortality form a long-standing science fiction trope. For instance, THE IMMORTAL, a 1969-70 TV series, based on short stories by SF writer James Gunn, features a man whose transfused blood heals a dying millionaire. However, the effect wears off after a while. Naturally the rich man wants to keep the other one as a living blood bank, so the potential victim goes on the run. in Tananarive Due's African Immortals novels, beginning with MY SOUL TO KEEP, the Immortals of the series title keep their nature secret to avoid being hunted for their blood, through which their immortality can be passed on. If a human family or subspecies with rejuvenating blood existed, it seems all too likely that they might be imprisoned and bled for the benefit of the elite.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Clones as Organ Donors

I've recently read an excellent novel called NEVER LET ME GO, by Kazuo Ishiguro, author of THE REMAINS OF THE DAY. (I've seen the film adaptation of the latter, but I don't plan to watch the movie of NEVER LET ME GO. The story just strikes me as too depressing to view as a dramatization, without being filtered through the narrator's voice as in the book—and I generally LIKE sad stories.) NEVER LET ME GO traces the youth and coming-of-age of children cloned for the sole purpose of serving as organ donors. Kathy, the narrator, and her friends have always known, on some level, what their purpose and inevitable destiny are, but their vague awareness becomes more explicit as they grow to adulthood. The reader learns about their world along with them, through extended reminiscences by Kathy, who as a young adult serves as a "carer" for other donors until she eventually has to assume the latter function herself. She knows once she progresses from carer to donor, she will probably live through three or at most four donations before she "completes," i.e., dies. The clones don't serve as donors for the specific individuals whose DNA they share (whose identities, of course, they never know) but as general organ banks. The characters we follow grow up in a sort of orphanage / boarding school, where they live a fairly good life; they later learn that theirs is one of the best group homes, whereas others treat their inmates worse. We never learn details about the other homes, the background of the cloning project, or the science underlying it. Nor do we find out how the public was induced to accept this radical development. The novel seems to take place in an alternate mid-twentieth-century. This version of England has pre-cellphone, pre-internet technology, yet judging from the apparent ages of older donors mentioned in passing, reliable human cloning has existed for well over twenty years.

The novel focuses on the relationships among the characters, their gradual discovery of the full truth about their own status, and the ethics of treating human beings as manufactured products. Therefore, it doesn't delve into the scientific dimensions of the cloning process. Toward the end of the book, a retired guardian (as their teachers are called) mentions controversies over whether the donors have souls. Nobody brings up the obvious fact that a clone is simply an identical twin conceived at a different time, who grows like any other person and is as human, with as much of a soul (if souls exist) as anybody else. Another unanswered question raised in the story is why the characters can't have babies. There's no biological reason for clones to be infertile. Are they genetically manipulated to be that way? Surgically sterilized in childhood?

Wouldn't it be more efficient for donors to provide spare parts specifically for the people from whom they're cloned? No risk of organ rejection that way. Some of Heinlein's imagined futures include clones produced to supply organs for their originals. In these books, it's clear the cloned bodies never come alive, are never persons at all but only inert shells. One such body is used in THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST to fake the death of Lazarus Long's mother. In principle, an individual could achieve immortality by having his or her brain transplanted into a cloned body when the birth body wears out.

For most purposes, though, why grow a whole body at all? Surely it would be easier to develop cloning technology that could generate particular organs as needed. You could get a new heart, liver, kidney, or whatever with your own DNA and with none of the ethical issues involved in mass-producing live, conscious people to serve as spare-part factories.

So, although NEVER LET ME GO raises fascinating issues, and its characters' plight is deeply moving, it doesn't seem to me a likely portrayal of a realistic scenario.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Karen Wiesner: Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms: Mass Effect Series, created by Bioware with Drew Karpyshyn, Casey Hudson, and Preston Watamaniuk

Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms:

Mass Effect Series, created by Bioware with Drew Karpyshyn, Casey Hudson, and Preston Watamaniuk

by Karen Wiesner

In this article series I'm calling "Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms", I plan to explore supernatural fiction series that sometimes had their beginnings as books but branched out into other types of mediums, like videogames, movies/TV series, board/card/role-playing games, and music. In each individual article that I hope will introduce entertainment connoisseurs to some incredible fiction or components of similar themed stories they might have otherwise missed, I'll discuss the origins of the series elements as well as my individual experience with the various types of media, which will be presented as a kind of review of the series.

In this third installment, we'll cover the space opera Mass Effect Series created and developed by Bioware, a Canadian videogame developer, with Drew Karpyshyn (lead writer), Casey Hudson (director), and Preston Watamaniuk (designer). Karpyshyn also wrote the first three novels in the series.

In this sprawling science fiction adventure series with elements of horror, the popular videogame spawned novels, comics, a film, a potential television series, compelling music, a 4D holographic experience at an amusement park, and even its own holiday!

Which Came First?

The Mass Effect Trilogy takes place over the course of 2183-2186 CE {Common Era}). In 2148, humanity discovered highly advanced Prothean technology hidden deep below Mars' surface. The Prothean were thought to be the progenitor race of all species. These remnants of the long extinct culture led mankind to scientific breakthroughs with mass effect fields and the development of faster than light spaceflight. Another Prothean discovery unearthed a dormant mass relay that, once activated, transported them to another relay, which was part of a vast network that made travel around the entire galaxy possible. By 2150, the Alliance was formed and began forging military exploration beyond the Sol System. Only two years later, the first three human colony worlds were settled, including Demeter, Eden Prime, and Terra Nova. 

First contact was made with another spacefaring race in 2157. The Turians had been watching them, and soon the First Contact War culminated into the Turian siege and occupation of Shanxi, a human world. Only a month later, a surprise attack put the planet back in Human hands. The full-scale war the Turians had begun to prepare for against humanity was thwarted when the Citadel Council intervened. The Citadel, a massive space station, had long been considered the political and economic heart of the galaxy. Peace was brokered and so began mankind's foray into interstellar expansion.

Meanwhile, a mercenary named Jack Harper became embroiled in a plot with a Turian named Saren. Harper went on to create the human-supremacist, terrorist organization called Cerberus and, at that time, assumed the identity of the Illusive Man. Horrifying experiments and immoral depravities were ascribed to this organization all throughout the series.

Two years later, Saren became the youngest Turian to be inducted into the Spectres (Special Tactics and Reconnaissance), agents of the Council granted extraordinary power to preserve galactic stability. The first Human Spectre candidate was Alliance Navy Captain David Anderson, commander of the experimental Turian/Human stealth frigate, the SSV Normandy. Anderson's XO,  Commander Shepard, became the first Human Spectre in 2183. Shepard was already an N7 rank soldier, having distinguished him/herself (this main character can be played either as male or female) in combat, by the time he/she took over as captain of the Normandy. 

The original Mass Effect trilogy began in the year 2183 with Commander Shepard coming in contact with an artifact that imparted a vision of war and death across the galaxy. In this deeply disturbing portend, Shepard learned that every 50,000 years, the Reapers, an ancient species of machines, eliminated all higher life forms in a galaxy-wide purge, leaving younger species to advance and thrive until the next cycle. The Reapers believed this apocalypse was necessary to prevent war and chaos from destroying all life for all time. The next two games detailed the epic struggle of the entire galaxy to survive against the Reapers--at times aided by Cerberus, at others massively hampered.

The story behind Mass Effect Andromeda, the fourth game, actually began within the timeline of the first three games. The Andromeda Initiative, at least partially funded by “powerful benefactors” (which may or may not include Cerberus) was founded in 2176 and the first wave launched into dark space in 2185. Each of the species had their own massive ark. Those in the scheduled second wave launch held the last of the Milky Way species. The Nexus flagship--filled with a variety of races--was a Citadel-like space station designed to be the Initiative's base of operations as well as a temporary home while the "Golden Worlds" were made habitable. The journey to the Andromeda Galaxy to establish a permanent presence there was intended to be a one-way trip that would take approximately 600 years. Each ark was assigned its own Pathfinder, selected to set up a habitable world for its 100,000 passengers. Alec Ryder, a soldier who fought in the First Contact War, was the Human ark Hyperion's Pathfinder.

Circa 2450 CE, the Scourge, a widespread energy phenomenon, was unleashed in the Heleus Cluster after the detonation of a powerful weapon on a Remnant space station. A race known as the Jardaan created Remnant technology (Rem-Tech), including vaults that, when activated, amplified the environmental stability of a planet. The Scourge deactivated the Remnant vaults, badly damaging the Golden Worlds the Initiative expected to inhabit upon arrival, and nearly destroyed the only sapient sentient species native to the Andromeda galaxy. Angarans fell into a dark age, their civilizations cut off from each other and scattered. Around 2600, the Scourge stabilized. After rediscovering spaceflight, the Angaran people began to reunite. In the midst of their initial healing in 2744, the Kett, a hostile alien species, invaded the Heleus Cluster, intending to "exalt" the Angara into their own empire. Instead of following protocols, the invasion force's leader became obsessed with learning how to control Rem-Tech.

In 2818, after a 633 year journey across dark space, the Nexus arrived to find things vastly different in Andromeda than they expected before setting out. Fourteen months afterward, the Hyperion showed up, having been separated from the other arks that were prevented from rendezvousing with the Nexus for various reasons. This is where the game opens. The player chooses to be either the son or daughter of Alex Ryder. As the first Pathfinder to arrive at the Nexus, they're faced with the challenges of making all the Golden Worlds habitable, finding resources, making alliances, discovering what happened to the missing arks, and defeating the Kett.

A fifth Mass Effect, as yet unofficially titled with no release date in sight, is expected to continue the story from the first trilogy and possibly also the Andromeda installment, which had all the DLC and anticipated follow-up games canceled due to less than enthusiastic fan reception, despite sales success that matched its predecessors.

The chronological order of the Mass Effect Series with videogames, comic books, novels, and one film included is:

1) He Who Laughs Best by Mac Walters and Jeremy Barlow (single issue comic published in 2013): Details how Jeff "Joker" Moreau became the SSV Normandy's pilot prior to the events of ME. 

2) Evolution by Mac Walters (4-issue comic series first published in 2011): Set in 2157 during the First Contact War, detailing the origins of the Illusive Man and Cerberus.

3)  Revelation by Drew Karpyshyn (novel published May 2007, six months prior to the release of ME): A prequel to the first videogame, set in 2165 involving David Anderson and Saren investigating an attack on a Human research station.

4) Mass Effect (videogame released 2007): Set in the year 2183.

5) Ascension by Drew Karpyshyn (novel published July 2008): Set a few months after the events of ME spotlighting a young biotic prodigy named Gillian Grayson who's pursued by Cerberus and aided by Kahlee Sanders, who also had a significant role in Revelation.

6) Andromeda: Initiation by N. K. Jemisin and Mac Walters (novel published in 2017): Set in the Milky Way before the departure of the arks, Cora Harper attempts to recover dangerous stolen data before it can be used against the Andromeda Initiative.

7) Redemption by Mac Walters and John Jackson Miller (4 issue comic series first published in 2010): Prequel to ME 2 with Cerberus and Liara T'Soni trying to track down Commander Shepard, killed in the opening act of ME 2.

8) Mass Effect Galaxy (2009 released no-longer-available mobile game): A prequel to ME 2, squad members Jacob Taylor and Miranda Lawson investigate aggressive Batarian activities.

9) Mass Effect 2 (videogame released 2010): The prologue begins in the year 2183; 2 years later, Shepard is resurrected by Cerberus to continue fighting the Reapers.

10) Retribution by Drew Karpyshyn (novel published July 2010): Set a few months after the events of the second videogame. Cerberus uses Reaper tech on Paul Grayson.

11) Incursion by Mac Walters (single issue comic published in 2010): An Aria T'Loak adventure set one week before ME 2 opening events.

12) Deception by William C. Dietz (book published January 2012): Set not long after the events of Retribution, concerning Gillian Grayson's search for her father's murderer, the Illusive Man.

13) Conviction by Mac Walters (single issue comic published in 2011): In the days after the events of Arrival (ME 2 DLC), Captain David Anderson tasks Alliance Marine James Vega with the guarding of an important prisoner on Omega.

14) Inquisition (single issue comic published in 2010): Takes place after ME 2 with Captain Bailey investigating allegations of Executor Pallin's corruption within C-Sec.

15) Invasion by Mac Walters (4-issue comic series first published in 2011): Aria T'Loak's battle with Cerberus invasion forces on Omega.

16) Paragon Lost (anime film released in 2012): A prequel to ME 3, Alliance Marine James Vega battles the Collectors.

17) Mass Effect 3 (videogame released 2012): Set in the year 2186, six months after the events of ME.

18) Homeworlds by Mac Walters with ME 3 writing team (4-issue comic series first published in 2012): Each issue focused on a different squad member from ME 3 including James Vega, Garrus Vakarian, Tali'Zorah, and Liara T'Soni.

19)  Foundation by Mac Walters (13-issue comic series first published in 2013): Original stories in the series that tie in with the ME 3 Citadel DLC (except issue 5 with ties to ME 2).

20) Andromeda: Nexus Uprising by Jason M. Hough and K.C. Alexander (novel published in 2017, the same day the videogame ME Andromeda was released): Set on the Nexus in the Heleus Cluster before the arrival of the other arks, detailing the events that led to the uprising.

21) Mass Effect Andromeda (videogame released 2017): The Andromeda Initiative began in 2185, between the events of ME 2 and 3, but the events of the game don't start until after the 634-year journey of Ark Hyperion to Andromeda, which arrived in 2819.

22)  Discovery (4-issue series first published in 2017): Expands on the events of ME Andromeda.

23) Andromeda: Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente (novel published in 2018): Set during the journey of the Quarian ark to Andromeda, a deadly pathogen has been intentionally released onboard.

The music of ME is eclectic, to say the least, with vintage synthesized sounds, encapsulating both wonder and terror. The galaxy map, Reaper invasion, and "leaving Earth" music are all iconic to followers. Later scores had more cinematic and orchestral compositions. ME Andromeda starts with "A Better Beginning", which never fails to haunt and even devastate me. All three original soundtracks are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX1UuJMfQfk

Andromeda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncN_o7x6XPA

On May 18, 2016, Mass Effect: New Earth opened at California's Great America in Santa Clara, California. The theatrical motion simulator amusement park ride includes motion seats equipped to simulate wind and water. The ride's plot coincides with the ME 3 timeline during the invasion of the galaxy by the Reapers. The ship ride is captained by a live action actor playing Conrad Verner, an obsessed fan of Commander Shepard's.

In late 2021, it was reported that negotiations were underway to adapt ME for Amazon's Prime Video streaming service.

An informal commemorative holiday--N7 Day--is observed annually on November 7th to celebrate the franchise.

A Review of the Various Medium Components Available

My first experience with Mass Effect came after my nephew's dad talked about how much he loved it. We bought it and my husband started playing while I avidly watched from the sidelines. The character development is so incredible in this trilogy, each game making the cast more and more distinctive and real. I became so invested in them, I was hooked. As soon as he finished the trilogy, I had to play it myself and I was absorbed so much so that I could barely function. The first few times I played the trilogy straight through, I couldn't sleep, couldn't do anything else, I was so wrapped up in the story and characters' plights. I can safely say an obsession was born.

Since then, I've lost track of the number of times I've played through the original trilogy (I can't play one of them without playing all of them back to back), and I've exhausted nearly every scenario when it comes to different ways to play, companions to romance, etc. available in the games. Over the next decade plus, I convinced countless other gamers I know to play it. I suspect in many cases, it was simply to understand what I was going on and on and on about, talking about this series so often.

When the Legendary Edition was released in May 14, 2021 with all three games, all DLC and add-ons included (except Pinnacle Station), remastered, I might have been the happiest person on the planet.

Additionally, the release of ME Andromeda, a brand new chapter in ME history, was pivotal for me. Unlike so many vocal decriers of this installment, I'd found my brand new favorite game. While the characters aren't quite as intriguing in Andromeda (a bit cardboard), the gameplay and story are superior even to the original trilogy.

A discussion of ME wouldn't be quite complete without a nod to its disappointing endings. Fans spent three games of the trilogy anticipating how everything would come to a head and what the ending would bring. The main character choices shaping the story all through the games were not only pivotal, but, for many, the point. The reception when the ending was finally revealed left fans cold, and even game writers and developers were disappointed at how it turned out. The outcry for the divisive finale that gave the main character no option let alone satisfying solution was so hotly vocal, designers went back and redid the ending, offering an expansion DLC with the main character deciding between three very different options that (if nothing else) at least gave a sense of closure that wasn't in the initial "resolution". However, while there was an interesting twist thrown in in the form of the entity with out-of-the-blue revelations to impart, almost nothing in the story thus far even hinted at what this creature had to tell the main character (although one of the bonus content stories. Leviathan, released a couple months after the alternate ending was made available was clearly an attempt to belatedly shore up those shocking disclosures). Unfortunately, the revised multiple choices the main character was given with the redesigned ending didn't always line up with the choices the protagonist may have made throughout all three games. In fact, some of those decisions were rendered inconsequential. Ultimately, the new ending was better, but fans still left disappointed, understandably so.

To my mind, this situation could have been avoided altogether if the writers had either taken or been given the opportunity to lay the groundwork for every installment in the series long before the games were designed. That said, it's hard to know what transpired since, in the videogame world, if a game doesn't make money and/or the reception is aggressively critical, there may never be a sequel--regardless of whether it ends on a cliffhanger, as was the case for Andromeda, which ended with not one, not two, but three major cliffhangers. The game was met with loud disapproval for reasons that weren't necessarily about gameplay or story content. As a result, DLC and a potential sequel or sequels were summarily squashed--to the dismay of fans. The bonus content that was planned prior to its cancellation would have provided resolutions to all the cliffhangers in the first game. I know I'm not the only fan who fumes whenever I think about never getting those loose ends tied up. One of the loose ends was supposed to be answered in the  novel Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente, however, for my part, I was disappointed with that "conclusion". While a new ME game has been confirmed to be on the horizon, there's no way of knowing whether the developers intend to provide closure for Andromeda--or open another can of worms they may or may not ever close. In short, despite some obvious elephants in the room with these disenchantments, this series remains to this day my all-time favorite.

For completionist gamers, you can find my checklists and quest guidelines, chock full of tips and tricks, for ME games and all DLC below:

ME 1: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/masseffect1checklist.pdf

ME 2: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/masseffect2checklist.pdf

ME 3: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/masseffect3checklist.pdf

Andromeda: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/masseffectandromedachecklist.pdf

After playing the games, I bought and read all the novels associated with them. All are good or excellent in giving background on several prequel or secondary plots mentioned in the games. since I've never enjoyed reading comic books, I'm still wavering on whether to purchase them--each have been packaged in volumes that contain all the individual issues. I love all the music associated with the series, owning most of the soundtracks. Finally, I'm enthralled at the prospect of a fifth game and possibly a movie/TV series based on the series in the future.

Whether you're a sci-fi gamer, book or comic reader, TV, movie, and music lover, or amusement park ride enthusiast, I highly recommend the Mass Effect Series in all its multimedia facets. Each component is worth whatever time and monetary investments you make.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150+ titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

A Taste for Blood

This week I donated blood, and as usual in that situation, I thought about vampires. (Doesn't everybody?) If vampires have razor-sharp teeth that painlessly produce tiny incisions in the skin, maybe with anesthetic in their saliva like vampire bats, they wouldn't need to leave conspicuous twin fang marks that the donor has to cover with a scarf. (Vampire bats, by the way, make incisions, not punctures.) The puncture produced by the blood donation needle, at least in my experience, is so minute that it's hardly noticeable after the bleeding stops. Usually it has almost disappeared by the next day. The procedure typically extracts a unit of blood in less than ten minutes. Afterward, the donor isn't prostrated from blood loss; the worst I ever feel is thirsty and slightly tired for a couple of hours at most. So much for the dramatic image of a victim languishing on the verge of imminent death.

That's if the vampire takes only "as much as would fill a wineglass," like Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Count Saint-Germain. He's a supernatural vampire, though. For those creatures, we can postulate that they're really nourished more by the life-essence than by the physical components of blood, so they don't need to ingest a large volume of it. Likewise, the absurd movie scenes in which a vampire grabs a victim, bites his her or neck for a couple of minutes, and leaves a body completely drained of blood could be handwaved as magic. No awkward questions as to where all that liquid fits into the monster's body. But suppose vampires evolve naturally and have to conform to the limits of biology? As the vampire Dr. Weyland in Suzy McKee Charnas's THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY rhetorically asks, "How would nature design a vampire?"

How do vampire bats cope with a diet high in protein and minerals but not much else, including a potentially toxic level of iron? This article explains how vampire bats' digestion and physiology have adapted to make them the only mammals able to survive entirely on blood:

Why Do Vampire Bats Have a Taste for Blood?

For one thing, they live in symbiosis with gut microbes that synthesize nutrients not found in their restricted diets. They have other fascinating adaptations for their predatory lifestyle as well, including anticoagulants as well as painkillers in their saliva and the heat-seeking ability to perceive infrared radiation marking hot spots on the bodies of their prey. We could give our naturally evolved humanoid vampires these traits. My own fictional vampires get their bulk nourishment from animal blood and milk rather than feeding heavily on human donors, whose life-energy they need to remain healthy. Still, I fudge the total amount they require with discreet handwavium. Weyland in Charnas's novel gets "good mileage per calorie," and I tacitly assume any natural vampire would have to operate that way.

Unfortunately, in real life vampire bats suffer from an inconvenient drawback as models for romantic haunters of the night. So much blood volume consists of water that the bat has to consume half its own weight to ingest enough calories to support life. Then, of course, it has to get rid of that excess liquid just to reduce its weight enough to be able to fly. Therefore, during and after feeding the bat urinates copiously. Not glamorous at all, alas. So the writer inventing a naturally evolved humanoid vampire typically avoids discussing that problem. (In THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY, the blood-heavy bat's plight is mentioned, but that unsavory topic isn't covered in the explanation of how Weyland feeds and digests.)

I'm currently reading a Japanese novel titled IRINA THE VAMPIRE COSMONAUT, set in an alternate-world version of the 1960s space race. Members of Irina's species have fangs, rely mainly on milk for nourishment, have superhuman senses of smell but can't taste most foods, are sensitive to sunlight but not destroyed by it, lead a nocturnal lifestyle, and can endure cold better than humans but are more vulnerable to heat. They drink blood on ritual occasions but don't seem to require it for survival.

The ways authors rationalize science-fiction vampires fascinate me. Some striking examples include, besides THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY, George R. R. Martin's FEVRE DREAM, Jacqueline Lichtenberg's THOSE OF MY BLOOD, Octavia Butler's FLEDGING, and S. M. Stirling's Shadowspawn trilogy (A TAINT IN THE BLOOD and two sequels). I analyze these and many other works in that subgenre in my nonfiction book DIFFERENT BLOOD: THE VAMPIRE AS ALIEN.

Different Blood

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Karen S. Wiesner: SURPRISES IN THE COURSE OF LEARNING TO WRITE A SCIENCE FICTION SERIES (15 of 15)

Conclusion: In Which a Clumsy Girl Goes to Outer Space

This is the final of fifteen posts dealing with surprising things I learned in the course of writing a science fiction series.

We've come to the end of my long series dealing with the surprising things I learned in the course of writing my first science fiction saga containing Overarching Series cliffhangers in all but the final book.

Ahh, humble beginnings. Zoë Rossdale, my original Clumsy Girl, was first introduced in Glass Angels, Book 4 of my Family Heirlooms Series, where she was a secondary character who tripped onto the stage and stole my heart. She's quirky, colorful, crazy, klutzy, loveable, and liable to say or do anything outrageous. I couldn't get enough of her so I had to write a spinoff series with the Friendship Heirlooms Series. Zoë was the main character in two of the seven books in that series and a secondary character in many of the others. However, even then I didn't get my fix of the Clumsy Girl from writing two novels in her POV and including her in others. I found myself wanting to do more with her character or simply the legacy of her.

Astoria “Tori” Bertoletti, a descendent of Zoë, became one of the two primary characters in the Arrow of Time Chronicles as the librarian and planet cataloger aboard the Aero. Like her predecessor (Zoë had a gigantic Maine Coon cat that she put a leash on and walked in a dog park), Tori loves animals and nearly has a barnyard of them in her cabin aboard the ship, which provided a lot of fun, lighthearted moments in the series. Raze Salen, mankind's emissary, is the other primary character in the series, and he's Tori's best friend and later her boyfriend and husband. I loved creating these two characters and watching them grow into heroes and legends, sometimes together, sometimes apart.

The original Clumsy Girl Zoë Rossdale from the Family and Friendship Heirlooms series https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/family-and-friendship-heirlooms-series.html

You don't finish a series like this without feeling like Dorothy, forever marked by a beloved, magical world she'll never forget and always want to return to. As hard as the monumental endeavor of writing something this complicated was (and similar, hereafter endeavors are unlikely to get any easier even with practice), along with readers, I was taken on an unforgettable journey in the process of figuring all this out. I got to send a Clumsy Girl into outer space and beyond in matchless style.

Fellow authors and adventurers, whatever your complicated Overarching Series with sprawling, unique worlds; larger-than-life characters is or will eventually be, reach for the stars. Don't you dare think about holding back just because not one aspect of this endeavor will be easy and there will be countless times you'll wonder how many more hurdles you can possibly overcome. Never forget the silver lining: Virtuoso, your magnum opus awaits!

Happy writing!

Based on Writing the Overarching Series (or How I Sent a Clumsy Girl into Outer Space): 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection by Karen S. Wiesner (release date TBA)

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 140 titles and 16 series, including the romantic science fiction series, ARROW OF TIME CHRONICLES

https://www.writers-exchange.com/arrow-of-time-chronicles/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/arrow-of-time-chronicles.html

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Karen S. Wiesner: SURPRISES IN THE COURSE OF LEARNING TO WRITE A SCIENCE FICTION SERIES (14 of 15)

Of Rewards Earned

This is the fourteenth of fifteen posts dealing with surprising things I learned in the course of writing a science fiction series.

Thus far throughout this 15-part article series, we've looked at a lot of what could be considered the hurdles that have to be leapt over in order to write an Overarching science fiction series. But there were a lot of amazing things that came with the endeavor as well. Let's talk about a few of the wonderful perks earned in the process of writing an Overarching Series in a few random musings.

Showing Off Your Baby

Cover art can be the icing on the Overarching Series cake. It's my opinion that the cover designs in the speculative fiction genre can be some of the most eye-catching of any category of fiction…or they can be simply generic, which really sucks and, hey, talk about a missed opportunity! I started designing my own covers for my sci-fi series during the early part of researching the series, and, as my series evolved, I continued looking for just the right cover graphics that truly fit the series and stories contained in each book. I wanted to be able to look at the covers and forever remember the events, thereby immortalizing them in my mind. I also wanted readers to take one look at them and think, Wow, how cool. I gotta read this. Later, just before my series went to the publisher for editing, a professional cover artist finalized my initial designs into the oeuvre d'art you'll see below. I've lost track of how often readers tell me how striking the covers are. 

 The ship on the cover of the first book is my beloved Aero, the Human Corvette cruiser, coming out of a space corridor.

 The graphic on Book 2 is the Vreah battleship, Vashtii, which, despite being a slow, massive, heavily-armored stealth warship also resembles a luxury "cruise" ship in space.

 Book 3 not only shows the light and fast Quing ambassadorial ship Vlacos but you can see that the "black maw" (the dark energy menace in the series) has eaten part of a planet, possibly their own planet Qu or Gurgh.

 Finally, the last cover shows the secret military base Neth-Beo, militarized by the warring Sinshe-Shojani, along with their most deadly dreadnought, Paladin. Behind it is the weapon of mass destruction they've been building, which is also a stealth ship.

While personalizing your cover designs makes them super cool, breathtaking and memorable, there's another reason for going the extra mile with them. Covers this gorgeous can't help but get noticed by the buying population. Additionally, having similar cover designs for each book is a huge help in creating instant recognition for that series and a series logo should also be a priority. (The four-pointed arrow at the bottom to the left of my name is the series logo for Arrow of Time Chronicles. It also served as the series break graphic on the interior.) Looking at the Arrow of Time Chronicles covers above, you can tell they're all part of the same series, can't you? Yet they're all distinctive separately as well. We talked about series branding in Chapter Four, and cover art is definitely part of that, especially for an Overarching Series.

Be proactively creative in even these "outer" aspects in bringing a series to life as well as offering it proudly and lovingly to your readers. Showing off the cover art is definitely one of the most rewarding perks I've found in writing a series like this.

Baby's Got Back…matter

One of the things I love most about the speculative fiction umbrella is all the lore associated with these genres. As a reader, I can't get enough of this stuff and I always buy the books associated with series covering the lore. If I can get that in the back of the books themselves, that's an even better bonus.

In my science fiction series, this meant I finally got something I've always wanted to be a requirement for my books: Back matter! While the word "back matter" can have many definitions, the one I'm talking about here is the sections in the back of the book that provide further reading, deeper explanations, and a whole host of interesting information about aspects of the series. I love reading this kind of thing in any series, whether it's a book, movie, or videogame. I want to know more. In fact, I want to know everything!

In the case of Arrow of Time Chronicles, I had a specific reason for including back matter in each installment of the series that, unfortunately, really had nothing to do with It's just so cool! Because there were so many characters, locations, historically significant events, and distinctive cultures in my series, along with unique Standard Operative Procedures, I included three appendices: 1) a Human timeline/history, 2) brief culture and homeworld specifics, and 3) a dictionary of terms. These were placed in the back of each book in the series. Even the longest one in Book 4 was little more than 30 total pages. I didn't want to significantly add to the page length of any of the books, since most of them were pretty large anyway, close to 100,000 words. The biggest reason the back matter was necessary, was because I didn't want to repeat large chunks of crucial information from one book to the next that could have overwhelmed any of the chapters in the story in a hurry. Instead, I included the important information that readers might have forgotten from one book to the next or simply needed a refresher on in a place that wouldn't overload the text. That freed me up to get on with the storytelling. 

Rejoice when you get to cross a few cool things off your bucket list with the rewards earned.

Next week, we'll conclude this article series covering the surprises I had in learning to write a sci-fi series. 

Happy writing!

Based on Writing the Overarching Series (or How I Sent a Clumsy Girl into Outer Space): 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection by Karen S. Wiesner (release date TBA)

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 140 titles and 16 series, including the romantic science fiction series, ARROW OF TIME CHRONICLES

https://www.writers-exchange.com/arrow-of-time-chronicles/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/arrow-of-time-chronicles.html

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Karen S. Wiesner: SURPRISES IN THE COURSE OF LEARNING TO WRITE A SCIENCE FICTION SERIES (13 of 15)

Of Reader Reactions and Lessons Learned

This is the thirteenth of fifteen posts dealing with surprising things I learned in the course of writing a science fiction series.

Learning to write a complicated Overarching Series brought with it hard lessons I didn't expect to have to learn like reader expectations not being what I hoped for and getting back up after getting iffy reviews or criticism. When the dust settled after the fallout, I also discovered there are unexpected rewards that might make up for any disappointments. We'll talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly you might have to face while writing an Overarching Series in this chapter. 

When I went into writing my first Overarching Series, I had a lot lofty aspirations and weird ideas about producing something so groundbreaking, so electrifying and life-changing, it would be talked about in hushed whispers even after I was dead... Yeah, okay, so maybe that was stupid. I was and still am a novice in this genre and with this type of series in general, but I will admit that, even though I've now got two very complex Overarching Series under my belt, I still go into these particular projects with the hope of coming out with an authentic magnum opus.

Underneath the silliness, I did actually go into Arrow of Time Chronicles with a few unwavering intentions. I deliberately didn't want the series to answer all the questions it posed. The first thing I wanted to embed within the series arc was the unspoken commentary that nothing ever really changes and sentient beings rarely reach a pinnacle of peace and solidarity, regardless of how advanced they might become. Even if you leap forward into the future, most things still work the same way (especially the way so-called intelligent entities fight about every little thing and politics rules every community, whether certain members of it want it to or not). I had a scene in Book 3 where representatives of all the cultures from all around the galaxy are in the same room arguing about the best way to handle a situational conflict that faces them all. That heated conversation was viewed with confusion and surprise from the perspective of a young, mischievous girl, her differently-abled friend, and their unique pets while in a well-chosen hiding place. It's one of my favorite scenes in the entire series for its humorous narration on timeless sociology mores. Did readers get what I was going for with these vows? I doubt it. But it was important to me anyway.

Related to the previous unspoken commentary in the series arc was the second series question I wanted to remain ambiguous. From the start of the series, I knew I wanted to instill the sense that the threat of war is always on the horizon, that wars never truly end, and, when a new threat ultimately presents itself, we'll always realize that it was actually there all along, something left over from the previous war, waiting to resurrect and implode. However, after the series was published, one reviewer commented that, "This novel concludes the series, but a large, threatening thread is left dangling."

We've had in-depth discussions about cliffhanger endings in this manual, but what this reviewer was referring to wasn't a cliffhanger in any sense of the word. My story and series arcs were all resolved completely. She was referring, more accurately, to what I call a "possible reemergence ending". Basically, in the final scene, the conflict or opposition reemerges, implying that at some point the bad thing that happened in your story/series will happen again in the future. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… Readers tend to love or hate these kinds of endings, but if a possible reemergence ending fits, each author has to decide whether or not to take the risk and use it.

In my case, I admit I waffled about including that reemergence epilogue for a long time while I was outlining and then writing the draft of the final book in the series. I finally did decide to go with it because I didn't break the implicit compact that's built into the offering of any book to a reader, which is to satisfactorily tie up every loose end--series and series arcs. I also didn't give anyone a "lady and the tiger" ending, which I passionately hate myself. A little more about that:

Frank R. Stockton's book, The Lady and the Tiger, in which he leaves it up to the reader to decide which came out of the door--the lady or the tiger--is the inspiration behind what writers dub a "Lady and the Tiger" ending. While some love this kind of ending, few would call this type of resolution anything but a cop-out. All loose ends must be tied up adequately in your story and this kind of ending denies that, refuses it, kicks the reader in the face. I personally believe these kinds of unfinished stories are written for the sole purpose of making the author and/or select readers feel superior about knowing something other, lesser minds don't and can't grasp.

Not providing satisfactory resolutions violates the contract between the writer and the reader, forcing him to do without an effective tie-up of some or all story threads. I also suspect some authors do this because they simply want to leave the resolution of the series arc mysterious and unanswered. They either don't have a good enough resolution planned, or they want to encapsulate the mystery indefinitely. For an example, we never did get a straight answer about what really happened to Mulder's sister in X-Files, not in nine seasons and a couple movies (nor did I get the definitive answer in the miniseries that aired in January 2016).

If the author is never going to answer a nagging question, why invest anything, especially time and passion, in the story? Leaving a story thread dangling isn’t something an author can do without making readers furious, perhaps enough to ban your books for life. They’ll feel cheated, and rightly so. Don’t underestimate the damage a vengeful reader can do to your career. (Have you read Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne?) Seriously, to write a story is to promise the closure and/or resolution of unanswered questions. Authors should never cheat their readers, bowing out before actually finishing and avoiding the provision of an ending complete with answers to all burning questions.

In any case, it bothered me tremendously that the reviewer left my series feeling the way she did, although I knew when I added the reemergence ending that it was a risk. I pointed out to her the truth about what kind of an ending this was, and she did agree I didn't actually leave any of the story threads dangling. Nevertheless, she didn't revise the review she put up everywhere. So I have to live with that and some readers might be turned away from the series unfairly as a result. Sucks, but there's very little I can do other than see the bright side that, luckily, other reviewers put a positive spin on the potential reemergence by saying the ending gave them goosebumps and startled them with new possibilities.

Being misunderstood can and does happen, especially to writers. As I mentioned in the Introduction, I told my husband and son one fateful day of wanting to write something like Star Trek (a series I love in all its many iterations) with a Clumsy Girl on board the spaceship. In truth, I didn't really want to write another Star Trek wannabe. I went out of my way to avoid having Arrow of Time Chronicles end up like any other science fiction saga that was popular. I wrote me, which by definition is probably different than almost everyone and everything else.

One of my first readers of the series had little experience with the genre. Star Trek was actually the only sci-fi program this reader I'll call Bob had ever seen and he hadn't read any other books in that category. Because he was expecting the same premise and story he would get from that sci-fi program, I think there was ultimately no way for him to find a way to like my series, which actually made him a great critique partner because he saw things from a perspective I didn't get from any of my other critique partners. I highly recommend that all writers try to get a first reader or critique partner who doesn't read in their genre by choice just to allow the work to be viewed from every conceivable perspective. As much as I initially hoped to bring Bob onboard and make him a believer, he'll probably never delve any further into this genre in large part because he just didn't get what I was trying to do with mine, even if he found my attempt well-written. Oh, well. Apologies and gratitude, nevertheless, Bob. No hard feelings.

I considered adding a subtitle to this section of the chapter along the lines of "What Else Can You Do with Bad Press?" At this time, all the reviews I've received for my sci-fi series have been between 4 and 5 star ones. However, the lowest ranking review (which still rated 4 very impressive stars) that bothered me most taught me probably more about writing in this this genre than anything else. But, dang, if it didn't hurt more than any other review I've ever gotten in more than two decades of being a published author. Woven in with great comments about the final book in the series, loving and worrying about the happily-ever-after of the characters, fascination with the suspense events that unfolded and resolved satisfactorily, and looking forward to more from an "amazing author", I received a comment that bit the big one. The tactful way to say it is that the reviewer felt the showdown was rushed.

Sigh! Science fiction, like most other thrilling genres, is supposed to be packed full of action and adventure, thrills and spills, awws and oohs. I felt I met that criteria in spades throughout the series, but final battles are hard to write and I doubt too many authors would tell you otherwise, regardless of their popularity or skill. As a writer, you do your darndest to provide readers with lots of hairpin twists and turns, emotional exhilaration and suspense along with nail-biting, whipsawing action. And, as an author, you'll doubt yourself every step of the way, too. Maybe I didn't add enough complications or drama, maybe I didn't raise the stakes and withhold the prize long enough. I've learned to always question my showdowns, always layering the clash with multiple tiers of heightened tension and potential for failures, throwing more obstacles than I'm comfortable with in the way of steady progress toward the story goal, and withholding the ultimate achievement of success until the reader feels like he could collapse on the floor, little more than sweaty pulp, from the tenterhooks of anxiety he's been hoisted up on. I've learned not to be content with stimulating tour-de-force but to take it up a further notch to heady blood-rush. And, maybe most importantly, I've learned to be grateful for positive reviews and not to dwell too much on the negative.

Learning to use the good, the bad, and the ugly reviews not just to take center stage on your dartboard is a skill--a grace, if you will. Accept that you can't please everybody and that not everyone will understand what you're trying to do. But, at least in my case, I still found that the outcome of my efforts were worth every bit of the sweat, blood, and tears I poured into it because I could always remind myself of the burning purpose I felt when I first wrote my series.

It's never easy to pour your heart and soul into something only to have the public throw rotten tomatoes at it. Remember the  purpose that compelled you to write the series in the first place. Learn to take the good from the bad. 

Next week, we'll take on the wonders of writing in this genre in a slew of random musings.

Happy writing!

Based on Writing the Overarching Series (or How I Sent a Clumsy Girl into Outer Space): 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection by Karen S. Wiesner (release date TBA)

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 140 titles and 16 series, including the romantic science fiction series, ARROW OF TIME CHRONICLES

https://www.writers-exchange.com/arrow-of-time-chronicles/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/arrow-of-time-chronicles.html

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor