TOF, as noted supra (or infra) has completed the draft for In the Belly of the Whale and dispatched it to meet its fate. It is set on a multi-generation starship 200+ years into a thousand-year voyage to Tau Ceti, whose Planners had forgotten one very large thing in designing the ship and its social ecology.
Earlier, he had released into the wild the novel The Shipwrecks of Time, written on spec, now facing an unknown future. This is set in the alien world of 1965 Milwaukee. It involves a group of historians who discover traces of an immortal Danish barbarian, the problem being he doesn't want to be found.
TOF has nothing in the queue elsewhere, but several pieces lying about iin various stages of incompleteness; to wit:
- "Adventures in Mythistory." A fact article about how pukka history becomes myth. Essentially complete, but where to send it?
- "Hunter's Moon." Perhaps half done. A 'shooter' on the Lunar railgun sending bulk goods to Mars has died. Was it really the freak accident it seemed? Mickey, the troubleshooter for Phobos Port Authority, sent to Luna on other business, gets involved. Mickey was first seen in the story, "In Panic Town on the Backward Moon."
- "Mandarins." Maybe complete. It is a section from an Alternate History I was writing with Someone Else, but there has been no movement in a couple of years and I am thinking of decoupling it from the larger story and fashioning it as a stand-alone. The Great Navigator has been sent with a small fleet by Sri Vijaya's Palembang to find the sea route to the fabled Empire of the Romans
- "Little known Speedbumps on the Happy Highway of Progress." A series of vignettes in which various of the Naked Apes make technological breakthroughs that don't quite work out. Three or four have been written.
- "The Journeyman: In the Mankiller Mountains." A few sentences. Teodorq sunna Nagarajan and Sammi of the Eagles desire to cross the mountains on the other side of which is said to be the fabled village of Varucciyaman. But the snow-capped mountain range is called the Mankillers. "That can't be good," says Teddy.
- "Red Clay Man." A prehistoric ape-man, biologically human, becomes ontologically human when at puberty he invents language. A few paragraphs written.
- "Res Cogitans on the Town." The protagonist, participating in an experiment designed to show free will is an illusion, quits in disgust. A freak traffic accident results in his res cogitans popping loose from his res corpora and entering another's body. Envision a series of "head-hopping" encounters. Nothing written yet.
- The Chieftain. A novel involving David O Floinn and his son Fiachra during a civil war among the O Connors for the kingship of Connaught in the 1220s, These are actual historical characters, named in the Annala Connaughta, as are all other Mjor Players, as well as the course and events of the war. The good news is that an entire rough draft exists. The bad news is that it sucks. It was written decades ago when TOF was taking a novel-writing course taught by John Dunning at the University of Denver. About four or five chapters have been rewritten to add a fantasy magical element; but the draft is now out of reach downstairs.
Which of the above would Faithful Reader wish to see?
Red Clay Man sounds very interesting! It's an idea I have toyed with writing (I am not a writer), so it would be even better to have a professional do it for me.
ReplyDeleteIf inspiration strikes beyond the first few lines already written, I would like to see "The Journeyman" cycle to reach a conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI would say that the Journeyman was pre-concluded — see Up Jim River — but the cycle as a thing in itself might conclude with Teodorq getting word that some outworlders are looking for a guide into some rough country . . .
DeleteReplying to my own earlier comment:
DeleteI just re-read Up Jim River and had completely forgotten how Teodorq got into that story (the panty raid on an entire planet). If you ever collect all these, it will be necessary to account for the absence of Sammi from the story after Teodorq signs on as a wiper on the Gopher Broke. (or do a retrocon)
ReplyDeleteYes! I will take one of each, thank you very much.
Mankiller Mountains — makes me think of the movie Babe, where the pigs are eager to get into the truck to go to the sausage factory, the place so good that no one ever comes back — perhaps Varucciyaman is that place in truth and thus no man who gets there ever comes back across the mountains, the mountains' reputation being the reciprocal of the pigs' mistake — or perhaps not. (Varucciyaman IS there, across the mountains — isn't it? — just past Shangri La, right?)
What I'd really like to see is a collection of all the Journeyman stories, once all the Journeyman stories have been written.
Chronologically, doesn't quite work for the Srivajayan mariners, having made the European coast, to meet Jinghiz Khan coming westward. Might barely work for them to get caught up in the First Crusade? (Children's Crusade seems too late.) But at the other end of Srivajayan history, they might cross paths with Arthur in Britain? To get to the Empire of the Romans, they would have to pass India and Sri Lanka and Arabia and eastern Africa (especially if they're coasting) — what was going on in those places in the relevant timeframe? Might the Srivajayans, craftily, thinking the earth a globe, sail eastward to reach the Romans to their west?
Dispatch your own coureurs de bois to the Far Downstairs to fetch that Chieftains draft. It's set in the same milieu as your Iron Shirts? which story I did like, but don't recall any particularly fantasy magical elements in that story (other than tobacco, magic-like but unfantastic).
Might Adventures in Mythistory wind up in Analog? They've taken like pieces in the past, haven't they? The Speedbumps piece(s?) might find a home there also — and might be published piecewise, like Feghoots or Probability Zero pieces or other short-shorts.
The description of Res Cogitans on the Town puts me in mind of the John Collier story Halfway to Hell.
I've always wanted a collection that includes The Clapping Hands of God, don't think that's ever been in collection or anthology. Might Phoenix/Arc Manor put out a Miscellany of Flynn that includes that, plus the Mythistory and Speedbumps pieces? (&al.) On the High Frontier was in the Forest of Time coll'n but would support an encore, especially if accompanied by a sequel.
— Occasional Correspondent
I'm delighted by the updates and demand to know where I can pre-order all these works, specifically which shop gives you the biggest slice. No pressure, though. The stack of things to read is pretty tall already.
ReplyDeleteRed Clay Man struck me for a couple of reasons. I have been thinking a lot about Adam and Eve lately; just re-read Perelandra. And I've been thinking about language; I'm currently re-listening to Book of the New Sun, and thinking about the story of Loyal to the Group of Seventeen. Totally different, but still thinking about language. I also went through a bunch of Cormac McCarthy recently, including this little piece: https://nautil.us/the-kekul-problem-236574/
Anyway, my brain is ready, I think, for whatever you come up with. I'm excited. Thank you for keeping us posted.
Red Clay Man, Hunter's Moon, Res Cogitans. In that order. I've read most of your other stuff and like it, but Red Clay Man has some interesting theological overtones that could put it at the head of the pack.
ReplyDeleteMy vote would be for "Hunter's Moon" -- I've come to have a great love of SF mysteries!
ReplyDelete