I think the question can be answered this way. Sci-fi is speculating on the possible, and fantasy is speculating on the impossible. Both take imagination, but sci-fi has (or should) a solid foundation in scientific principles or theories so that although the story cannot happen now, it could happen in the future. Fantasy on the other hand is pure imagination with no foundation in fact. This doesn’t mean that fantasy cannot have factual elements of course. Some of my fantasy stories begin in ”our” world and progress into my alternate imaginary worlds a little later, but the important details of my fantasies like magic, vampires, werewolves, elves, etc have no scientific basis and could therefore never really happen. On the other hand, my science fiction story What price honour could happen far in the future. Some would say its unlikely, but unlikely isn’t impossible. Coming back from the dead as a vampire however is, and that makes Wolf’s Revenge an urban fantasy.

This leads me to the reason for the subject of this blog. When I read that forum post, I remembered how I had researched real world technology on which to base my weapons tech, and also the fundamental technology vital to my Viper cyborgs: nanotech. It will surprise many of you to learn that nanotech is a real science right now. It’s not made up from whole cloth for my story. It is already used in a basic form in the cosmetic industry. There are real men and women researching uses of nanotech right this minute for use in medicine. There are experiments and projects with the aim of using nanotech as drug delivery systems. These nanotech projects might well grow into something akin to the nanotech I made use of in What Price Honour My Viper’s IMS (Integrated Medical System) isn’t so far fetched after all eh?

When I designed my Viper Cyborgs, I knew I needed them to be tougher than the ordinary soldiers of the Alliance, yet the technology that created them didn’t just appear. It had to grow out of other earlier applications of nanotech. Every citizen of the Alliance has nano treatment as children that enhances their lifespans and health. Think of it as an immunization against old age and known deceases. Just as children of today are immunized, so too are the children of the future. It’s just that the medical community of the future has learned more about the human condition than we currently know, often through plagues on worlds far away, and are able to teach that experience to their electronic henchmen (nanobots). In my Alliance, doctors are not just traditional medics, they are superlative programmers of nanotech.

Building my Merkiaari universe in this way–making technology advance in stages as it does in reality–is very important. Spacecraft, weapons, communications, medicine, and every other area uses technology in different ways, but its all interconnected. An M18Ap rifle might not have nanotech swimming about inside it like my viper cyborgs do, but many of its components were created in orbital factories using nanotech. Spaceships are huge and weigh in the millions of tons, yet the “paint” is actually colonised by nanobots that harden and reflect incoming fire. A simple thing like a ship’s nanocoat “paint” can mean the difference between survival and destruction. My Vipers are tough, but as Gina Fuentez says when she gets shot, “It hurts!” Soldiers of the future therefore don’t like getting shot, enhanced with cybertech or not. They wear armour with nanotech coatings.

So my most “far fetched” technology and science is based upon the real science of today. Lasers are real now and have been tested on warships to knock down incoming missiles. Sonic weapons are in the news this week connected with protecting the Olympic stadiums, and as I say nanotech is real right now. Just Google some of these terms and you will be much enlightened about the fictional technologies (that are not quite fiction) that I use.

The problem for authors who want to have aliens in their stories is that their readers are all human. Because they are, we can’t make the aliens too incomprehensible (too alien in other words) as we need our readers to identify with them. It’s hard to empathise with a jelly fish, even if it did arrive in a spaceship. So certain attributes of our aliens need to be human-like, well, human enough to make them understandable any way. Things like emotion. Still, that does leave the author with a lot of scope to make his aliens interesting. We can make them look as different as we like, act in alien ways, have alien needs and desires. As long as we remember to make them enough like us so that the reader can put himself in the alien’s shoes… err flippers?

When I wrote What Price honour I knew from the beginning that I wanted two different alien races involved. Later in the series more might be added or not, depending on how well received the books are, but book one and two definitely needed aliens. By the way, my books are all available now in the Kindle Lending Library for free. To learn how to get them free, here is the Amazon how to page.

So aliens, yes I wanted aliens in my Merkiaari Wars series, but the focus was always meant to be upon the human soldiers. That didn’t mean I could get away with not fleshing out my non humans. Far from it. In Hard Duty for example, a significant percentage of the story is shown from the Shan perspective. Although the book is primarily meant to be about the Survey ship ASN Canada and its crew, I could not tell the story of first contact without having at least a couple of Shan point of view characters. Not and have the story be interesting at least. So I chose two that I think are special in their own ways. One male and one female. One a ship’s commander, and one a civilian scientist, but both are very different from the human characters–very alien in their bodies, minds, and in their mannerisms. I think they are likeable, and I hope my readers can identify with them as their world is slowly destroyed around them.

But having decided I wanted aliens, how did I choose the kind of aliens I wanted? Well that just seemed to happen. I know, not very informative right? That’s just how it went though. Before I knew it, the Shan had formed in my mind as very Lynx-like in form. I think its the tufted ears that drew me first. The picture below is one I found when I was researching fast predators, and I think the faces are perfect. If you’re wondering, Shima is the third from the left, while Tei’Varyk is the second from the left

Shan mannerisms are a big part of what makes them feel so alien. The mobile ears are part of that. They express themselves in odd seeming ways often gesturing with their tails, flicking or canting their ears at precise angles, revealing their teeth, and all the combinations of those things. All these things mean something to them. When I designed the Shan, I tried to imagine what a predator like a Lynx would become if it evolved far enough to become a toolmaker like we did. Having evolved to walk erect, should I make them no longer able to go on all fours?

Hell no. They have evolved into what they are from fast predators. They remember their past and honour their ancestors. They remain very true to their nature as hunters.

Knowing that, I tried to make them comfortable on two or four feet, and able to switch between the two naturally. It IS natural to them to run on four feet, but walk on two. Perfectly normal for them to hunt as their ancestors did, yet fly around in spacecraft and use technology. I wanted my readers to feel the rightness of them, and not try to cram them into a more human-seeming mould. One of the areas they are most unlike humans is their link to the harmonies. This extra sense or gift sets the Shan completely apart.

Its a question every writer of fiction has been asked, and most of us have answered it so many times that we begin to respond by rote–we know our lines so well you see But the answer to this question seems to fascinate readers. They just can’t believe we create stories from our imaginations, that simply put, we make it all up!

Perhaps our answers are too simple. Maybe rather than say we use our imaginations we should explain it as a kind of process. Tell them that one idea leads inevitably to another, and that eventually we pile them all up and stand back to see what we have.

For example, in my Merkiaari Wars series, I needed a star spanning human civilization. Basically, I needed worlds for my soldiers to fight over and upon. That in turn meant I needed spaceships to get them there. Now then, if the spaceships were too advanced it would be too easy for my soldiers to get reinforcements, new orders, etc. It would have taken a lot away from the tension and plot if the reader realised a simple phone call back to HQ would solve any crisis or situation. But they had to be advanced enough to be believable as a way to reach worlds many light years distant in a reasonable time–months not years. So I made up foldspace, an alternate dimension of space-time that could be accessed to cut travel times.

This kind of spiraling need and solution is essentially how my books grow from an outline into a 160,000 word novel. Another example:  I need a communication system but can’t have it be like Star Trek where a call back to a star base is like a phone call. I need my ship crews and world governments to have a frontier mentality and be self reliant, this helps tension as the readers realise there isn’t time for help to be called and arrive. The people on the spot have to deal with the crisis themselves right then and there.

Every time a situation arises like this, the author has to be careful not to be too clever. You can’t drop your hero into a situation that she can’t get out of somehow, but the way out can’t be too easy. Giving her a magical box of technology that instantly teleports her to safety is a definite no-no. This can cause trouble in other ways though. In the future we might have weapons of such vast power that ground war is obsolete. Think Death Star.   I need my soldiers to fight on the worlds I create, not push an ‘I win’ button. So no Death Stars, and that means no nuking or bombarding from orbit. So I make up rules of engagement to rule that out, but that means I need a reason why those rules came about… and on and on until eventually I have a complete story and universe where it can happen believably.

So where do I get my ideas from? I make them up!

So here we go:

Hey Sally,

Thanks for contacting me, I am glad you enjoyed the Devan Chronicles
thus far. Julia’s adventures were my first foray into the world of writing
and it always pleases me when others like the books about Deva. Although I
have written other novels in other genres now, the Chronicles are still
special to me.

Destiny’s Pawn (book 5) is only in the outline stage at the moment. I have a
few draft chapters written about key events but I am currently working on
one of my other series (Merkiaari Wars) which means it will be a while
before Destiny’s Pawn is published. I will certainly announce future
publications in my blog, so you can keep up to date with what I’m doing
there.

Thanks for stopping by,

Mark

Hard Duty is going very well. I’m currently on chapter 19 but spent the last two days writing and re-writing chapter 18. Its a milestone in the book because of a few factors I won’t reveal here (no spoilers for you guys, sorry) The plot is now focused upon Shima with a lot of detail about her and her people not previously covered in the other book of the series.

I need to get this part just right, because what happens in this section will dictate how readers view Shima and her people in later books. I will give a small hint about what I mean.

The Alliance could be forgiven for feeling that the Shan are somehow a lesser power and of less importance due to them needing the Alliance’s protection from the Merki . The Human governments could easily see the Shan as a people to be protected or exploited depending upon viewpoint, but given the circumstances and imbalance in populations, wealth, military strength, and many other things, they are unlikely to treat them as equals. Human history is rife with situations where a more powerful or advanced people meet a people less advanced than they. The outcomes are sometimes tragic. Reading about Shima’s people through her eyes will hopefully make readers see the Shan in a different light. Less advanced in the material world maybe, but in the spiritual? That is something humans are not going to be ready to accept so easily.