Category: Writing

EP. 9: WHY JACK VANCE’S “DEMON PRINCES” SAGA IS GREAT WORLDBUILDING

On By AlessandraIn Books, Reading, Writing

The Demon Princes is a galactic saga that Jack Vance wrote in five installments: The Star King (1960), The Killing Machine (1964), The Palace of Love (1965), The Face (1978), and The Book of Dreams (1979). It draws upon elaborate worldbuilding, which the author introduces in the form of “sources,” e.g., imaginary magazines, scientific papers, and textbooks describing exotic planets, alien peoples, strange rules, and customs. Quoted at the beginning of a chapter, these fictional sources minimize the need for long descriptive paragraphs.

Here are a few examples taken from the first novel, The Star King:

Chapter 1:

From an interview with Mr. Smade of Smade’s planet, a feature article in Cosmopolis, October 1523:

A short Q&A introduces the reader to the concept of Beyond, short for  “Beyond the Pale” or border, which separates the group of solar systems explored and settled by humans from the largely unknown Galaxy.

Most of the action revolves around the adventures of Kirth Gersen, an enigmatic character seeking revenge for the kidnapping and enslavement of his people. To this end, Gersen must confront five cruel overlords, the Demon Princes. The confrontations usually happen in the Beyond, a place, according to Mr. Smade, “frequented by the most notorious pirates and freebooters.”

Chapter 2:

From an article in Cosmopolis, May 1404:

Here Vance introduces Brinktown: “Once the jumping-off place, the last outpost, the portal into infinity – now just another settlement of the North East Middle Beyond.” As is often the case in SF novels, Brinktown seems to be both the name of the planet and the city, the latter being portrayed colorfully: “an explosion of architectural conceits, what turrets and spires, belfries and cupolas… the magistrates are assassins; the civil guards are arsonists, extortioners, and rapists.” We cannot help thinking of Star Wars Mos Eisley: “Not a more wretched collection of villainy and disreputable types exists anywhere on Tatooine.”

Chapter 4:

From New Discoveries in Space, by Ralph Quarry:

“The Rigel Concourse… twenty-six magnificent planets, most of them not only habitable but salubrious, though only two display even quasi-intelligent autochthones.”

When Kirth Gersen isn’t hunting for one of the Demon Princes beyond the Pale, he usually hangs around the Rigel Concourse, the planetary system of the blue supergiant star Rigel. According to Jack Vance, Rigel has twenty-six planets, of which Alphanor – the setting of most of the first novel – is the eighth. Jack Vance based the worldbuilding of The Star King on the early sixties astronomy. However, SF authors should be careful not to be too specific when including real planets or stars in their stories. What was then state-of-the-art knowledge soon became obsolete. It has been known for decades that extremely short lifetimes prevent blue supergiant stars like Rigel from developing habitable planets (before they turn into neutron stars or black holes).

Another good example can be found in the second novel, The Killing Machine:

Chapter 3:

From Chapter 1, The Astrophysical Background, in Peoples of the Concourse, by Streck and Chernitz:

The quotation at the beginning of the chapter partially answers the objections we raised above:

“But the very circumstances which make the Concourse what it is, provide one of the galaxy’s most tantalizing mysteries. Rigel is deemed by most authorities a young star, ranging in age from a few million to a billion years. How then to explain the Concourse, [with its] twenty-six mature biological complexes? [Some] have wondered if the planets of the Concourse were not conveyed hither and established in these optimum orbits by a now-dead race of vast scientific achievement.”

In other words, plot holes in SF stories stretching over several novels can be retroactively fixed with accurate worldbuilding in the next installments. To quote a famous example, this is what happened with some inconsistencies in the Star Wars Original Trilogy (1977-83), e.g., Leia kissing Luke, who turns out to be her brother, and Leia remembering her biological mother, who died in childbirth. All apparent errors were later explained in the “prequels” (1999-2005) and recent spin-offs like Kenobi (2022).

EP. 6: I LOVE HOW FRANK HERBERT BEGINS EACH CHAPTER OF “DUNE”. HERE’S WHY.

On By AlessandraIn Books, Reading, Writing

Frank Herbert’s Dune is another famous novel where some backstory is relayed at each chapter’s heading.

The novel’s first installment is much more extended than the whole Foundation trilogy, so Herbert had more “narrative space” than Asimov to introduce subtle details. 

Each chapter begins with a fictional quote, e.g.: 

“[…] And take the most special care that you locate Muad’Dib in his place: the planet Arrakis. […] Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place.” 

(Chapter 1 Heading, from Princess Irulan’s The Manual of Muad’Dib)

The story’s primary location is the arid planet Arrakis, a.k.a. Dune. To paraphrase the ancient Romans: “nomen omen,” the destiny is in the name. In other words, one can already guess that the planet’s environment will be as crucial to the plot as the human characters.

“YUEH […], Wellington […], Stdrd 10,082 — 10,191; medical doctor of the Suk School […]”. 

(Chapter 5 Heading, from Princess Irulan’s Dictionary of Muad’Dib)

Writing about Galactic empires, one must pay attention to the word ‘years.’ The length of the year on Earth (365 days) is not the same as, for example, on Mars (1.88 Earth-years) or Venus (224.7 Earth-days). Dune’s universe extends over numerous worlds, each with its revolution period around the parent star. Thus, to credibly define Dr. Yueh’s age, Herbert had to use an Stdrd (i.e., standard).

“[…] With the Lady Jessica and Arrakis, the Bene Gesserit system of sowing implant-legends through the Missionaria Protectiva came to its full fruition. The wisdom of seeding the known universe with a prophecy pattern for the protection of the B.G. personnel has long been appreciated, but never have we seen a condition-ut-extremis with more ideal mating of person and preparation. […]. ” 

(Chapter 7 Heading, from Princess Irulan’s Analysis: The Arrakeen Crisis)

The Bene Gesserit order is probably what inspired George Lucas when he invented the Jedi order of Star Wars. Like the Jedi Masters, the Bene Gesserit use powerful mental techniques, developed through years of hard training, to engineer Galactic politics according to their plan. For example, one of their purposes is to select the mythical figure known as Kwisatz Haderach genetically. A similar plot device occurs in The Phantom Menace, the first episode of the Star Wars saga. The main storyline has the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi Wan-Kenobi chance upon a boy who might be the “Chosen One.” This is another name for a Galactic Messiah.

“[…] On the first day when Muad’Dib rode through the streets of Arrakeen with his family, some of the people along the way recalled the legends and the prophecy and they ventured to shout: ‘Mahdi!’. But their shout was more a question than a statement, for as yet they could only hope he was the one foretold as the Lisan al-Gaib, the Voice from the Outer World. […]”

(Chapter 13 Heading, from Princess Irulan’s The Manual of Muad’Dib)

The author’s intent is once again to convey the significance of Muad’Dib’s character. The people of Arrakis call him ‘Mahdi,’ a strongly messianic title. Indeed, ‘Mahdi’ isn’t a fantasy name but belongs to a religious figure of Islam. According to some Muslim traditions, the Mahdi will show up to deliver the world from evil and injustice in the Last Days. Throughout history, various individuals have claimed to be or were proclaimed to be the Mahdi. Among them, Muhammad Ahmad, the religious leader who established the Mahdist State in Sudan in the late 19th century and obtained a famous victory over the British in the siege of Khartoum.

EP. 1: SF WORLDBUILDING: HOW ASIMOV’S “FOUNDATION” FEEDS BACKSTORY TO THE READER

On By AlessandraIn Books, Reading, Writing

A compelling SF worldbuilding cannot be done without delivering some backstory at the novel’s beginning. This must be done as early as possible without giving away too much and trying not to bore the readers. 

According to On Writing and Worldbuilding, Volume I, by Timothy Hickson:

“[In] Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone […] J.K. Rowling introduces every major concept and virtually every major character in the story with well-hidden expository writing.”

With all due respect for J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series, I don’t agree that ‘expository writing’ must necessarily be hidden.

I can quote a few great SF classics where a nice chunk of information is in plain view right in the first page’s heading. It may take the form of a journal excerpt, a quotation from an encyclopedia, or even an interview with one of the secondary characters.

Here are a few examples: 

(1) Foundation, Isaac Asimov:

“HARI SELDON— … born in the 11,988th year of the Galactic Era; died 12,069. […] Born to middle-class parents on Helicon, Arcturus sector […].” From the ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA.

And a few lines below, just after the incipit:

“[…] There were nearly twenty-five million inhabited planets on the Galaxy then, and not one but owed allegiance to the Empire whose seat was on Trantor.”

From these few words, the reader can already learn a lot about the tone and setting of the story:

— It’ll be about a Galactic Empire. The plot will unfold in a nation-state encompassing most of the Galaxy’s habitable planets.

In technical jargon, a Galactic Empire is what astronomers call a Kardashev Type III civilization, which is “a civilization in possession of energy on the scale of its galaxy” (M.M. Cirkovic, 2015);

— It’ll be about a long-lasting human civilization. Isaac Asimov’s future human society survived the so-called Great Filter. As explained in the book Exoplanets by Michael Summers and James Trefil:

“[…] there really doesn’t seem to be anything at all special about the way that life developed on Earth, and given the abundance of planets out there, there is no reason that complex life shouldn’t be quite common. On the other hand, from what we know about the process of evolution, we can expect the winners of the evolutionary game on other planets to be no more benevolent than Homo Sapiens. In this case, the [coming] Great Filter is easy to see. Once an aggressive, warlike species discovers science, they are likely to turn their discoveries against one another and, in essence, wipe themselves out. […]”

— It’ll involve interstellar and faster-than-light (FTL) travel. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation is loosely based on Gibbon‘s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In his monumental work, the XVII century English historian stressed Roman roads’ importance in ensuring efficient communications between the central authority and the dozens of provinces of an enormous Empire. The Galactic analog of Roman roads is, of course, hyperspace. Asimov was one of the first SF authors to use this plot device to sidestep the long time required for interstellar journeys.

Find out more about relaying the backstory in a novel in this post and this post.