Author: A.D. Shrum - Storyworld Columnist

“Based on what we know of the creature’s hormones,” Doctor Stein said, “we’ve managed to keep our little captive sedated.”

“Drugs?” Jim asked. But as he approached the observation window he realized the term “sedate” was being used liberally. The literally pint-sized alien was sitting on a cushion, eating something. Meanwhile the holovid played reruns from old cartoons. “You can’t be serious.”

Stein nodded. “We’re quite serious. Our endocrinological analysis revealed the highest spike in happiness hormones when the alien is given large doses of Doritos and Batman the Animated Series.”

Jim sighed in resignation. “Well it worked for my childhood I guess.”

In my opinion, the word “Endocrine” sounds overly technical. This is basically the system of hormones in your body that make you run faster in a panic, hit harder in a fight, or act more stupidly as a teenage boy. Just kidding … sort of. Well okay, I’m not kidding that much.

Endocrine versus Neurological

Whereas the nervous system (discussed last month) transmits information via nerves in the body, telling your fingers to react to a pinch or click on a web advertisement, the endocrine system releases chemicals designed to stimulate muscles, increase insulin production, or even activate menstrual cycle stages. Yes, I said menstrual cycles. After the article a few months ago, I realized I have no more shame.

Hormones are produced in glands, special organs located in various places throughout your body. Adrenal glands are located near the kidneys, thyroid glands are in your neck, and the governing hormone gland, the pituitary gland, is located directly below your brain. It’s worth pointing out that science was certain that most of these glands were vestigial organs up until a few decades ago. As we learn more about the human body, science discovers that there is very little junk in our finely tuned bodies.

The endocrine system works without any specialized ducts. The nervous system uses unique nerve cells to communicate throughout the body, but when the glands in your body release hormones, they secrete them into the general blood stream. Then the hormone receptors will recognize these new chemicals and either turn certain things on or in some cases turn things off. When adrenaline is administered to the body, receptors in the muscles will stimulate localized higher blood flow, whereas receptors in the digestive tract will tell the body to limit blood flow in those regions. It’s all the same adrenaline, but the body’s different receptors (called isoforms) interpret the chemical differently. And this makes sense, of course – digesting food is of little concern if you’re about to be eaten yourself.

Examples

Hormones are usually so subtle they’re not thought of very often. Here’s a few:

Adrenaline/epinephrine, the “fight or flight” hormone, releases when the body senses danger. This also releases when nervous about acceptance or rejection, meaning it often coincides with an early dating relationship (the “butterflies”).

Testosterone, that hormone I mentioned earlier that makes young boys act stupidly, is the chemical that governs sexual drive in both men and women.

Serotonin, the “happy hormone,” is released when you have good feelings. Common antidepressants like SSRIs exist to prolong this happy feeling at the expense of low libido and weight gain.

Oxytocin, also known as the “bonding hormone,” is released during intercourse and when mothers nurse their babies. Not surprising, Oxytocin also creates a beneficial comraderie between people. An artificial oxytocin known as pitocin is also used in hospitals to induce baby delivery.

Pheromones – A Close Cousin to Hormones

There are others (dopamine, estrogen, progesterone, insulin, etc.), but they’re not terribly interesting from a worldbuilding perspective. Far more intriguing is the concept of pheromones. Used mostly in the animal kingdom as a method of communication, pheromones are like a hormone secreted by one creature and received by another. One of my favorite videogames, XCOM, has a genetic modification that allows your soldiers to release adrenal pheromones, essentially boosting a squad’s combat effectiveness. How cool is that? In a sci-fi world (or a fantasy one), any hormones could be turned into a pheromone. Imagine a world where a politician could emit serotonin and oxytocin pheromones. He’d have very few enemies in congress.

Pheromones are also very creature-specific. On our world, pheromones to attract Japanese Beetles are used in traps to kill these nasty pests. The chemical doesn’t affect other insects though, so it’s relatively safe. In theory scientists in a sci-fi novel might be able to develop similar chemicals to fight alien creatures. Or more nefariously, aliens might do likewise to subjugate humanity.

That’s all for now. Let me know how you’ve seen thought processes or emotional responses altered in books and movies. Next month in the final installment of our anatomy series, we’ll tackle the biological ways in which a creature protects itself from bad bacteria and diseases.

Xcom image from:

http://www.gameskinny.com/7fp8y/x-com-enemy-within-gene-labs-guide

Japanese Beetle image from:

https://laidbackgardener.wordpress.com/2016/07/21/controlling-those-japanese-beetles

Endocrine System image from:

http://www.drkelley.info/2015/08/16/endocrinology-what-is-the-endocrine-system/

Before Jim or Doctor Stein had time to think, the egg burst in Jim’s hand, sending shell fragments around the laboratory. When Jim opened his eyes, he saw a beady-eyed little alien sitting in the palm of his hand. The being seemed apprehensive, uncertain about its circumstances.

“What do you think he’s thinking, Doctor Stein?”

The creature locked its eyes on Jim. It bared its miniature teeth and hunched forward.

“I think,” Doctor Stein said as he slowly approached from behind, “he’s hungry.”

I said last month that we’d be talking about the Neuroendocrine system. I was half right. There’s a lot to cover, so I’ve broken it into two segments. This month we’ll cover the “neuro” part, specifically the neurological system of a creature. This is how a creature thinks. Next month we’ll discuss the endocrine system and how creatures feel.

Reflexes versus Thought

The brain is the nerve center for the human body, responsible for all the thinking and conscious actions you do. That doesn’t mean it acts alone in controlling your body’s functions though. Your muscular reflexes are actually governed by interneurons in your spinal cord. This basically means that if you touch something hot, your body will jerk your hand away before you think about it. Thus, reflexes like these aren’t conscious thoughts, they’re just natural reactions to stimuli that are designed to save us from injury.

The Thought Process

With that tidbit out of the way, let’s look at the way we think. Sensory inputs (sight, smell, touch, feel, and hearing) inform your characters of the things happening around them. Maybe the protagonist of your novel smells gunpowder or hears a scream. The character’s ability to observe the circumstances are based on his health, the distance from the event, etc. Next, he will evaluate what he is perceiving based on his own life history. Even unfamiliar stimuli will be mentally categorized as something similar. For example, if the character doesn’t know who is screaming, based on the tenor and pitch, he might determine it comes from an adult woman. Next is the decision point, and this process is also based on life events as well as his moral compass. Does he choose to rush to the rescue? Investigate out of curiosity? Hide? Whatever the character chooses to do (and not choosing to do anything is also a choice), he then executes it. After completing his plan of action, he then has a new set of circumstances to observe. Maybe he witnesses a murder or gets shot in the chest himself. Whatever the case, the point is that this is a repeated cycle of events, observations, evaluations, actions, and more events.

A Different Way to Think

So what happens when we play with this cycle? Tweak it a little bit? Everyone has seen The Matrix (and if you haven’t, you probably should stop reading this post and go and watch it – seriously, it’s only been out for like twenty years). In it, the hero learns that every circumstance he has witnessed in his life was a carefully constructed hoax designed to keep him as a sedated battery. While Neo thought he was observing, evaluating, and reacting to real events, none of it was real. The thought cycle shown above is still maintained, but the thinker is completely unaware of a disconnect in the cycle – namely in the observation block.

A different example would be in John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series (of which I’ve just finished the first three books and they are amazing). What if the observation and evaluation step in the cycle could be augmented through computers and genetic manipulation? Soldiers in this futuristic reality all have little devices, humorously called BrainPals™ , hardwired into their brains that help them translate foreign languages, load information, or even wirelessly communicate with other soldiers with their thoughts alone. Additionally, the genetic modifications allow for low light vision and other sensory augmentations. The end result is a breed of soldiers far more competent and resilient in battle. And if it seems like overkill for an average soldier, you should see the out-of-this world aliens they have to fight.

That’s all this month. Drop me a line and let me know what you think about thinking. Next month we’ll get all touchy feely and talk about the Endocrine system – a fancy word for hormones.

Matrix image from:

http://webpages.charter.net/mark_turner/matrix/matrix.htm

Jim always thought first contact with an alien race would involve ceremony and formality. But standing over the bullet-riddled corpse of one of the gray-skinned creatures, he was just glad thing couldn’t move anymore. He put those romantic ideas out of his head as he holstered his pistol and bent down to examine the invader. Ugly critter. Its colorless skin was covered in scales and three pale struts were melded around each of its limbs. No wait … Jim prodded an exit wound. Those weren’t reinforced supports. Those were the creature’s bones. Exoskeletal bones. Weird.

This month I kick off my series about alien anatomy. We’ll cover some fantastic ways your creatures can move, gain and use energy, reproduce, think and feel, and keep themselves safe from diseases and injury.

Endoskeletons

First we’ll look at the way we move. Humans can manipulate objects, traverse distances, and even make subtle gestures using our musculoskeletal system. Essentially, we have a bone structure under our skin that provides support and a muscle system attached to it that enables articulation. Since this is the structure we personally possess, I won’t spend much time on it. Suffice to say that reptiles, birds, fish, mammals, and more all fit into this category.

Exoskeletons

But that’s not the only way to make things move. Arthropods have an exoskeleton, meaning the bones form a sort of armor on the outside of the insect and the muscles are connected internally. This may sound really cool, but there are some drawbacks. Armor is relatively heavy and thus exoskeleton-bearing creatures on our planet tend not to grow larger than a couple of feet, unless they live underwater. Movement is also restricted in a fashion similar to medieval plate mail. For example, the grasshopper only has seven joints on each of its legs. Yes, these allow it to make long jumps and simple walking motions, but that is essentially all the grasshopper can do with them.

Exoskeletons also need to be replaced periodically as the organism outgrows its armor. A young and quickly growing creature will “molt” its exoskeleton every few weeks until it reaches an adult size. Even then, molting is done at least annually.

A fantastic creature with an exoskeleton could get around the weight restriction by either living on a low-gravity planet, or using armor segments that are unusually light relative to earth-based arthropods. And while earth-based arthropods may have severe mobility restrictions, an alien creature may have a more sophisticated joint structure. Be creative, and I’m sure you can come up with a way to plague your storyworld inhabitants with zerg clones or similar alien threats.

Hydrostatic Skeletons

Jellyfish may seem like boring critters in the aquarium, but their physiology is fascinating. Gelatinous mass fills a cavity between two layers of single-cell tissue, and this jelly gives the creature its shape and support. This is why they are said to have “hydrostatic” skeletons, because they have a “water support” skeleton structure.

Jellyfish mostly just float around, but when they need to move, they contract a ring of muscles around the edge of its bottom. This expulses water from the mouth region and pushes the jellyfish along.

But can you use something weird like this in your storyworld? I can think of a few examples of similar creatures used in sci-fi settings. While the “Overlords” of Starcraft operate similar to jellyfish, they use air instead of water for their support. You might call them creatures with pneumostatic skeletons. I imagine they use a lighter-than-air gas (helium, hydrogen, etc.) to float around, but the game world never says. Similarly, the Hanar from Mass Effect are actually hydrostatic creatures that use anti-gravity fields to float around in the air. Jelly-type creatures are also a fairly common fantasy trope, but gelatinous cubes and such of D&D tend to operate more by magic than by any discernable physiology.

Non-skeletal creatures

Some creatures, such as worms, slugs, and octopuses, don’t have skeletons. While each of these animals moves in a slightly different way, they all rely on strong muscles to push against something and slide its body in that direction.

The iconic sandworm of Dune is one such example of a non-skeletal creature used in a storyworld for effect. A similar space-dwelling annelid is also seen in Empire Strikes Back. While there probably are intelligent annelids gastropods, and mollusks used in some books and movies, I’m not aware of any. These creatures tend to be the big scary monsters. Mindless, but terrifyingly so.

Parting thoughts

These are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing, but as an author you can create things not yet imagined. Perhaps an alien race of yours is bipedal but lacks any true bones the way we’d think of them. Or perhaps a creature is sustained and moves by some sort of force (evil or otherwise), like undead creatures in fantasy and horror novels. The important thing is to consider how a creature’s physiology adds or detracts from its functionality in your story. And then to exploit these benefits or penalties to the your story’s advantage.

Next month we’ll look at energy generation and use. Until then, let me know if you have any thoughts on alien or fantastic anatomy.

For much of the info in this topic, I am indebted to Life Science for Christian Schools, second edition, published in 1998 by Bob Jones University Press. And of course my lovely and talented wife, a medical doctor who thankfully paid more attention in high school biology class than I ever did.

Overlord Cartoon from: https://www.pinterest.com/julvalhe/starcraft/

Last month we discussed various methods of communication in a fantasy realm. The general idea was that you can’t assume instantaneous messages between distant cities unless you develop a method of doing so. But can you assume immediate message delivery in a science fiction story?

The 21^st century is a time of information overdrive. Not only will important news on one side of the planet be known instantly on another, but trivial things like status updates and kitten memes can be viewed with virtually zero lag. We can take this immediacy for granted and once again fall into the trap of thinking that interstellar communication will be exactly like it is now on Earth. Not necessarily so.

To give some perspective, Earth’s nearest neighbor is Alpha Centauri. The closest star of this triple system is Proxima Centauri, situated a cozy 4.24 light years from us. That means that radio waves which travel at light speed, will take over four years to travel between our two systems. Currently there is no method of sending messages any faster, and numerous scientists have posited that there never will be.

That may stop science, but it doesn’t need to stop literature! Chances are likely that your space novel also has some method of faster-than-light (FTL) travel, which is also theoretically impossible. As fiction writers we can bend reality a bit to facilitate story delivery, and this may be an area in which you need to do so. Here are some quasi-scientific methods for you to get around this problem.

If you want to maintain a degree of information lag in your novel in order to maintain or build suspense, you could force your characters to physically go between star systems with FTL travel. This will make the speed of information in your novel akin to our colonial era, taking months to deliver noteworthy messages. Also, information can easily be blockaded by simply preventing ship travel.

If you want to speed things up a bit or just make them more interesting, you could force your characters to make use of technology that has limited availability. In the Battletech universe, Hyperpulse Generators (HPGs) were stationed on virtually all worlds and maintained by a mysterious, semi-religious organization. Interstellar communication thus relied on the good graces or financial incentives given to this group, but a tension always existed between the various political factions and this supposedly neutral cult. Again, great for building storyworld tension.

In Star Trek, “subspace relays” were placed throughout known space to allow near-instantaneous communication. However, the response time of messages varied depending on the vessels’ proximity to one of these relays. Thus the crew of Voyager, stuck in an untouched part of the universe, was completely incommunicado to Starfleet command. The video game Mass Effect also incorporated a similar method of communication (using “comm buoys”), but also prevented FTL communication during FTL travel. This made for some interesting plot moments that only occurred when the Normandy SR1 returned to real space.

Finally, if you absolutely need everyone to talk to one another in real time, there’s the ansible option. This is basically a nerd word for a near-magical device that breaks all the rules of physics and allows for instant, long distance communication. The ansible is seen in The Dispossessed, Ender���s Game, Wrinkle in Time, and various other sci-fi novels. Sometimes it is named as such, sometimes it has a fancier name. Scientists have theorized quantum entanglement might be used to create a real ansible device, but there are presently some physical limitations with those theories.

As I seem to end most of my articles, I’ll encourage you not to feel overwhelmed. Strict scientific limitations need not be imposed on your story. If your story requires instant communications, you can make something up to allow for it. If you need slow communications, you can do that. The trick is to craft a storyworld that facilitates your story, and make the elements that comprise that story interesting and believable.

Written forms of communication have existed since the first man decided to scratch something on a cave wall, allowing all to see that “Grog wuz heer.” Back then Grog’s companions needed to visit his underground domicile to view what he’d written, but today Grog’s message can be seen on social media instantly around the globe (and tragically without much better spelling).

In modern times, we sometimes forget people in other eras couldn’t readily access important news, but don’t think such a slow-paced news cycle will kill the tension in your novel. Often quite the opposite happens. Let’s take a look at some examples of slow paced communication used effectively for tension.

Consider a fantasy world in which distant towns communicate with each other via hand-delivered messages. With such a slow speed of information, main characters may not be aware of a pivotal event taking place a scant fifty miles away. Tolkien uses this slow-information travel to his advantage when he introduces the Mines of Moria – an opulent dwarven settlement that was apparently wiped out without anyone outside the mines knowing. This allows the main characters, and especially the dwarf Gimli, to discover the horrific truth personally. This set-up wouldn’t be possible if instant communication existed in Middle Earth.

Also, read the opening chapters of Anne of Green Gables (I realize my sci-fi/ fantasy readership is rolling its eyes, but reading outside of your genre will make you a better writer). Matthew and Marilla decide to provide a home for a muscular, level-headed orphan boy who in turn can help on their farm, but when Matthew arrives to pick up their new charge at the train station, he is greeted by the flighty, fantasy-loving Anne. This miscommunication sets the premise of the entire novel, but was only possible because of the slow travel of information.

But what if in your fantasy book, you need a faster form of message delivery? Hope is not lost, here are some ideas for fantastic fast-paced communication in a low-tech setting:

Messenger animals (e.g. pigeons, ravens) can be used, but remember that natural birds are trained to “return” to a desired location, so this tends to be one-way messaging. If you have magical animals delivering news, such as Gandolf’s special relationship with various eagles, you gain additional options. And depending on the level of magic in your fantasy realm, you could even develop a wizard guild that operates a sorcerous switchboard. However, once you’ve decided that a method of information-conveyance exists in your storyworld, you need to be consistent. Why would a young lady undertake a treacherous journey via horseback to deliver a message if she could simply visit the local Arcane Tower and Telecommunications (AT&T)? You can create plausible reasons of course, perhaps she doesn’t trust them or maybe there are side-effects of wizardly message delivery, but the points is that your story needs to account for your storyworld’s communication technology.

Steampunk always treads the line between two conventions, and in the communication field, this is no different. I’m currently reading Steve Rzasa’s Crosswind, a steampunk novel most similar to FASA’s Crimson Skies universe (of which there was a much-loved Xbox game long ago). In Crosswind, telegraph has revolutionized the communication industry, but spies are everywhere, so the characters need to send their messages using codes. Even then, when a wire is received at the telegraph office, someone needs to take the note to its intended recipient. All of this can be (and is) used to generate dangerous tension in the novel. Another common form of communication in the book is local courier. Because telephones don’t exist, contacting someone on the opposite end of a town (without making the trip yourself) requires a medium. So a messenger is given a note, sent to find an individual, and is finally paid by the recipient when the message is received. It may not be glamorous, but remember that the best way to craft a fanciful storyworld is to depict your characters interacting with what they would consider the mundane.

What about in a sci-fi universe? Think all communication needs to be instantaneous? Think again. But we’ll tackle that next month. In the meantime, let me know how your characters send messages over long distances in your storyworld, and you can do so instantly in the comment field below.

Have you considered education? No, this isn’t an article about how to raise your kids, this is an article about how to tie your characters’ backgrounds to the storyworld in which they live. Because unless your characters are infants or going through schooling in the novel, by the time we meet them they’ve already received some form of learning and thus some shaping influences.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, education is more than just learning the three Rs. While the term usually means literacy and knowledge, it can also include survival skills and trades. Thus even people we don’t think of as “educated” have certainly received some amount of learning, even if only from the school of hard knocks. The type of education a character receives will be a huge part of his background and thus determine who he is as a person.

Consider FN-2187 from the movie Star Wars, The Force Awakens. “Finn,” as he is called by his friends, received an imperial education where he was indoctrinated to follow the orders of his superiors. The goal of his training was to prepare him for construction and warfare. He is thus knowledgeable about those subjects, but lacks creativity because of the structure in which he was raised. Contrast this with the enigmatic Rey, who received some sort of training (maybe by Luke? Who knows at this point?), but primarily she taught herself how to make a living in the wastes. She possesses a deep degree of mechanical know-how because of her chosen method of survival. Also, because she’s been forced to figure life out on her own, she is very creative. But she lacks knowledge of anything outside of her little world because she’s not been taught about it.

Another contrast we can look at is from one of my favorite movies, The Gods Must Be Crazy. In one scene, a very educated South-African woman finds herself lost in the bushes of the Serengeti Desert, where she meets a tribal bushman. In his tongue-clicking language, the bushman tries to explain the animal prints on the ground and thus the suspected predator activity in the area. Having never learned to read animal tracks (or speak bushman), the woman is clueless. The bushman looks down on this educated woman because she is, from his perspective, uneducated. And based on their predicament at the time, her western, factory-model instruction was completely useless. Without having learned about the wilderness or gained an aptitude for critical thinking in foreign situations, she was at an utter loss. Unfortunate for her, but hilarious for the audience.

Bold Ted from Tom Morrissey’s Pirate Hunter also displays a unique form of education. One not from survival or formal schooling, but from an apprenticeship. His first mentor, Vicar Bascombe, buys Ted as a slave in Africa, but raises him as his own son. He teaches him not only reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also Scripture, history, and philosophy. These skills become valuable to Ted’s next mentor, Captain Henry Thatch. When Thatch discovers Bold Ted’s level of education, he quickly takes him on to teach him navigation, tactics, and the trade of the seafaring thief – piracy.

All of these different forms of educational background help create rich characters, but they do more than that. By showing a person’s education, the authors (and movie writers) help create more vibrant and diverse storyworlds. Finn and Rey’s very different backgrounds help flesh out the Star Wars universe. The contrast of educations in the Gods Must Be Crazy helps highlight how different the two worlds are, despite being a short bus ride from each other. And Bold Ted’s education shows that despite the brutality of slavery, goodhearted individuals sometimes triumphed over evil.

So if you’re writing a fantasy or sci-fi novel, consider the educational systems your characters went through. And use those systems to liven up the storyworld they live in!

If you can think of any more examples of unique education experiences from books or movies, please let me know in the comments section below!

[Star Wars Picture from http://www.bustle.com/articles/131201-are-rey-finn-a-couple-in-the-force-awakens-fans-of-a-romance-should-have]

[Gods Must Be Crazy picture from http://www.nytimes.com/video/movies/100000003388038/the-gods-must-be-crazy-2.html (actually from the sequel, but they’re very similar)]

[Pirate Hunter image from http://www.tommorrisey.com/4436.html]

In order to write fictitious people groups into your storyworld, you’ll need to consider the civilization in which these creatures live. That may seem like a daunting task, but if you start with the fundamental character of a culture, specifically its moral values, then the society almost builds itself. This is because the most important principles of a people group, whatever they happen to be, will reveal themselves in minor ways throughout everyday life.

Here are a handful of examples from books I’ve read:

In the clan culture of the Battletech universe, men and women are genetically bred for strength, reaction time, and intelligence. Scientists work tirelessly to create new technologies for warfare while engineers keep fifty-foot-tall battlemechs in top order. To advance through the ranks, an aspiring warrior must battle others and prove his worthiness. If the soldier gains enough honor and fame through conquest, he can dream that one day he might be added to his clan’s celebrated manuscript: The Remembrance.

Honor and resourcefulness are important in this society, but the virtue of military might dominates it. Everything from technology to child-rearing stems from the belief that combat prowess is highly valuable. I recommend Robert Thurston’s Battletech: Legend of the Jade Phoenix trilogy to anyone who wants to see a combat-oriented sci-fi culture. (For a similar ancient-world example, observe the Spartan culture in 300, where imperfect children are left to die and only the strongest rule).

Every day on the planet Oasis, alien creatures slowly and steadily collect their rainwater and harvest predictably grown crops. Buildings are methodically fashioned in identical patterns. In the unlikely event that a new town requires construction, its layout identically mirrors all prior settlements. All of the alien residents have matching robes, matching sandals, and matching gloves. All of these creatures stand about the same height and are of equal weight. No one ever questions the manner in which they live. Not because of a lack of permission, but because of a lack of interest.

One might think that the prized moral of this culture in Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange New Things is uniformity, but uniformity is only a byproduct of values these aliens hold even more dear. The Oasian culture values familiarity and caution above all else. Thus, nothing ever really changes. Well, until explorers from earth bring with them a Book of Strange New Things, but I won’t spoil what happens.

On a future Lunar colony, Men and women enter into (or freely leave) complicated, polygamous arrangements. Similarly, children are adopted or leave families at their discretion. When disagreements occur between individuals, courts are held informally and presided over by any random citizen nearby. Meanwhile, politics are discussed quietly behind closed airlocks, because when they aren’t, the government breaks up rallies where the people clamor for independence from earth.

The greatest values in Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress are liberty and autonomy. And indeed, the entirety of the book deals with how a lunar colony might obtain its freedom from its earthly masters. As their rebellion gets underway, the lunar residents wonder if they’ll reenact America’s first war for independence or the second one in the 1860s. This should come as no surprise, since almost all of Heinlein’s books offer strong Libertarian agendas (the controversial and amazing Starship Troopers being an exception).

Before closing, I should note this is only relevant to sentient creatures that have morals, meaning aliens and species with intelligence akin to humanity. But forms of structure do exist within the animal kingdom, even if different from our own. Dogs will pick a pack leader, monkeys will teach offspring to use crude tools, and even the dumbest animals on the planet, fish, will organize into schools for safety. All this is done on instinct, without a discernable moral code. A simple fictitious species in your world will likely self-organize in a similar instinctual fashion, but only if it lacks humanity’s sentience. I also touch on this in my Alien Souls article.

A word to Christian speculative fiction writers: Neither combat skill, caution, or liberty are the most highly valued traits in Christianity. If your storyworld emphasizes a certain trait, even a good one, over the most important Christian principles, that society will have notable deficits. So if you’re trying to craft a utopia (or dystopia), keep in mind the principle values of the ideal culture: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Phillipians 2:3-4. Also see Ephesians 4:1 through 6:9.

Also see my articles: Governance I and Governance II.

[Battletech image from http://wallpapercave.com/battletech-wallpaper]

[USIC emblem from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/books/review/michel-fabers-book-of-strange-new-things.html?_r=0]

[Lunar base image from http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/03/bryan-singer-will-adapt-robert-a-heinleins-novel-t.html]

Last month we talked about military technology and how it can be just as important in a fantasy book as a sci-fi novel. You’ll need to consider some of last month’s points in your sci-fi novel as well, but because it’s a science fiction novel, you may have more constraints than your fantasy-writing brethren. I say ‘may’ because not all sci-fi readers will care if your deep-space dreadnaught has unexplained artificial gravity, but some will.

There are basically two different approaches to science fiction military technology. The question to ask is how technical you want to get in your novel, and that will be determined by your writing goal.

People First, Tech Second

Some authors, like David Weber in his Honor series, get very technical about the limitations and uses of military technology, but don’t worry too much about how it all works. That’s okay though, because Weber’s tech isn’t the showcase of his novel. Instead, it serves the purpose of telling a grand space opera. In short, his goal is to craft a story of people, and the technology (detailed as it is) serves as a prop. This is, by far, the most common type of sci-fi novel I’ve read, as it encompasses everything from Star Wars to Star Trek novels.

Since Christians are more likely to be concerned about people and philosophy than scientific causes, your sci-fi novel likely fits into this category. In that case, you don’t necessarily need to reinvent the battlemech or the laser gun. You can assume your readers will be familiar with these pieces of technology and have a decent grasp on the function of giant robots and laser blasters even if the physics are hazy. Conversely, if your world includes weapons not seen in any other books or movies, or if you have a new spin on they way they work, then you’ll need to explain how they function in your world. Just don’t bog the reader down with an unnecessary lecture regarding the nanoparticle physics behind their operation. Unless it somehow becomes relevant later.

Tech First, People Second

Others, like Michael Crichton, will do a deep dive into a particular topic and give you a feel for how close we are to inventing certain things. His novel Prey warned of the dangers of swarm behavior, distributed computing, and goal-seek logic combined into some cutting edge surveillance hardware. His primary focus in the novel was to display the consequences our society might endure if we don’t think about our military technology before developing it. In short, his goal is a cautionary story of technology, and the characters are used to further his ideas about it.

If you’re writing a story like this, you will need to hit the books hard. There isn’t a whole lot of other advice I can give you, but to study your subject well and write knowledgeably. Chances are likely if you’ve gone down the road of a military technology-driven story, you’ve already started doing this.

Can you do both?

Possibly, but your space is limited in a novel, so keep that in mind. If your goal is to introduce all the facets of a new type of military technology in a sci-fi novel, you’re going to be spending a lot of time describing the effects on the battlefield. This won’t leave a lot of room for the development of multiple characters, but a single character could grow as the reader learns about his interaction with new military toys.

There are two examples I can think of (and if you know of more, please leave a recommendation in the comments below) that blend these ideas. The first is Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. The abysmal movie of the same name failed to capture the essence of the novel, which was to take a concept like 1^st Airborne Infantry (i.e. Band of Brothers), but train the soldiers to drop from space in futuristic armor suits. The book follows Rico through enlistment, training, combat, officer school, and finally command. And through all that, you see the character grow a little. Nevertheless, the goal wasn’t to develop a strong character (and Johnny Rico isn’t as developed in the book as he is in Roughnecks, the kid’s show adaptation), but the goal was to posit the idea of space-dropping infantry. It’s still a “tech first” story. And a darn good one.

Another possible example is Ender’s Game. It also looks a bit like a mixture of both, but the technology’s functionality is never really explained, nor does it play much of a role in the big picture. In fact, the mysteries of the ansible and the strange gravity-free battle room are explicitly stated as being unexplained. Instead the story is really about Ender’s growth from young, hopeful kid to possible savior of humanity. It’s still a “people first” story. And also a darn good one.

How does this apply to your book? Ask yourself what the main concept is you’re trying to communicate in your military sci-fi novel. Are you trying to warn people of the dangers of autonomous drone weapon development? If so, that will be the novel’s focus, and the characters and situations will work to communicate that idea. On the other hand, if your story is one of adventure and action, then the weapons and armaments will be fancy props. Don’t’ sweat the specifics too much. If you take this latter approach, just make sure the weapons (and all the techie things in your novel) are internally consistent and most readers won’t raise an eyebrow.

Also see Doug Peterson’s well-written article here!

Military technology is an important consideration when writing speculative fiction, but sci-fi authors aren’t the only ones who need to think about it. In order to discuss military technology, we should start with a working definition. In this article, military tech is any equipment or magic that assists a people in exerting or resisting influence. This includes defensive armaments from a buckler to the Enterprise’s shields, as well as offensive weapons like lightning spells or bio-engineered mind-altering spores.

Low-fantasy Military Tech

If you’re writing a novel in a low-fantasy setting (that is, a quasi-medieval setting which closely parallels earth’s own history) you must be aware of the significant military advances through the years. Here are some timeline links: (wikipedia, britannica). Historically, significant pieces of military technology have altered the landscape of warfare, and failing to account for these inventions can make your novel seem anachronistic. For example, if you want to write about knights and such, you have to figure out when your novel takes place relative to the invention of the English longbow. Such a weapon allowed a commoner to easily kill a noble knight from hundreds of yards away. That doesn’t mean that knights and longbows didn’t exist simultaneously, but the usefulness of expensive noble warriors dwindled as ranged weapons proved more effective.

I just finished reading R.A. Salvatore’s The Highwayman, and was intrigued by the fact that one culture lived in a bronze age of sorts while another had rolled steel technology akin to Japanese sword-makers. Calling attention to little details like this can differentiate the relative degree of advancement between cultures, and can really help that world persist in your reader’s memory.

High-fantasy Military Tech

Ancestral magic swords, frost arrows, and fireball spells all fit into the realm of high-fantasy. The military technology in this kind of realm is largely defined by magic, whether directly through wizardly incantations or indirectly through some enchanted artifact. You have a lot more freedom in this kind of fantasy setting, but to make the world believable, you’ll need to consider unintended consequences and alternative purposes.

As a general rule, any new bit of domestic technology, no matter how benign, will eventually be repurposed to for military uses. Maybe in your world, benevolent clerics are able to create water at will. If that’s true, undoubtedly some ruler has considered getting a bunch of these holy men together to flood out his rival’s castle. If magicians can easily enchant things with levitation, then a high fantasy B-52 bomber is probably a pipe-dream of the local wizard enclave. If your hero has a helmet that allows underwater breathing, certainly some sorcerer has considered making a fantastic submarine with the same imbuement. These are just some examples. When dealing with something new and fantastic, it might be a good idea to run it by that creepy friend of yours and see if he can find some nefarious military purpose for it. If you lack creepy friends, leave a comment below and I’ll see what I can do.

Sci-Fantasy Military Tech

A subset of science fiction is Science-Fantasy, a blend of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. You might wonder what kind of works fall into this category, but you’re probably more familiar with one than you realize. Star Wars includes futuristic military weapons, but also futuristic military sorcerers. Don’t believe me? One of Vader’s advisors even called him a sorcerer. Sure, he got force-choked for the remark, but still.
More commonly, you see wizardry in sci-fi called “psionics” or some similar term (e.g. Mass Effect’s “biotics”). And just like in standard fantasy novels, anyone with a bit of magic (or psionics) becomes very valuable to the military. As a writer, you’ll have to determine how these magic-users fit into your world’s sci-fi military. Are they integrated into combat units? Put into separate special forces groups? Regardless, you must consider a combat application, because in a world with enough conflict, eventually someone will.

That’s all for now. Next month we’ll look at sci-fi military tech!

Last month, we looked at governance by law first, and people second. If the characters in your book find themselves in such a country, they should count themselves fortunate, because that hasn’t traditionally been the case. This is because, as I said before, governments exist to ensure the interests of the governing bodies, not the governed.

Bad Governance (or Typical Governance)

Governments have traditionally ruled in the form of dictators like kings or oligarchies where rule is exerted by a limited few. In these cases, the principle of self-interested governing bodies applies more directly than those with constitutions. Taxes are collected to enrich the king’s lifestyle, wars are fought to increase the galactic empire’s influence, and laws change on a whim to suit the elven nobility’s political games. This form of government isn’t inherently evil, but it allows a limited few to do as they want in an unrestrained manner. Contrary to popular belief, power doesn’t corrupt, but it does reveal the heart condition of those in charge.

[bctt tweet=”Contrary to popular belief, power doesn’t corrupt, but it does reveal the heart #truth #philosophy”]

This doesn’t mean that the ruler can act however he wants, whenever he wants. A wise dictator knows that if he crushes his people too hard, he’ll have a rebellion on his hands. A foolish dictator on the other hand … well, unlucky for King George III, but God bless the USA. If the people suffer long enough under the fictional governing bodies in your novel, at least someone will consider seceding from the empire or overthrowing its authority all together. Christians in such a setting are in a quandary though, since they are called to submit themselves to all authority (even bad ones like Nero, yikes!).

As a note, if your society is ruled by unrestrained power, the characters in your world will feel tangible governmental effects. Simply put, this is because their freedom is much more limited. Even still, bad governance is better than nothing. A lack of any stability produces anarchy and unrestrained violence. It is the reason many suspect God calls Christians to submit to kings, even evil ones.

Inhuman Governance

You are crafting another world, so the possibility exists that aliens, robots, halflings or some combination could rule the land. If this is the case, you need determine the tendencies of these entities. Specifically: Do governing members of that race have the same power-hungry nature as mankind’s own politicians?

[bctt tweet=”Does a fictitious race have the same power-hungry nature as mankind’s own politicians? #philosophy #scifi”]

If not, a charter of limited authority may not be necessary to ensure peace, but you’ll have to work hard to make such an alien species believable. C.S. Lewis did a fantastic job of this in Out of the Silent Planet, and Orson Scott Card’s Formics had a very alien form of governance in Ender’s Game (of course, a real sci-fi reader knows the original idea came from Heinlein’s Starship Troopers novel from the 50’s).

However, if evil nonhumans run the country, it could be a very sinister land. Even the worst of humans have consciences, no matter how hardened. Historically, God has worked miracles on some truly evil men, so no one is completely without hope. But I shudder to think of a land run by callous dragons or heartless androids. It might be interesting, and if well-written, it could be though-provoking. But the Christian should be very careful with monolithic evil. When C.S. Lewis wrote the Screwtape Letters, he said it was a fatiguing experience. I’m not forbidding you to write about demonic governance, I only warn you so you know what you might be getting yourself into.

On that cheerful note, I hope that you’ll consider some form of government for your novel. Generally speaking, the political structure should be paired to the extent of government influence you want to see in your character’s lives. Any governing body restrained by the rule of law (e.g. constitutional monarchy, democratic republic, etc.) is going to be less intrusive than a government subservient to the whims of an individual or a group of individuals (e.g. traditional monarchy, communism in practice, etc.).

But if you’re feeling that “analysis paralysis” I spoke of months ago, just read the conclusion of my prior government article, take a deep breath, relax, and write on.