1000 Posts

fictional numerical mile stone

This is the 1,000th post to the wikifiction blog. I use arbitrary numerical milestones as opportunities to metablog about science fiction and story writing. Here, I'll reflect on the year 2020 blog posts to the wikifiction blog.

January

Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert were both born in 1920, so I began this year with several blog posts about their science fiction.

 

No swords in Science Fiction

Theoretically there will be a new film version of Dune next year. I do believe it would be possible to make an interesting science fiction movie built around some of Herbert's original story ideas, but I'm skeptical that 2021 will bring such a film. 

 

What is your favorite spice?

I have to wonder: was there anyone involved in creating the script for the 2021 version of Dune who cares about science fiction? What I'm expecting is a film full of absurd fictional biology (giant sand worms) and super-hero-style fictional battle scenes (with swords) all revolving around a silly fictional messiah who will save the universe from Evil™. Not my cup of tea.

 

July

As discussed here, I'm hopeful that something good will come from Apple TV if they actually start streaming some Foundation episodes in 2021. Starting with the absurd name, I was never happy with the depiction of "Data" as a positronic robot in Star Trek. Apple and Laura Birn have a chance to give us a more interesting positronic robot.

Asimov's positronic robots and Asimov (right)
original cover art by Stephen Youll

 Here in 2020, I challenged myself to create a new character for the Exode Saga. That attempt to expand my writing horizons was the origin of Nirutam, a fain from the planet Ret'fai.

One of the most visited blog posts for January 2020 was "Two Wrongs", which contained my introduction of the character Nirutam into the Exode Saga.

February

The most visited blog post from February is "Herbert's Wake", which has my comments for Herbert's artificial intelligence Sci Fi story "Do I Wake or Dream?" which was first published in the August 1965 issue of Galaxy Magazine.

 

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March

After creating Nirutam and sending her on a mission to Earth, I soon decided that Nirutam had to die. As an alien from the Andromeda galaxy, her presence on Earth was a violation of the terms of the Trysta Grean Pact. The most visited blog post from March is "The Death of Nirutam".

Jack Vance

The year 2020 was a special year for celebrating the science fiction of Asimov and Herbert, but every year I hold two celebrations of Jack Vance: one in May and one in August. This year, I found it impossible to wait until May and so at the end of April I posted "235", a blog post with my comments for Vance's "The Potters of Firsk", which was published in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1950. That is the most visited wikifiction blog post for April.

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Celebration

During May, I read all of Vance's Magnus Ridolph stories and his 1951 story "Son of the Tree". The most visited blog post from May is "Murders at Dig B", in which I comment on Vance's story "Hard Luck Diggings".

 

After reading the Magnus Ridolph stories, I could not stop myself from imagining alternative versions of the Ridolph adventures that might have been written in an alternate Reality. I also fantasized that maybe here in 2020 the state of the art in computer animation has reached the point where Vance's swarming armies of 2-foot-tall alien warriors in "The Kokod Warriors" could now be illustrated well enough to turn that old Sci Fi story into a movie.

 

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June

The most visited wikifiction blog post for June is "Débutante" which holds the second part of The Yerophet Experiment, a story that I began near the end of 2019. In the Exode Saga, I imagine that a replicoid copy of Isaac Asimov was created and used to explore the AR Simulator.

That copy of Asimov came to be known as Azynov and he worked together with Yōd to investigate the origins of human telepathy. The Yerophet Experiment grew to have 7 parts and a total of 51,000 words.

 

SIHA

Every year I do a Search for Interesting Aliens in Hollywood. In 2020 I awarded a retro-SIHA and began the selection process by identifying my favorite aliens in a film from the 1950s (nominated).

August and September

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During August there were a series of blog posts that contain much of the story that I call Grean's Hack which grew to be a 96,000 word novel set in my Exodemic Fictional Universe. Grean's Hack began with my attempt to imagine how Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy might have been turned into three films in the 1950s.

 

Grean's Hack can be divided into five parts, the first of which is "Terminus Planet". The middle three stories are Time of Theurgency, Foundation Reality Simulator and The Synpaz of Seelie. The final part was completed in September and is a science fantasy story called "Final Change".

 

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"Terminus Planet" begins in 1939 with the Ekcolir Reality analogue of a young Isaac Asimov, right at the start of his writing career when he meets his future wife, Marcia Greenberg and her friend Ariel Adler. The course of Asimov's life is being guided by those around him, particularly the Interventionist agent Svahr who appears in the story playing the role of Dr. Sollar, the university writing instructor for Isaac, Marcia and Ariel.

Ten years after they first meet, Isaac and Marcia finally become a couple. Not only do they produce the film Terminus Planet, but they also have a son, Sven, who is a fain-human hybrid. 

Time of Theurgency

There were some topics from Terminus Planet that needed to be followed up on in the sequel stories beginning with "Time of Theurgency". In particular, 1) why was Sven created and 2) how were Marcia and Isaac kept apart for ten years after first meeting and falling in love in 1939? Matter duplicating technology that is available to Grean the Kac'hin is used to make two copies of Marcia's friend, Ariel. One copy of Ariel becomes known as Leira, the other adopts the name Relda.

Leira has a special mission aimed at making sure that Marcia and Isaac do not "hook up" in 1939. In "Time of Theurgency" the other copy of Ariel Adler, Relda, quickly takes the place of Trysta as Grean's assistant and Deomede's lover.

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Grean sends Relda and Deomede to Earth at a time 33 years in Relda's future. Relda meets "herself", the copy of Ariel who remained on Earth. While visiting Earth, Relda also meets Gina Hay who was designed by Grean as a mind clone, facilitating the transfer to Earth of information about the alien fain.

Gina and her friend Petra Nicholls have founded the Foundation for Science Fiction. That new Foundation will become the means to counter the Fru'wu Movement and save Earth's ecosystem from the devastating effects of hierion technology. With help from Relda and Deomede, the Foundation for Science Fiction receives generous funding from Ariel Adler.

In Foundation Reality Simulator it is revealed that Petra is also a mind clone. She was designed to be able to use the Bimanoid Interface and communicate telepathically to the copy if Isaac Asimov who lives at the Writers Block inside the Hierion Domain.

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In 1972, Sven is at work as a graduate student in Isaac's neuroscience research lab. Isaac introduces Sven to Petra and they begin experimenting with the hierion probe that Sven has designed and constructed.

Isaac Asimov is amazed by Petra's knowledge of events that took place in the Foundation Reality. They have a shared source of knowledge about positronic robots: their telepathic links to the Hierion Domain. Isaac has always been linked to his replicoid and Petra is a mind clone of the analogue of Asimov who lives at the Writers Block. That version of Asimov (O.A.) had been involved in using the FR Simulator, a virtual reality device that can provide access to records of events that occurred in the Foundation Reality.

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Petra is creating a science fiction story called Robots of Atlam. Petra's story describes the robots of Atlam and how they first came into contact with humans at the fringe of the galaxy. Petra suspects that the alien fain were involved in giving telepathic powers to the positronic robot Giskard.

With the help of Sven's hierion probe, it becomes possible for Petra to use the Bimanoid Interface as a means of achieving efficient telepathic communication with the analogue of Asimov who lives at the Writers Block. In the past, information about the Foundation Reality has been slowly leaked into the minds of Isaac and Petra, but with the help of the hierion probe, Petra can have normal conversations with the Asimov analogue in the Hierion Domain.

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After some delay, Gina also begins using a hierion probe to make it possible for her to telepathically link to Relda in the Hierion Domain. Gina is pressed for time when she begins acting as a conduit for sending to Earth information that Relda obtains from the FR Simulator. Since she is very busy running the Foundation for Science Fiction, Gina is provided with an assistant: Piero.

 

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The other author on Earth who gets help from the Hierion Domain in the course of "Foundation Reality Simulator" is the mysterious "Sydney J.". She creates a movie script for Robots of the Fain. That story incorporates information from the Foundation Reality Simulator about secret fain agents who operated on the planet Terminus.

Petra becomes captivated by the idea that her replicoid (Artep) might be used for tasks such as searching the Foundation Reality Simulator for information about how the fain influenced human history. When it comes time for Artep to begin interacting with the residents of the Writers Block, she decides to be instantiated as a synpaz with the ability to fly.

 

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In The Synpaz of Seelie, Artep finds it difficult to transition into the lifestyle that is typical of the residents of Seelie. Artep enjoys antigravity-facilitated flight, but she eventually decides to take up residence in the Writers Block.

Working in coordination with Sven and Petra on Earth, Artep becomes the first replicoid to achieve full two-way telepathic communication with a human. As described in A Missing Hierion and Muse of History, Grean wants to use this new operating mode for the Bimanoid Interface as a tool for hacking into the Asimov Reality Simulator. R. Nyrtia wanted to hide the advanced hierion physics knowledge of the Phari so she had put a lock on the Asimov Reality Simulator.

 

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While visiting Seelie, Artep meets two sy'Paz, Quen and Rusan. Grean sends Quen and Rusan into the past to teach some advance mathematics to Wynya Hamilton, creating a foundation for the future development of a science of hierion physics on Earth.

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With the Final Reality Change approaching, Grean must make arrangements for a few of her key operatives to pass from the Ekcolir Reality into the Final Reality. As told in "Final Change", Grean makes use of Artep to extract the replicoid of Joanna MacDonald from High Seelie.

 

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Grean created Joanna as the mind clone of Mary. Joanna was taken off of Earth and sent to the Hierion Domain where she played a role in developing a means to control the Bimanoid Interface. That copy of Joanna who participated in hierion research was instantiated in the Hierion Domain as a synpaz. However, as described in Zeptites of Seelie, Joanna shared dangerous information about sedrons with the Earthlings in the Ekcolir Reality, forcing Grean to use time travel to clean up the mess she had made.

The source of that "dangerous information" was a nanoscopic replicoid of Joanna who lived in Nanoville. Near the Final Reality Change, the sy'Paz-sized copy of Joanna finally is given the means to telepathically communicate with her nanoscale copy.

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With the two copies of Joanna now linked telepathically, they and a few other key operatives of Grean are successfully shifted into the Final Reality.

 

October

The most popular blog post from October was "Confidence", a look back at how Astounding magazine editor John Campbell became a shill for Lafayette Hubbard and the the imaginary science that grew to be known as Dianetics.

November

"Final Change" was the end of Grean's Hack, but there were still some questions remaining about how the Writers Block came into existence, so I wrote a new 15,000 word story, "Hierion Writers Club". However, I did not complete "Hierion Writers Club" until December.

Search for Interesting Hollywood

I awarded a retro-SIHA to the Krell in Forbidden Planet. I then used the screenplay for Forbidden Planet as motivation for writing "Grean Fiction", which provides an alternative perspective on Altair IV from the Ekcolir Reality. "Grean Fiction" grew to a total of 36,800 words and seven parts.

 

The Galaxiad

December

In December I wrote a 8,000 word story called "The Galaxiad" which was inspired by Isaac Asimov's idea of Galaxia. "The Galaxiad" is told from the perspective of Vyky Dey, a young writer. Vyky is a Werefe, a genetically crafted human variant with advanced telepathic abilities. Vyky learns that positronic robots are trying to bring Galaxia into existence, but she can't share that discovery with the people of the galaxy.

Glisten

Also arriving in December was the 8,000 word story "The Olivine Intervention", about another special telepath, Glisten Ravensroke. Azynov and Yōd feel compelled to protect Glisten and her baby from any damage that might be caused by Kerub telepathy on Yerophet. While on Yerophet, Azynov and Yōd learn that medical nanites were used to alter the cells of lo'Whots, preparing her to be a useful test subject for experiments with micro-hierion fields. "The Olivine Intervention" links together "The Power of Pause" and The Yerophet Experiment.

Next: part 5 of "Grean Fiction"

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