Science Fiction word count graph

Of all Things Forgotten:

Contains a realistic, hard science story of the first manned mission to Mars between the nations of China, Russia, and the United States. It is about their journey, how they get there, their own trials and demons they must overcome together, and what they find on the Red Planet when they arrive there. It could be the key to human destiny. Or destruction.

NanoWrimo wins: 05, 06, 07, 08
Science Fiction Forum Moderator
ML for PA :: Elsewhere

Hey, this is fun. Umm. Okay. Working Title: Conscience of State.

More social scifi, no astoundingly fresh ideas, it is more of a people story, has a romance built in. Futuristic, somewhat dystopic. A more careful synopsis is posted on my page, but as to the science part: a repressive government (corporate oligarchy?) collects unwanted infants put up for adoption, raises them to be loyal agents of the state, without self, without conscience, trained to spy, assasinate, what ever they are told. This is done using fine-tuned brain washing techniques, a sort of pavlovian training using focused brain stimulation. The idea is to have agents that *are* the state, through and through. It has a low success rate, rather hard to do that, it turns out, but that's okay, abortion is illegal and there are plenty more unwanted infants where those came from. They euthanize the failures. Painlessly. Honest.

This story deals with one rogue breaking free.

Hope I don't wreck the graph. Work'll start kicking my butt again tomorrow.

I'm not sure if this is new, but It part 1 the antagonists have a machine (like the death star, just a lota smaller) that harnesses the last bits of magic in the land. I was writing this just throughout the month of november, but I only joined this site today.

Important characters (including vilians): 11
Important characters death: 1
Chapters: 15
Part completed: 1 of 3
Sanity Remaining: 62%

Sure why not.

I created/am creating a 10 planet, binary star system. It is not so much a concept as a locale. I hope to create single celled organisms on at least one of the 5 potentially habitable locations by the end of the week! Hopefully I'll have created 3-4 basic life forms by the end of Nano!

Does not read and follow label directions.

Working title for my tale is "Rogue Robots" (and I have every intent to change it when I think of a better one).

It takes place about a metaphorical twenty minutes from the present where everything we wear today has become a Halloween costume and scientists have managed to stumble on how to build self-aware robots. They have become so easy to build that every high school robotics club member and nine year old boy hanging around junkyards can construct their own. It begins when one renown roboticist tries to convince the people that regulate robot standards not to start building robots with weapon systems for military purposes, and with the help of his rather mischeivous daughter and two of his own robots acting out her death in front of them; he gets the message across and the scene quickly becomes Internet gold.

But just as soon as they all come home from the conference, something goes absolutely wrong. Robots all around the planet have suddenly began to rebel and vandalize with no motive whatsoever because someone is hijacking them all with a wireless signal giving them unauthorized programming. However, the two robots, LE-2 and RN-6, known colloquially as Eli and Erin, have been deactivated for maintenance and remain unaffected. Before he and his daughter flee for safety, he severs their wireless links and jams their wireless signals, leaving them a message when they wake up that something is definitely wrong and they have to do whatever they can to stop it for the sake of both human and robot kind.

It's the Great Robot Uprising, and the robots did not ask for it. And now two robots are out on their own to end it. The story centers around what it means to be a robot as it looks at the world through the photoreceptors and echolocation sensors of two very advanced, self-aware robots. And it also shows the meaning of their existence: they are not simple servants nor were they created by humans to kill other humans. They were built to be their friends.

Great idea :)

My story's called The Immortality Clause.

The story explores two different forms of immortality - one made through human medical advances, and one by aliens. Both have different issues involved with them (namely, some sort of sacrifice).

The main character is also going to essentially fuse with the body of an alien. He'll get to experience the perceptual world of a hybrid human-alien. This will explore ideas of our own perception, as well as themes of evolution and differing environments. I've started developing a realistic yet very alien perceptual system to work with, using lots of facts from real neuroscience, vision psychology, linguistic perception, biology, etc. It should be a lot of fun to write about once I get to that part of the story :)

The Bracelet

Science Fiction Concepts:

1. The main characters are trying to turn Jupiter into a Brown Dwarf and build Dyson Swarms (or Dyson Bubbles) in order to harness the energy (this is NOT the Dyson Sphere as found in many other sci-fi stories, similar though).

2. There is also a non-linear time character.

3. I have several AI's which are not as intelligent as most sci-fi stories make them out to be. My AI's are excellent at computing but completely ignornant with common sense.

The Kings of Distant Stars

- A civilization descended from uploaded human minds that went through a technological singularity and expanded across the galaxy, backwards in time relative to Earth, with an FTL drive. They operate as some synthesis of a contemporary mega-corporation and Olympian gods, colonizing stars by surrounding them with Dyson swarms and using the resultant energy and computer-processing resources to simulate entire universes and engage in space-opera wars across all kinds of spaces and times (quite literally because they have nothing else to do).

- A type of quantum-mechanical plant life (they exist in quantum probability functions) that "infects" host civilizations and uses them as a kind of "intelligence template". They prefer humans to other chaotic phenomena (like stars or convection cells in gas giants) since humans tend to fight a lot and give them a kind of self-awareness. They use individual humans and machines as avatars to interact with us and "become sentient".

- A being referred to as a god in-universe, but is actually a primordial intelligence related to the above quantum plant-life and incarnated by the above mentioned bored AI gods. He has considerable knowledge of physics, and more importantly, how to break those laws in neat/useful ways, so he's a valuable commodity. It's too bad that he's also a psychopathic drug addict with anger problems.

- Human civilization uses vast armies of self-replicating robots to build habitats and colonize other stars. Most of humanity actually exists as digital citizens, born entirely in a computer-generated world. Colonization is done with sub-atomic wormholes accelerated to near-light speed, acorn-sized ships-in-a-chip with digital crews propelled by solar-powered lasers generated from around the Sun, and slightly larger antimatter-powered brutes for the grunt work.

- Real biological humans are a minority, having colonized very little outside the Sol system due to the expenses of manned spaceflight. Over 99% of biological humans live on Earth, the Moon, and habitats around Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. There are small colonies around Delta Pavonis, Epsilon Eridani, Tau Ceti, and a handful of other sun-like stars.

- Human civilization has reacted strongly (and negatively) to the Machine Exodus, so any kind of self-aware AI is effectively banned; however they get around this by creating super-intelligent but non-conscious intelligent agents that must be slaved to human minds to function.

- The biggest drug problem is a nootropic nano-medical robot swarm called "the G-drug", which is inhaled through the nose and then proceeds to colonize the brain. Was originally designed as an intelligence booster, but it's now used for all kinds of neurological alterations (good and bad; malware is common on the black market) and for smuggling proscribed data. Has built-in wifi and can do all manner of things to the user's nervous system and cognitive functions.

2009: The Kings of Distant Stars

If you write space-based fiction and have questions, read the Atomic Rockets page.

I wanted to say that it is awesome my color is purple. Purple is a very important color in my book.

Important characters (including vilians): 11
Important characters death: 1
Chapters: 15
Part completed: 1 of 3
Sanity Remaining: 62%

Title: Flock

In the novel, Earth has been spun away from the Sun by a cataclysm, and to help humans survive an artificial intelligence has connected itself to every one of the 39 million surviving humans on the dark planet.

I explore dependency on a god-like figure that is always present in people's lives and whose goal is to make humanity survive, even if it's not part of humanity itself. A breakdown in the connection to the AI throws some humans into a number of conflicts, from ones that are petty to ones that are philosophical in their origin.

-ilya

Well, I fall into SF instead of fantasy, since there is a logic behind my world. I'll try to give some insight without saying too much. The setting is interesting, I hope. It is a series of five concentric machine-like rings around a central sphere, floating in space. The rings are populated, but people/buildings are on top of the ring surfaces, not on the interior per Halo/Ringworld. There is an atmosphere around the rings, and along the borders the particles flow in a wind parallel to the ring surface outwards from the center. Where some of the particles hit the field containing the atmosphere they ionize creating a light display underneath the outer ring edge called the Aurora. One of the rings is 'broken' and canted at a steep and erratically changing angle to the general plane of the system, much more than the other rings tend to deviate. There are moving walkways around the inner and outer edges of the outermost ring. That's about all I can say I think :)

The Steampunk FAQ and Resources thread.

Two different communities meet for the first time many years after a total environmental disaster strikes Earth.

Both have assumptions about what caused the end of civilisation, but neither one knows the entire truth.

Through working together one youth from each group is chosen to investigate the truth and along the way discover they are fulfilling an ancient prophecy.

The ultimate message is that these two communities, one technological and the other religious (a la Middle Ages), must reunite or else all life on the planet will die.

Location : Somewhere on the far side of crazy, past the dark side of the moon, and on my way to becoming comfortably numb.

Interested in Cannabis Law Reform in Australia? visit here : https://www.cannabisfacts.info/members/index.php and join in

Everybody else's consepts are so big, I don't know if mine can measure up. But here's my title and synopsis:

Title: Stray Kingdom 2: Back to the Lab

Synopsis: Over three years ago, a group of dogs and cats escaped from a research lab. Genetically altered to have human-like intelligence, they secretly built a life for themselves in a run down city, stealing and scavenging to make ends meet. They faced trials and crises that almost tore them apart. Now, the family is growing. But a city crackdown on stray animals has everybody worried. When family patriarch Rex begins to have dreams about his early puppyhood, he recovers a shocking memory. He must lead his family back to the lab to find someone they left behind.

Prevailing Concepts:
Genetic engineering and its long term affects on test subjects.
Special abilities gained through genetic alteration and how these should be used - tools, not toys.
The dual nature of intelligent life forms - high intellect vs. animal instinct.
Childhood trauma and repressed memories.
The wide variety of relationship dynamics that exist between humans and animals.
The inherent goodness or evil of humanity.
Children searching for absent fathers
The importance of family in a hostile world.

2008 Winner - Stray Kingdom
2009 - Stray Kingdom 2

Simple Human:

Cassandra Blake is 30 years old. When she was 6, her parents were scanned into The Collective, joining billions of other people in a virtual world where their minds would live on forever. Raised by her grandmother, she grew up an outsider, a non-tech girl in a high-tech world. As an adult, she struggled to fit in with everyone else, in spite of her limitations. Limitations that meant that she could never participate in the VR world that everyone else did. That she would live to an old, old age, and she would die, to be forgotten forever. Unlike everyone else around her, who would scan to The Collective at the age of 60 and live a blissful eternity in a paradise of their own joint creation.

And then Cassandra Blake learns the truth. Nothing is what it seems. No one lives forever. Everyone dies. Most long before they should. She must struggle through her newly shattered life, pick up the pieces, and move forward, all while discovering the truth about her world, her existence, and the role she has no choice but to play in the downfall of Jacob, the singular self-aware AI behind The Collective.

NaNo 2009 - Simple Human - You are but a simple human whose mind cannot fathom the greatness that is The Collective.

The Last Colony

Old Earth died more than five thousand years ago and its children set off into the vastness of space, seeking a new home. Like locusts, they have descended upon worlds terraformed some several thousand years ago by forces they do not understand and cannot fathom. They question this not at all and rape the planets which become their homes with similar reckless abandon to that which killed Old Earth. Four hundred years ago, the Rose Foundation said "no more." They recovered and reconstructed technologies that could make life sustainable on worlds for thousands upon thousands of years, all but eliminating the need to divest worlds of natural resources, of their mineral wealth, protecting ecosystems and atmospheres, oceans and other waterways. But the congloms of New Earth weren't interested. They liked the way things were.

Almost 160 years ago, the Rose Foundation found E-557. They created a colony there and told everyone who didn't want to play by their rules that they could stay away, stay out. This was their place, and they would jealously defend it. as one early settler famously wrote, "we won’t let them do to our world what they’ve done to theirs." And they haven't, not for the past fifteen decades. But things are changing. Their cardinal protector back in New Earth space has been decimated, most of its refugees finding their way to E-557 and joining the community there. New Earth is dying and the congloms are starting to look at E-557 as a viable alternative to their dying home...

Concepts
- Ecological sustainability through technological advances
- Cyberware/wetware
- Differeing visions of utopia (and dystopia)
- Psychics (oh god the psychics)
- Future war
- FTL (plays a lesser role)
- Corporations as governments (and vice versa)

~ Doc
2004: When All's Said and Done (won)
2005: When the Gods Cry (won)
2006: Fate and Second Chances (uncompleted)
2007: Sequel to Fate and Second Chances (uncompleted)
2008: Awakenings (uncompleted)
2009: The Last Colony
www.embklitzke.com

Well, I think I'll add in on this. This is my first NaNo.

In my novel, Proxima, the story takes place roughly a thousand years after the "Great AI Wars" in which most of the combined knowledge of Earth and her colonies is lost, due to the computer carnage. The whole place descends into a new dark ages, with technology being reduced to a pseudo-religious state. Due to the lack of knowledge amongst most of the characters, a lot of the technology behind the story isn't explained.

I'd have to say I'm trying to follow a real-world scientific theory for my faster than light travel. In this universe, around 2070, two scientists (Greer and Anderson) develop a working prototype of a space-folding "jump" drive. Using this drive ships can make instantaneous jumps of up to 250 Light-Years. Essentially following the idea of another dimension, "subspace", the ships punch holes in space-time and transition subspace to their destination, where they then punch back out. While that's not necessarily a new idea, I think it's one of the more interesting ones in my story.

Another bit would have to be the weapons technology for the Knights. In this universe the development of the Powered Armor rendered all man-portable projectile weapons virtually obsolete. You can hit a man wearing powered armor in the chest with a .50 caliber rifle and it'd probably tickle some. No one knows what the armors are made out of, probably some totally over-powered alloy. The only weapon that can cut into, and through, this armor is the power swords that most of the knights carry. This brings the ground combat back to much more medieval setting.

One last thing would be the Mages of my story. In this universe, due to technology being a religious affair, those who dabble in modifying technology or studying science become outlawed and branded as "Mages", due to the general populace's view on technology and it's "magic". These mages are simply tinkerers, scientists, engineers, etc. But a lot of the time these mages become skilled warriors as well, and some can come up with crazy little gadgets and devices to help themselves in battle.

I need to write like crazy so I show up on the graph better.

Important characters (including vilians): 11
Important characters death: 1
Chapters: 15
Part completed: 1 of 3
Sanity Remaining: 62%

Hmmm, I'd like to be added. Let's see what I can come up with. (Go ahead and read my summary and lame excerpt on my profile).

Although not entirely unique, my novel, Myth, looks at the scientific reasons behind dragon legend/myth, disappearance, and awakening. This mostly has to do with reptile hibernation and theoretical anatomy, biology, etc for dragons. I'll also be showing some highlights of different culture's dragons (the Mayans, Europeans, and Asians) as well. Not really much more to add here, other than there's a lot of personal conflict besides the dragons, which I think will turn out interesting :).

Myth, a science fiction novel by Amalia Moran. Being written during NaNoWriMo 2009.
This is my first time!

I'd like to be added :]

I don't have a great name yet, but let's call it 'Zero Sound'.

I've come up with a few novel concepts I think:

Sound: The idea that all humans have a unique sound that is the sum of all parts of their being, from their personality, aspirations, genetics, to favorite food. What makes each person unique is a sound they generate on a small scale. Some people possess the Sound in higher volume than others. They are able to tap into some kind of cosmic energy from the Universe, gaining powers like super speed, control over electricity, fire, ect. Those not born with/untrained can use Amplifiers: different types of objects that can be used to funnel a person's Sound into a narrow category. These Amplifiers are few and far between, and since they take someone's unique but very quiet Sound and amplifies it they are dangerous to the user.

Granger Gates: These are rings that float in space which act almost like a computer network. Entry Points calculate the destination that a ship inputs, and opens a slipstream bubble. The ship enters and follows inside the slipstream, also known as the Gate Network, and comes out at their destination. A main plot point is that the main character works on these Gates, and has to go fix a Node, a Gate in between Entry Points.

Other than a few things, most of the technology in my story hasn't changed much from present day. Phones still work like phones, except of course they are like modern smartphones x100. People use computers with mice and keyboards. Food is still packaged in plastic. Stuff like that.

Please check out my synopsis in my profile ;]

I really like the graph. I check it regularly. Very nicely done.

Thanks!

My story is a Star Wars Clone Wars roleplaying campaign, which is like a novel with a bunch of equations peppered throughout it. It explores what culturally iconic corporations that span the Galaxy would go through, and consequentially their employees, should both sides of the war engage in a tug-of-war to claim the company's allegiance. Being a barista of three years, I chose to make a Star Wars Starbucks.
Garrett

My book is called Deaconstruct.

It takes place about a century after the destruction of Earth, on a giant space station called the Sanctuary of Christendom. The SOC looks like a handful of Cathedrals smashed together in space, and is run by an authoritarian, nigh fascist future version of the Roman Catholic church. No other religions or cultures survived the destruction of earth, except in small pockets on the SOC where they are hunted as heretics and apostates by the Dominican Order. When a meek and clumsy theologian named Marten Lewis nails a pamphlet to the door of a church protesting its expansive militarization, he becomes a wanted man. The main character is Hilde, a badass Dominican Officer (equivalent of a police officer or National Guard), who, after a twin crisis of faith and conscience, decides to protect Marten while the entire rest of the church comes after him. Much violence ensues.

My working title is "Miranda" although that will almost definitely change.

Synopsis:

A seventeen-year-old boy wakes to discover the world he knows is gone.

It is fifty years in the future. He has been kept alive in cryonic stasis, a practice that was developed secretly but was now known as the catalyst for the war that destroyed the world....

Because this process not only preserved living bodies, but gave them supernormal powers: the ability to move and manipulate objects with their minds. The development of these powers led to a war across the world, instigated by a brilliant but insane young scientist named Niles Morgan and his army of superhumans, whom he named the Reborn.

Shawn is now trapped in a world as a fugitive, neither part of the Reborn empire of CERIA or the fragmented world alliance ANIA. Suffering from selective amnesia and haunted by visions of a girl named Miranda who he believes is alive and trapped within the depths of the empire, he is slowly drawn into the rising conflict between the most powerful forces on the earth.

The subgenre is post-apocalyptic, but there are also fun psychic powers and various other sci-fi and fantasy elements. It's more oriented toward character/society than technology.

http://tiredace.wordpress.com

My story has the idea of a visual/auditory 'basilisk', which reprograms the brain to another language, Unified and about its social implications. For more, see my Novel info.

'8: Interface Culture - Selbst die Zukunft ist nicht mehr das was sie einmal war (won!)
'9: Ytin'he'ny - those who are changed

Bottles of Coke: 18 (29.5 liters)
Bags of crisps: 7 (705g)

Back up your novel, now!

My story has interesting military science in there. Things like having a gun-owner relationship and no one else can use the gun, futuristic liquid-armor that's not as heavy as current one but is quite effective, nanomachines in medicines. :) Nothing too much since it's near-future.

Military Sci-Fi (click banner!)
Times written during class: 2
Times dreamed about: 4
Missions Failed: 0

The Clockwork Experiment: The tale of a tidal-locked planet on which life continues much as it does here on the Light side, but is radically different on the Dark Side. All boundaries are broken there, and everyone has freedom to do virtually anything they want. Marriages are invalid, age restrictions are abolished, and hidden knowledge abounds. As Reymfla (FMC) explore this new life for the first time, she encounters racism toward the robots whose rights she heartily supports, as well as finds an old man with immense knowledge and a new friend whose ultimate goal is to finally figure out the Clockwork Experiment he believes they are all a part of.

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Ooo. We have one of these in the NZ area.. score.. :D

Um..

Mine is called Psi Rebel Dynasties. The book is actually a part of a much larger book and involves segments of history through about a hundred years on a planet called Shadow (from the year 2913 to 3010) . In 2913 one of the Five Great Nation governments introduced a series of small laws that basically created a situation that anyone who was psychic (empath, telepath, clairvoyant or a kinetic/TK/PK) was forced to be conscripted into the service of a government subsidiary called the Agency. Thus began the civil war. There are the Psi Rebels who are fighting to be free and to free other psychics/Psi from the Agency, and there is the Agency who are trying to annihilate the Psi Rebels... I'm writing the first section of history for NaNo which covers the first three generations of Psi Rebels and the story of each of their leaders (hence "Dynasty"). The entire story ends in the year 3010, which is also at the end of book one of my main sci fi storyline (six book epic story), book two brings in the space ships and aliens and fun technology, so we don't get much of the classical sci fi in the NaNo I'm doing right now. Though, I still think psychics and people who can throw trucks at you with their minds... super fun... and still sci fi... XD Once I'm finished with it I'll be editing it to death and then posting each scene (1-2K words) one at a time in a blog-like situation to promote the publication of book one.... hopefully I can find a publisher for book one.... lol.

And now I'm babbling... /end babble.

My story centres on a town being transported from the early 1800's to present day. I'm still playing with how many people will be teleported. I figure around 100 or so, and the rest of the town abandon's the site, leaving it a ghost town from there on in.

The people now in the future have to deal with a brave new world of technology, medicine, entertainment, and society. Multicultural cities with modern conveniences.

This all came about from doing my own family tree research and discussing things with my Dad. My Father's own grandparents on his mother's side live in a house without running water, or electricity. Water was gathered at a pump, and carried to the house. There was no insulation, and a fire had to be kept going day and night in the winter time. In the summer time they had lots of flies in the house as there were no screens on any windows. This was only in the early-mid 1900's, towards the end of their lives. They were born in the mid-late 1800's. So to know what those people's parents and grand parents would have been like will be interesting to explore. HG Well's Time Machine wasn't even written until the end of the 1800's. So the characters really have no basis for the concept of time travel.

This will also be my greatest challenge, to capture the amazement wonder, and fear of being placed in an such a situation. I think it would be different for people back then. Today if someone was transported 200 years in the future, there would be a lot of adjustment, but because of our entertainment, and how common science fiction is these days, one could adjust easier to seeing clones, flying cars, laser guns, androids, cyborgs, aliens, etc. etc. Whereas from teh 1800's to now, there really is no point of reference for them to draw on.

Some will commit suicide, others will embrace the new world by indulging in the worst parts. I'll try to run the gamut with various characters.

Also I plan to not have all the characters arrive at the same time. I have the idea of one child getting teleported first, followed by his father not long after. However when his father arrives in the future, his son will have arrived 20 years earlier. Now they are closer in age and the father-son dynamics will suddenly shift.

Ba'al, a story of a world far away, and how Aliens actually had a role in human early history. Now back to work... hot streak.

NewMexicoKid wrote:

It's about a week in, so it is probably time for me to create a Science Fiction word count graph for folks to take part of. If you click through the graph, you'll be taken to a page that shows additional author details.

To be added to the graph, please post a reply with some of the most interesting science fiction concepts that your novel introduces (e.g., in my novel Childhood Lost, the lead heroine, Giovanna Lee, discovers she is able to bend time a bit when traveling between worlds (admittedly via her magical Twilight Gem) so that very little time passes in her destination world since she was last there (though this process incurs a personal cost); what, you say--this is a fantasy novel! Well, true; however, the basis for her being able to do this comes from a theory that time exists as quantum states, so I feel that Giovanna can take advantage of that by choosing her entry point in the destination world).

Note that the graph is updated about once an hour; and it will take a little while before it first appears. Also, I've just posted one of these in the Fantasy forum as well; maybe we can get an average word-count word war of sorts between the two genres ;-)

--Tim

----------
Tim Yao aka NewMexicoKid
co-ML, Illinois::Naperville
Fog Readability Analysis
Writing resources

and another Kiwi doing SiFi :)

ahem mine:

In The Fire

Mine's sort of confusing in a non confusing way (if that makes sense) basically in one reality my MC Gemini Zodaic (as she was known there) helped in stopping an apocalypse which happened when Hirioshima got bombed. Anyway she wasn't there for the actual saving of the world her best friend was and the saving happened but Gemma (known in this world) never knew a thing about it. Tosh set out to find Gemma and Urban (her then boyfriend) but got killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks something that they hadn't accounted on sometime late Gemma started having dreams about her past universe at the moment she's now been pushed to the back burner and sharing her mind with Gemini as well.