A Science-Fiction - sort of - blog...
G. L. Parry's anthropomorphic short stories and novels
* For the occasional update, visit me on Facebook:
* Stranger, my Brother: available as a Kindle ebook
* A Sunburnt Country: available as a Kindle ebook
* The Fertile Crescent: available as a Kindle ebook
* The Tiger & the Raven: coming soon...
If you don't own
a real Kindle you can always use
'Kindle
for PC' / 'Kindle for
Mac' or download Kindle apps for
iPads ...or...
'Galaxy' slates
The bad ol' days: Banging away at
Ah, the joys of today's technology!
The Fertile Crescent on my faithful
old IBM Selectrix II, ca 1985
I first
started writing shortly after finishing Icerigger by Alan Dean Foster. I
was somewhat disappointed that his hapless
protagonist, Ethan Frome Fortune, never got to sleep with Elfa Kurdagh-Vlata, the buxom
daughter of the lord ruling the remote
island kingdom upon which they found themselves stranded after crashing their
shuttle-craft on the icy world of Tran-ky-ky. I understood
there were good reasons why he wouldn't have placed himself or his comrades in danger by
succumbing to her advances, and
felt determined to write a fresh new story where such sexual tensions were resolved as
romantically, poignantly - and
safely - as possible. The end result was The Fertile Crescent, the first
manuscript I completed after writing the initial draft out in longhand
prior to discovering the joys of electronic word-processing. Since then I have
written some twenty-five short stories and two additional
novels, totaling approximately 500,000 words. All are set in my 'Commonwealth of
Humanity' Future History, most taking
place before the
Expansion or the early years of the new great Age of Exploration made possible by the
invention of a practical FTL drive.
I've had it up to *here* with dark, gloomy SF: those stories
based on brutal 'realism' with graphic gunfights, gory death and a
oppressive sense that life just sucks instead of focusing on the sheer wonder of space and
the existence of non-human intelligence. The
trendy style which seems focused on how the lives of characters are full of misery,
injustice and sudden violence. Who would ever want to
live in a world like that? Certainly not me! I prefer to write strongly
character-based fiction exploring the predicaments aliens and humans
might experience upon discovering a mutual physical attraction, avoiding Dystopian
post-cyberpunk, fantasy, or derivative swords-and-scorcery
tales. Unfortunately, there seems to be little market for this sort of story despite
a growing online 'furry' fandom and the popularity of sites
offering stories such as AnthroArchives and Sofawolf Press, to name but a few.
Here they are, in chronological order:
Blueline Fever [2140] - 5,400 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Doggie in the Window [2200] - 3,700 words: 1st chapter
Duty of Care [2232] - (???? words) currently in work...
Loner [2270] - 4,000 words: 1st Chapter & pitch
The Surface so Bright [2300] - 5,800 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Eye of the Beholder [2311] - 5,400 words: 1st chapter & pitch Pennies from Heaven [2390] - 8,700 words: 1st chapter & pitch Return Ticket [2684] - 4,100 words: 1st chapterBitter Wine [2728] - 7,000 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Nightlife [2814] - 6,100 words: 1st chapter & pitch [NEW]
Diplomatic Incident [2815] - 4,600 words: 1st chapter & pitch
The Lady of Flame [2831] - 5,200 words: 1st chapter & pitch Here be Dragons [2981] - (???? words) currently in work... The Fertile Crescent [3065] - (130,000 words) novel: 1st chapter, synopsis & pitch Stranger, my Brother [3081] - (104,500 words) novel: 1st chapter, synopsis & pitch Many Happy Returns [3085]* - 8,200 words: 1st chapter, synopsis & pitch A Sunburnt Country [3089] - (120,600 words) novel: 1st chapter, synopsis & pitch [New] - Paradox's Eyes [4012] - (5,800 words) 1st chapter, synopsis & pitch* short-story sequel to 'The Fertile Crescent'
I also greatly enjoyed Larry Nivens excellent Gil the ARM stories, and wanted to write detective stories of my own in a similar vein. The laws
Mitigating Circumstances [2620] - 7,000 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Routine Inquiries [2620] - 7,900 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Registered Owner [2621] - 6,600 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Unreliable Witness [2621] - 7,600 words: 1st chapter & pitch
In Plain Sight [2621] - (???? words) currently in work...
Harm Minimization [2621] - 6,500 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Next of Kin [2622] - 11,100 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Right to Remain Silent [2622] - (???? words) currently in work...
Reasonable Grounds [2622] - 23,200 words (novella): 1st chapter & pitch
Still to come...
Double Jeopardy
Burden of Proof
Zero Tolerance
Insufficient Evidence
In addition to
two novels (see above) there are also five short stories set in the Golden Empire of the
wolflike Arukai, employing their dating
system but intersecting with affairs in the human Commonwealth both prior to and following
First Contact. AK stands for "After Kanukar", their
greatest Emperor and founder of the Hanaj dynasty which still rules 4,500 years after the
Great Fall destroyed Homeworld's first high-technology
civilization in a limited nuclear war:
For Future Generations [4000 BK] - 4,900 words: 1st chapter & pitch
A Passage Home [3997 BK] - 7,700 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Proof of Concept [2561 BK] - 6,300 words: 1st chapter & pitch
The Meat that Talks [4014 AK] - 7,400 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Backward and Forward [4017 AK] - 4,300 words: 1st chapter & pitch
Some of my favorite SF, in no particular
order: The 'Planet of Adventure' series - Jack Vance
Midnight
at the Well of Souls - Jack L. Chalker
Titan/Wizard/Demon
- John Varley
The
Mote in God's Eye - Niven & Pournelle
King
David's Spaceship - Jerry Pournelle
The
Jupiter Theft - Donald Moffitt
Beyond
the Blue Event Horizon - Frederik Pohl
Serpent's
Reach - C. J. Cherryh
Snow
Crash - Neal Stephenson
God
Emperor of Dune - Frank Herbert
The
'Pride of Chanur' series - C. J. Cherryh
Brightness
Falls from the Air - James Tiptree, Jr
Songmaster
- Orson Scott Card
The
Cyborg and the Sorcerers - Lawrence Watt-Evans
Fire
Time - Poul Anderson
Anvil
of Stars - Greg Bear
Accelerando
- Charles Stross
Geta
- Donald Kingsbury
The
'Moreau' series - S. Andrew Swann
* "Three Days at Woomera" - this article appeared in the Nov 2001 issue of 'Novosti Kosmonavtiki'
For the Russian version, click here: page 1 and here: page 2
To read the original in English, visit here
Want to contact me? My email addy: pargoo@netspace.net.au