[Update 18 January 2024: reflecting three more books since this was first posted]
I had someone ask, “Who are all these people?” So, much like Reading Order, I thought I’d pin a post showing a simplified family tree of the Hartmann and Rigó branches, with a side mention of some of the Thinking Machines.
Little stars represent royals. Bolded are demi-humans. Kalí gets an underline as no one knows what she is.
Continue reading “Machine Civilization Stemma (Update 1)”This has come up before. Being 1) lazy, and 2) busy writing when not being lazy, I’ve kicked the can down the road. It appears I have just ran out of road. So, here are two suggestions as to how you may choose to read the books of Machine Civilization, which stretches in time from now until, so far, about three generations hence.
“What order should I read your books in?” is a question I have fielded many times, in person and online. My glib answer is, “doesn’t matter, so long as you’ve paid for them.” My honest answer is to tell a story (imagine, me being a writer) and ask a question.
The story is this: when I stumbled into being a writer on November 2014, I just kept plowing on, meeting new ideas, new people, and dealing with them head-on in my former bull-headed engineering fashion. Understanding this was a coherent future history, it dawned on me after about four years that I, of all people, needed an Excel file to track the multiple interconnections. You can pull a thread in “The Fourth Law” and paragraphs twitch in “Friend and Ally,” and if your follow that thread, you hit the entire novella of “Crosses and Doublecrosses.” And that is one, single, example. There are dozens.
Having said all that to say this: below the fold are two groupings. The first is Order of Publication. What that allows you to do is follow me as this world and worlds were gifted to me and I came to understand and write them down. The second is Internal Chronological Order, and even that is tricky. For example, the very first event I record is a flashback of Lily Barrett and her father, looking at books in Jinbocho, Tokyo, Japan, in an early chapter of “The Fourth Law.” Then would be the first short in my collection, “Empire’s Agent,” about the creation of tribe Tohsaka; but that collection covers two generations. So, please take the ICO list with a grain of salt, slice of lime, and shot of tequila.
EDIT: I have also included a tiny descriptor of each book.
Continue reading “Machine Civilization, Reading Order”Strange week; much RealLife drama I do not need. Picking at another short story, but nothing really clicking yet. I shall be patient.
Most autocrats enjoy it when people stand up to them, just because it doesn’t happen very often. The imperium’s bureaucracy is very small, as Fussy can do the work of many humans and do it faster, but I’m sure they are rather obsequious. I doubt her legates are. Forewarned by Old Dysart, Stephen does not put up with her shit, either.
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Continue reading “Annexation (5/4 End)”Stepping up posting a bit as it will force me to finish this. There will be a Part Five, a conclusion. My notes from last night are awful, so I’ll flog them together later today.
In RealLife, I had to do preliminary tax work this morning. Ours are complicated so we’ve used a CPA for twenty years. Since the Fed’s Magic Money Machine can just go brrr, brrr, filing taxes is nothing more than a humiliation ritual the Cloud People use to show how much they hate us.
Below, Stephen meets Fussy for the first time and, I think, likes what he sees. He is a cautious and reserved man, which I think is why I had to write a part 5; nothing happens quickly. In fact, from my notes, nothing really happens.
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Continue reading “Annexation (4/4?)”Now we get a look at the other side of the hill. Fussy is obviously up to something and we’ll have to see just how diplomatic Johnston can be once he arrives. Telling that he goes to his boss’ father for advice rather than the current president of the GSS.
Updates may take a hit as there are unwelcome RealWorld matters I’ll need to see to. Even so, I’d like to think I’ll have this story complete within a week.
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Continue reading “Annexation (3/4?)”Personal, back-channel diplomacy, is how the world works. Formal meetings are to sign treaties and look good for the cameras. You can get a lot more done over beer and bourbon.
I’m beginning to suspect that this will be five parts, not four. But, we’ll see. After this exchange, Johnston pays a visit to Douglas’ father, the former president of the GSS. That will be part three. Part four will be Stephen’s trip up north, to mirror Chesney’s down south.
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Continue reading “Annexation (2/4?)”Having ended Fusion on Monday, I mentioned it might be several days before another idea comes along. Turned out to be about fourteen hours. As a plurality – if not majority – of my books have a female lead, I quite deliberately wanted to avoid that. So, I went and looked at the Hartmann family tree I recently updated, and pondered.
He gets a few lines in Ice Inundation Intelligence, but I really do not know much about Stephen Johnston, Fussy’s second husband, other than that he was from the Gulf Shore States and something of a political maneuverer. So, here we are.
Don’t know how long this will go, so that’s the ? next to the “4” up there.
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Continue reading “Annexation (1/4?)”Fusion comes in at 4400 words and shall be a part of my next collection. Looking at the scrap of paper I made before Christmas, there were seven ideas on it. One was folded into Martian Wonderland and another here. As of this typing, no one in my head has given me the slightest idea as to what to do, next.
With Ash Wednesday, perhaps that’s why: I need a small break. No, of course I’ll not give up writing for Lent – that would kill me – but a little pause right now might be in order. My liver certainly thinks so.
As has so often happened before, be it music or images, the image at the end has been behind my eyes for much of this. I had no idea who she was; my oldest daughter explained it to me. Hope to see everyone no later than a week from today with a new story.
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Continue reading “Fusion (5/5 – End)”Once again a longer segment going into the weekend. The dogs had me up at 0330 and in that half-asleep stage I saw the final part of this short story. It may be a little anti-climatic, as is my wont when it comes to exciting events, but it will wrap things up nicely. I’ll be introducing an new lifeform. As if my stories needed another.
This was – and is – a fun little story. Writing shorts makes for focus and discipline. I’ve known people who talk about their 300k MS they’ve been working on for five years…and I wonder: what the hell is wrong with you? Tell your story and move on to another.
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Continue reading “Fusion (4/5)”Something I thought of a few days ago is how much time I spend on the greater Hartmann clan. My future history, after all, is called Machine Civilization. I’m going to keep this story focused on Thinking Machines, even if it is being told by a human.
In that regard, we get a little expo on Tay, then back to Dorina. I just set myself two of their days to get this resolved, so I think I’m on track for getting this complete in five parts.
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Continue reading “Fusion (3/5)”It was, typically, just before Mass yesterday when I saw that horrible predicament Ildi is in: taking away access to the Void, her friends, family, would be no different – as Dorina says, below – than one of us losing their sight and hearing. Since I don’t want to spend time of Tam going shopping for Part 3, I think there will need to be a hearing of how Ildi is holding on by her metaphorical fingertips.
So: some exposition for the girl in a boy. Politics will next obviously be a factor. Then back to EAST, in an attempt to defuse the situation. God forgive me, that was an awful pun.
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Continue reading “Fusion (2/5)”The last story of my second collection is entitled Broken Child. Lem is a three-year-old boy and the son of Roland, who is the son of Gary, Empress Faustina’s brother, and Skylar. Roland is demi-human and Sky an albino. It seems there was just enough genetic stress to trigger something very similar to Batten Disease in the boy. Fortunately, they have very clever friends, including Dorina, a Thinking Machine from tribe Tohsaka and the smartest person on earth. She diagnoses Lem and says he can only be cured at an equipotential flux point of a fusion reaction. With only one such reactor left on earth, in former China, Fussy’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Ildi, demi-human, is dispatched to negotiate. Things happen, and days later, Dorina tries to effect her magic. But, something is awry and matters do not go as planned. That’s where things open, below.
I picked part one of five out of the air as, again, I want this to be a SHORT story, not a novella. That means things have to happen fast, no matter what I may want to say. This story will be tech-heavy with reactors, genetics, etc. There will also be a large amount of politics, as we’ll see when Ildi starts talking.
Nurse Practitioner Tamera Keynes has been affiliated with the Hartmanns since Fussy was in her late teens. Fussy did not want too many of her family in the rump state of Chu at one time, so put her in charge. The story will be from her POV.
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Continue reading “Fusion (1/5)”
machciv 