Daniel M. Bensen's Blog, page 47

The Centuries Unlimited is done!

Date: 6/26/2018

Place: Haji Dimitar, Sofia, Bulgaria

Listening to: Home Phillip Phillips Cover – Peter Hollens

Words: 104,314

Chapters: 26

First line: She came into my life like a train wreck.

Last line: Her laughter flew up to the blue sky and careening cars above.

Five Star Book Reviews: Teranesia

Freaking Teranesia! Methalate my regulatory network, but is this a good book!

Teranesia hit me squarely in the center of everything I like: speculative biology, psychological drama, and political machinations. It’s about trauma and recovery, about life going on, and the meaning that we, as humans, give it.

I can’t say much about the book without spoiling it, but if I were to pitch it, I would say “Traumatized young man follows his biologist sister to the one place he swore he would never go: an island of very elegant monsters.”

I read Teranesia back when I was in high school, and all I remembered from it was the speculative biology (which is still top-notch, no spoilers, but for other examples, check out The Devil’s Alphabet by Daryl Gregory). All the politics, psychology, and philosophy flew over my head. Or maybe they swooped into my skull and laid eggs in my brain because reading the book again as an adult I kept thinking “yes! Exactly! This is the kind of story I want to write! This is the sort of author I want to be!”

Either that or, you know, Greg Egan is just always right about everything. A scarier thought than man-eating myrmecophytes, certainly.

Wisteria Leaves

Wisteria leaves

Growing around my window

Soften the sunlight

The Sofa is Warm

The sofa is warm

A breeze from the rain outsides

Grandmas have the kids

Five Factor Warriors: Jody Ann

(first)(previous)

“Lightbringer

Tamer of night

Blossom of hours unleashed”

— Vienna Teng, “Landsailor”

Nothing ever surprised Jody Ann Farewell.

She had walked out of her flat in Kingston, scanned the street, and found the red-plate taxi that would take her to the airport without risk to her person or her wallet. Then she had boarded the least ill-fated plane at the airport, which turned out to be bound for Istanbul. She now knew that the entire North Atlantic, most of the North American east coast, and a goodly portion of Europe meant her no harm.

Then to Dubai. Jody Ann, a fragile, elderly black woman in an expensive suit, had felt no fear at all. The worst she she had gotten were odd looks, and that was because of the eye patch. Jody Ann didn’t like wearing the uncomfortable thing either, but there was no safer way to travel with the Mirror.

The Mirror had shown her there was no danger for her in the Middle East, aside from Syria, which she needed no magical advice to avoid. The tangerine aurora that flared briefly over the Balkans had been explainable as a corrupt politician gathering power, or so Jody Ann had thought before the Bulgarian girl sat down next to her.

The plane was bound for Kabul, and while it rested on the tarmac, Jody Ann was concentrating on her laptop, updating her world map and reviewing her investments. Pale flames danced around the name of a ride-sharing app, and Jody Ann sold her shares.

She barely noticed the girl sitting next to her. Jody Ann had already checked the engines, wings, and landing gear, and had no reason to look up from her laptop or, once the plane was airborne, the earth below.

The Mirror of Amaterasu, nestled in its silken pocket in Jody Ann’s eye patch, showed her the fires of evil chance. Flickers of light danced across her vision, and Jody Ann’s hand moved on the track pad of her laptop, marking her world map with the dangers birthing and dying in the Iranian countryside below. None of the sparks caught. The chances were reassuringly minuscule that they would. But minuscule was not the same as zero, which was why Jody Ann had to keep the earth surveyed. A rocket ship would make things easier, but tickets to space weren’t easy to come by, even for someone who knew which stocks were doomed to crash. Besides, going to space would make Jody Ann a celebrity, which was dangerous.

“Excuse me,” said the girl sitting next to Jody Anne. A pause. “My name is Teddy and know how to… no?” Another pause, as if she were reading about how to start a conversation from a manual. “I was wondering if you could help me.”

Help? Jody Anne couldn’t stop the smile that tucked in the corners of her mouth. She’d been about to politely brush the girl off. You couldn’t make friends with everyone on every transcontinental flight, and while most potential conversation partners weren’t physically dangerous, too many demanded time and energy or even money.

But, “help?” This girl wasn’t trying to sell Jody Anne a basket to carry water in, she just wanted advice. She could be Jody Anne’s daughter.

“Hello, there, darling,” said Jody Anne, turning her head to face the girl. “What would – ” She froze.

Danger glowed from the girl like the sullen heat of a forge.

Jody Anne had the urge to fling out her arms, kick out her feet, push back the air that was suddenly drowning her. She knew this feeling, remembered it from before she’d been given the Mirror.

A wave of anger passed through her, directed at the girl next to her. “Who are you?” Jody Anne demanded.

“I said I’m Teddy.” The girl spoke with an accent. Eastern European.

Teddy? Jody Anne was helpless in her seat, high above the Earth, with no weapons, no friends to help her, and this walking, talking, nuclear reactor sitting between her and the aisle called its Teddy? “I don’t care what your name is, girl. What sent you?”

“Nobody sent me,” said Teddy.

Jody Anne lowered her voice. “I’m not thinking of some body, bubu. Was it Vesht?” No, or she would have already attacked. “Marzh? No.” The girl seemed confident, but the High Stable would never get on a plane. The same with Low Extroversion. Damn that glow. Jody Anne had to close her right eye to a squint before she could see any of Teddy’s real features.

She was a little thing, too, with a squarish, high cheek-boned face and a sharply pointed nose. A pair glasses slid down that nose, and Teddy pushed them back into position as she glanced at the tablet in her lap…

No, not that kind of tablet.

“Reden,” Jody Anne choked. “You’re the Warrior of Reden. No. This is unacceptable. You cannot do this to me.”

“I don’t understand you.” Teddy looked from side to side, hands up as if she thought Jody Anne might attack her.

Jody Anne gritted her teeth. “I will not let you make me afraid again.” But it was no use. she could tell the girl didn’t understand her. How could she? Teddy was High Conscientious, not High Neurotic.

“What are you talking about?” Teddy peered down at the Tablet of Gilgamesh as if it might tell her the answer. She frowned, not finding one.

“Look at me, girl, not that thing,” snapped Jody Anne. “It won’t help you at all. The Weapons don’t work on other Warriors.”

Teddy shook her head, but she was smiling. “Yes! You are like me. A god gave you something – ”

“No god of mine.”

“Okay. No god,” said Teddy. “Please tell me more. I know there are ten g – things like Reden, but I don’t know their names or characteristics. I think that if we add up what we know, we will be able to make better plans.”

Plans. Bloody plans. Jody Ann breathed in though her nose for a count of four, then held it for a count of four, and let it out. The technique didn’t work as well as it should have. She had gone too long without practicing. Without needing to practice. Jesus Christ, she blasphemed silently, am I going to have to rebuild my whole life? No. That wasn’t helpful. She tried to focus on the girl, and couldn’t because of the red glow all around her.

“Useless thing.” Jody Anne poked into her eye patch and pulled the Mirror of Amaterasu out of its pocket.

“Is that your tablet?” asked Teddy.

“It’s called a Weapon,” Jody Anne sighed. “This one was given to me by a demon of hell that called itself Grizna. Curse my cowardice, but I kept the rotted thing.”

The Mirror was about the size and shape of an old Bustamante dollar coin, except with eight sides instead of seven. Jody Anne held it up for Teddy to examine, ready at any moment to snatch it back if the girl made a grab for it.

“The Mirror of Amaterasu.” Jody Ann aimed the Weapon at Teddy’s tablet and its heads-face flared with cherry-colored light. “It shows what’s likely to hurt me.”

“That would be useful,” said Teddy.

“Not to you,” said Jody Ann, closing her fist over the Mirror. “When this plane lands, you are to get off and never bother me again.” A dreadful thought struck her. “Nor the other Warriors. The ten of us have an agreement. A balance.”

Or they had, but if this girl had the Tablet of Gilgamesh, its previous owner must be dead. And who could have killed him but another Warrior? Might other Weapons have changed hands as well? Jody Ann’s blood went cold. What fresh chaos was about to be unleashed on this poor old world?

“Promise me,” she said. “Teddy, promise me you won’t try to take over the Earth.”

Teddy nodded, but said. “No! Of course not.” Then, and it was almost too much for Jody Ann’s heart to bear, “I’m planning to kill the gods.”

“Jeesum, girl, don’t say things like that.” Jody Anne brought the Mirror of Amaterasu up to her eye and scanned the plane. She didn’t see any danger, but that didn’t mean what it ought to mean.

It ought to me she was safe, but now she couldn’t be sure. Another Warrior had found her, and where there was more than one Warrior, there was a war.

 

The Smell of Janki

The smell of janki

Fermenting on the sidewalk.

How inneficient.

Five Star Book Reviews: Factfulness

Today one of my students showed me the new English words she’d learned last week from Factfulness, which I’d recommended to her. Included on the list were: “devastatingly,” “mislead,” and “gag.” Damn good words!

Factfulness is somewhere between a book on political economics (or is it human behavior? Rural medicine? 20th-century history? Circus performance?) and an autobiography. Hans Rosling had a wild, funny, and illuminating life, anecdotes from which he uses as illustrations of his message.

And his message is that we’re wrong about out picture of the world. We see and remember news about the violent, the extreme, and the bizarre, but those hair-raising stories give us a skewed and inaccurate picture of the world, which is far wealthier, healthier, and more peaceful than ever before.

Clever so-and-so that he was, Rosling combats the bizarre with the bizarre, reinforcing his story of plodding, boring, incremental improvement with outlandish stories from his life, which seems to have been mostly conducting emergency medical procedures, swallowing swords, and talking his way out of having to eat larvae. The author’s humor and compassion shine through every page.

For a long time I’ve been unhappy watching the news, which presents the world as if it’s an action movie. Entertaining to watch, maybe, but when it’s over and you wonder what you’re supposed to do, the dread starts to set in. Rosling, however, presents a picture of the world as it is – a much duller place than the one presented to us by the media, but a much better place to live in.

Air Pressure on Junction

I just learned something about air pressure and how it changes with altitude.

I have my characters in Junction make a 1,000 meter climb in a day on a 1.3 G planet (uh…there was a convenient path up the slope?) Nevermind how they covered that distance without dying, what about the air pressure?

Higher gravity means denser air, and it also means air pressure decreases faster as you gain altitude, according to this equation. Okay, let me make a spreadsheet.

Let’s say the starting elevation is 1,000 meters above sea level and the air pressure is 1,000 mb (this is based on Missoula, Montana, which is what it “feels” like in the part of the planet where my characters start out). The end of the journey is analogous to the Continental Divide, which is about 2,000 meters above sea level.

On Earth, that translates into in a decrease of 11mb. So 1,000 mb in Missoula, and 979mb 1,000 meters up on the Divide. That’s about as much as going from Chicago (1013.25 mb right now) to Missoula. Having been in both places, I can say the air feels a bit thinner in Missoula and thicker in Chicago, and water takes longer to boil in Chicago, but I don’t feel short of breath or get altitude sickness or anything moving from one to the other.

Let’s say Junction has 130% of Earth’s gravity. If its air density is the same, moving up 1,000 meters will result in a 15 mb drop in air pressure (to 984 mb). If its air is 1.3 times as dense as Earth’s, that’s a 20 mb drop in air pressure (to 980 mb).

How would that feel? 980 mb seems to be on the low end of “normal.” You might be able to feel the change from 1000 to 980 mb, especially since it will happen more rapidly as you climb than on Earth, but nobody’s going to get the bends or anything.

That’s comforting. Looks like I’ll only have to make a note about how the air feels thinner and water boils faster at the top of the mountain.

What if the Mongols had Invaded Japan?

From a question on the Alternate History Online facebook forum:

Kublai Khan’s invasion fleet is wildly successful, and establishes a firm beachhead on Hakata Bay, from which they subjugate the island of Kyushu by 1275. From there, they conquer Shikuku and southern Honshu, working their way steadily northward, armed with bows and hand-held explosives against which the Japanese forces have no defense. The only thing that limits the Mongol expansion is the expense and danger of getting people and material from the Asian mainland to Japan. Those darn winds!

Peace comes in 1287, when the Retired Emperor Kameyama, seeking to cut support out from under his rival, the Retired Emperor Go-Fukakusa, persuades his son, the reigning Emperor Go-Uda, to formally acknowledge the Mongol Great Khan as Shogun, the supreme commander of  the Japanese military government. The current military government at Kamakura is defeated, and flees northward, forming the Shogunate of Mutsu in northern Honshu and *Hokkaido (then called Yezo).

As a new vassal of Yuan dynasty China, Japan is governed by a sub-Shogun at Bakutou (its Japanese name, near OTL Fukuoka) on Hakata Bay. The Emperor in Kyoto is a mostly ceremonial title, although the office does have jurisdiction over the government of the city of Kyoto.

Emboldened by his success in Japan, Kublai Khan orders more invasion fleets built and deployed, conquering Hokkaido (and the shortlived Shogunate of Mutsu), Formosa, Luzon, and Pagan. In doing so, however, he beggars his own court. After the failure of the fourth invasion fleet to conquer Borneo and the humiliation of Admiral Omar in Dai Viet, Kublai’s generals defect to Nayan Khan, who defeats Kublai in single combat and assumes control of the Mongol Empire and Yuan China.

Military support for the puppet government in Bakutou dries up, and civil war in Japan breaks out in 1298. When the dust settles, there is a new military government ruling from Edo. The Hong Shogunate pledges allegiance to the Great Khan, but writes court documents in Chinese and speaks Korean. The grandson of the the first Hong Shogun, however, speaks Japanese.

Unlike the Tokugawa Shoguns, the Hong Shoguns never close off Japan to foreign influence. Even after the fall of the Yuan dynasty, they continue to trade enthusiastically with the new states in Korea and China, as well as with European explorers.

This opens the Hong Shoguns up to conversion by Portuguese missionaries, and in the mid 1600s, there’s a Christian rebellion that cripples the Shogunate. The Emperor, however, forms and alliance with the Buddhist forces of Mount Hiei, and crushes the Christians, establishing a new military government at Mount Hiei. (Potential point of divergence: if the Japanese Christians manage to get Spanish support, we could end up with Japan following in the footsteps of the Philippines).

The Hiei Shogunate closes off the country, and so it remains until American pressure brings about an imperial restoration in the 1880s. The imperial seat to Tokyo (which is actually called Tokyo, but isn’t in quite the same place) and proceeds to cultivate an interest in trains and overseas colonization.

TL;DR: We get a Japan more or less like the one in our time line, but with more Korean and Chinese influence. Buddhism played a bigger role, as did Christianity (before it was crushed). Modern Japanese history parallels ours, although the food served in Tokyo is a much spicier. 

Fallen Mulberries

Fallen mulberries

Stain the ground below the tree.

Better to eat them.