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A Prison in the Sky is Available for Pre-Order!

I’m proud to announce that my latest novel, A Prison in the Sky, is available for pre-order!  The book releases on November 10.

Liam dreams of returning to Earth, the planet his fellow humans left long ago.  But the obstacles in front of him are extreme.  The trip is long, dangerous, and requires a ship and a crew.  Those cost money, and Liam has none of it.  Bereft of resources, and facing a dwindling lifespan on a hostile planet, Liam seeks out his only remaining option: reward money for a radical terrorist.

Pre-Order Now!

Sacrifice in Supergiant’s ‘Pyre’

I recently made a very simple request.  “Give me some video game recommendations with great stories,” I said.  “It’ll be simple,” I said to myself.  “I’ll have a few recommendations,” I said to myself.  And then the list was longer than I could shake my fist at. But I started with a personal recommendation from a friend. It was a good choice.

Pyre, a 2017 release from Supergiant Games, is an interesting blend between action/fantasy RPG and, believe it or not, sports.  The game begins in a sort of underworld purgatory, where criminals, enemies of the state, deserters, and other types of unsavories are cast from the world above.  Exiles have a hope at returning to the world above, but only through the rites, a competition that feels a bit like fantasy rugby except not.

It really does function like a sports game, with each “championship” resulting in the possibility of one of the exiles on your team going free.  Except the game’s purpose is not to play until you get all of your exiles free and that’s all there is to it.  Rather, the freeing of your exiles is part of a plan to lead an enlightened revolution in the world above.  As we learn more about each exile we come into contact with (which includes harpies, demons, anthropomorphic dogs, and others), the story gains layers upon layers.  And when you free one of your exiles, there’s a catch – that character is actually gone.  With each choice, you are potentially handicapping yourself, but also asking the rest of the characters to continue sacrificing for the greater good.  And if you lose, the game still continues, leaving you to face down the disappointment of your fellow exiles.

The way this structure pulls you into the story is really interesting.  One of the things I read online as I was playing through the game is that you should keep back a couple of the characters until the end, because you’ll need them as the rites themselves get harder.  One of those characters was Jodariel, a demon warrior for the Commonwealth above (demons here have no theological element to them).  She’s a longtime veteran of this underworld (16 years), and is a strong but silent type.  She’s also one of the strongest defensive players in the game – every combination I found that worked for me had her in it.  I planned to keep her.

Then I heard her backstory, in which she was exiled for a rather remarkable act of mercy.  I liberated her the very next opportunity I had.

This was a completely illogical decision.  And, as expected, I had trouble winning several rites after she left the team.  But the consequences of each decision you make as the player made these people feel real.  It was a truly immersive gaming experience, and it made the sacrifices feel meaningful, and by extension, the liberations as well.  She was someone that I truly felt deserved it.  And this all hearkens back to a core element of storytelling: engaging fiction has real stakes, and the consequences of your characters’ decisions on those stakes must be real in order for the tension to be felt.  But when you establish consequences, convincing your reader or viewer or player that the stakes are real, then that tension is what creates an engaging story.  Pyre did that in a way that few games I’ve played have.  The ending has some other ideas surrounding the theme of sacrifice that are really powerful as well, but I’ll save those for you to experience – the game is well worth the price of admission.

Logan Judy (that’s me) is a science fiction, fantasy, and dystopia author.  His newest novel, The Prison in the Sky, is slated for release in September 2020.  You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon, and you can sign up for his newsletter and receive a free ebook.

Character-Driven Action in Netflix’s ‘The Old Guard’

This is probably bad form for an author to say, but I watch a lot of movies.

I’ve watched more this year than usual.  With the theaters closed, I figured it was a unique opportunity for me to actually be up on new releases.  Pursuant to that end, I have seen 33 movies released this year so far, and tried to gather storytelling lessons from them, the bad as well as the good.  Netflix’s The Old Guard, mercifully, is one of the good.

On its face, it’s a familiar package: grimdark superhero-ish science fiction that’s heavy on violence and cynicism.  That description is basically correct (if overly dismissive), but despite that familiarity, it has connected with a lot of people.  From a critic standpoint (critics are people, you know), it has a 81% on the tomatometer and a lime-green 70 on Metacritic.  The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is also high, at 73%.  And much as I loathe using these average rating aggregators as indicators of quality, it does make the point here that a superhero Netflix film not based on a Marvel or DC property is doing well.  Why?

I think the answer here has to do with the character focus of The Old Guard.  The lead characters are blessed/cursed with a near-immortality, living for centuries upon centuries.  The plot itself features a very bland Big PharmaTM villain who wants to use their genetics or something for drugs or life or whatever and you get the picture.

But that plot is mostly window dressing, subordinate to the real story.  And the real story is how world-weariness cuts at your sense of purpose, and loss of that sense of purpose can result in a debilitating cynicism.  That cynicism eats away at you, destroying your spirit, and eventually, the rest of you follows.  Completely coincidentally, this is exactly the conflict that I had already written for Eli to face in the third book of my Rogue series.  It’s a much more interesting and human idea than your hero fighting a vague “take over the world” plot from a mad scientist in neon-colored tights.

Which is to say that, even though the action is well-directed and Theron is convincing as an action heroine, it’s really the tension of her character that sells the story.  The script reflects this well with the young and more hopeful Nile, played by KiKi Layne.  It’s their relationship that cements the film and draws you in, much more so than the action itself (which doesn’t rely on superpowers – aside from their healing factor and long lives, no additional superpowers are on display).

This itself is not a new thing in the superpower genre, by the way.  One of the best comic stories I’ve ever read is Old Man Logan, which, in its own way, has a conflict that is very similar.  It was one of the inspirations for James Mangold’s 2017 film Logan, one of the most character-centered Marvel films to date.  Even outside of the superhero genre, the best action films are almost invariably ones that have both good action and good character.  Some of my favorite examples have heroes that I am fascinated by, or at least characters who I’m drawn to because of their struggle to maintain their innocence (The Fugitive), or attempts to redefine themselves (The Bourne Identity)

The lesson here is simple: good stories have interesting characters, even in genres that are not drama or literary fiction.  Even in action films, and in thriller novels, your characters are absolutely essential to the story.  Action, like any genre elements, is used most effectively when it is in service of your characters and your themes.  I hesitate to use specific examples from the film for spoilery reasons, but suffice it to say you can frequently find a fight scene when Andy (Theron) is facing another challenge or source of tension in her arc as a character.  in this way, those fights are imbued with personality, giving physical force to her emotional experience, likely giving the actors more emotion to embed in the scene as well.  The same can be done with characters in written fiction.

Logan Judy (that’s me) is a science fiction, fantasy, and dystopia author.  His newest novel, The Prison in the Sky, is slated for release in September 2020.  You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon, and you can sign up for his newsletter and receive a free ebook.

Death as Virtue: Ruminations on Mortality and ‘The Toll’

Neal Shusterman is one of those authors who made me want to be one.  A close friend of mine from high school (who has now worked at a library for several years) recommended his book Everlost to me, and ever since then I’ve devoured most of what he’s written.  It’s partially for those reason that I was surprised to find the conclusion to his latest trilogy (The Toll, of the Arc of a Scythe series) a bit disappointing.  After doing some thinking on it, I think I’ve discovered why – and it stems from a crucial question of worldview.

(Warning: major spoilers for the entire Scythe series follow)

The series itself is about death itself.  In this world, human beings have achieved immortality, thanks to de-aging technology revival centers, which can bring the dead (or “dead-ish” in this world) back to life shortly following their death.  Due to this (and that colonization efforts on other planets have failed), Earth faces a population problem.  The answer is scythes – people tasked with killing a certain number of people per year.  This keeps the population manageable, but also is intended to mimic the fear of death that, according to this vision, has been an almost defining element of humanity for our entire history.

Much of the series focuses on factions within the scythedom, between the “old guard” that takes the duty solemnly, and carries it as a heavy burden, and the “new order,” that relishes the killing and takes pride in it.  But the conclusion of the last novel creates a world that retains immortality, and retains population control measures, though through a less savage and barbaric system.  But this seems only a marginal improvement.  Throughout the course of the story, there was an obvious question that kept occurring to me that never really is addressed:

What if immortality itself is the problem?

Or rather, immortality in a broken and flawed world.  This is where my faith informs some of my discussion.  The Christian worldview insists that humankind was intended for immortality, but that (and nature, and morality, and everything, basically) was broken with The Fall.  So what happens when the divine attribute of immortality is introduced without reforming the broken nature of human morality?  Setting the scythedom aside for a moment, even the lives of your average Jo’s and Joe’s don’t seem to have really improved.  The everyday person in the story is largely portrayed as apathetic, listless, and shallow.

At the risk of sounding faux-pastoral here, it should be noted that human efforts at replicating the divine are always destined for destruction from the start.  The consequences of such efforts are often dire – at best, they self-destruct from sheer ineptitude and fallibility.  At worst, they make of humans authors of the most unimaginable evil.  Of such evil I would include creating state-sanctioned killers that walk about in colorful robes, awash with pomp and tradition.

The problem isn’t merely this one institution that needs reformed.  The problem is that humans cannot help but create such institutions when given the privilege of immortality.  A divine attribute governed by fallible hands breeds disaster (and it’s never clear that retaining this immortality has resulted in a materially better world, especially when it comes to living with purpose and fulfillment).  Reformation of the scythedom does not go far enough, because the structure that created it is still in place.

I would be very interested to sit down with Shusterman himself and have a conversation about this.  It strikes me as interesting place to start having a discussion about mortality, purpose, and the connections that exist there.

But lest you think that I am trashing Shusterman as an author, I highly recommend you check out his Unwind Dystology and Skinjacker Trilogy.  Both are really excellent series that also reflect in different ways on mortality and the value of life.

Logan Judy (that’s me) is a science fiction, fantasy, and dystopia author.  His newest novel, The Prison in the Sky, is slated for release in September 2020.  You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon, and you can sign up for his newsletter and receive a free ebook.

Publishing News: Prison in the Sky

Prison in the Sky, previously known as Captain Liam & the Three-Eyed Space Pirate, will be coming your way this fall!

The book is currently slated for release on September 15.  It’s in progress right now – the book is currently in the hands of my very capable editor, and I am expecting my cover in the next 2-4 weeks.  Once available, you will be able to get it on paperback, or an ebook on Kindle.  I also hope to eventually have it available as an Audible audiobook, although that may not be complete by the September 15 release.

The novel is a science fiction adventure with elements of space opera, crime drama, and dystopia, with themes of personal sacrifice, social justice, and radicalism.  Liam dreams of returning to Earth, the planet his fellow humans left long ago.  But the obstacles in front of him are extreme.  The trip is long, dangerous, and requires a ship and a crew.  Those cost money, and Liam has none of it.  Bereft of resources, and facing a dwindling lifespan on a hostile planet, Liam seeks out his only remaining option: reward money for a radical terrorist.

If you want to be updated when the cover becomes available, join my newsletter.  My subscribers receive first looks at all of my releases, as well as behind-the-scenes and occasional exclusive short stories.

Virtual Workshop: Principles of Storytelling

Like many others, I had an event canceled due to the circumstances surrounding COVID-19.  It was to be a workshop at a local library on writing, intended for teens involved in the library’s summer reading program.  In lieu of an in-person event, I produced a video instead, which the library shared on their Facebook page, and which I’ve embedded below.

Enjoy!

Logan Judy (that’s me) is a science fiction, fantasy, and dystopia author.  His newest novel, The Prison in the Sky, is slated for release in September 2020.  You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon, and you can sign up for his newsletter and receive a free ebook.

What Musical Tension Teaches Us about Storytelling

Like many other creatives during the age of physical distancing and semi-quarantine, I’ve been dabbling in a smattering of creative hobbies.  Among these is music – I have a couple of guitars, but it had been a while since picking up one.  Along the way, I also grabbed a book from Kindle Unlimited on music theory (Music Theory: From Absolute Beginner to Expert by Nicolas Carter) .  Lo and behold, in between all of the stuff about the chromatic scale, extended cords, and diatonic modes was an unexpected connection to storytelling:

…in general we say that a melody consists of tension and release.  That means that a good melody moves away from the harmonic center of the music, building tension, and then moves back in some interesting way, releasing that tension.

This is not the primary focus of that book, but this point really struck me.  I’ve been saying for some time that tension is a key to storytelling (and I’m not alone in that). It also got me thinking about great pieces of music – what are some good examples of this kind of tension, and how might we apply that to other forms of storytelling?

A Classic Example: Erlkönig

Full disclosure, this is probably my favorite piece of classical music.  But I think this is a great example of sustained tension in music – the piano triplet it’s most well-known for is tense and relentless.  It doesn’t hurt that this piece itself tells a story – a child and his father on horseback, pursued by the Earl King that only the child can see.  It’s also interesting if you listen to this on a video with subtitles (this version has the translation in the video description), because you can see tonal differences in the music depending on who is speaking.  The child’s lines are accompanied with a much darker sound that is the father’s, who believes his son is imagining what he’s seeing.  This highlights how tension can be subjective – conflict is made more interesting by contrast, especially when fueled by characters with different perspectives.

Also, you should just listen to it because it’s flipping great.

A Modern(ish) Example: 3 Doors Down

I have a soft spot for 3 Doors Down.  They were the first band I really got into after the obligatory 90’s kid boy band phase (Backstreet Boys > NSYNC, for those that care).  I still keep coming back to them, because while their songs are not in general difficult to sing or play, they are well-written.  This song is an example of that – resolution in music is, in the most simplistic of terms, about returning to the home note.  This song sets up a minor feel, with both the guitar and the violin, and lead singer Brad Arnold avoids returning to the home note, mostly at all, until the ending of the intro/first verse when he lands on the song’s main thesis: “All I think about is you.”

This points, also to the cyclical nature of conflict and resolution in music, something that the Carter book explicitly mentions – moving away from the harmonic center, and then back to it again.  And in this song, that’s done precisely at the “thesis line,” if I could be so snobbish. Which is to say this: resolution of tension must connect with the story’s theme.

I have a feeling that I’ve only scratched the surface here.  But I find it fascinating how much different art forms have to teach each other.  Hopefully you do, too!

Logan Judy (that’s me) is a science fiction, fantasy, and dystopia author.  His newest novel, The Prison in the Sky, is slated for release in September 2020.  You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon, and you can sign up for his newsletter and receive a free ebook.

Reading Blog: June Edition

Summer reading time!

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so this won’t be a perfectly sequential account.  Instead, I’m going to give you some of my favorite books that I’ve read so far this year (by and large not new releases, but whatever), including a couple that I’m reading right now.  One of my goals for this year has been to read more broadly, including non-fiction, and I’ve tried to reflect that here.  But don’t worry, there’s still something for my fellow sci-fi and fantasy nerds.

Non-Fiction: Arguing About Slavery by William Lee Miller

Might as well get the heaviest one out of the way first.  This is one of my favorite history non-fiction books of all time.  Miller cuts through the drudgery of complex parliamentary procedure to reveal the cutting and vicious struggle to just be able to talk about slavery.  The book primarily centers on the slavery petition gags preceding the Civil War, starting in the 1830’s.  John Quincy Adams is the principal character, but Miller also includes some really helpful historical context on abolition.  Among the most remarkable of revelations is just how socially progressive the attitudes of the abolitionists were:

(The Lane Seminary abolitionists called for) not only ‘immediate emancipation of the whole colored race within the United States’…but also the emancipation ‘of the free colored man from the oppression of public sentiment.’

A great companion piece to this one is Ron Chernow’s biography of Ulysses S. Grant (simply titled Grant) from 2017.  Chernow has a more dense writing style than Miller, but both highlight undercovered aspects of the struggle for civil rights in the United States (Grant directly addressing Reconstruction, civil rights legislation in the 1870s, and the extremely bloody reign of terror by the KKK in the south following the Civil War).

Historical Fiction: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Hannah is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  The last book I read by her, 2017’s The Great Alone, was a complex and riveting story of heartbreak, abuse, PTSD, and empathy, but with a really powerful redemptive ending.  It’s stellar.  While The Nightingale doesn’t quite hit the heights of The Great Alone (and those heights are high indeed), it’s still a terrific story.  It covers two sisters in France during the Nazi occupation in World War II, one domestic and reserved and the other ambitious and progressive.  One of my favorite things about this books is that it starts with archetypes and very familiar simplistic plot structures, but then introduces complexity, deconstructing those predictable narratives.  It is above all a very human story, focused more on character than grand battles.  It is also being adapted into a film starring real-life sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning.

Fantasy: Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

A real hipster pick, this one.

No but seriously, this series is fantastic.  These volumes are dense (about a thousand pages each, which equals nearly 40 hours of listening on Audible), but immersive.  They feature some really intriguing worldview elements, and I think Sanderson does an excellent job of building his world from the ground up.  In other words, the world is not just a bunch of random cool things cobbled together, but a purposeful construction with purposes behind it that are relevant to the story.  And more of those purposes are gradually revealed throughout the course of the story.  I’m still in the midst of the second book, but the first is one of my favorite fantasy novels of all time, and the second is, so far, proving to be equally captivating.

Science Fiction: The Institute by Stephen King

One of the few newish releases I’ve read this year (2019), The Institute proves that King’s muse is alive and well.  I’m finding I’m more a fan of King’s recent work than his legacy staples.  This book in particular has several classic King-isms – psychic children, midwest no man’s land, and government conspiracy.  I especially recommend this if you like King’s style but shy away from the horror genre.  While this does have some horror-adjacent elements, it’s more of a straight science-fiction, and does include heroism to counteract that horror.  It’s an obsessive page-turner, and one I could sit with for hours (so is The Outsider, by the way, which is more of a straight horror novel).

Classic: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Incredibly engaging.  You need to have a taste for classic literature to get into it, I think, but I loved it.  The book can be summed up in the words “ideas have consequences,” but never do the characters themselves feel like mere vessels for ideas.  Even the villainous Raskolnikov is given ample character development, as are most of the characters that surround him (and the cast is large – you may find yourself, as I did, in need of help to keep track of the names, due to Russian honorifics and naming conventions).  This quote in particular remains one of my favorites:

“I don’t care if he does take bribes,” Razumihin cried with unnatural irritability. “I don’t praise him for taking bribes. I only say he is a nice man in his own way! But if one looks at men in all ways—are there many good ones left?”

 

 

Logan Judy (that’s me) is a science fiction, fantasy, and dystopia author.  His newest novel, The Prison in the Sky, is slated for release in September 2020.  You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon, and you can sign up for his newsletter and receive a free ebook.

Quarantine Story Time

Lots of people are posting Coronavirus thought pieces.  This is not that.  Far from being a post on politics and infectious diseases, I felt motivated to write about the wonderful things you can do with the extra time we have during self-isolation – even if the reasons for it suck.

This is an excellent time to invest in the arts.  I use the word “invest” very loosely.  But while we find ourselves at home more and indeed unable to go out, that means more time.  I had been to the movie theater nine times so far this year when the unfortunate circumstances of COVID-19 hit.  We’re also unable to go to church in a physical capacity.  I also can’t go to our gym.  That right there is a lot more time at home, folks.  And while the loss of those things is sad, here’s a good thought – regardless of why I have this time, how can I use it?

And if you’re like me, a person passionate about story and culture, and eager to invest in it, there are a wide variety of ways to do so (note: a couple of the recs below contain affiliate links):

Personal Artistry

Investment in the arts isn’t only about people who get paid.  If you believe the arts are valuable, then have at it yourself!  These are some examples of how you can do that.

Start drawing!  This is a hobby I recently picked up, and you can get started with basic supplies pretty cheap (see below).  I started with this YouTube lesson series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewMks...

Sketch pencils: https://amzn.to/3an7beK (this is a near match for my set, which was $10 at Hobby Lobby)
Sketch pad: https://amzn.to/2UmhASo


Play music!  This is admittedly not as inexpensive as starting to draw, but still valuable, if you have the resources.  Here’s how it’s working for me personally: I played guitar in high school and college (though never in a band), and my grandfather recently passed his two guitars onto me.  During the quarantine, I got some new strings and just put them on yesterday.  It sounds terrific and I’ve been spending my time learning more about music theory and trying my hand at song writing.
Write a story!  Obviously this is the one that I’m most partial to, but a lot of people have stories they want to write but never get around to.  This is the time!  Write one even if it’s just to share with family and friends.

Support the Arts

I mentioned the movie theaters earlier.  Ours actually closed down permanently because of the impact of the epidemic (they had already filed bankruptcy, although they had planned to remain open until they were able to sell the theater).  This is a tough time for many in the arts.  And at the same time, I find myself with the same amount of money that I would have spent going to the theater.  Where else can I put that money?  A few possibilities might include:

Support someone on Patreon!  I’m on there, as are many writers, artists, podcasters, and others.
Back a Kickstarter!  Many crowdfund their books, short films, board games, and other creative endeavors on the platform.
Buy indie art!  Of course, purchasing a book or a film from a big publisher or distributor supports the industry as well, but for those that are independent, that support really goes a long way.

Other Opportunities

One of the things that has really warmed my heart throughout the epidemic has been what people do for each other.  That includes organizations and companies.  That’s a decent chunk of this section – some are providing more opportunities for exposure to art and story:

The MET is livestreaming select operas (in a limited time window, so you probably need to set aside the time to do them in one sitting).  My wife and I watched the first of Wagner’s Ring Cycle yesterday, which was a pretty cool experience.
Certain theater movies, including “The Invisible Man,” “The Way Back,” “Onward,” and “The Hunt,” are going to digital retailers early, either for a $20 purchase or a $20 rental.  That rental price is steep for one person, but also a little less than we would pay for tickets on a date night.  While I haven’t seen “The Way Back” or “The Hunt,” I have seen “The Invisible Man” and “Onward,” both of which are excellent.
CBS is offering its All Access streaming platform free for thirty days.  I’m mostly unfamiliar with the platform, except that it includes “Star Trek: Picard,” so there’s that.

I’d be interested to hear other ideas that aren’t listed here.  Leave them in the comments!

 

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