Alien Lifeforms – Page 2 – Lights In The Sky

Blog entry seventeen: Disobedient child

By C Stevens | 5th November 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

After the introspection of the previous chapter, the action resumes in chapter 17. We’re also back with privileged third person narrative as Marta embarks on her long-threatened escape from the suffocating embrace of the Mission…
Disobedient child is self explanatory as a title; although sixteen, Marta still is a child, and even though she’s faced many dangers, she has, in a very real sense, been protected and cosseted by her minders! But rebellion is part of growing up, learning self-reliance and gaining independence; so we have to see her disobedience in this context…
Marta finally confronts one of the fearsome pseudo-crustaceans face to face in this chapter, and her ambivalence about doing so finds an echo in the different terms used to describe the Alphanian in the text. The extreme action she takes, in defying her protectors and risking her life in this way is indicative, not only of her alienation, but also of her wilful nature. Miss Fernandes knows she is right, and is prepared to risk her personal safety to progress her research and prove a point!
The chapter is deliberately episodic, and the sub-headings are designed to emphasize this (as well as being another nice narrative variation!); Disobedient child takes the form of a quest, and indeed Marta refers to her progress as an ‘odyssey’ just before she links to the pseudo-plant at the chapter’s close.
Her final comment before she loses consciousness is testament to both her self-absorption, and her nascent victim complex… She’s not called Marta for nothing!
I also wanted to describe Alpha 5 more fully, and convey a sense of how beautiful the world is, and how much Miss Fernandes loves the place of her birth… A5 is essentially Eden (you’ll not be too surprised to hear!), but it is an eden with both a past, and an uncertain future! The characterization of the planet in this way is essentially canonical, and a tribute to my influences…
There’s also a mythic, almost folkloric aspect to Marta’s quest, illustrated by the language used to describe her alien encounter. Obviously I’m aiming for lyricism in the prose; as well as psychological depth, and that old SF staple, ‘a sense of wonder’! As these qualities are by nature subjective, I’ll leave it to others to decide if I achieve this.
Marta engages in an exercise in Cartesian doubt when she questions her own conclusions regarding the vaIidity of the exchange between her and the pseudo-crustacean; but she decides that true communication (in the sense of a meeting of minds and an exchange of ideas) has taken place between a human being, and a member of another intelligent (and truly alien) species…
Incidentally the comment about true communication only being possible between equals was made by Friedrich Nietzsche!
Re-reading the chapter it’s clear that I owe a small debt to Quatermass and the Pit, and a slightly larger one to the short story The Sound by AE van Vogt.

Blog entry sixteen: Around my heart in eighty hours

By C Stevens | 25th October 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

As before, please access this blog after you have read Chapter 16, for which it serves as a commentary…
Around my heart in eighty hours begins a period of narrative experimentation in the novel, and the next three chapters are linked both thematically and stylistically.
In this chapter we are now seeing things wholly from Marta’s POV. The narration switches to a first person stream of consciousness; not original I know, but it indicates that her alienation from the Mission, her lover, and her friends is now almost complete, and I felt that this could not be adequately expressed via my usual use of the privileged third person…
It’s important to bear in mind that Miss Fernandes is extremely self-centred and rather spoiled (as are all of the Children), and cannot be regarded as a wholly reliable narrator; something her closest friends try to gently point out to her.
The use of the poetry of William Blake is happenstance; nearly three years on from writing A Children’s Crusade, I cannot recall the precise circumstances, or the train of thought that led me to reference the Sick Rose, but I have a copy of Songs of Innocence and Experience, and this poem obviously made a profound impression on me. Initially, I couldn’t remember which of the Songs I was recalling, but when I turned to the text I realised which one it was, and how well it reflected Marta’s mood and circumstances!
It wasn’t a big stretch to imagine that the Children’s general education would include English Literature, and that they would study Blake as part of this. This could be termed ethnocentric, but I have already explained why the Mission education programmes manifest an Anglo-Saxon bias [1].
Anyway you have to go with what you know!
The lines that affect Marta the most (and which she references in her narration) are from The Clod and the Pebble, but she is defined by The Sick Rose. although, of course, she doesn’t know it!
We are introduced to another new nursemaid early in this chapter (although her character is not developed), and we also have another oblique reference to the true nature of the Nurses. The original plan had been to withhold this information for the whole of book one, but I think it’s safe to say that the cats out of the bag by this stage!
The source of Marta’s alienation is that she has made a great discovery, but is not believed. Partly this is because she was unable to record her observations and cannot provide objective proof; but her incipient paranoia leads her to believe that there is a conspiracy (orchestrated by Mission Artificial Intelligence), to exclude and marginalise her!
Spoiler alert! There is a conspiracy, but not the one she imagines!
The root cause of her paranoia lies with her profound insecurity; remember that it’s not long since she was being shunned by the other children, and her apparent self-confidence is paper thin!
Marta’s dissatisfaction is not confined to frustrations about her research work being blocked by the machinations of Nurse Gee; she is also unhappy with Jorge and his reluctance (or inability!) to progress their relationship… However, when this is suddenly (and unexpectedly) resolved, she finds it doesn’t really help, because all the other issues are still eating at her!
What infuriates our heroine most of all is the implication that she may be jumping to conclusions and reading far too much into her data, or (even worse) lying, by falsifying her results, in order to gain attention! In short, her objectivity and competence as a scientist is being called into question…
Meanwhile, she must put up with the triumphalism of the favoured children (Rai, Jorja and Han), who have made another important step forward in understanding the Alphanians, by divining how they communicate…
My revival of ‘steam radio’ as the Alphane medium of communication may have been an (unconscious) nod to the ‘steampunk’ genre!
Marta’s paranoia is not wholly irrational, because they are watching and listening; the Mission monitors the Children twenty seven hours a day, and has done for their whole lives! However our heroine (who is a smart cookie!), has started to develop a strategy to circumvent this!
Marta is still a scientist, and continues with her research work throughout all this; but she has started to believe that nobody cares whether she discovers anything or not!
Her ‘achievement’ in being the first (along with Jorge) of them to lose her virginity quickly palls; spoiled by by her realization that even her most private moments are being watched by the Mission, and that it is impossible to escape this surveillance…
This is what finally persuades her that she has to escape, and go off the grid…
I wanted a pop culture reference to go with all the heavy literature, and I thought that one of Jennifer Aniston’s films would fit the bill, having the same resonance for Marta as the romances and screwball comedies of the thirties and forties (i.e. Hollywood’s Golden Age) have for us…
The timescale imposed on the action is deliberate; I wanted the sense of the clock ticking down before Marta takes what she believes is an irrevocable action, and it also sets up the Jules Verne reference in the title nicely.
I could easily have called this chapter The Sick Rose, but that would have been too obvious, although I rather undercut this by quoting Blake’s poem in full…
The Sick Rose is, of course, a conceit that addresses the notion of tainted love, full of obvious and less obvious sexual metaphors. Marta’s love for Jorge is tainted by the knowledge that their moments of love and sexual joy can never truly be their own, not in the world of the Alpha Mission; but it goes further than this as she finds she has now fallen out of love with the very purpose that gives her life meaning, and even (in her lowest moments, with Science itself!
In these circumstances, it’s not too difficult to guess the identity of ‘the worm’ in this tale…
Note
[1] see Chapter 12, specifically the observations of Mr Bhatt

Blog entry fifteen: On the ice

By C Stevens | 4th October 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

This blog entry should be read in conjunction with chapter fifteen. On the ice is almost self-consciously visual and descriptive, as if to make up for terseness of previous chapters, with their emphasis on dialogue and characterization!
I owe an obvious debt here to James Blish’s wonderful novel of polar exploration, The Frozen Year, published to coincide with International Geophysical Year in 1957 (coincidentally the year of my birth, so I span the Space Age, but that’s another story!). The embryonic and aforementioned Age makes an appearance at the end of this novel with the announcement that the Americans have launched the first artificial satellite! Clearly, in 1956 nobody in the USA would have believed that it would be the Soviet Union that launched the first successful space probe!
None of this detracts from the grandeur of Blish’s epic…
Sal’s optical phenomenon described in On the ice is also a direct lift from Blish’s novel where it’s given the name ‘copper dawn’! I have no idea if it has a real name, but I assume its a real phenomenon… Writing this blog now, it occurs to me that Marta also shares the fate of the discredited astronomer in The Frozen Year, in that she makes an amazing discovery but is unable to furnish the necessary scientific proof…
In narrative terms, On the ice continues the process whereby the Children explore their world. As the Equatorial regions are now considered too dangerous, they venture north to explore one of the planet’s two vast polar ice caps.
At this stage in Alpha five’s history both ice caps are immense, and lock up most of the world’s water between them; but they are also now in retreat, an indication that A5’s climate is now changing, and things are moving in favour of its indigenous inhabitants…
The interplay of climate and biosphere is to become a major theme of the series, and thus a driver of the action…
This process starts with the second of Marta’s two discoveries (the one she can’t prove!).
In this chapter we are presented with the gadfly activity of the Children, whose ephemeral lives buzz around (and are contrasted with), the implacability of the landscape, and the monolith that is geological time…
Marta and Priya confront this disjuncture when they discover the ‘ice crusty’ sealed in its blue prison…
We also observe the Children engaged in routine research (the nuts and bolts of their respective disciplines), and are reminded that they are members of a scientific expedition. Later, circumstance conspires to leave Marta and Sal alone together, an unfamiliar combination, which is prolonged by the arrival of the storm…
Finally, in the interplay between Marta and Priya, we see again that the younger girl is wise beyond her years, and is the grown-up in the relationship…

Blog entry fourteen: Significant others

By C Stevens | 19th September 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

This blog entry should be read in conjunction with chapter fourteen. Significant others is somewhat episodic and something of a mixed bag. It’s function is essentially to advance various plot elements, and so lacks the strong narrative of the chapters it sits between.
This is all well and good; a novel that consisted solely of action sequences would probably make no sense, and would also lack depth and effective characterisation.
We open with Marta Fernandes viewing an Earthside packet sent by Miss da Guia; two things have become clear: Miss da Guia’s career plans have gained traction, and Marta Fernandes is starting to develop a greater awareness of the role the media plays on the home planet.
She understands that the Children on Alpha 5 are now ‘famous’, but hasn’t begun to comprehend what this means!
For the moment events on Earth are only really a mildly diverting sideshow as she’s much more more exercised by things happening closer to home. Her anxiety over whether the twins will bond with her, and regard her as their real mother. Her battle of wills with Rai and Jorja over the naming of the infants. Her fear that she will be permanently sidelined scientifically by the Mission authorities, combined with her struggle with Nurse Gee over how to progress her work with ‘Oswald’, her pseudo-crustacean research subject…
She also learns something really important about the crusties, from Han of all people, although she has to dig the information out of him.
Marta wins some of the battles, but loses others and these outcomes will be pivotal in how things develop from here on in…
For now, the chapter finishes on a more hopeful note as our little community comes together to welcome its two youngest members…

Blog entry thirteen: Another Girl, Another Planet

By C Stevens | 29th August 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

As before this blog is designed to be read in conjunction with the accompanying chapter, now published on the site. To access the chapter, click on the dropdown menu Read Book One, and scroll down…
The title of chapter thirteen is yet another of my pop culture references, and the chapter itself is broken into three parts, each one a two-hander… The first of these features Marta and Priya, out on Mission together, and focusses on their developing friendship (with its ups and downs), a crucial driver of the action later on…
The second half of the chapter has two shorter scenes; the one between Marta and Jorge, that follows her return, comments on what has taken place earlier and develops into a philosophical debate on the true nature of Alpha 5. The coda takes the form of a short exchange between Marta and Rai which drives the plot forward…
The chapter closes with the enormity of what they are doing finally dawning on our heroine, who grows up a little more as a consequence…
During Another Girl, Another Planet, the girls make an incidental discovery about the crusties (they venerate their dead), but their main investigation yields nothing as the pseudo-crustacean ‘Harvey’, the main subject of their experiment steadfastly refuses to engage with the machine they send to interact with it, as Marta had predicted… The girls have also come to understand that the main thrust of Mission exobiological enquiry has shifted, to the pods and their theorised collective intelligence, and their work has been sidelined as a result…
Ever the arch-rationalist, Marta is sceptical about the notion of ‘pod’ intelligence, partly because she is miffed that her insights are being ignored, but mainly because she is instinctively suspicious of anything that smacks of spirituality…
There’s some action in this chapter (it’s still an adventure story, after all!); Marta nearly dies (again), but this time as the result ‘of a stupid accident!’ Priya saves her (as she saved Sal), which strengthens the bond between them; a bond that cannot be threatened by the scientific spat that follows. Although this disagreement will prove to be the harbinger of things to come…
Prior to the accident, Priya had been urging her friend to talk to Han who has data that would support her theories about ‘crusty’ development. Marta is reluctant, and is forced to confess to her rather hamfisted and utterly futile attempt to get the boy to take an interest in her when they were out on Mission in Carl Sagan minor, the year before…

Blog entry supplemental: …it’s about time

By C Stevens | 17th August 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

The series is now complete; I put the finishing touches to The Lost Colony (the final book in the trilogy) just over a week ago, bringing a three year plus writing project to an end.
I’m not sure how I feel…!
Clearly, I’m satisfied that I’ve done it, that I’ve completed a coherent piece of writing, more than one thousand pages (and nearly 300,000 words) long, but feeling slightly bereft that my story is now complete. Of course, I can re-visit the world I’ve created any time I want, but never again will I go there not knowing how it all ends, with the delicious thrill you get from the realisation that you’re still writing the story (or possibly the story is writing itself, using you as the medium?), that your fictional world is still evolving, and everything is still up for grabs! I have viewed the series as a detective story, with me in the role of detective…but now the case is closed…
My intention when I embarked on Lights in the Sky more than three years ago, was to write a post-modernist SF series, and I feel I have largely succeeded…
But how is it postmodernist?
Well, it incorporates a number of the features which have characterised postmodernist literature. Specifically, pastiche and a rather wholesale mixing of genres: including detective fiction, YA, fairy tales, the adventure story, SF (obviously), future history, coming of age, family saga etc…
Thinking I’d only ever write one science fiction work, I decided to chuck everything in! But, as often happens, the process of writing changes your intentions along the way, so there will be a fourth book, a companion volume, set on Earth, and (depending on your relativistic standpoint), either a prequel or a sequel to the Alpha 5 narrative…
Magic realism is also present, through the use of fairy tales and dream sequences; also fabulation, through the incorporation of fantastic elements; temporal distortions, and altered states that turn out to have objective reality, although this cannot be because it would violate relativity! My text also incorporates characters with similar names who are in fact doppelgangers! (there are three in the text!) A scientific explanation is advanced for both of the above (in the case of the relativistic paradoxes, this is based on my rather imperfect knowledge of the phenomenon of quantum tunneling!). This one of the advantage of SF as a form, one can always reach for science (real or imaginary) to provide explanations!
As SF, the text features technology heavily, but also hyperreality; specifically through the game show that features the Children as unwilling actors in a scripted narrative, produced and stage-managed by the robots, acting as agents for the shadowy Mission…
In addition we have paranoia; ‘…the belief in an ordering system behind the chaos of the world’. In Lights in the sky, this system has three distinct agents acting for it; the Mission (of course), the Alphanians, and behind them all, the Divine Architects, who we never actually meet…
My use of genre tropes is obviously self conscious, but not consciously ironic! I have no desire to distance myself from or deconstruct these genre elements which I love, and have loved, in many cases since childhood…
Clearly, I’m a fan of narrative form experimentation (which is in itself postmodern), but this is not an absurdist Universe, and the tale does come to a final resolution, which is less so…
You may become aware that the narrative is intended to work on a number of levels, however it’s not necessary to fully understand all of them to gain enjoyment from reading it…
We have paradigm shifts at the end of each book, and, oh yes…! It’s about time…

Blog entry eleven: Home

By C Stevens | 13th July 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

This blog entry accompanies Home, the third and final part of an extended story that closes the first half of A Children’s Crusade, and should be read after reading the chapter…
Again, we’re in adventure story territory, and the conclusion of the Children’s exploits in the Equatorial regions also brings the first part of the tale to a close…
So where do we find ourselves?
At the end of per ardua, the Children’s immediate difficulties have apparently been resolved… Everyone’s safe, everyone’s now paired-up (with the exception of the childlike Raj!), and two new children (the first of the second generation!) have been born… They’ve made significant progress in understanding their world and are beginning to comprehend (albeit dimly!) the true nature of A5’s indigenous life…
Problems still remain, however! The Equatorial regions have been declared too dangerous for further exploration, and food supply is still an issue…
On a psychological level two significant things have happened; the Children have gone from the womb-like environment of the Dome out into the world, confronting it as adults for first time; secondly, Marta at least, now regards the planet (rather than just the Dome) as hers for the first time. This is the significance of the chapter’s title!
It would too much of a stretch to say that all of her teammates are on the same page with this, but at least some of them will begin to move in the same direction…
Jorja will not be among them, however! Her recent travails have scarred her mentally, and she now regards Alpha 5 as a hostile place, one that threatens her and the boy she loves! And the threats aren’t just coming from outside the Dome…!
The last paragraphs are instructive. It’s here that Marta’s conclusion that Alpha 5 really is home is revealed. It’s also here that one of the major themes of the series is first alluded to, the drama of climate change made actual. Finally, there’s a major revelation right at the end of the chapter…

Blog entry ten: the Age of Exploration

By C Stevens | 30th June 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

As before, this blog entry accompanies chapter ten of A Children’s Crusade and should be read in conjunction with it…
The title The Age of Exploration is alluded to in the previous chapter and is intended to suggest that this is the novel as adventure story. Following American television convention we’re into the second part of a three part story; for this reason the narrative is rather heavy on exposition.
The slightly archaic speech patterns of the children are a deliberate echo of the classic children’s adventure stories that the first part of Lights in the sky pastiches (a sort of ‘Five go Mad in Space’!). But there is a reason for why they speak this way, (to be revealed in chapter twelve), and the formality of their use of Standard English is counterbalanced by the extreme informality of their use of the slang argot, Grok!
(NB the website boasts a complete glossary of all the unfamiliar Mission and Grok words used in the novel)
Following the convention set in the previous chapter, the passages in italics indicate action seen from Jorja’s POV; although again I’m using third person limited narration rather than first person (that will come later!). In this chapter Jorja begins to realise the serious of their situation; as Marta comments,
‘…they’ve really got themselves in a fix!’
By the start of the chapter Rai has apparently regained his equilibrium and has made an important discovery, while Jorja has concluded that the whole adventure is a terrible idea; the discovery of the sleeping pseudo-crustacean in the pod grove only adds to her conviction. This puts her at odds with her best friend.
It’s not clear from the format of the website, but A Children’s Crusade is divided into two parts (note to self, must fix this!). The subtitle of chapters one to eleven is the first half of a commonplace Latin tag, per ardua, and I think you’ may be able to guess what part two is called! I’d like to point out that this is not a reference to the Royal Air Force, and in fact I got the idea from a short story by Isaac Asimov…
In this chapter the children’s difficulties do become a bit overwhelming, and Marta expresses their growing apprehension when she says,
‘…I’m not sure I like the Equatorial regions…’
Essentially the kids are now completely out of their comfort zone as they are forced to take on adult roles and face their first real crisis as an expedition. Marta, in particular, is tested and and steps up to the plate showing true courage, initiative and resolution, but then we always knew she would…
Hope you enjoy the chapter, until next time…

Blog entry nine: If six were nine

By C Stevens | 14th June 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

This post accompanies chapter nine of A Children’s Crusade and should be read in conjunction with it. The title is a fairly obvious musical reference, although I changed the grammar to fit the context; the fact that it’s the ninth chapter was just coincidence, but the action does represent a series of plot reversals (from six to nine is not just an expansion, but also an inversion), although not all of these are immediately obvious. What is obvious is that Marta’s role as Mission rebel has been decisively usurped by her arch enemies, Rai and Jorja, who go much further than she would have ever dared at this stage in her personal journey!
The focus of the story shifts; we are not seeing entirely from our heroine’s POV, and this is reflected by a change in the narrative style. In previous chapters my normal practice has been to use a privileged third person, telling the story as if we’re looking over the protagonist Marta Fernandes’ shoulder. We shift briefly to Jorge’s POV in Fear of flying, but in If six were nine, longer passages are seen from Jorja’s perspective, and the use of italics delineates this…
This can be regarded as foreshadowing, letting us know that Marta Fernandes is no longer going to be the centre of everything; and from a psychological point of view this represents a development in her thinking, the point in a child’s life when she realizes that the world doesn’t entirely revolve around her!
We learn more about the topography of Alpha 5; we now know it has an active volcano, and vast plains beyond the Barrier range which even have lakes. We also get a glimpse of the Polar Barrier where the northern ice sheets begin. The children begin to take possession of their world by naming bits of it!
We learn that Jorja’s loathing of Marta is profound and this is one of the reasons she agrees to Rai’s plan; and the social politics of the expanded group come into sharper focus!
We also learn a lot more about Alphane ecology and its implications for life on the planet. Marta gets to show her leadership qualities once more, but another potential rival emerges in Sal…!
But above all else this is a great adventure! The crew are pioneers, but pioneers who are still children, with all that entails. So on one level it’s a SF Swallows and Amazons at this point in the chronology, but children grow up…
Re-reading the chapter while preparing this post, I realised how much changes in this episode of the story, and how pivotal it actually is. So in a sense the world is turned upside down as six becomes nine…

The Lessons of History

By C Stevens | 14th March 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

Hi,

I am about to post chapter four of A Children’s Crusade on to the site. Apologies for late posting this month, my plan remains to post a new chapter roughly every two weeks, and as there are twenty two in this book, you should have the whole thing by the end of 2016.

The chapter is called ‘History Lesson’, after the central conceit, which takes a lesson given to the Children about Earth’s recent history (from our standpoint, future history), and uses it as a metaphor for life lessons learned (specifically by Marta), during the action. We also learn something more about the dominant indigenous species, as our heroine, following up on her suspicion that the pseudo-crustaceans are smarter than they look, decides to conduct behavioural research on one of them!

My speculations on a possible future history of the United States act as a way into the action. Despite any appearance to the contrary, I’m not in any way anti-American. I’m a fairly frequent visitor, and a great admirer of the American Constitution and the ideals it embodies. Readers should see the political aspects of this chapter as an outsider’s contribution to (and comment upon), the ongoing cultural debate within America.

As a sidebar to this, I’d also like to point out that I’m also an admirer of another great American institution, the US National Park Service, which I volunteered for during the summer of 2013.

Happy Reading

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