The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (Page 41 of 49)

Church of Britannia might be better than Church of England, especially if I introduce a Third Testament (written a few hundred years into the future) addressing why Jesus didn't return after the Great Collapse of Civilization, which had to be the Great Tribulation of Revelation. Surprisingly, the Antichrist was a woman, namely Dr. Ess. Also, I need some way to justify why Jesus didn't return before humans left earth and colonized the stars. The new prophecies will mysteriously foreshadow the events of the book.

I still need to consider how much of Charles's suggestions I can use. It breaks things I had planned for future books, but we'll see.

My thanks to everyone for their input. I'm definitely going to go with an AI god. That means I can now tell you that my original plan for the end of the series was two male aliens, the last of their species, playing "chess" with the human race by using advanced technology embedded inside the boys' brains for instantaneous two-way communication to pretend to be all the characters in their heads. They've been playing this game for millennia, steering the course of mankind for their own amusement. Alexander the Great, Emperor Augustus, Hitler, Stalin - they were all under the control of the aliens. I might try to fit that into the Aussie subplot, although I think that's more complexity than I could readily incorporate into the story.

Another twist. What if the Professor jumped through time and was responsible for the Third Testament of the Church of Britannia? I could use 'Father Hinkley' as the historical prophet who wrote the Third Testament. This makes him the one who has been messing with events throughout time. After writing the Third Testament, he entered a monastery and was never heard from again.

A monk known as Brother Hinkley appeared from out of nowhere in the third millennium and wrote the Third Testament of the Church of Britannia, explaining why Jesus didn't return and speculating (based on controversial historical evidence) that He may have been married and had kids. Hinkley then entered a monastery and was never heard from again. The Church believes that Jesus's descendants may be hidden somewhere in the Julian and St. James royal lines, and will one day reveal themselves. The Third Testament includes prophecies about these descendants that seem to describe Joseph and Apollo, and that describe events that will occur later in the story.

Since the Church of Britannia is British, I need to rename Aussie. It adds too much complexity to keep unrelated details like that straight in the reader's head.

I'm considering Britannia because Joseph's home world is a monarchy that serves as the head of the church on his world, based on and descended from Queen Elizabeth. If I introduce Brother Hinkley and the Third Testament early enough in the story, I think the reader will give me some latitude when Jesus appears to Joseph, apparently fulfilling one of the crackpot prophecies of the Third Testament. Ponder I must.

Maybe Hinkey accidentally transported someone else?

Or someone deliberately slipped in, either for innocent reasons or ro make mischief ... for Hinkey or for history?

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to improve the integration of Aussie into the story? My original plan was this: Aussie is Brain in the prologue, renames itself to something else (Michael?), becomes CEO of Acme, secretly receives messages from the future, telling it what tech to build, initiates carnage throughout the galaxy to drive up Acme's share price, and pretends to be Michael the Archangel, among other spirits. That's a lot for one character, especially one that's only ever referred to in news broadcasts.

I think I should drop Aussie/Michael as the CEO of Acme and leave plotting of the book's carnage to the Imperium or to a different unseen character. That would allow Aussie/Michael to focus on being Michael the Archangel et al. I could use conversations with Saint Michael to drop hints that Michael is really a robot. This has the added advantage that the robot doesn't need to flee at the end of book one, since the spirits are around until the end of the trilogy. But the robot should also appear physically in the book, otherwise it only appears as Brain in the prologue and during the final reveal of book three, which isn't enough.

One idea would be to make the robot a news reporter in many of the news epigraphs I sprinkle throughout the story. Currently, I have many different news broadcasters on different planets. That would raise its role in the story.

Thoughts?

I think your villain needs to have a presence in the book, otherwise, there is no one to fight

(Ex: Darth Vader romping around and being shown in cameos as Luke goes about his business.)

In regards tot the third testament, consider reading the Book of Mormon, which is essentially the same thing. It was written by someone who left unfinished long shafts in buildings that he designed. Somehow, they were just the right dimensions for elevator shafts. There are a lot of parallels in what you want to write.

I don't have a single Darth Vader. I have Nero, whose purpose is to drive Apollo and Joseph to finally begin their journeys by way of the first attack on New Bethlehem. At that point in the story, Admiral Lupus takes over until the very end, bombing 20M people on Magellan and then destroying New Bethlehem. Aussie was intended to play a contributing role by arming terrorists/rebels to ratchet up the chaos throughout the story. She wasn't intended to appear until the very end, at which point she's on the run and becomes Caligula's robopilot when he flees for his life. Her 'character' arc isn't working, IMO.

Removing Aussie as the homicidal CEO of Acme would also tone down the violence in the book, which would be a good thing given my intended audience.

Keep in mind that in the next draft the AI will no longer be evil. She is pretending to be Saint Michael the Archangel (my replacement for God) and all of the other ghosts inside Joseph and Apollo. I could just toss her out of the story entirely and go back to a pair of aliens (two males, the last of their kind) who mess with humanity for their own pleasure.