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Thanks for the info, Tom. This is useful. However, I don't want the reader to shrug and move on. I want them to at least understand which fleet or force their reading about. If I set it up properly, then when I introduce a new planet like Magellan, they'll immediately know that it has a home fleet called the Magellan Fleet, and a subset of that fleet will be called a Magellan force and/or Magellan attack group.

I'm just reading a Star Wars book about the apprenticeship of the Emperor to Darth Plagueis that I was hoping to learn from. However, it tries to name every building, bridge, and blade of grass - pretty much showing off that the author has drawn heavily from the Star Wars Encyclopedia. Every second character is from a different race, with its own physical attributes, and sometimes multiple names/titles. The result is a barely readable mess.

One thing it does do that I like is that it takes a page or two at the beginning of many chapters to do a little telling to set the scene, describing the planet, people, culture, and history. It eliminates the need for artificial conversations to give the reader the same info. It's something I used in my previous draft and was told by more experienced authors to get rid of unless they were important to the story. In such cases, I was encouraged to put present the information as thoughts or dialogue. Personally, I liked doing them the way I had. If Star Wars can sell millions of books, then they're doing something right.

As for the ships, I'm thinking about some combination of your ideas and Amy's. I hope to keep it simple enough to be easy for readers to get it right away, without me hitting them with names that have no obvious connection to the planet they're associated with. The 5th Fleet in the U.S. Navy gives me no information as to its mission and location. I then have to explain that to the reader, and they have to remember it, or worse, skip over it every time the see it. So, I'm thinking the Magellan Fleet for the planet's whole home fleet, and a Magellan force (or attack group) for a subset of that fleet going elsewhere in the galaxy.

I'm still mulling over Amy's suggestion to use different names instead of fleet, depending on which side of the galaxy's cold war you happen to be on. Thus, the Realm of Stars (one of the two galactic powers) might refer to their fleets as floatillas or assemblies. Those don't readily mean much, so it's a name I have to introduce and describe, and the user has to remember it. Fleet and force are pretty easy. The only special case currently is the Praetorian Guard and Praetorian Fleet, under the direct command of the emperor. As mentioned above, the Praetorian Guard (the emperor's personal legions) comes directly from Roman history. Praetorian Fleet is a futuristic extension of that concept.

I asked a few more people to weigh in to see what they suggest. I'll probably end up drawing on some combination of everyone's ideas.

Thanks, as always.
Dirk

Oops. I didn't realize you weren't the group, Amy. Welcome aboard! And thank you for the feedback. I asked a few others to weigh in, so I'll wait to see what they say before I finalize my caps rules.

Gracias.
Dirk

Also, here is the Celtic Woman version. Also fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqEW2KnsZdM

Dirk

I spent a lot of time in corners as a kid. I'm quite good at it.

In reality, we got spanked. No timeouts.

I turned out so well I have to write using a penname. :-)

Dirk

I'm glad you're feeling better, Tom. Health has me sidelined quite often too. Writing is my escape, although I can't often concentrate enough to write, so I just review and collect a bazillioin points.

Karen, whenever you want to start reviewing, please know that most of the early chapters are about two years old, and I knew a lot less about writing back then. I took some time near the end Act II to read a whole bunch of books on writing and to reread a lot of sci-fi from the perspective of an author. I was pleasantly surprised to see a recent Star Wars novel that uses a few pages of narration at the beginning of chapters where there's a new planet/setting/people to describe. No phony dialogue between MC and sidekick to do that. Seabrass would not approve. :-)

You'll also see epigraphs in my book that are probably similar to what you're going to do. Some of the old chapters use real quotes from history (e.g., from Albert Einstein and JFK). Eventually, I plan to replace all of those with made up information (e.g., news reports, confidential memos, blog posts, etc.) from within my universe set in the year 4017. I still have plenty of references to real human history for added realism to my story.

Thanks
Dirk

Thank you, Mike. I appreciate your insight, as always.

Dirk

You didn't address my question about legitimate authority, which I'm very curious about.

As I mentioned, Hitler (though a racist killer from the beginning) was, for a time, the elected authority of Germany. Was there anything Germans could have/should have done to topple him? When?

Thanks.
Dirk

Thank you, Mike.

Isn't Romans 13 superceded by the Ten Commandments (thou shalt not kill)? I would think they would be considered the most important laws from God, especially, as in this case, where there are inconsistencies in what the Bible says. Why execute someone when a cornerstone of the Bible says never to take a life?

Hitler was the legitimate authority of Germany before becoming dictator. People who followed his laws eventually found themselves in the hands of a dictator responsible for 60 million deaths, including both of my grandfathers.

Compare that to the 2001 U.S. election. A conservative-led Supreme Court decided an election in favor of George W. Bush rather than wait for a recount. The result was a war with Iraq in which as many as 1 million people died, all for non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Does Romans 13 apply in the above cases? Who decides what is legitimate authority?

Dirk

I considered having an angry mob tear the emperor limb from limb when I killed him off, but felt it was more fun to melt him with acid.
Lady Kay needs an equally ludicrous death. After all, she's a special character. :-)

By the way, was it obvious that Bunny did her laughing fit on purpose to get the senior anchor role? I want to make sure that comes across.

Thanks
Dirk

What's a typewriter?