Author: admin
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Review of Akrad’s Children by Jeanette O’Hagan
The beginning of this book is more than mildly confusing, even contradictory in places, but it does manage to introduce the story and the setting without a massive infodump. There are a lot of plot threads left hanging, or begun and simply left, but I don’t consider that necessarily a bad thing. Real life is…
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On Legal Adulthood
People seem a little fuzzy about the concept of adulthood and legal adulthood, so let’s take a look at. Adulthood is that state where a person has been adjudged by society and the culture to be capable of making their own decisions and dealing with the consequences of those decisions. There are responsibilities that come…
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Military Rank In the Empire of Humanity – Delegated Commissions
These ranks have the same sort of legal status that NCOs and Warrant Officers have in the US Army – their commissions are delegated, given by more senior ranks within the Imperial Military. Delegated Commissions are important within the military of a given star system. Depending upon the importance of the system, one rank or…
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The Great Old Ones in the Empire of Humanity
The event that holds the greatest significance in the recent history of the Empire is the Ston Rebellion and subsequent Interregnum. It may have ended up over 3600 imperial years previously, but there is still significant living memory of them. During the Rebellion and Interregnum, everyone suffered. The population of humans dropped by a factor…
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The Military in the Empire of Humanity – Rank Structure of the Common Ranks
The Common Ranks What our military calls ‘enlisted’ or ‘non-commissioned officers’ are called common ranks in the Empire. The etymology for the three brackets is analogous to our words for ‘private’ ‘corporal’ and ‘sergeant’, so that is the translation. Each of the three brackets has various grades or ranks within it, graduated by color of…
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The Military in the Empire of Humanity – Branches
The Imperial military is split into three major combat arms. They supplement and support each other as much as possible, but they are as different as army, navy, and air force. While they have the same rank structure, their jobs are completely different. Planetary Surface Forces are the ground forces. They are the ones who…
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Characters Hijacking the Story – One Way You Know You’re On the Right Track
I do outline. Not as thoroughly or obsessively as some, but I do have character sketches and a firm idea of where the story is going and the significant events on the way before I start writing. And then, partway through the writing process, one of the characters stands up and says to me, “I…
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Review: Destiny of Kings by Fiona Tarr
The set up This essentially re-tells the biblical story of the rise of David with a few additions. It is the first in a series. The good: The writing is clear. and most people should know the background of the story The needs improvement: Lots of telling, not so much showing What else you need…
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Awakened: Kurtherian Gambit 1 by Michael Anderle and Ell Leigh Clarke (no spoilers)
I managed to get through it, but it wasn’t easy This book repeatedly shows that the main protagonist is not a good leader or capable of handling personal issues, but then tells that she is, and goes with the tells. Not to mention that the thought process is hardly the alleged genius level – there…
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Character sketch: Asina from Preparations For War
Asina was born on the fractal demon dominated planet of Calmena, around Epsilon Indi, in one of the ‘free’ human holds. They are in fact anything but free, having a rigid caste based social structure where you are either a member of the noble classes, or a slave. Asina was ‘rescued’ by the first Earth…