Replay Dune 2 in all its splendour. I found some links that will enable you to replay this RTS classic. It was my first exposure to the Dune universe and one I haven’t regretted, and also and incredibly fun game. As the game ran in DOS it has difficultly running in later versions of Windows. I will provide installation instructions here.
Tag Archives: science fiction
[Short Story]: Fallen Gods of Cheam
This is a sci-fi short that is set in a universe I created more than a decade ago. There is an unfinished novel sitting on my hard drive that takes place in the same universe but I’ve never been able to find the motivation to finish it. I think I’ve been trying to run before I can walk. So about a year ago I decide to create some prequel short stories that will explore and fill out the background of my universe. The aim is to self-publish about 5 of them as a compendium.
I wrote this story on paper about a year ago but never typed it up. As part of a drive to get my work published / read I’ve decided to share my work with more people. It is pointless to write stories that are never read. I do try to edit as a type but I’m sure there are a few rough edges to clean up but certainly not the worst thing you’ll read this year. 
Enjoy and comment below.
Deus Ex Machina plot resolution
After chatting about FTL and time travel on Twitter I reminded myself about the phrase “Deus Ex Machina” (literally, God from the machine). From Wiki: It is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.
Please, no, don’t do it.
Faster Than Light travel (in fiction)
Following on from my blog post the other day about the relationship between physics (science) and science fiction, I am now writing a post regarding the different types of Faster Than Light plot devices used in Sci-Fi. This won’t be so much about the actual science of FTL starship drives, I touched on that in my previous post, but rather to give my opinion on the various imaginary technology and perhaps how it relates to plot. In order to do this I will make reference to various books, TV shows, films and computer games from my life as a sci-fi fan (geek / nerd etc etc).
Constructed Languages
I love a bit of Conlang! I even wrote about it before on this website (see the other section of my site: Constructed Languages). They are an almost essential part of any sci-fi or fantasy universe. Sometimes they are over done but when done correctly they bring a lot of added atmosphere.
Creating a new language, even a simplified one, is much tougher than I first thought. I experimented with creating one for my first novel but it felt too clumsy and amateurish. At some point I will try again but I think I’ll start from scratch and try to make it more logical!
See this TED talk where John McWhorter discusses Conlangs!
Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na’vi real languages?
Hello world!
48 65 6c 6c 6f 20 57 6f 72 6c 64 !
First post on this new part of my website, think I’ll just keep this first post but edit it… and yes that’s Hex for Hello World. 😉 This part of my website will be a simple blog for tracking my progess / updates for my creative writing efforts. While my first pieces were written at school (which included some fairly sizeable make-believe universes) I would say that my first proper attempt to write prose was about 10 years ago. At school I had to write short creative stories for exam work or under exam conditions, none of those were serious efforts. What I consider to be my first attempt is the novel I started to write 10 years ago, but like many aspiring authors it was never finished.
A novel is only worth writing if it is shared with others. Most of my work never gets further than a couple of friends or family members. I think it would be a regret to go another 10 years and never share my work with a wider group of people. If my work is never professionally published then that’s fine; while it would be nice to be published by one of the big companies, I would be content to self-publish and just have my stories on Smashwords or Amazon. Going to avoid using hashtag yolo… uh… oh wait… [email protected]!..
The first novel was a fantasy novel that covers a boy’s coming of age. Not unique by any means but it was fitting to my place in life at the time. It is perhaps little more than cliched fantasy but I enjoyed writing it and I think the story would appeal to all fantasy readers. That novel is almost complete and one day it will be. 😉 That would be my famous last words. This novel will be explored in a later post.
Before that work is published, or even finished, I intend to complete a newer work. The second novel I worked on is sci-fi and in some ways it is older. The original idea for my sci-fi novel came from an RP game that I created with friends back in high school (around 13 years ago now). I created most of the background setting and was the guardian of all the notes. Eventually I started to turn it into a novel about 8 years ago (roughly). As with my first novel it was never completed, at the moment it is somewhere near the half-way point. However, since then I started to work on a set of prequel stories which I plan to make my first publication. This will be a compendium of roughly 5 short stories set in this sci-fi universe. More to follow!