Dan Kirk has started another

[Trab]

I couldn't be more pleased without winning a lottery. Dan Kirk has started his continuation of Dreams of Humanity, with his Dreams of a Father, and he's already 5 chapters into it. I am pleased as punch, as I really love Dan's writing, and particularly this ongoing saga. Dreams of a Father

[TalonRider]

I believe his posting schedule is usually sometime on Friday's.

[DesDownunder]

Why wasn't I told about this?

I loved Dreams of Humanity and the latest story looks just as good.

I just finished all 5 chapters.

Wow, what a rush!

[Trab]

Geez, Des. I told you and you found out within 12 hours of me finding out. There are a number of authors whose sites I visit on a semi-regular basis, just to see if they are writing anything new, but being so tied up with my car rally over the last month, I never did my normal checks.

[The Pecman]

Whoa, fascinating premise! I didn't see the start of this one, but I just began reading the first story. Absolutely terrific story idea. It reminds me in a way of Starship Troopers -- a similar kind of civilization, I think, plus the idea of the clones.

Dan is a very good writer, but (like me) has a few bad habits that he slips into once in awhile. He's gotta watch the excessive adverbs (particularly the number of times people speak "softly"), and I think his stories sometimes get a little overly-technical and political. On the other hand, Tom Clancy has made about $500,000,000 doing the latter, so maybe I'm off-base here.

[DesDownunder]

Keep reading Pecman, Dreams of Humanity will take you where no clone has been before.

Personally I love the politics and Dan's writing though detailed does seem to fit his style.

Anyone with a liking of Star **** will probably enjoy Dreams of Humanity, followed by Dreams of a Father.

Now where did I park my space-pod.

[TalonRider]

Dan will be the first to tell you he makes mistakes. He's even jokingly said that he's been tempted to have his editor follow him around in the forums.

[The Pecman]

Already up to chapter 4, and I'm enjoying the story tremendously. I just told my partner about the story (and he's a guy who doesn't read much), and he was blown away that there was this much solid plot in only the first four chapters.

I can nit-pick all I want, but I gotta say, this is a dynamite premise. My only real complaint: too much technology/politics, not enough humanity/sex. That having been said, it's a terrific read (with or without adverbs!).

I'll drop Dan a line and tell him we're raking him over the coals over here. We should probably recommend several of his stories on the B.O.N. site, if we aren't already.

[Trab]

Do we recommend stories on B.O.N. if they are elsewhere? I've recommended several of Dan's stories already in past years.

[The Pecman]

Yeah, Trab. A couple of years ago, Mike changed the bestofnifty.org webpage title to "The Best of Nifty and Other Great Story Sites."

Dan Kirk's "Do Over" is there (partly because of me jumping up and down), and I bet we could add a couple more. So far, "Dreams of Humanity" seems to be in that class. I can almost hear the Star Trek doors *psssssssst* open when they walk down the halls!

[TalonRider]

His Rich Boy series would be a good one to suggest also.

[rick]

Dan is an excellent and imaginative writer...I have to thank AJ for pointing out that Dan had started posting 'Dreams of a Father' a few weeks back, right after I had finished the latest installment of 'Rich Boy'. I've enjoyed everything Dan has written, and check his page at least once a week for new stuff.

'Dreams' is off to a great start!

Rick

[The Pecman]

I spotted one other bad habit Dan has (and again, I mention this only as an observation): I've had trouble with some of his past stories in figuring out the age of the characters. It was only four chapters into Dreams that I found out that the lead character, Barrett, was only 19! For all I knew, he was like a 30-year-old Captain Kirk, which is basically what he seems like.

That's an even more complex problem in the Do Over novels, where an adult male goes back in time, winds up inside the mind of his 12-year-old body, but has all his future memories intact. Dan tells variations of the same novel three times, each more convoluted than the last, but they all have their moments. Still too much technology & politics and not enough sex & humanity, but that's me.

Easily the most ambitious gay science-fiction story I've ever read, on the Net or anywhere else.

update: Typo fixed!

[Trab]

Frankly, I like Dan's mix/proportions of tech/sex/humanity. (I had a good laugh at your "each more convoluted than the next"...I think you meant 'than the last'.)

[R.J.]

I think Dan has a thing for teenagers in authority. Except for Mists of Fate, his stories tend to be that. And I don't mean a bad thing about it, just an observation.

[TalonRider]

Dan has posted that chapter 6 is going to be delayed a bit.

Jan

[The Pecman]

I think Dan has a thing for teenagers in authority. Except for Mists of Fate, his stories tend to be that. And I don't mean a bad thing about it, just an observation.

Yeah, that's clear as well. My problem is, they act too much like adults. In the case of the clones in Dreams, it's understandable, because they were biologically engineered that way.

Still, it begs the question: why would scientists deliberately engineer a military soldier clone to be gay? Granted, it makes the story more interesting for us to read, but you gotta say, this is an unusual choice for a world 200+ years from now.

[DesDownunder]

Yeah, that's clear as well. My problem is, they act too much like adults. In the case of the clones in Dreams, it's understandable, because they were biologically engineered that way.

Still, it begs the question: why would scientists deliberately engineer a military soldier clone to be gay? Granted, it makes the story more interesting for us to read, but you gotta say, this is an unusual choice for a world 200+ years from now.

It doesn't strike me as an unusual choice at all. Indeed even within the context of Dan's story it makes sense that one of the things that the Earth empire doesn't like is that the Republic sees no reason for the clones not to be natural in their sexuality, hence they are sexual including gay.

[R.J.]

The only thing I disagree with Dreams is the population of humans. I can't remember the exact dates, but Dan dated the story at about 2400 or 3400 -- I'm not so sure. But even with the latter date, I have trouble believing that the population could explode that much. Right now, 2008, we only have one planet where we live in. In Dreams, there are three main planets, and each of those governments also have a bunch of planet colonies. Besides these governments, there are also the space nomads and their various clans.

[Trab]

I have absolutely no doubt that with enough space and resources the people population would explode to the point where all those places would be as screwed up as we are now.

[TalonRider]

The thing about Science Fiction is you can tend to get away with more. This story is going to be interesting as Garret will be going up against a government that is styled after a religion.

Also, in a messaged posted on 9/13/08, Dan said that he's sent the next chapter to Myr for posting, so it might be up soon.

Chapter 6 is now up.

[The Pecman]

I agree 100% with Trab. Once cheap space exploration is possible, I think there'd be all kinds of people willing to settle there, and the population would explode -- assuming plenty of food, air, water, entertainment, money, and a lack of disease (not necessarily in that order).

My only SF disagreement with the story (aside from biologically engineered gay people) is I'd put it only 100 years in the future, not two or three hundred. I had the same problem with Star Trek: to me, what they proposed in Enterprise could happen 50 years from now. All we need to figure out is how to make that damned warp engine work!

[Trab]

"All we need to figure out is how to make that damned warp engine work!"

And the transporter.

[DesDownunder]

Everyone goes for the warp engine or the transporter.

Wrong!

It's the replicator that is the most wonderful invention of a Star Trek future.

Just think no more cooking, you just order whatever you want and it appears in the little dispensing hatch.

In addition you can use the engineering version to replicate various devices and even have your clothes made for you.

Obviously based on the Krell replicating technology first found in Robby the Robot, from The Forbidden Planet I would choose the replicator as my favourite toy from the future. It offers so much!

[The Pecman]

Ah, I loved Forbidden Planet as a kid. My partner and I quote from that movie all the time: "My poor Krell..." and "ten times ten times ten... almost literally to the power of infinity!" Great, great movie.

I just reached a part of Dan's original story where the spaceship is now talking to him directly, which is a very cool (and potentially funny and dramatic) development I hadn't anticipated. Even the ship itself is a character in the story, which is clever as hell.