Don't stop. The demand for solipsism and poetic prose in sci-fi is heavily underutilized. It can break the fourth wall and rapidly shift the readers mood pallette.
Perhaps introduce passages of lucidity and open with one to prime the reader.
The self interrogation is sharp, but what shines through is a real belief in the story’s weird, ambitious soul. You’ve genuinely made me want to read it.
Really enjoyed reading your self-critique and analysis, Joshua. You’re thinking deeply about your craft and remaining committed to your vision. I think there’s merit to the idea of telling a sci-fi story through allegory, metaphor and symbolism. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny is kind of in that vein, and it’s a great book. I think it’s cool too that these are the main tools used to tell religious stories, and you know I’m a fan of finding the overlaps between faith and sci-fi!
Thank you, Pneu! I'm glad you appreciate the thought that went into this!
I love Zelazny! I haven't read him in an age, though. Writing Quibble, I gave Lord of Light a wide berth on purpose so as not to be overly influenced by the ideas and methods there. I forwent rereading Herbert's first two Dune books for the same reason. With revisions still in order, I'm not out of the woods yet, but once I am, I'll pick Zelazny up again.
I think you'll rather enjoy the overlap between faith and sci-fi in my next chapter, "Shadow." At the end, it makes some use of ancient Egyptian beliefs about the soul. That trope returns much later in the novel. In the meantime, Quibble and Alnasl will soon meet a tribe of the Far, who are polytheistic. Two upcoming chapters of particular note are "Sah" and "Nahli."
Don't stop. The demand for solipsism and poetic prose in sci-fi is heavily underutilized. It can break the fourth wall and rapidly shift the readers mood pallette.
Perhaps introduce passages of lucidity and open with one to prime the reader.
Rapidly shifting the mood … bingo! That was one of my first discoveries, trying it out.
The self interrogation is sharp, but what shines through is a real belief in the story’s weird, ambitious soul. You’ve genuinely made me want to read it.
I hope you do. Here’s the table of contents with links to all the chapters. Everything published so far is free to read.
singulardream.substack.com/p/quibble
Thank you, I definitely wll
Really enjoyed reading your self-critique and analysis, Joshua. You’re thinking deeply about your craft and remaining committed to your vision. I think there’s merit to the idea of telling a sci-fi story through allegory, metaphor and symbolism. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny is kind of in that vein, and it’s a great book. I think it’s cool too that these are the main tools used to tell religious stories, and you know I’m a fan of finding the overlaps between faith and sci-fi!
Thank you, Pneu! I'm glad you appreciate the thought that went into this!
I love Zelazny! I haven't read him in an age, though. Writing Quibble, I gave Lord of Light a wide berth on purpose so as not to be overly influenced by the ideas and methods there. I forwent rereading Herbert's first two Dune books for the same reason. With revisions still in order, I'm not out of the woods yet, but once I am, I'll pick Zelazny up again.
I think you'll rather enjoy the overlap between faith and sci-fi in my next chapter, "Shadow." At the end, it makes some use of ancient Egyptian beliefs about the soul. That trope returns much later in the novel. In the meantime, Quibble and Alnasl will soon meet a tribe of the Far, who are polytheistic. Two upcoming chapters of particular note are "Sah" and "Nahli."