Ascension
2009-03-22, 11:47 PM
Well, like so many others, I have an idea for a novel. And if you read past this sentence it will be SPOILED for you.
With that warning out of the way, here's the situation. It's going to be science fiction, with one of the main concepts being that the much hyped psychic super soldiers employed by the protagonists' faction in a human v human space war are, in fact, complete frauds being used to put a heroic human face on a war actually being won by impersonal combat drones.
I have three ideas about how to present this:
I.) The protagonist is a civilian, possibly an investigative reporter but probably just a random everyman, who has befriended an elderly veteran of the last great war. The veteran has been working on a book about the war, but has not ever let the protagonist read any of what he has been writing. After the veteran's death the protagonist learns that the unfinished manuscript has been left to him, but it quickly becomes apparent when he receives it that it has been clumsily censored. An investigation of the blanks in the old man's book leads him on a journey across the solar system, unraveling bits and pieces of a vast cover-up along the way. The truth, that the psychics who won the last war were fakes, is revealed roughly 2/3rds of the way through the book, and the last third or so deals with the protagonist attempting to break the story to the public.
II.) The (initial) protagonist is one of the early would-be super soldiers, from the days when the government actually was trying to create psychics. The truth is that he is no more psychic than the later super soldiers, the actors in pilot suits, but in an attempt to save their jobs the scientists who created him have done their best to fool both him and their superiors into thinking that he is psychic. He has doubts in his own abilities, but everyone assures him that he is what he is supposed to be... He dies the first time he sorties in combat and the rest of the book deals with the fallout... The government learns of his creators' falsehoods, becomes convinced that the super soldier program is a failure, and ultimately okays both the production of the combat drones and the cover-up via false psychics. The last chapter would be written as an ironic echo of the first, with the first of the new generation of pseudopsychics preparing for his deployment.
III.) To use a TV Tropesism, the protagonists of proposal III are Those Two Guys from II. We see the war from the POV of a pair of mundane pilots who serve alongside both the hapless boy who thinks he's psychic and the arrogant guy who knows he isn't. They are, of course, kept out of the loop, but they have their own suspicions about the supposed psychics. There will probably be a romance between them, and one of them will probably die. The survivor will get confirmation after the war that the psychics were a sham, but will be given a gag order and will be placed under surveillance for the rest of his/her life.
I feel it important to point out that it's the same story regardless of the perspective. The veteran in I is the captain of the carrier all the pilots in II and III are deployed from. The protagonist in I would come across the diary of the protagonist from II and would meet some of the scientists from II and the survivor from III. All the characters in II and III are present on the same ship and will interact with each other, all that differs is who is given the main focus.
In brief: I focuses more on the government conspiracy that covers up all the messy failed genetic experiments and on the public's reactions to the war. I also takes place after the fact, with the war itself being told only in flashback. II starts out sweetness-and-light, with the protagonist a child hero set to save his people from a senseless war, and turns dark quickly when his light is snuffed. From there on out II asks the question "What do you do when your hero is dead?" only to answer it with "Create another one." (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeUltimateHero) III is pretty much a straight senselessness-of-war piece, complete with tragic love story and meaningless death, with an extra kick in the gut in the form of the revelation that the protagonists' supposed salvation was a lie all along.
Which telling would you prefer to read?
With that warning out of the way, here's the situation. It's going to be science fiction, with one of the main concepts being that the much hyped psychic super soldiers employed by the protagonists' faction in a human v human space war are, in fact, complete frauds being used to put a heroic human face on a war actually being won by impersonal combat drones.
I have three ideas about how to present this:
I.) The protagonist is a civilian, possibly an investigative reporter but probably just a random everyman, who has befriended an elderly veteran of the last great war. The veteran has been working on a book about the war, but has not ever let the protagonist read any of what he has been writing. After the veteran's death the protagonist learns that the unfinished manuscript has been left to him, but it quickly becomes apparent when he receives it that it has been clumsily censored. An investigation of the blanks in the old man's book leads him on a journey across the solar system, unraveling bits and pieces of a vast cover-up along the way. The truth, that the psychics who won the last war were fakes, is revealed roughly 2/3rds of the way through the book, and the last third or so deals with the protagonist attempting to break the story to the public.
II.) The (initial) protagonist is one of the early would-be super soldiers, from the days when the government actually was trying to create psychics. The truth is that he is no more psychic than the later super soldiers, the actors in pilot suits, but in an attempt to save their jobs the scientists who created him have done their best to fool both him and their superiors into thinking that he is psychic. He has doubts in his own abilities, but everyone assures him that he is what he is supposed to be... He dies the first time he sorties in combat and the rest of the book deals with the fallout... The government learns of his creators' falsehoods, becomes convinced that the super soldier program is a failure, and ultimately okays both the production of the combat drones and the cover-up via false psychics. The last chapter would be written as an ironic echo of the first, with the first of the new generation of pseudopsychics preparing for his deployment.
III.) To use a TV Tropesism, the protagonists of proposal III are Those Two Guys from II. We see the war from the POV of a pair of mundane pilots who serve alongside both the hapless boy who thinks he's psychic and the arrogant guy who knows he isn't. They are, of course, kept out of the loop, but they have their own suspicions about the supposed psychics. There will probably be a romance between them, and one of them will probably die. The survivor will get confirmation after the war that the psychics were a sham, but will be given a gag order and will be placed under surveillance for the rest of his/her life.
I feel it important to point out that it's the same story regardless of the perspective. The veteran in I is the captain of the carrier all the pilots in II and III are deployed from. The protagonist in I would come across the diary of the protagonist from II and would meet some of the scientists from II and the survivor from III. All the characters in II and III are present on the same ship and will interact with each other, all that differs is who is given the main focus.
In brief: I focuses more on the government conspiracy that covers up all the messy failed genetic experiments and on the public's reactions to the war. I also takes place after the fact, with the war itself being told only in flashback. II starts out sweetness-and-light, with the protagonist a child hero set to save his people from a senseless war, and turns dark quickly when his light is snuffed. From there on out II asks the question "What do you do when your hero is dead?" only to answer it with "Create another one." (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeUltimateHero) III is pretty much a straight senselessness-of-war piece, complete with tragic love story and meaningless death, with an extra kick in the gut in the form of the revelation that the protagonists' supposed salvation was a lie all along.
Which telling would you prefer to read?