Postmortem: Two Thousand Years Later

[Centauri18]

[Ksim3000]

Nice!

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Dont think Im going to be able to sleep tonight now

[vovan]

Thanks, everybody. I think my new avatar got more positive responses than some stories here.

[Centauri18]

Boris Karloff... he was the guy who played Dracula and Frankenstein and such in thoise old movies, right? (For the benefit of those for whom the real Karloff was before their time - like me.)

[vovan]

Yes, that's the man. He actually acted in over 100 films, but the best known ones are Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Mask of Fu Manchu, The Raven, etc..

[Centauri18]

Thought so. That many movies, huh? Wow.

[Jeremy 2.0]

It's good to see someone use Civ as a springboard for a broader range of stories. I don't have a problem at all with "And then we fought these other guys" stories. It's just nice to see where your mind can take you, with Civ serving as a pinch of spice in an otherwise unrelated stew.

Since Dmitry began the story as a personal document ("The reason I decided to write this..."), do we assume he does so after the last set of events? Or is this all in his mind?

I try to stay away from mental illness as a plot device. It's more satisfying for a reader to develop motivation other than "He's crazy." Fortunately you spend so much time in the mind of the protagonist that the mental illness angle doesn't cheapen the payoff.

Horror stories can be very fun. This one reminds me of earlier works like Lovecraft and Poe. I drew outlines for four very short Civ stories I wanted to put out last Halloween. They're all horror stories in their own fashion. I guess I'll wait until this coming Halloween to post them here.

Is the sequel on its way?

[vovan]

Thanks for the feedback, Jeremy.

Originally posted by Jeremy 2.0
Since Dmitry began the story as a personal document ("The reason I decided to write this..."), do we assume he does so after the last set of events? Or is this all in his mind?

Well, it is all in his mind. I didn't quite develop the whole mental illness thing, because I found it kind of cheapening the plot, like you said. But we have reason to believe that Dmitry cannot fully evaluate the situation and actually grasp the fact that he is located in a mental hospital. The session with the psychiatrist, in which he relates the story, shapes up in his mind as a sort of report paper to Moscow. However, the formal tone assumed in the first section or two devolves into an emotional account of the events, and in the final chapters into a more obvious story of a man with a psychological disorder - just count how much more he mentiones the voices in his head as opposed to the initial chapters.

I try to stay away from mental illness as a plot device. It's more satisfying for a reader to develop motivation other than "He's crazy." Fortunately you spend so much time in the mind of the protagonist that the mental illness angle doesn't cheapen the payoff.

Well, I generally think that mental illness stories tend to be "cheap," like you said, but I just wanted to try something different from the classical "we beat the bad guys" plot and see what I can make of this.

Horror stories can be very fun. This one reminds me of earlier works like Lovecraft and Poe.

Why, thank you, this is the first time I am compared to Poe, even though I used to read my own stories to my real-life friends in Russia, and they used to compare me to the Strugatsky brothers, for there used to be a lot of humour in them.

Is the sequel on its way?

Well, the sequel is going to be a classic civ3 story. I already have the outline, and the first couple of chapters ready, but like you, I think it would be better if I wait till it is finished before posting it, and that might be a ways off.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

I just want to say once again what a fantastic piece of writing this is, I know that my approach does not analyse like Jeremy 2.0, the cotext etc but nonetheless I offer my praise and thanks for your sterling effort

[vovan]

Thanks again for your support, Chris. All of the good words just make me write the next story so much faster.

[Centauri18]

Damn. You're ahead by one.

[vovan]

I thought I'd give this baby a bump, since it's been a long time since the finals, and people might start forgetting the plot before the runoff.

(Yeah, you got it - shameless bump. )

[ChrisiusMaximus]

No shame in it from where Im standing vovan

[ChrisiusMaximus]

About time this was brought back to life err I mean to the top

BUMP