Centauri Dawn Contest : Smac Fanatic Entry : Unity

[MarkG]

"Unity"


By SMAC Fanatic

FIRST PRIZE WINNER IN THE "CENTAURI DAWN CONTEST"

http://apolyton.net/smac/frame.shtml?Tales/4_Unity.shtml

[Clear Skies]

Just recieved my copy of Centauri Dawn and have read about the first 100 pages already. It's fantastic!
When's Volume II coming out? Will it be available over here in sunny England, or will I have to order? Will there be another competition?

[MarkG]

Originally posted by SMAC Fanatic
When's Volume II coming out?

this fall, i think...

Will it be available over here in sunny England, or will I have to order?

amazon.co.uk has centauri dawn, i presume it will have it as well

Will there be another competition?

if we're going to get 2 entries again, FORGET IT!

[Clear Skies]

OK, I'll write three stories next time

[MarkG]

one bump before de-top-ing....

[Avenoct]

No promises, but I must just write one too! (prods Smac Fanatic)

There are several (4+) mods going on to the game right now, and the writers are all excellent, well, barring me that is. You might, Mark, drop some encouragement to them over in the Strat and the Creation threads to get 'em focused on fiction as well. Just an idea if you go with another contest...congrats Smac Fanatic!

-Smack

[Cesa]

I just started playing SMAC again (too entuthiastic (sp?) about the Civ3 XP to play the original game... ) and I since I like to read I decided to check some stories out. I haven't read the novels by M E yet but I will.

Something I have read is SMAC fanatic's story "Unity", and I must say it's great! I do read alot, and this is truly good and entertaining science-fiction. Well done Fanatic!

If you want some constructive critic, I feel the story is a bit short though. (perhaps there was a word limit in the competition?) I would like to get to know the characters a bit more, and for this story I'd like the word count increased with about 50%. But, as I said, it's still a very good read!

Do you write alot, ever gotten anything published that I should check out?

[Clear Skies]

Wow...talk about an unexpected bump To be honest, although I did extend Unity quite substantially, I haven't written anything on it for a long long time, due to lack of inspiration and one of my friends (she's Athene Miranda on here) introducing me to new universes in which to write. I believe the original word count was something like 9,371 (that's the version linked to in this thread), and I wrote almost as much again when I continued it (another 9,300 words).

Anyway, thanks for the bump! It's almost given me enough inspiration to write some more...watch this space! (as soon as I finish my AS levels that is).

By the way, I have never had anything published - I've never written anything long enough. I did toy with the idea of publishing a poetry compilation, and I ahve a possible idea for a novel bumping around inside my head, but right now exams are taking precedence I have written a few other things - my fanfiction.net ID is http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=29201 . I have 2 AC stories and 2 TA (Total Annihilation) stories up at the moment, with another AC one still to post.

[Cesa]

Yes, I noticed that the version of Unity in a thread in this forum is about twice the one I read, I'll read the long version later today when I have time. Actually, I write some myself, and this inspired me to write a SMAC-story, but I guess I should read some more first, the first of Michael Ely's novels at least, and some more fan fiction. The SMAC world is a world that is really fitting for written stories, it has a lot to offer story-wise, a lot of interesting concepts and characters.

Anyway, good luck with the exams, and the writing.


A bit OT: The only thing I don't like about the original story is that the people were "sleeping" during the travels to AC. It would have been interesting if the ship was built to support the crew for generations, and the factions and different beliefs had evolved on the ship. Do you know of any good story (prefferably novel) on this subject? The life on a ship on a mission to..well..stay alive until they find a planet to settle.

[Clear Skies]

They're not AC-related, but try Voyage from Yesteryear by James P Hogan and Cities in Flight by James Blish.