A science fiction book in progress.
Albuquerque on Earth will be a long work of science fiction. The main story is set centuries in the future and tells you more than you want to know about the eventual fate of humanity. The first two paragraphs:
I traveled around Earth like Sun, that’s how I thought of it, only lower down because I’m not as bright. I was on a job and on a train and I felt free. I was following my course on a map, taking an east-west trunkline across southern Africa with a short offshoot at the end to reach a point in the South Atlantic labeled “Albuquerque.” I suppose these aliens chose their own name. The north-south trunkline I had come down an hour before lay already out of sight beyond the right edge of the map on the other side of Africa.
The map was virtual but for this occasion glasses, or perhaps the Net itself, presented it as surreally real, correcting for the individual irregularities of my eyes so that the view was sharper than direct vision. I guess it’s like a rehearsed memory, clearer than the wavering forms of the past. The view was of an unfolded paper map in a projection having curved lines of latitude and my route was traced heavily in blue ballpoint pen. The pushpin meaning you-are-here stood in blue “ocean” and declined smoothly west while pretend paper fibers slid around it under microscopic control in tiny hyperreal movements that I could not have seen if the paper existed. The presentation included a tiny scritching sound like termites with diamond teeth for the moving pushpin and the scent of wood and leather and old books that in my imagination was the smell of a British explorer’s study in 1900. The Net is more subtle than I know but it doesn’t always let on.
I seek feedback on everything. Punctuation and formatting are interesting, technical facts are interesting, tone and characters and structure are interesting. I learn a lot from different people’s different thoughts. Please write me!
This version has chapters 1 through 3. New are chapter 2, material in chapter 3, and revisions throughout. Total 2.4MB, 29 pages, about 13K words.
I have no intention of trying to earn money from this book. In this day and age, who needs money? When it’s done I’ll put it up for free download here and wherever else makes sense.
| Albuquerque, draft chapters of November 2013 | chapters 1 and 3 |
| Albuquerque, draft chapter of April 2013 | chapter 1 |
last update 27 April 2016 to fix broken download links (urk!)