Posted 17 October 2013 - 04:28 AM
I started another project, sadly, after reading through a City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer. I find I usually have ideas that only find fruit in others first. Anyways it's a interconnected series of stories and journal entries called "the Nature of the City". The setting is in on Earth but after a catastrophic invasion of another ecosystem from a different plane of existence. Huge and seemingly indestructible monstrous plant systems have taken over the landscape outside the City, which is a futuristic city in North America, what city it use to be is pretty much forgotten since its, to the knowledge of it's citizens, the last city in a existence. It has buildings built of smart glass nanofibres that constantly rebuild themselves. It's protected by the same and the very edge of the city, the smart glass having an ongoing battle with the carnivorous roots of the Nature. The city has four, hundred-level green houses that produce meat, grains and other product from genetically modify crops. It collects enough water from the constant rain created by the surrounding Nature. It's pretty much self sufficient. Each human is implanted with a chip at birth to gauge if and when a crime is committed, how much food is consumed, and if there has been any genetic tampering done (some groups, like the police department, get special gene-packages to stand out and there is obviously computer programs to bypass some of the chips functions.). It's ruled by what I like to call a soft oligarchy because the city pretty much runs itself. In this oligarchy are seven 'cults' built from former professions of the old world. There is the Cult of Diggers (archaeologists), the Cult of Hands (not really a profession, the homeless), the Cult of Ties (mid-level white collar workers), the Cult of Iron Heroes (the military), the Cult of the Mob (criminals), the Cult of White-Bags (forensic scientists) and the Upstairs which everybody assume is what left over from the city's old ruling class but is really a A.I. running on emergency protocols. No one in the City knows how these people ended up ruling the city nor does anyone really care. Outside of the city there is three populations of impossibly large, intelligent, and humanoid bugs. They are Ants, Spiders (I know there not insects!), and Wasps. They range from friendly to not-so-friendly. There's also the fungal caretakers of the trees and in a far away place, the Grey People which the characters don't know exist let alone about. Anyways while each story has a singular plot, the novel as a whole has an over-reaching one of a new Cult proven to the others that they belong. This cult is called the Cult of Oneness and underlining philosophy is that the City should go back to old way of governing, with nation-states fighting for resources, land, and glory but instead of nation states they think individuals should be the ones to do so. So basically they're a group of allied nations made from single human beings waging war across the city.
The book would contain 7 stories of various length and inbetween these stories would be journal entries from one Alanis Cromwell as she hires some Ant people to take her along the vast river systems of the new North America. These journal entries would eventually tie into the plot as well. The first story would be called "Cynicism Begets Cynicism" which is pretty much a introduction from the eyes of a citizen attempting to join the cults of the Hand, Tie, and Diggers all the while being rejected for being to cynical about the nature of the city. Eventually the Cult of Oneness picks him up and he joins their ranks. The second is called "On the Edge" and is about a Iron Hero watching the 'wall' between the Nature and the City as a attack from fungal infected Ants. Basically its just a action pack punch while exploring what happen to the notions of honour and duty of a (robotically enhanced) soldier in such a world. The third is the center piece called "Last Words and Dirty Deeds" staring Stern Lock (a criminal) who is thought to have killed the Mob boss, Darling Rodriguez (a detective) who is investigating the murder, and Atticus Clay (a new member of the Cult of Oneness) who is said to witness the murder. The forth is called "Two for A Kingdom" which basically follows the rise of a single man in two identical bodies from body guard to the new Mob boss. The fifth is called "Wilding Out" features the Cult of Hands, the Cult of Iron Heroes, and representative warriors of the surrounding bug tribes launch a few raids against fungal-infects deeper in the forest. The sixth called "Seven and A Eighth" is three meetings between the leaders of the eight different cults to see if the Cult of Oneness should be added to official Charter of Cults. It's basically a legal drama told through the eyes of the Herby, the head White-Bag. The last is called "Outside" and it follows a group of DIggers as they come upon the journal of Alanis Cromwell which details her journey northwest finally coming to the Other City on the coast and her first and last encounter with the Grey People.
This time I might actually put a piece of writing up...maybe. (PS if anyone knows a play that will just pay from ideas let me know haha)