Ambition

[mrissa]

Someday I will write a fantasy novel for adults that has nothing whatever to do with the Manhattan Project, from this angle.

Alas, but it doesn't look like it will be any day soon -- and in fact, I don't have a candidate in mind, among all my adult fantasy novel ideas.

I would say someday I will write a fantasy novel (for any age) that has nothing whatever to do with quantum mechanics, but that's not too likely, and we don't expect it. I wouldn't propose this as a definition that impinges upon other people's work, but from the inside it looks like the difference between my SF and my fantasy novels is that it's perfectly possible for me to write SF that isn't really about quantum mechanics at any scale.

Sigh.

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

As thematic obsessions go, it's a sight better than many. Not being politically obnoxious helps a great deal, for one thing.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's not politically obnoxious?

Well, that's good to know.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I don't think quantum mechanics is politically obnoxious to anyone save those parts of society who want not just to roll back the good changes made in the 20th century but everything as far back as the Renaissance, and I doubt many of them read SF anyway. [ Unless you count Left Behind as SF. ]

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Hmm. And "noodling around a theme of" tends to be less immediately problematic than "drawing conclusions and sending messages about," I suppose.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

On a not-unrelated note, have you read Mary Gentle's Book of Ash quartet?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes. It ate my head.

Just recently it ate timprov's head as well.

But that's a good deal more direct than the QM stuff usually comes in my books.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

But what an enjoyable consumption of one's head it is.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Definitely.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Yes. It ate my head.

Just recently it ate timprov's head as well.

But that's a good deal more direct than the QM stuff usually comes in my books.

Ah. One of the things I hated about Ash was that it felt like there was a good Greg Egan story in there, buried under ninety-nine parts superfluous verbiage. Mind you, I also hated the venomous caricature of feudalism, the grossly anachronistic langauge, and the frame story failing to make sense. I've rarely hated a piece of fiction so. So I'm probably not best placed to offer non-frothing-at-the-mouth comments on how well it worked at a technical level.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am not fond of Greg Egan stories, generally -- not deeply unfond, just moderately indifferent: "shiny idea, but I don't care" type response. So there being a Greg Egan story buried in a bunch of other stuff...well, keep burying, maybe.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Where does the Manhattan Project appear in The True Tale of Carter Hall?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Appear directly, no. But Philip Morrison is not entirely irrelevant, except for the Tater Tot bit, which we already discussed down in the living room.