Thursday, May 21, 2015

Civil War in the Executive Branch: A General Idea

Here's an interesting story idea that I will never write, but someone who does political thrillers might find worthwhile:

The President is given no power by the Constitution to remove a Vice-President from office. Unlike any other type of official appointed by the Prez, the V-P cannot be "fired." Only Congress can remove a V-P via impeachment process.

And Vice-Presidents have historically had their power limited in part by Congress (and other Cabinet heads) practically revolting when Presidents have even tried to delegate any real power or major projects to their V-P.

So-- what if you had a situation where the President and V-P had a political and/or personal falling-out, and the President became very controversial and unpopular with (maybe a newly elected) Congress (and maybe even with several of his/her own Cabinet officials)... and so the V-P, with the support of Congress and part of the Cabinet, started taking on more power and openly rebelling against the President?

The President would be stuck, at least until the end of the term (at which time he/she could simply not choose to have that person run with them again). Congress would refuse to impeach the V-P and the V-P could be up to all sorts of shenanigans.

You'd have a civil war inside the Executive Branch, with the V-P supported by the majority of the Legislative Branch.

Imagine, for example, a fictional version of Barack Obama as the President.... and imagine that Joe Biden turned out to be a sort of Ted Cruz in disguise. And that fact doesn't get revealed until a few months into the term, at the earliest. Oh the fun that could be had, story-wise...!

That's just sort of a jumping-off point. Do with that what you will.  But hurry up-- I want to read it!
--

Van Allen Plexico is an award-winning SF/adventure novelist and non-fiction writer and podcaster, as well as an associate professor of Political Science and History.

You can read Van's own interstellar saga of politics, religion and cosmic warfare in "The Shattering" from White Rocket Books, available here. The third volume of the Legion trilogy recently won Novel of the Year in the 2015 Pulp Factory Awards.

He's on Facebook as Van Allen Plexico
Follow him on Twitter:  @vanallenplexico

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

The "Missing Insurgency" of Babylon 5's Final Seasons


The "Missing Insurgency" of Babylon 5's Final Seasons
by Van Allen Plexico

One thing I think J Michael Straczynski got wrong--or at least didn't explore nearly enough--in the "President Clark/Earthwar" segment of the Babylon 5 storyline was the way that Earth basically welcomed Sheridan and his alien allies after they defeated Clark's military forces defending Earth and overthrew his regime at the end of the fourth season of the show (which aired 1993-1998). 

Considering at least two major factors, I think many (if not most) people living on Earth at the time would've been at least very skeptical if not downright hostile to Sheridan and company. Possibly skeptical enough to create an "insurgency" against Sheridan and his Earth allies that could've lingered for many years. 

Those factors are:

Factor 1) Earth had only recently suffered another attack from space by hostile forces in the form of the Minbari invasion, culminating at the Battle of the Line. That traumatic event occurred in 2248. Sheridan's campaign of "liberation" from Clark happened late in 2261, only thirteen years later. No matter who the attackers/liberators were, it's hard to imagine everyone or even a majority of the people on Earth switching over to their side against the Earth defense forces. 

It's not like Clark was making life hard for most people on Earth. Sure, he was giving aliens (and people who disagreed with him) a hard time, but it's not like he wrecked the economy (as far as we know) or instituted some deeply unpopular legislation or took the planet into a pointless war. As far as could be told, being a run-of-the-mill human living under Clark was not all that horrible in one's daily life--assuming one toed the Clark/Nightwatch line. (Of course, if you were an alien, or someone branded a "sympathizer"/"enemy of the state" or a political dissident, things were infinitely worse for you.)

So it's difficult to imagine a huge number of people rallying to the Sheridan banner under those circumstances--especially when Sheridan's invasion must have actually appeared to many people on Earth to be proving Clark correct in his prophesies about the aliens "coming to get us!" And speaking of the perceptions of the people of Earth with regard to Sheridan v. Clark, that takes us to:

Factor 2) President Clark had his very own "FOX News" at his disposal, beaming out pro-Clark, anti-Sheridan propaganda 24/7. Or at least he did after his jackbooted security forces stormed the ISN building and arrested all the honest and neutral (read: anti-Clark) journalists who worked there. 

Surely some portion of the Earth's population--and likely a very substantial portion--would've been all too willing and eager to buy into the Big Lie and the Easy Answer (Sheridan is evil; aliens cause all our problems), especially with (what was apparently) the only major news outlet on the planet (ISN) beaming out that message round-the-clock. Even after Sheridan's victory over Clark, there still should've been a vast number of humans who were utterly convinced that John Sheridan and his army represented an evil, conquering force that should be resisted unto death.

Instead, as we saw, Sheridan's forces were actually "greeted as liberators" (to borrow the words of a guy who, like Clark, was at one point an ambitious Earth vice-president, and who also helped lead an invasion under the stated banner of liberation-- Dick Cheney). It was as if the entire populace of the planet cast aside everything they'd been told about Sheridan and his compatriots in an instant, once Clark was dead and his forces were defeated. Cheney could only wish things had gone so smoothly in Iraq.

Furthermore, in the episode "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars," we see a later era in which Sheridan is debated by a roundtable of several supposedly influential members of the media--and debated not in terms of whether Sheridan and his actions were "good or bad," but whether he deserved all the credit history had given him. In other words, "Just how great of a hero was he really?" and not "Was he a hero at all, or a villain?" 

Surely ISN could've found at least one unreconstructed Clarkist (Clarkite? Clarkian?) who would've been thrilled to argue that, to borrow the phrasing of Delenn on that episode, "Morgan Clark was a good man" and then added, "that alien sympathizer Sheridan with his extra-constitutional invasion caused all these problems we face today." Not only would that have been fun and interesting to see-- it would've been very likely for some if not many to hold that belief. (Even in a society with apparently only one news media outlet! Yes, we are looking at you, ISN. Of course we are. You're the only channel on our future-TV, apparently. Thank goodness you're "Fair and Balanced!")

It may have been that JMS simply didn't have room or time to explore this aspect of the story. Still, one feels he might have dropped at least one or two references to it into the series or the spinoffs or at least into the tie-in novels that came afterward--particularly the Psi Corps or Centauri novels by Greg Keyes and Peter David.

Perhaps one day someone will novelize the entire Babylon 5 saga from start to finish, in a Game of Thrones-sized series of books, and the situation on the home front can finally be given the attention it deserves. And perhaps our own experiences in the years since Babylon 5 was produced can inform that story and make it even more true-to-life than it already was.
-
 
Van Allen Plexico is an award-winning SF/adventure novelist and non-fiction writer and podcaster, as well as an associate professor of Political Science and History.

You can read Van's own interstellar saga of politics, religion and cosmic warfare in "The Shattering" from White Rocket Books, available here. The third volume of the Legion trilogy recently won Novel of the Year in the 2015 Pulp Factory Awards.

He's on Facebook as Van Allen Plexico
Follow him on Twitter:  @vanallenplexico

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

The Shattering: Chronology Chart

The "Shattering" saga represents everything from science fiction that I have always loved, combined in one massive web of interconnected series. These books and stories include everything from Kirby-esque cosmic space-gods to Warhammer 40K-esque massive colossus walkers and Baen-style futuristic military combat to Dune-style far-future universe-building with political and religious systems and hierarchies.

All of that, of course, is the tapestry against which our very (mostly) human heroes and their (human and alien and godlike) villains engage with one another, while the galaxy burns all around them.

The series stands at five novels and one novella thus far, as of summer 2015. Those works are included in the chart below.

Here's a quick and handy annotated overview of the "eras" of the Shattering saga's universe, along with where each of the existing (or soon to exist) books and stories fit into it.

This is therefore a chronological listing according to the internal timeline of the story.

(No real spoilers here. Spoiler details for the various books and stories have been omitted. This is intended as a general reference chart when attempting to place the various works in the proper order.)

+++++

(The age before Mankind goes into space)

FIRST PAX MACHINA

(Unexplained collapse of Pax Machina)

(Mankind gains limited interstellar space travel)

FIRST TERRAN EMPIRE

(Mankind colonizes and establishes the Seven Worlds)

(Mankind loses interstellar space travel)

FIRST DARK AGE

(Mankind regains interstellar travel)

(War among the Seven Worlds)

* Baranak: Storming the Gates (forthcoming)

SECOND TERRAN EMPIRE

(Demon invasions)

(Collapse of Second Terran Empire)

(Rise of the Terran Alliance and the Outer Worlds)

TERRAN ALLIANCE

* Lucian: Dark God's Homecoming

(Collapse of galactic civilization)

SECOND DARK AGE

(Rise of the Young Empires)

THE YOUNG EMPIRES

* Legion I: Lords of Fire

* The Legion Chronicles 1: Cold Lightning

* The Legion Chronicles 2: Red Colossus (forthcoming)

* Legion II: Sons of Terra

* Legion III: Kings of Oblivion

(The Twilight War)

SECOND PAX MACHINA

* Falcon: Revolt Against the Machine (forthcoming)

(The Great Revolt)

* Legion IV -- ? (forthcoming)

(The Shattering event)

SHATTERED GALAXY

* Hawk: Hand of the Machine

* Hawk 2 -- ? (forthcoming)

+++++

Next time I'll present a list based more on "order the stories were written/suggested reading order(s)."

You can find all these books (for the Kindle and in paperback and hardcover) at the White Rocket Books site:  http://www.whiterocketbooks.com  and on Amazon.com, or through your local bookstore.


Sunday, May 17, 2015

Van's Thirty Favorite Films of All Time list, updated May 2015



My completely revised and updated Top Thirty Favorite Movies list,
as of May 2015:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Star Wars
3. Avengers: Age of Ultron
4. Avengers
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
6. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
7. The 13th Warrior
8. Casablanca
9. Last of the Mohicans
10. Ice Station Zebra

11. Gandhi
12. Babe
13. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US)
12. Serenity
13. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
14. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
15. Lawrence of Arabia
16. Dead Again
17. Ocean's 11 (2001)
18. Payback
19. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
20. Henry V (1989)

21. The Crow
22. North by Northwest
23. Die Hard
24. V for Vendetta
25. Captain America: Winter Soldier
26. Thor: The Dark World
27. Cloud Atlas
28. Iron Man
29. Thor
30. John Carter

Just missed the cut:
Gladiator
Highlander
Patton
LA Confidential

BE SURE TO PICK UP OUR UNAUTHORIZED GUIDES TO MARVEL'S AVENGERS:
ASSEMBLED! and ASSEMBLED! 2
http://www.whiterocketbooks.com/index_assembled.htm



Friday, May 08, 2015

A quick, early scene from BARANAK: STORMING THE GATES

[Here is a brief, first-draft scene from my upcoming novel in the Shattering series and the Above series, BARANAK: STORMING THE GATES. I'll leave it at that and let it speak for itself. Hope you enjoy.  --Van]


Scarcely had I passed through the opening of the cave before complete darkness surrounded me and swallowed me up. The entrance itself didn't entirely vanish, but it seemed to recede to the point that it was now far away in the distance, as though it would take quite a bit of a walk to reach it and leave the cave. This made me feel extremely uncomfortable and I turned, facing back in that direction. I contemplated leaving immediately.

Then a warm breeze blew past me, gravel crunched, and voice echoed out of the void at my back: "Greetings."

"Who's there?" I called, turning. My pistol was out and in my hand.

Only darkness, all about me.

"Who are you?" I demanded. "What do you want?"

"You have a strange manner," the voice said after a few seconds. It was smooth and low, deep and rich, and it held an unmistakable edge of menace. "You come uninvited into my home and seek to interrogate me. Is this what passes for civilized behavior among your kind?"

The warm air wafted by again, as from the bellows of some mighty forge. It smelled sour. I began to suspect that it might be breath.

"You are quite right," I said, still searching the darkness, hoping my eyes would adjust faster and give me any indication of who--or what--I was dealing with. "My apologies. I did not intend to intrude or trespass."

"Then why came you here, if not intentionally?"

"I was directed here by a--by an acquaintance," I said. "I was told I might find answers."

"Ah," the voice said. "Yes. That is entirely possible. Or," it added after a brief pause, "you might find something else. Other things entirely."

"Perhaps I am supposed to ask you my questions?" I said after a brief silence.

The warm air again, pungent and moist. My nose wrinkled involuntarily and I turned my head slightly to one side, seeking to avoid breathing it in.

"You could," the voice said. "I would not object in principle." A pause, and then, "Of course, understand that if I do not like your questions, you will not be leaving my domain, my world. You will be consumed."

This took me aback. Not the threat--that seemed almost de rigeur. But--"Your world? This world I've come to--it belongs to you?"

"This world. Here. This pocket universe, I believe the Dyonari call it. It is my world."

I had no idea what any of that meant. I looked around and could see nothing but darkness. Even the cave mouth had now vanished. "Ah, yes." I nodded, and I'm afraid the sarcasm was clear in my voice as I added, "And a lovely world it is."

"Talk like that will lead to the consumption I referenced in my previous utterance."

"Sorry."

"Yes, yes. Now--the questions, eh? I will allow... two, to start. More if I feel so inclined after those. And if you have not yet been consumed."

What was this creature? How could it possibly answer the questions that plagued me? It all seemed ludicrous. And yet, so did everything else that had occurred in the time since I'd taken Comet and ridden into the night. Again--what had I to lose?

I nodded in the darkness. "Very well." I kept the blast pistol ready as I searched my mind for the most efficient single question I could ask. For a moment my thoughts were a jumble, and I could hear impatient-sounding gravel-crunching from a short distance away. Then my thoughts snapped almost miraculously into clear focus. I said, "Why was my father killed?"

I anticipated counter-questions such as, "Who exactly was your father?" or "How the hell should I know? I'm just a creature living in a cave slash pocket universe." But the voice uttered neither of those things. Instead it issued no sounds whatsoever, for a time long enough that I began to suspect it had slinked back into the depths of its cave--its mini-universe, if it was to be believed. I was just about to give up and begin walking in the direction I hoped led back to the entrance, when: "I cannot say with absolute certainty, but in all likelihood it was because he might have actually succeeded."

I might have taken an involuntary step backwards; certainly my jaw dropped open. Blinking rapidly, I closed my mouth and sought words. At last I found a few.

"Succeeded in what?"

The creature--if creature it was--issued a sort of groan. "Are you sure you want that to be your second question? Because I find it boring, and it will probably be your last."

"No--no, not at all," I said quickly. "I was simply musing out loud. I have a better second question, of course."

"Ah. Excellent."

And then I faltered and mentally cast about--for of course at that moment my mind became a blank canvas and I an artist bereft of all paints and brushes.

*****

That was a brief scene from the upcoming BARANAK: STORMING THE GATES.
If you enjoyed it, you will probably very much like the novel to which it is a sort of prequel: LUCIAN: DARK GOD'S HOMECOMING. Many, many readers have enjoyed it.
You can find it here, in paperback and on Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Lucian-Homecoming-Van-Allen-Plexico/dp/0615606423

Thanks for reading. (BARANAK should be along later this year.)

Monday, May 04, 2015

Re-Ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies After Avengers: Age of Ultron

Here is my current personal ranking of the Top Ten Marvel Cinematic Universe films, post-Avengers: Age of Ultron:

1. Avengers: Age of Ultron
Several issues of an epic run of my old-time favorite comic book come to full life on the screen. Astonishing how high Marvel has raised the bar on what we expect from their movies in a decade or so.

2. Avengers
Better than any of the others, but "less" than A:AOU in nearly every measurable way (other than number of Loki jokes, obviously).

3. Guardians of the Galaxy
I love everything about this movie except the way the Nova Corps is portrayed and handled, and the way the Collector was used. The Xandar stuff sort of disappointed me. But the Celestials stuff and the Infinity Gems stuff make up for it. And Groot and Rocket are priceless.

4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
A mini-Avengers movie. It says a lot about how great the top three are, that this movie is only at number 4. Because it is excellent.

5. Thor: The Dark World
Better than the first Thor in most ways. Bigger, bolder, more fun. My main disappointment was that the fantastic Christopher Eccleston didn't get to do more, or be more expressive.

6. Thor
My favorite of the first run of solo origin movies. So very Kirby/Simonson!

7. Iron Man
Seems so "small" now, after everything that has come since. But it is so much fun. And after waiting a lifetime, I finally got to see my favorite character come to life. And instantly go from "third tier" to the biggest Marvel hero of all. I still can't fathom that. (You couldn't FIND an Iron Man toy when I was a kid and wanted them!!)

8. Iron Man 2
Lots of plot problems (and villain problems) but the fun that Downey and Sam Rockwell have in it makes up for quite a bit.

9. Captain America: The First Avenger
Chris Evans hadn't sold me on his portrayal of Cap yet. (Does he ever do so later!) And the Red Skull is criminally (no pun intended) underused here.

10. The Incredible Hulk
No, the prison video from the Thor 2 Blu Ray notwithstanding, I still haven't forgiven Iron Man 3.