Is This A Planet Killer?

As I mentioned in my last Initial Blog entry, my Science Fiction Thriller, Prometheus Blue – Book One of the Third Stone Series – is about Humanity’s response to the knowledge that the Sun and all her inner planets will be obliterated in 700 years. The heart of the story depends on my convincing my readers that Earth’s destruction is a certainty – that it cannot be avoided.

Why must the reader believe that it is truly hopeless? Why must the reader know with absolute certainty that this is a true Kill This Planet and nothing can be done? That the Earth will truly meet its end in 700 years?

Because otherwise this becomes a military, hero driven story where we are forever looking for that final payoff, that punch at the end of the story that assures us that Humanity will prevail and Earth will ultimately be saved in a final, desperate endeavor while the citizens of the future cheer wildly and wave American flags in everlasting gratitude.

Sorry guys, if that’s what you’re hoping for, you might want to look elsewhere. Or maybe you shouldn’t.

Planet Killer

Consider this: Knowing the exact date of our planet’s end, with the countdown starting at T-minus 713 years, knowing this, how would society react over the centuries. How would it change us? Think about the effects on our

• environment,
• leadership structure,
• monetary system and economy,
• society and human nature,
• Religious institutions (and our beliefs)

Think of how our very values would utterly change forever.

The Third Stone series asks the question – would the present day generation of leaders and citizens expend their blood, their treasure and possibly their very way of life for the benefit of future generations? And if so, what grand project would they buy?

Let’s look at it like bookends.

At the beginning of the timeline – T-minus 713 years – we can imagine the greatest sentiment out there among “the people” would be to kick the can down the road. Let someone else deal with this. Why should I suffer, why should I deprive myself of one dollar, of one inconvenience, to save the life of someone who won’t even be borne for 700 years?

At the end of the timeline – the star is literally in our solar system and the end is days away – it’s obviously too late. You won’t convince a single soul that the Earth can be saved, not after all this time.

But what about T-minus 300 years? Maybe the rogue star is now visible in our skies. Wouldn’t public sentiment begin to swing?

T-minus 150 years. Oh my god, my great grandchildren might die from this thing. We’ve got to do something! Marshall the world’s greatest scientists. We’re an incredible advanced civilization. We can do this! And so the heroes emerge. Technology and hope win out. Heroes will die but Earth will be saved! Hurry for Humanity!

See where I’m going with this? That story’s been done. To death. It’s time for something different. Time to shake things up. The world needs know that this thing cannot be beaten. Prometheus Blue is coming and she won’t be denied.

That changes the whole dynamic of the story, don’t you think? We’re not going to focus on heroes launching into space to save us. If we truly know that it cannot be defeated, and we know that from the start, that changes everything. The reader’s entire perspective is different. This is not a last minute save-the-whole-damn-planet story. This is a human story, set in the future.

But I have to prove to you, the reader, that this is so. I know you. You’re still holding out some hope aren’t you? The Earth will prevail. People will figure it out. People will use the great science of the twenty-seventh century to save planet Earth.

No they won’t.

And I’m going to prove it to you. Right down to the atomic level. Next time.

Follow my journey as an aspiring author as I navigate the canyons fo the New York publishing world!

Follow me