Remember, it’s NOT MIL SF

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Why am I doing this? Because I made a pretty and I want to share. I’m SORRY. (Also, because, to be bluntly honest, my brain is still not up to working)

I couldn’t get it to do bagpipes. Or rather, I could, but the clanker thinks “bagpipes” means “jaunty, happy tune.” SIGH.

Anyway, look, it’s my world, and I love showing it off. And aren’t the tools AMAZING?

THIS is the relevant part of the first chapter:

When I woke two weeks later, they told me that Father was dead, but I already knew.

I wore the blue uniform with the half-cape once more, on a freezing winter day, in blowing snow, as I stood in the family cemetery next to the Earl’s palace of Aeris, and watched Father’s coffin lower into the grave, while space force captains and countless infantry stood at attention, wedged awkwardly between statues of angels and spacemen, of kings and imperious women holding aloft wreaths of victory.

There, in a deep hole, they buried what remained of the most important person in my life to that day.

When it was done, they let loose a twelve-cannon salute, Earth cannons, the kind not used in battle since Old Earth. Then a military band played the sweet, haunting “Home of the Spacer,” consigning Father’s memory to the stars.

I stood at attention there, and then I stood beside Mother and received the condolences of a grateful Empire. The Queen herself, with frost-blued fingers, pinned the Wreath of Valor upon my chest, the big one, in gold, with the replica of the first colonizing ship in the middle.

I removed it after the funeral. And then I removed my uniform. I sent my resignation to Her Majesty.

And then I lost myself in the fleshpots of New London, the Empire’s capital city.

UPDATE: Of course, my husband made me do this, because he says they’ll need this kind of high flung ideals to see them through when everything goes wrong. (This is Strains of Earth, and it’s only referred to in part three when Skip is contemplating his own funeral.)

And THIS is a bit of an inside joke, which those who read the first volume might or might not get, since Skip’s self-threats in internal dialogue get more outrageous as the story goes on. No, no. it’s REALLY not that kind of book. BUT son found this hilarious, because of the hyperbolic, impossible threats, and husband finds it hilarious because of earnest guitars, so you’re stuck with it. (And I’m not fixing the sword. What, you think I’m made of credits?)

33 thoughts on “Remember, it’s NOT MIL SF”

      2. “… I shouldn’t be playing with clankers, but…”

        Play is a well-known helpful and healing activity, even among adult hunter-mammals like humans and felines and canines. It should not be minimized and “dissed” overmuch, at least not ideally.

        And, promotion, and guerrilla marketing, and (most of all) fun!

        Liked by 3 people

  2. Saw it when it came across my YT feed earlier. Nice!

    Although if you ever get it to render bagpipes properly it would be epic

    (Still waiting for Vol 2 and 3 to drop into my Kindle before starting to actually read it)

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  9. Part 2 didn’t show up, so I looked and went to the Content Library (which I always have to do, since the old Kindle gets a copy I can read when I’m in town or traveling) and did the downloads.

    I’m thrilled with the timing; just finished Holly Chism’s Soul Inheritance last night, so there’s nothing in the partially read queue–AKA Purgatory and/or Limbo for eBooks.

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  10. Now this is interesting, remarkable, fun — and really pretty good (once one gets past all the rather inevitable AI-glitches, but of course it’s that or nothing so allowances must be made; not exactly a Hollywood budget here). Most of all, fun!

    It’s also positively Kipling-esque. And here I have in mind largely the ‘extras’ associated with some publications / incarnations of ‘As Easy As ABC’ — which include not only the complete lyrics to “Macdonough’s Song” as mentioned in the text (one even meets Pat Macdonough), but also such ‘grace notes’ as rather well-done advice columns and advertisements from the future timeline in which this story (and I think ‘With The Night Mail’ too) is set.

    Neat!

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    1. So, the animation could be much better than this, but it would require me to get the $600 a month membership, which is not justifiable unless I win the lottery and also to spend 3x the time doing it. The time might come, but I have books to write.

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      1. Clankervid is getting so darned close. Clanker voice acting is to the point I would not want to be counting on voice acting income from here on, and the musical stuff is pretty darned good, though I haven’t heard anything symphonic that’s impressive so far.

        The only thing it’s nowhere close to is writing the words, especially dialog.

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  11. Book 2 ordered!! /where is it, it should be here already. why is it not in my hands?? Oh yea, because otherwise I’d be a zombie for the next 3 days as I stay up until it’s almost time to get up.

    The amount of sleep you keep taking from me lady, ugh. Some writing I can put down, this story goes into the “Read only at the start of a long weekend.” list. And there’s the fridge family, It’s “Somebody Else’s Problem To Cook”

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  13. Instrument issues and weird AI guy posing aside, my only real “complaint” is that for anthems they seem a little on the longish side. Most real world anthems are 2 minutes or less. But they are cool and I’d love to hear real people sing them one day

    Not me, though. Can’t sing. Definitely can’t do bagpipes.

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