"World Building From the Inside Out" by Janeen Ippolito

Publisher: Independently Published

Copyright: 2018

ISBN: 9781983788321

This is the third book on world building that I’ll be reviewing, as I am currently doing research on the various methods authors use to do their work, and see if there are any major similarities and/or differences.

This book for the most part serves as a relatively handy reference on world building. Ms. Ippolito wrote this book because of a mistake she says in the introduction. She had a lot of experience in world building due to a background in anthropology and teaching, but neglected the plot and characters. She concluded that she was “missing the cultural worldview”. Which in my opinion is something that is very important, as that is what motivates characters, gives them a reason for what they do, etc.

The book is short at only 60 pages, and Ms. Ippolito describes it as “a quick primer to get you to the core of your story world’s cultures”.

She briefly talks about such things as religion, government, societal structure, technology, health medicine, the military and education to name a few. However, as of these topics are addressed within approximately five pages, the text resembles a list of semi-detailed definitions. But having said that the definitions are extremely useful, and likely not something most writers think about. The author’s experience in anthropology is quite evident, and this is where most of her sources seem to be based, which is a good plan as it is the study of humans, and until we meet some aliens that is what we have to base things on.

A very handy reference to get an author thinking outside of the box with regard to their world building activities.

"The Minervan Experiment" by James P. Hogan (1940-2010)

Publisher:   Garden City, N.Y. : Nelson Doubleday
Copyright:  1981

The Minervan Experiment is the collective title of a trilogy consisting of "Inherit the Stars", "The Gentle Giants of Ganymede", and "Giants' Star".

The first of the three novels revolves around a first contact situation, however with a bit of a twist. The first contact occurs on the moon, during a surveying expedition, when the work crew finds the mummified remains of an astronaut from 50,000 years ago. The first book in the series takes this as its starting point how goes on to explain the methods used to determine how the astronaut got there, where he came from, and why he looks so human.

The second book in the series follows directly from the first, and mainly concerns itself with the discovery on Jupiter's moon Ganymede of a crashed alien spacecraft that has been trapped in the ice for 25 million years. The investigation of this craft occupies approximate the first third of the book, but things take an unexpected turn when a ship full of the same aliens whose skeletal remains were found on Ganymede show up. The remainder of the book goes on to give a fairly good examination of how humans might actually interact with aliens (it does however involve humans that have evolved beyond the petty jealousies, political rivalries, and military stupidity that is present in the world today). Towards the end of this book the aliens, leave earth bound for what they hope is the new world where their descendants now live.

The third book is a little harder to briefly sum up, as it looks at the ramifications of how humans, and the aliens from book two interact with each other when a third party which is hostile to earth makes itself known (this isn't the best way to describe what happens, but I don't want to give away too much). This book does show that Mr. Hogan has done his research on politics and the military and I feel gives a good representation of how these groups might actually think.

I've read this trilogy quite a few times, and find it to be very enjoyable. The characters are very well written, and you can easily identify with the types of people they are. Good characterization is definitely the sign of an accomplished writer. I can remember what attracted me to this series originally when I first bought "Inherit the Stars" way back when, and that was the cover art which showed two astronauts digging up a skeleton in a space suit. I'd read some of Mr. Hogan work before but not much as this was one of his early books.

One anachronism that I found rather interesting in the series is that virtually everybody drinks and smokes. But when you take into account that the stories were written in the late 70s and early 80s, when smoking was more prevalent than it is today this is understandable, but still it does tend to stand out, at least in my mind.

Recommended to those readers who like science in their science fiction, as well as a good mystery as well.

"The A-Zs of Worldbuilding: Building a Fictional World From Scratch" by Rebekah Loper

Publisher: Tulsa, Oklahoma: Fantasia Hearth Press

Copyright: 2017

ISBN: 9780692850558

This is the second book on world building that I’ll be reviewing, as I am currently doing research on the various methods authors use to do their work, and see if there are any major similarities and/or differences.

As the title indicates this book deals with 26 topics on the subject of world building. I felt some of the choices of topics assigned to the various letters were a little odd, and some readers may not know what the terms she uses mean until they look them up, but the author does give very good information in all the sections.

Some of the topics covered include architecture, birth, clothing, death, economy, geography, and history. One nice feature about all these various topics is the author gives exercises composed of a series of questions / prompts at the end of each chapter as an assist for writers in building their worlds.

In some cases their are significant areas of crossover such as M is for Military, and W is for Weapons and Warfare, and I feel these two sections could easily have been combined. This also goes for A is for Architecture, and I is for Interior Design.

None of the chapters in this book are overly long, with the average being 3 to 4 pages, with generally more pages in the exercises section mentioned above (as it is laid out workbook style with room for writing). I believe it would have given potential authors more information if Ms. Loper had gone into more detail in the various sections, but for a quick reference guide, or for a novice author that is just getting into world building it is adequate.

I found this book to be quite helpful in my research, and would recommend it to anyone interested in world building.

"The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" by Robert A.Heinlein (1907-1988)

Publisher: New York: Berkley Books
Copyright: 1986
ISBN: 0425093328

"The Cat Who Walks Through Walls” (whose name happens to be Pixel) is the fifth book in the World as Myth series by Heinlein. It starts out as a mystery with a murder, but gets quite involved from that point on.

The murder itself take place in a restaurant, across the table from Dr. Richard Ames, who was waiting for his wife to come back to the table. The soon-to-corpse had sat down at the table uninvited to ask Ames if he would murder somebody for him. What follows is a chase that essentially takes up 2/3 of the book, as everybody it seems wants to kill Ames, but nobody knows why-especially Ames. Ames also doesn’t know why the man was killed at his table, why the body was disposed of so quickly, and a host of other questions.

While Ames and his wife are busy trying to escape a few more attempts are made on their lives, and this deepens the mystery even more, to make an interesting tale that will easily entertain.

As was the case in “The Number of the Beast" we are introduced to the world of as myth scenario approximately 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through the book, and this is where things get slightly confusing as the whole storyline behind the world is myth system is the time travel works, and you can visit alternate universes at the same time. This is something that those of you who read “The Number of the Beast” would have been introduced to.

When reading the series it is best to start with “Methuselah's Children" then go onto "Time Enough for Love", and finally “The Number of the Beast" before tackling this book or a lot of the references will not make any sense whatsoever as a lot of the characters in the other books appear in this novel, and they help to explain things. In addition scenarios that previously encountered in the other novels appear in this one as well to form part of the backstory.

Surprisingly though Pixel himself or herself (I don't believe it says) doesn’t play a big role in this novel, but still it’s a good linking feature.