AI

My Jack Mack novels focused on AI and its use from the start (2021), and how my characters' lives fitted around the ubiquitous machine intelligences and robots. It's frightening to watch 'real life' catching up with and maybe surpassing what I was able to imagine.

I think the questions raised are as valid now as in my fictional future universe. Most importantly, can the line between man and machine ever be erased? As incredibly capable as the AIs in my books may be, they remain something other than human.

As for the combining of man and machine, that is a subject I have (wisely, I think) avoided, except for the sort of neural linkage that is required to pilot a jump ship. And that is not permanent. I just might introduce some mention of a pretty much universal condemnation of the concept (as did Herbert in 'Dune'). That, of course, would allow someone to break the rule and open up new plot directions.

Mission Delayed

I generated a simple (via LibreOffice) EPUB of the Jack Mack sci-fi novelette Mission Delayed. The plan is to someday include it in a longer book but for now feel free to download or read. This is a more domesticated Jack, a few years after the events in the novels.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DuRCa0vqSTaCWykXOXhf_br3ynQKgWbG/view?usp=drive_link

A Dim Distant Disclaimer

SPOILERS HERE — if you haven’t read DIM DISTANT STARS (and intend to), you might not want to read this post!

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A confession: when I began writing Dim Distant Stars, I had no idea which of his many female friends Jack McFee might end up with. Nor did I intend him to have made any decisions by the end. Vili — Princess Vilma Lempsen — remained the strongest contender. I did know Policewoman Veronika ‘Niki’ O’Toole would be taken out of the running.

The first thought there was that she would fall for Jack’s college friend, Father John Barbosa, and join him as a colonist. That felt clunky by the time I reached that point in the story. It would have added irrelevant narrative. So I simply said she had already emigrated, creating a sort of foreshadowing, and decided Anna Gallen would be the one to marry John and go off to a ‘new world.’ This way of removing her from contention seemed good until I was almost to the end of the book.

When a radical shift of direction presented itself — and I went with it. John is killed*, Jack proposes to Anna, she accepts. All tied up, no more doubt and indecision from our hero. About time! I’d always truly wanted the two to end up together but I just couldn’t see a clear route to it. This presented the perfect one.

He would never have been quite right for Vili anyway, would he? Jack would have been restless. Anna is the one woman with whom he can truly share his life.

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*A shocker for many readers, I’m sure. It even shocked me that I could treat such a sympathetic character so badly.

At the Store

Dim Distant Stars may now be purchased in print at our online store or go to arachispress.com for both print and free ebooks.

https://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/dim-distant-stars/paperback/product-5762kkg.html

Book Release Weekend

Dim Distant Stars, the third Jack Mack science fiction novel, will be officially released on Sunday, June 1 2025. Available at Arachis Press as print or free ebooks.

 

Islands

I think of the inhabited (by humans) universe of my Jack Mack novels as being like the Pacific before Europeans and all their technological advances arrived. Travel and trade passed among the scattered islands but they were too far-flung for anyone to rule over them. A king might occasionally unite an island or even a chain — as Kamehameha did in Hawaii — but anything more was impossible. The distances were just too great, the vessels too small.

So we have planetary systems, or small groups of them, more or less under one government, but often belonging to larger trading communities. The two largest mentioned in the novels are the Aiglean and Corvan associations, but there are smaller groups and many independent systems. All that was changing in Jack McFee’s time, hence the first widespread warfare between those trading groups.

It was, perhaps, inevitable that power would become more centralized eventually but advances in technology (as ever) hastened the process. For one, the advent of the Li Drive, the first interstellar jump drive that could work independently of human direction. This certainly increased both trade and exploration, as well as making warfare more feasible. Less important, though still a factor, was the development of the first truly practical pulse tube engines for normal travel through space (and elsewhere). Both these came along in the half-century before the birth of Jack and were changing the worlds in which he lived.

But ruling a galaxy-wide empire remained quite impractical, if not downright impossible. The strict size limit on interstellar ships definitely continued to play a role there, as did the random targeting of any jump into a system. What we do see is a general tightening of control, the trade communities becoming increasingly political and territorial. Some outlying groups, such as the Picans and the Ursans, come close to being pocket empires, engaging in outright annexations of some of their neighbors in the postwar chaos.

For the most part, the planetary systems remain relatively independent, even after the war, each going its own way. They remain connected by trade; that is inevitable but some systems are more engaged in this network of commerce than others. Yet there is a continuing push toward more centralization. I would suspect more wars, in time. Although the Scotian group is now officially neutral, it is likely to be drawn in, taking Jack with it.

I have attempted to include a variety of social, political, and economic systems for the many worlds of the Jack Mack novels. Some of that is a matter of the culture of those who settled there. Some is the result of economic forces. Humans, being imperfect, will never create a perfect system and are likely to continue to change and experiment. So Thule is essentially socialist and Scotia has — more or less — a market economy. That Thule was colonized by Scandinavians and Scotia largely (at first) by Canadians factors into this, but the challenges faced in both worlds played their roles. Scotia was a far friendlier environment and did not require the regimented approach to survival that Thule did.

Other worlds, of course, present a wide array of economic and political systems we might explore in sequels. Resnovae, for example, which is ruled by a human aristocracy with robot serfs. And beyond the handful of worlds humans know and inhabit? Who can say what might be out there on those unknown islands?

Dominic Flandry

Dominic Flandry, Poul Anderson’s secret agent of the far future Terran Empire, first appeared in 1951 in ‘Planet Stories.’ That puts him before James Bond, but the two arose from the same Cold War era and share many characteristics.

There is undoubtedly something of Flandry in my Jack McFee, protagonist of the three Jack Mack novels. As a teen, I read most of Anderson’s stories (there are quite a few) of him. Sure, there’s a bit of James Bond, too, but Jack is a much glibber and less serious sort than either, and more inclined to shoot off his mouth than his gun. One can find many examples of that type in literature, as well.

I could name, for example, Peter Whimsy or Simon Templar, except I had read neither when I first started with Jack. One might go to other science fiction authors, such as Vance or Zelazny, to find some of my inspirations. One could also look at Tom Jones for Jack’s relationship — or relationships — with women. The opposite sex likes him and he is rather too willing to reciprocate.

Yet remain detached. That is Jack McFee’s big flaw — every decent protagonist has one, you know. Without it, he would be something akin to a ‘Mary Sue,’ the character that is too competent to be true. He seeks that elusive connection to another, even while, perhaps, sabotaging it. At the end of the third Jack Mack novel, ‘Dim Distant Stars,’ he may have finally succeeded — or at least made a step in the proper direction.

I was just rereading that first Flandry story, ‘Tiger by the Tale.’ As most of Anderson’s work, it is written well enough to rise above the mediocrity of the average writer. It is really ‘science fantasy’ in the Burroughs vein. Definitely not ‘hard’ science fiction! Poul Anderson was really better at fantasy than SF, overall, and his best work (in my humble opinion, of course) often combines the two. He is also pretty much to thank (or blame) for creating the Chaos versus Order duality explored later by Moorcock and Zelazny and various lesser lights.

Some of the Dominic Flandry stories are available free from Project Gutenberg, as well as other Poul Anderson work. Maybe you’d like to take a look — but don’t forget my tales too! Available at Arachis Press in print or as free ebooks.

Robots

Inevitably, any science fiction writer who tackles the subject of robots is going to be influenced by Isaac Asimov. I have both respected that fact and attempted to distance myself from his creations in my Jack Mack novels.

No robot of Jack’s worlds has the sort of mental capacity displayed by Asimov’s more advanced versions. This is not to say there are not exceedingly powerful artificial intelligences but they can not be housed in a human-sized machine. Rather, the most capable are often spread out over a network, be it in a space ship or a building. They are also likely to be interconnected with a number of other intelligences of varying capabilities.

It is necessary for sophisticated AI’s to have an identity. Without a sense of who they are, they tend to break down ‘mentally.’ Thus, most reasonably advanced robots are gendered. Top-tier intelligences also tend to bond with a particular human and take on some of their personality traits. Once those are embedded in their psyche (so to speak), they will remain with them after the human has gone. Steward, aka Stewie, who runs things at Summit Up, carries over the personality imprint of Jack’s great-grandfather, with all his fussiness and a bit of a snobbish attitude.

Whether an AI can actually be snobbish is another question. Perhaps Stewie simply imitates the deceased Barry McFee. No one can say, including the AI himself.

Robots are fairly ubiquitous on Jack McFee’s home planet of Scotia. They do not quite constitute a ‘peasantry’ as on some worlds, such as Resnovae, but they do a good bit of the menial work. On other planets, there is less reliance on robots and AI, but they are found pretty much everywhere man has gone. This is one reason people emigrate to the ‘new worlds’ from those like Scotia that have been long settled; there is a dearth of meaningful work for them as machines take over more chores.

Hands-on work, that is, which humans do need. Sitting to manage a fleet of robots is unlikely to be fulfilling. It is to be noted that security still has a strong human component to it. AIs are notoriously bad at replacing police and military, prone to blunders and misunderstandings.

I have chosen not to make robots and artificial intelligence central to any of my stories of Jack McFee, but they are very much a part of the world-building. They also raise questions on the whole concept of consciousness; that is also something I have touched upon from time to time. But, of course, I can’t actually answer those questions. I can only pose them and provide some thoughts.

Frontera

The planet named Frontera is mentioned a total of five times in ‘Dim Distant Stars,’ as the future posting of Father John Barbosa when he finishes his education in planetology. A few details are dropped, mostly that it has an orange sun and has only begun the long process of terraforming. Father John is to play a role in that.

The name is unimportant. I lifted it from a book on Mexico I happened to be reading — it is a city in the north of the country. The choice is of no importance to the plot, except to suggest the culture of its settlers. It may be noted, however, that ‘Frontera’ is the title of a science fiction novel by Lewis Shiner, that was somewhat successful when published several decades ago. I probably knew the book existed but I doubt it had any influence on my choice of a planetary name.

Incidentally, John Barbosa hailed from a world named Juvelo, a word I lifted from Esperanto and meaning jewel or gem. But there’s also a little wordplay there, as it also sounds similar to words for young or juvenile in both Spanish and English (and, of course, John’s native language, Lingo). So maybe a young world. There are a lot of those in Jack’s day, and more being settled all the time.

House

Here's a little excerpt from Dim Distant Stars to whet your appetites for the June First release. House, as those who have read the previous Jack Mack novels will know, is an advanced AI that runs things in Jack McFee's ancestral home.

 

Completed Manuscript

I have a completed and fairly well edited draft of Dim Distant Stars (the third Jack Mack novel), at just under 56,000 words. There was a totally unplanned change near the end that radically changes the ‘ongoing story’ of Jack McFee. I’m good with it. No need to drag things out through sequels as it ties it all up nicely.

This is not to say there won’t be sequels! But they can move in new and interesting directions now. For one thing, no more need to chase after women. Yes, he decided on the one he truly loves. You may guess what you wish about that but I’ll reveal no spoilers. You’ll just have to read DDS when I and Arachis Press release it.

When? Oh, maybe in May? Certainly by June. We’ll see!