Toward the topic: "Surviving an Apocalypse"

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Author's Commentary: "The Misfits"

I’d toyed with a few ideas for intergalactic voyages, and I suspect I’ll have another crack at that topic at some point. Nothing was jumping out at me, so I went for the Sci-Fi Sunday topic early this month. Enter the apocalypse, or an apocalypse anyway.

This has been done. Lots of times. This week probably. So I figured what I could do different is set the story in the Greater Battery, among my people, in their corner of the galaxy. I was pretty happy with the story that came out of it. This one’s a little patchwork, I have to say, but I like the patches. There are some common sci-fi tropes, but you can’t write a story every week and not ever draw on the traditions. Technically, all stories, all forms, these days, they all pull from tradition. Might as well honor the forms, be respectful, and let the story emerge.

Part of what I like about this story, tropey as it may be, is the idea of a gang of space rovers like these misfits. Part of what I was thinking is that this gang could have a lot of adventures together, and we could really get deeper into the characters if they recur every now and again (next week perhaps). So I was happy that they came out likable, and I think, multi-dimensional, and worth spending time with (I hope).

The apocalypse, I’m not sure I’ve seen exactly as such. It’s a bit of a play off of the grey goo type of nanotech gone wrong. And, of course, there are the real-world and biblical undertones, only substituting for locusts.

As far as the misfits go, I wanted them to each have their own types of troubles trying to re-integrate into normal life. This is tropey, too, of course, but a trope is kind of like a cliché in that way. It becomes a cliché because it communicates something effectively. Bebop, Guardians, Firefly, Star Wars, even Star Trek on a larger scale employ this trope as a core function of the stories they tell. That’s a lot of successful stories to think about that employ the gang of misfits finding a home on a spaceship wandering through the galaxy. In a way, they all come from Jason and Odysseus, who probably got their tales from older stories too. So I guess, I’m happy I finally got to the business of putting a band together!

Hopefully they come up with some cool, vibey adventures!

Thanks for reading!

Rowe