As we enter the final 24 hours of the polls I though it might be worth saying a few words about the leading genres. At the moment its looking like a two horse race. The leading four places are:
And interestingly each of these brings to mind a single literary figure (E.E. 'Doc' Smith, Jules Vernes, Alexandre Dumas, and Susanna Clarke). I can't help wondering if its this easily graspable narrative that makes these genre popular, whilst other genre that don't immediately suggest a genre lag behind.
E.E. "Doc" Smith style Space Opera immediately suggests Smith's two seminal series the Lensman series and the Skylark series. I read the lensman series several times a long time ago. I've read parts of the Skylark series but not the whole series. Smith had a doctorate in chemistry and attempted to make the 'science' in his books accurate. Unfortunately he didn't read beyond his field and appeared to have a limited knowledge of physics (and definitely never considered the impact of general relativity on his science). His works are touched however with an impressive knowledge of early twentieth century munitions and explosive, a good understanding of traditional tactics and an ability to extrapolate how things might develop.
Smith's works are a product of the era they were produced in. They are extremely pulpy, but despite an inherent belief that man will always overcome adversity it is always better arms which win the day. Most of Smith's book boil down to an arms race resulting in increasingly apocalyptic weapons. In addition by today’s standards Smith's works seem some what sexist - but at the time Smith was extremely open minded. He's been quoted as saying he believed that men and women were "equal, but different," however in his books woman always take stay at home role. His only two strong fame characters in the Lensman series are Virgilia Samms who always seems to need the protection of men, and Clarrissa MacDougall who showed her status as the most evolutionarily advanced woman the human race would ever produce by becoming a nurse and staying at home to pine for Kimball Kinnison.
In trying to capture Smith's works as a campaign setting I would first try to capture the fast fun pulpy feeling. In addition in Smith's works there is no moral ambiguity. People are either good or evil. They may be spies, but at heart they are all white or all black. Further more both the incorruptible and the completely corrupt people should be bigger than life characters. As such I need to ensure the setting has no shades of grey and the main characters need to be huge men of steel characters with abilities well beyond normal men. Finally Smith's settings are all about the technology and the weapons. Big buzz bars carrying huge amounts of energy and enormous machines should dominate. Everything in a Smith universe should be big, and the weapons should be over powered.
Victorian Undersea Adventure all stems from the work of Jules Verne. Verne actually only wrote one novel involving the submarine Captain Nemo the Nautilus - 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' (1870), although the final fate of Captain Nemo is mentioned in 'The Mysterious Island' (1874). The most famous version of Captain Nemo is the 1954 Disney Nemo, and it would be a huge mistake not to use this in my source material. This movie has two sequels - Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969), The Return of Captain Nemo (1972) which have little to do with Verne's work, but are interesting (if rather flawed) additions to the Victorian Undersea adventure genre. There are also some interesting genre animations including the Japanese anime series 'Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water', and Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, although it could be pointed out this film is set 11 years to late to be considered Victorian Undersea adventure and is actually early Elizabethan. Whatever the case, the feel is right.
This genre is again dominated by the environment and a sense of exploring the unknown. In many ways it is a precursor to the Sci-Fi cliché of people trapped in a claustrophobic vessel that provides their soul protection from the dangerous environment they are exploring. To capture the atmosphere there should be the excitement of mad explosive action when things go wrong, combined with growing the growing threat of inter-crew hostilities as the environment forces pre-existing tensions to the fore. The dangers here are both the environment / nature and the very crew themselves. This is a much more human story than the E.E.Doc Smith story, yet again the machines are pretty significant central characters in their own right - the Nautilus dominated Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, whilst the Ulysses dominated Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It could also be a difficult game to capture correctly, since living antagonists are always much easier to get players invested in, than natural terrors.
Then there is the question of undersea cities. Jules Verne didn't feel this was really necessary for his story, but since his time Undersea cities have almost become central to any Undersea adventure - and as almost invariably called Atlantis. I'm tempted to push for one so I can add 'The Spy who Loved me' to the research list. Its one of the only two Roger Moore bond films I'd rate in the top 10 Bond films (the other is 'Live and Let Die').
I'd say a little about Musketeer Swashbuckling and Napoleonic-era fantasy too but I'm running a little short of time, so I won't. Anyway I haven't read any of Susanna Clarke's work yet. 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' was delivered on Tuesday at the same time as 'Small Favour' so its second on my to read list, but I'm already up to chapter 18 in Small Favour and the weekend is approaching.
To be honest it does look like a two horse race now, so I think well either get our Space Opera or our Undersea adventure.
