Advanced Technology and Timetravel

[Raziel]

I am forming this world and the more I see of it the more 'post-apocalyptic' it becomes. I'm posting here because I'm actually looking for advice on research. There will be advanced technology for sure maybe even teleporting devices, and a machine the government wants to use for a timetravel experiment. I'm really just posting a question about research.

So my question would be how/where should I go to research these things that aren't even around? What are some good authors that bring very complex plots together coherently?

I've played some games recently that have helped, Fallout 3 for example, amazing and brilliant, gave me much to work with. I'm really using todays technology as a template for what we might be around later in a 'not too distant' future. I've also found much insiration in the 'Dark Tower' series by sai King. Any input would be much appreciated.

All the best,
Raziel

 

[Elder the Dwarf]

Don't know about your first question, but as for complex plots the most complex plot I know of would be in A Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin. He ties it all together brilliantly.

 

[Solomon Tan]

Time traveling? That is a neat idea. So, your stories are going to be more sci fi than fantasy, yeah?

Actually, if you look at shows like star trek or Star wars, they didn't know what the future will hold, and yet technologies are evolving towards their views on how future is about.

I dare say that you can just read up on certain technologies that are under development or had been around but needs improvements for better use. One idea you can look at are those robots that are created to so called help humans in their work. Japan is pretty advanced on that, but still, it lacks some agility.. Maybe you can look into it, and think of something that you can write on.

Japan also had this invention that are supposed to help people with paralysis to walk using hydraulic legs attached to the side and using the person's brain activities to assist in walking. Maybe that could be a technology that allows humans to walk around in heavy steel armor, like those in Fallout 3.?

Hope it helps.

 

[Ravana]

So my question would be how/where should I go to research these things that aren't even around? What are some good authors that bring very complex plots together coherently?l

Read science fiction.

For a somewhat shorter task: Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible might be a good place to start. He's a physics professor with a good handle on communicating with lesser being (i.e. those of us who can't hack the math ). In addition to several books of this nature, he has weekly syndicated radio shows and appears regularly on television–everywhere from the Science and Discovery Channels to standard news spots and Letterman.

I tend to harbor fairly strong prejudices against stories using time travel–inasmuch as it's inherently paradoxical. Which probably sounds a bit odd coming from someone who's an avowed Doctor Who fan. The difference, I think, is that the show uses time travel simply as "travel": it almost universally avoids anything that would involve altering history–and most times it doesn't, the Doctor is trying to prevent, not cause that… and the few times he's broken that rule, it's turned out a disaster for him. However, there are a couple good SF stories concerning the implications of time travel I can point you toward: Fritz Leiber's short story collection Changewar and the related novel The Big Time (I'd start with the shorts, especially "Try and Change the Past"), and Robert A. Heinlein's "–All You Zombies–" Especially the Heinlein; I think I could have been perfectly content if that had been the last time travel story ever written.

Teleportation… meh. Just say they can do it and move on. Trying to explain it will probably only give you a headache, without adding anything for the reader.

Complex plots? Look for anyone who's written a book more than 500 pages long that's still being read three decades later. More seriously, though: David Brin (SF again), particularly Startide Rising, the Uplift War, and Sundiver (all of which are related, but can be read independently), Earth and Kiln People. C. J. Cherryh (still SF): Downbelow Station; should you get into that, start looking for the various related novels, of which there are too many to list.

Or, for fantasy, Steven Brust–who manages plots every bit as intricate as the above in the space of a short novel… thirteen times and running (the "Vlad Taltos" series: start with Jhereg or Yendi, the first two written, to get the main characters well-introduced; after those, publication order doesn't necessarily match event order, though in most cases it won't matter too much). He's also done it a few times with longer works; save those until you fall in love with the world (the "historical" Dragaeran novels consciously imitate/parody the style of Alexandre Dumas… which is absolutely hysterical, but not the best entry into his writing). He's also done it once with historical fiction–in a collaboration, no less, with Emma Bull: Freedom and Necessity, set in the mid-1800s, with a few "fantastic" elements thrown in.

 

[Raziel]

Just want to say thanks for all the input, the library will be seeing alot of me in the next few weeks. I had to chuckle a little when you each mentioned something that I'm a fan of. I have loved star wars since I was a child and Dr Who is just great storytelling, and strangest of all I do have that book by Michu. At least I know I'm on the right track with what I'm trying to accomplish. Thanks again, in the time between my research I'll be sure to check out some things you all might need help or input with and maybe in the process return the favor.


All the best,
Raziel

 

[JCFarnham]

As much as I hate to drop links like this ... If you're looking for help in regards to SF then you might want to take a look at the top link in my signature.

Any way not wishing to derail this, the best way to write complex plots? As others have said you should read them. Of course that alone might not be enough, what you need to do is read and then REFLECT on it. Even there after it's a issue that can only be solved by practice. The best advice I can think of is to write something WAAAY out of your comfort zone in terms of complexity, I mean, even if it fails you'll still have something to polish up and work on, or at least something you can look at to identify its weaknesses.

Other SF novels for complexity of plot ... Iain M Banks' novels tend to have a number of plot threads per book. And then there's John Meaney's Ragnarok triology (which has yet to be completed); and I have yet to figure out where Meaney's triology is going, but slowly and surely a couple of thread have drawn together ... just in time for the end of the book! (infruriating no?)

The only research you can really do for a Post-Apocalyptic might be social (in my opinion): Perhaps you could look into given reasons for wars in the past then see what happens in your own world when you exaggerate those causes? For your technology to be believeable, extrapolation is the key. Though depending on how Post-Apoc you are going you might find it will have a baring on the technology you include. What KIND of apocalypse we're talking about would also have a baring. Like ... the out right fall of government and collapse of the economy might put severe limits on who has access to technology.

As long as you read around I'm sure you'll be fine, but there is no subsitute for just writing