The Guardians--A Novel

Consider the universe and a time far from now. Consider the Earth is nothing more than a legend like Atlantis, Mu, Eden, the Tower of Babel, and other lost civilizations that we can find little to no trace of—if they ever truly existed. Now consider mankind has populated alien worlds and started civilization again. What would these people be like?

In the modern world, we define ourselves by our ethnicity. This can be seen on every content in various degrees, but let us look at the United States for a moment. We do not just have Americans. We have African-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Arab-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Native Americans, Latino-Americans, Irish-Americans, Scot-Americans, French-Americans, German-Americans, Greek-Americans, and so many groups that I have lost count. Take a moment and reread that list. We hold onto and define a piece of ourselves by our ethnic backgrounds.

In the universe I described above, would such ethnicity be the same. Let me use an example: Would someone from then describe himself as “Russian-Mexican-Italian from Abraxas”? Remember, the Earth is long gone—would there be a “Russia”, “Mexico,” “Italy” or any other nation to draw upon, but in some lost legend. Obviously, the answer is no.

What would these people look like then? How would they draw upon their ethnicity? Obviously, this answer can never be truly answered in the real world, but it is the real world that can point to a possible answer. If we look at the human population and the genetics behind it and then consider the possibility of places like Babel, we can see that the human race would be mostly brown skinned with some other hues, brunette, and dark eyed. The genes behind other skin pigmentations would still be there and would appear—or so the evidence may suggest and it is this evidence that I am taking into account and using as a guide.

If you read this blog, please feel free to express your views on what a culture like this would look like,

Please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for more information on the articles, blogs, non-fiction books, stories, novels, and poetry I write.

Sit down across the restaurant table from a blind date or someone you met online. After the first awkward moments of introduction and the pleasant small talk is exchanged, the hardest part of the date begins: learning who the person you are sitting across from really is. Anyone who has gone on any date will recognize this process. The creation of characters is the same mental game of friendly chess. Some writers consider it to be a method on interview and interrogation of the character to learn what they are like.
Characters, like real people, have their secrets. We begin designing them and the story when we think we know who they are. Yet, I have often found that characters, like people you just met, do not want to reveal their secrets. So, the game of chess begins, as it would on a date, with friendly chatter and slow questions to open up the character and make them feel comfortable revealing themselves to the writer so they can be shared with the reader. The interview/interrogation process is not needed unless they raise a brick wall . . .then, as on a date, you begin to see under the façade and find out who they truly are.

I have been building the characters for The Guardians and have been discovering that my characters have more secrets than I have expected. This should make the further plotting of this novel fun and the writing of the character driven plot exciting.

Please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for more information on the articles, blogs, non-fiction books, stories, novels, and poetry I write.

The plotting proceeds with The Guardians and are on track so far to start the dictation draft to start November 1. As I start working on the characters I am learning that this book will likely be the start to a series. The story lines for The Guardians is being organically created from the characters and the theme. While the Guardians will explore loyalty, honor, duty, and exploitation of people, and slavery it’s main focus is on a single ethical question: “What is one man’s life worth?”

It is from that question that will drive the story along its course. Have you ever sat back and asked yourself what your life is worth? Many people do, though the question is often “why am I here?” Have you ever watched someone on the street or in any public location and wondered, “What is their life worth? What would the world be like if they had not come into being?” I realize how strange these questions may sound, and I believe you may have asked such questions of people before and never realized it. Do we not each think about history a little and ask what would the world be like if this historical person—let’s say Hitler, Napoleon, Lincoln, Caesar, Columbus, Di Vinci, Tokugawa Ieyasu, or if Emperor Gaozu of Han (Liu Bang )—had not existed, what would the world and the course of human history have been?

The theme of The Guardians does not go so grandiose, but looks at the value of the individual person who may not ever take the great stage in their world and yet effect everything around them. This is the question most people live with: What is the value of any one person’s life to the universe at large?

Please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for more information on the articles, blogs, non-fiction books, stories, novels, and poetry I write.

To borrow from a famous science fiction television show: “And so it begins . . . .” I have begun working on the plot line and the creation of the universe that “The Guardians” lives in. Strangely enough, as I begin to create civilizations, it is the human civilization that I am having the most concern about. The story set far in the future. Earth is a distant memory of man…almost like Eden or Atlantis may be to modern man. When I first started to name the human characters, I found myself naming them not too different from modern day people. This is not a bad thing, but it raised a question to my muse. Would cultural naming in the future be like today? A part of me wants to jump right out and say, “no, of course not. This is sci-fi and the future.” Another part of me, the historian, replies “if that is so, then why are cultural names so prevalent in modern nations like the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand…among many uncounted others that have been built on immigrants? Yet there are nations like Mexico, Philippines, Brazil, and many others where they have had a surnaming culture that has been changed from their original heritage.” What does that say about mankind?

Obviously our heritage and where our ancestors come from means something to us—an identity and a cultural connection to a community. Does this continue if we go to the stars? Maybe some future historian will point out the truth of that question. As for now, I am just playing with the possibilities of the question and what it may mean to the future culture of mankind.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates to my blogs, articles, stories, and poems I write.