The Guardians--A Novel

At the time I am writing this blog, I am excited to report that the first draft of The Guardians has been written and is in the drawer waiting for the second draft to start, which should be in a few weeks.

As I discussed in a previous blog entry, The Guardians has as an undercurrent to the plot the interaction of four races that are alien to each other. Last week I addressed the Howkian. This week, let us explore the Calicans. The Calicans are a feline race based upon the question of “what would have happened if Ancient Egypt never fell to the Romans and had somehow managed to survive into the space age?” I realize, with the ebb and flow of history that the odds would have been against it. But, this is science fiction, and I am the author of the story—which makes me ‘God’ in their universe, so—I win.

The Calicans are far from the first feline race to travel in the stars in a sci-fi universe. Nor is the connection to the ancient land of the sun a new concept to apply to them. However, usually the people are somehow tied up to the ancient civilization as if it never evolved. Regardless if evolution exists, a society must evolve to continue on into the future or wither on the vine and die.

The Calicans were an ancient race that explored space, grew their empire, and sought the knowledge of all they met. After a great war and invasion by a race that is only mentioned (and thus will not be presented in a blog until a different novel) the Calicans form an alliance with the Howkians and humans—forming a Commonwealth.
The trouble I have had with writing this race has been twofold: How not to just have the Calicans be a fictional race moving in the wrapping of an ancient mummy and how to make the character speak uniquely and behave in a feline fashion while still being understandable to the reader. The solution I took was a cheat. I put it off to tackle on the next draft. However, I have made my notes as I wrote and think I know how I will pull it off.

So why Ancient Egypt? And why a cat race? The answer is because of even in modern day, the Egyptians treat their cats like a sacred creature. The other reason is that they made more than one of their ancient gods to be human-feline hybrids. Seeing those statues and thinking in a sci-fi frame of mind, it is easy to picture such an alien race.

In my love of history, the Calicans are a salute to one of the first and great civilizations of mankind.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on the blogs, stories, poems, and articles I write.