The God Patent by Ransom Stephens: A Book Review

It is always hard for me to know how much of the plot and setting of a book to reveal in a review, so pardon me if I tiptoe a bit.

Last month, Ransom Stevens, who holds a Ph.D. in Particle Physics, came to speak to us at the Fremont Area Writers Club.  He spoke about his novel, “The God Patent“, addressing both how the book was written, and what processes he went through to get it published.  He was one of the more precise speakers we have enjoyed at our monthly club meetings. 

Image: http://www.thegodpatent.com

Stephens’ first novel, The God Patent, while being an excellent read, it is also, in my opinion, something of a textbook in getting a story across. 

Let me say that while I love to read, I am by far more critical of books, stories, essays, poems, songs and the like which are written by people I have met.  There is a bit of a mystique about a book and its author if you are removed from that person.  Nonetheless, I purchased the book at our club meeting and packed it away to read on my recent “vacation”.  I should also note that while I am a fan of religious fiction, this book really only touches on religion, but lives in its characters, the story line, and in physics.

The God Patent is the story of software engineer Ryan McNear, his struggle with past mistakes—one of which caused both divorce and the loss of contact with his teenage son—dealing with the law, and finding his way in a life that seems to have turned against him.

The book is peopled with colorful and believable characters—each strong and well-developed—which will captivate or enrage you in the way Stephens handles them.

The book is also about the development of a technical process which purports to use the “creation energy” God used in the making of the Universe as a mundane power source.  As the book develops, the questions of life, the soul, and the possibility of life after death are touched in a scientific way, one that will surely make the reader stop and think.

The idea of the book fascinated me, but I didn’t want to like it.  (See lame excuse above).  The fact is I fell into the book and found myself reading long after my eyes thought it was a good idea, late into the night.

Being a critical reader I kept trying to catch up Stephens with plot pieces, but every time I was sure I had it worked out, he yanked the rug out from under me.  At one point I was sure he had telegraphed the ending, and had set up to worm his way out of delivering what he had promised for at least the last third of the book.  Once again I was wrong.  Ransom Stephens delivered.

I don’t recall Stephens saying how many drafts he had to go through for this delightful book, but whatever labor it took to get it done, it was certainly worth it.

Daily Writing Challenge: What Can You Get Away With in Your Novel?

I often wonder how many of my fellow writers have gone through times of self-doubt.

I’m not referring to the kind of doubt you get about being good enough, about your craft being up to the challenge, but rather doubts about what you can… and cannot write about.

When I started writing, I was conceited enough to think it might be a bad thing to write a “perfect crime” on the off-chance someone might read it, and give the scheme a try.  I outgrew that notion when I realized how truly difficult it would be, and how impossible it would be to test a “perfect crime”.

Later I faced a certain trepidation about political correctness.  I reasoned that as a product of my culture and my time I had a responsibility to adhere to the mores and standard of my current society.  In other words, to stay away from saying things that would offend the reader.  What a pain!

How in the world could I make believable characters in a believable world, if they all sounded like me?  Get the drift? 

Image: http://www.psychologytoday.com

Of course the answer is you can’t.  If your characters can only sound like you, can only use your voice, your views, your habits…  how in the world—except for attribution tabs—could your reader tell one character from another?  Clearly they could not… or at least not without more work than a reader should have to do.

So, for me, at least, it came down to this: not all of my characters agree with the current standards of speech, behavior, religious or political thought, or… or just about anything.  They are, each of them, self-made (or at least as self-made as anyone can be), they each have their own foibles, belief systems, prejudices and notions.  They each understand—or misunderstand—their world, their country, their government, their homes, relationships, and themselves in their own way. 

Bottom line: that is what makes a character live.

We cannot be shy about letting our characters speak their minds.  A walk through a school yard, down a busy city street, through a mall, or anywhere public will inform you immediately that people speak their minds, and do so loudly, and often.   …and, lo and behold, some of what they say offends.  Even us.

Today’s challenge—you knew we’d get around to it, didn’t you?—is to experiment with the thoughts and speech of characters who do not think the way YOU do.  Do two, each a paragraph in length.  Stretch yourself.  Embarrass yourself if necessary, but get out of your own head for a bit, and into someone you have created to be different.

Your thoughts?

World Building: Revisited – Part 27

Continued from Part 26

New to this project: Start with Part 1

  Part 27: Superstitions

   If ever there was a creative playground for the writer of new worlds, it is superstition.

What fallacies do your people believe in?  Do they think there is such a think as luck?  How about fate?  Are their lives run by the stars?  Are they perhaps controlled by seasons or the migratory paths of the beasts of your world?

An important rule of thumb is that many common beliefs which have no apparent meaning or impact on people spring from a time when the belief system, no matter how facetious it might seem at the present-day, was based upon some fact.  In the series, “The Sword of Truth“, by Terry Goodkind, the people of the Midlands would not eat apples, because in the past there was a red, apple-like fruit that would kill.  I think of this as “original need” or “original truth”. 

Image: athenadreams.typepad.com

Keep this original need concept in mind as you create the superstitions of your people.  While there is no real need to explain the source of each of your peoples’ foibles, having a reason for such behavior can strengthen the “look and feel” of your world.  Also, don’t forget that you can actually use these origins in your story.  Imagine a school setting where a child asks why he must close his eyes when he first puts his foot into a river, for example.

Stories about the flaunting of superstition and getting away with it (or not) can liven up the mythos of your world.

What habits of superstition will you add to your world?  Some possibilities:

• The closing of the eyes before first stepping into moving water
• Asking a meal forgiveness for eating it
• Planting crops in the dark so the trickster in the sky won’t know to send his birds to eat the seeds
• Burning only candles and lamps which give off no smoke
• Pounding the ground to ward off earthquakes
• The killing of a village chief if the village is attacked by marauders

There is no apparent end to the possibilities for new superstitions.  Especially if you wave a lit match over your keyboard before you start to type.

Continued in Part 28

World Builder: Revisited – Part 25

Continued from Part 24

New to this project: Start with Part 1

  Part 25: Cosmology

   We’ve talked about how our people actually started life on our new world.  As day twenty-five begins, I want to discuss how our people think they started.  What your inhabitants say about how things began will certainly change as your race(s) mature.

Terrestrial history shows that Creation, or Cosmological Myths will occur very early in the history of a people.  As time goes by, these stories  split off or evolve, as people split off to form new communities, cities, and nations.  The further one group gets (geographically) from another, the greater the differences in creation stories.  It is not uncommon for a people to think of the creation of the Universe (assuming they see the stars as other suns and planets) as a macrocosm of the creation of themselves and their own world. 

Image: http://www.conspiracy-times.com

If you study the languages of earth, you will note that typically the first word for “people” is the word that a group calls itself.  This is also the seed from which grows separatism, the concept that one people, either by philosophy or physical characteristic,  is superior to another.  For, if “we” are people, then the  others, not being people must be creatures, and people are always superior to creatures.  Thus is born prejudice and racism—even if the other “races” are only different because of hair color or style, or because they live on mountains instead of in valleys.

How will your people envision the start of all things—especially of themselves?  Will they be a divine product?  Will they have “always been there”?  Will they be a happy accident on a cosmic scale?  Will your people believe they have a mission?  That they owe a creator for their existence?  That life is precious, or might life be like an evil bacteria that must be eradicated?

Presented here are some possible creations story lines.  You will notice a similarity with some of those of Earth:

• Our race came from the giant in the mountains who walks in storms and roars, shaking the ground
• In the beginning there was only water, and the spirit of our world needed a place to stand, and made the ground.  He made people to tend the ground.
• Our people came from the lightning that strikes a tree and makes fire.  We are cool fire and we consume the world.
• When our god opened his great eye after his long sleep, we came to be in his sight.

A search of the many creation stories of our own planet will reveal a plethora of ideas.

Understand this.  No matter how many stories of creation your world has, there is of course only one true one.   The true one is always the story believed in by the people you are speaking to at the moment.  When asked how a person knows his particular myth is true, the answer will always be something like, “it is apparent”, or “because I believe it.”

Continued in Part 26

World Building: What Makes Your People Tick? (Pt. 23)

Continued from Part 22 — Go to Part 1

New to this Project? Start with Part ONE

Once more I turn to writer and public speaker Kate Evans for the quote, “Character is built on desire, plot is built on obstacles”.

As you build your world and its peoples, you will want to think about what drives them.  Are your new people gregarious? Are they loners?  Do they marry?  Do they couple only to increase their population?  For that matter, is increasing the population even on their list of things to do?  Are they religious?  Do they follow strict traditions?  Are they adventurers?  Inventors?  Are they land-hungry conquerors?

Knowing the cultural history of your people will make a big difference when it comes to having them make decisions.  A person’s actions are typically driven by choices they have made in the past.  Will that be true with your new people?

Will the choices they make be logical, or a transparent attempt on the part of the writer to espouse a cause?  For example, will your people hesitate to burn forests or buildings because they fear that one day their skies will become polluted?  Or do they look for clean-burning fuels to propitiate a sharp-eyed god?  It is all too easy to allow our own agendas to seep through into our made-up world, but unless you are aiming for allegory, you may want to review the notion.  Instead, focus on what would be important to your new worlders, and why.

What drives your people?  What do they want?  Expansion?  Wealth?  A closer walk with their god?

What obstructs your people?  Neighboring, and hostile tribes?  Man-eating monsters?  A harsh climate or diminishing food supplies?

Knowing the answers to these questions before you start telling your story will make your story believable, powerful and compelling.

Continued in Part 24