Genre: Sci-Fi
Reviewer: Lucy
Story PDF (Free) | Stories Page | Living Starship Game Page
About The Book
Set in the POST GENDER science fiction universe of Living Starship, follow D’Trex Taree, an officer cadet in the Situdel Fleet Academy as they are given command of a small team of enlisted cadets. Their assignment on their first day of Zoology class seems simple, but not everyone is willing to work as a team. Will D’Trex manage the outing to the satisfaction of Academy instructors?
About the Pronouns:
Two of the major aspirations I hold for the Living Saga (comprised of the fantasy Living Empires, the superheroic Living Metropolis and the space opera Living Starship) is to realize a truly POST-GENDER fictional setting where culture and society did not develop in any way influenced by a person’s reproductive biology. Gender and gender expression therefor do not exist.
To that end, the English language needs some adjustment. In the Living Starship series I have chosen exclusively to use THEY/THEM/THEIR as singular pronouns. I have codified THEYZ/THEMZ/THEIRZ as exclusive plural pronouns. This also means that YOU/YOUR is singular and YOUZ/YOURZ is plural.
I am also experimenting with my own version of phonetic English. I am assembling an alphabet where every letter has ONE and only one sound. This means, for example, that the letter “C” has been excised completely since “K” and “S” cover the same sounds. You will also notice a lot of double vowels. These represent the traditional long sound of each vowel.
There are a number of other changes which you can peruse, if interested, on the Cheeky Dingo website (Living Starship Stories section – Language Primer). These new linguistic rules only apply to proper names of characters, locations, space stations, and starships.
The Review
At about thirty pages, Galactic Overtures #1 by Layman Kingsford is way too short for so much goodness.
The writing was excellent. The story flowed so well that I was at the end before I’d realized I’d even begun. I was intrigued by the world this story was set in and fascinated by the variety of characters.
This little teaser has me hooked for the complete story of D’Trex Taree and their career in the Situdel Fleet. I’m looking forward to more from this author.
The Reviewer
I’m an avid reader who loves pretty much all genres except math textbooks. As a kid, my parents exposed me to everything from fairies, hobbits, and dragons to the biographies of interesting people around the world, interspersed with poetry, plays, and music. Into adulthood, I spent a lot of years with my nose buried in various textbooks. Now, I read whatever grabs my fancy.
