Review: World-Building by Stephen L Gillett

When approaching a book about writing, oftentimes the quality doesn't matter as much as what you are looking for in the book.  If you are a more experienced writer a book designed to help someone write their first novel might only contain a few helpful tidbits among all the other things that you already know.  Of course, that's kind of the point: that book is designed for someone in a different situation than you.  That's okay.

However, when you're looking at a book on a topic in writing that you're interested in, it probably isn't the most comforting thing in the world to think, "Hey, this book might be too elementary for me, but that's my fault, so if I waste money and time on it, I can't really complain."

So when I heard about World-Building by Stephen L Gillett, I poked around and did my research before going any further.  I discovered that the book is several decades old and, yes, I even found a writer complaining that the book was too elementary for her.

In fact, she said, "as a writer whose already put out one title and has another written, I think I have a lot of experience fleshing out a story than most people who are just starting out" and eventually gave the book a three star review.

Generally speaking, that's a warning flag.  But as someone who wants to write good sci-fi and often feels way out of their depth with some of the world building elements, I decided I would give it a shot.

After reading each of its 175 pages of content (not including the tables and sources compiled at the end), I have to say that was a really good decision.  See, the book isn't about world-building in the sense that a lot of people use it, but rather it is about the actual, literal process of designing a planet.

Perhaps that gives you the first hint if this is the sci-fi book you're looking for.  Is your book set on earth, but in a dystopic future?  This book is not for you.

I'm not sure what elements the author I previously quoted learned while writing her novel set in Victorian England that would give her a leg-up on writers approaching this book.  Perhaps the quality of Earth's star was a primary element of her story--I don't know.

But what I found in this book was not tips on how to "flesh out a story," but helpful equations dealing with geology, physics, and astronomical sciences.  Chapters are dedicated to the implications a star can have on the worlds orbiting it or the effect a different degree of axial tilt will have on seasons.

As for the age of the book, the fact that it is twenty years old should probably be taken into account as well.  A lot of the books he references are rather dated by this point, and at the end of the book he even includes a table where he lists Pluto as a planet (before I am murdered for implying that Pluto isn't a planet, or people make jokes about ruining your childhood, here is a great video from one of the internet's most interesting content-creators on why Pluto is not a planet.)

If you are looking to design a realistic science-fiction universe, this might be helpful to you, but I doubt it will be the only book you will read on the subject.  Other topics, like the biology and sociology of alien races or the ramifications of space travel, are covered in other books in this series, all of which are edited by sci-fi writer, Ben Bova.

And on the topic of the editing, I do have to comment that a better job could have been done.  In the second chapter there are a number of mistakes in the facts given about the distances of planets and stuff along those lines, which do make me kind of doubt the other facts given within the book.  So even the interesting things I have learned I will be sure to double-check before mentioning in a book of my own, which makes aspects of the book a hard sell.

However, over all I think the question of whether or not this book is worth your time depends entirely on what you are looking for within the book.  If you have no plans of writing sci-fi on a different world, you will be disappointed by this book.  It does not have fun tips for writing or even details on creating other races that might come in handy with other genres.

It is about exactly what the title says: building worlds.

If that does not interest you, or you take the stance that sci-fi is just fantasy in space, this book might not be for you.  However, if you are looking to make sci-fi worlds that stand up against most scrutiny, then this book just might be for you.

What writing books have been the most helpful to you?  Tell me in the comments.  Who knows?  Maybe they'll end up being reviewed here in the future.

Rock On

Once upon a time, in a previous life, I launched a blog here on Blogspot.  It was called "A Deeper, Darker Ocean Green" and I used it to talk about just about anything I thought was mildly interesting.  I had a lot of fun with it, and then it sort of fell apart, and then suddenly it ceased to exist.

That ceasing to exist was a very good thing.

The title came from one of my favorite videogames of all time, Alan Wake, and the poem that occurred at the start of it.  When I started using the blog for more personal stuff, and posting my own writing, I didn't want it to seem like a fanblog for Alan Wake, even though that game is fantastic, so I switched the title to something that escapes my memory right now, but that was shortly before I deleted the whole thing for good.

Now I'm back.  And so I needed a new name.  Why did I pick The Temple that Rocked?  Well, once again, because I lack any sort of creativity, I decided that necessitated a reference in the title.  But this one is more obscure, so I feel more comfortable using it.

Basically, I looked at a song that I think embodies my life as a creative person, and took a line from it and twisted it.  That line came from Five Iron Frenzy's Litmus, and goes like, "I heard your yelling above the crowd/standing in the back with the arrogant and proud/you say preach, they said rock/you put my God inside a box."

One of the many sins I committed at the end of my last blog's life (one of the reason's that necessitated its swift and easy execution!) was that I used it to preach, when I've always been more of a rocker.

Ooh, would you look at that.  Easy transition to self-introduction.

Of course, not a "Rocker" rocker.  To do that I would need to be able to sing or play an instrument or, in some way, not be a musical disappointment.  (Musical Disappointment would have been another great name for this blog)  Unfortunately, my skills do not include sweet rocker skills.  I don't even have the hair for it.

What do I have?

Well, I'm glad you asked that, inquisitive other me!  However, I'm still trying to figure that out.  So why am I blogging if I don't even know what I have to add to the discourse that governs this world?  Mostly because I can.  Or... well, maybe I can't, but we'll find out together.

For those of you who were with me in my Deeper, Darker Days, consider this a reboot.  For those of you who hated my Deeper, Darker Days, I'll try to be less sucky this time.

No promises!

Mostly, this is my chance to post what I think and pretend like that matters to the world at large.  It'll be a glance into my life as an attempted creative person, and my attempt to bring rock to the temples and bring the temples into rock, because I don't think they ever should have broken up in the first place.

Add in a slice of cynical, interpret rock as fiction, and maybe anticipate an obsessive relationship with Greek and Roman Studies, and there you have my blog.  (Watch: ten posts from now [if I get that far] I will have proved I had no idea what I was talking about when I said any of this.  That's how I roll).