They say everyone has the makings of a novel in themselves.What better way or day to introduce my science-based, near-future novel to the world than here and now!
2052 - The Hawking Plan is my free online novel. Please read it and pass it on!
Stephanie Goldenrod strives to save human life and civilization for an infinite future. Amorality, amore and deep ethical and philosophical issues.
What will life, liberty and technology be like several decades in the future?
- A peaceful world where large-scale military conflict is absent.
- A political economy dominated and effectively ruled by transnational corporations.
- A civilization where reason is trusted and faith is suspect.
- A "positive ID" regime where religion-based terrorism has been suppressed, along with virtually all anonymity and privacy.
- A society where most people, including ministers, priests and rabbis are not literal believers.
- A post global warming world where humanity has been decimated by genetic engineering disasters.
- A population served by Intelligent Robotic Agents, certified intelligent at the average human level.
A brilliant plan to spread human life and civilization far and wide into space as insurance against further disasters here on Earth. 2052 - The Hawking Plan
Ira Glickstein
Hi Ira,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the web citation for your novel. I enjoyed the last chapter. I always start at the end of a novel. I figure that if a person can write a good ending, the rest might be okay. I'll get to the next to last chapter after I finish filing my taxes. They're not that complex. I just hate handling all those odd shaped pieces of paper. -Joel
Joel, pleased you enjoyed the last chapter! There was a Seinfeld episode where each scene was a flashback and the story proceeded in reverse. They returned from India and everybody had a chip on their shoulder. The next scene was what happened in India. The next how they got invited to India, etc. One character had a large lollypop that was tiny in the first scene and large in the last. You would have liked that eposide!
ReplyDeleteLet me know when you get to the first chapter! Also, please let everyone on your email list know about my novel 2052 - The Hawking Plan. Let us get some viral distribution going!
Ira Glickstein
Hi Ira,
ReplyDeleteVery imaginative to put your novel, 2052 – The Hawking Plan, on the blog, free to all. Bravo! What an unexpected grand entrance for your novel! I will start reading your novel
right away! I am a spiritually devout liberal person, and your comments on religion are what captured my attention. I am intrigued by the narrator Jim O’Brian, former Rabbi and religious historian of your science-based, near-future novel.
I am looking forward to reading your novel, and to see how the science- based, near-future society deals with ethics, moral code, values, principles, virtue, and dictates of consciousness. Ira, I am sure your novel is going to give me a lot of insight about our society today... Deardra
Thanks for your kind comments Deardra. One of the main characters, who is introduced in Chapter 2, is a highly competent system engineer for the Hawking Plan who has to keep his traditional Christian beliefs sub rosa in the anti-religious times I predict for the coming decades. As a self-described "spiritually devout" person, I'll be interested in your reactions on how I depict him and his struggles against the distain others express for his locas beliefs.
ReplyDeleteIra Glickstein
Hi Ira,
ReplyDeleteYes, I would very much like to give you my thoughts on how you depicted Luke Mathews traditional Christian beliefs, specifically his faith in and trust in God’s “presence” in his life. As I discussed with you, my belief and faith in God comes from studying world religions for the past 36 years. I centered in on all the various ways each religion saw and interpreted their personal God. In my long and intensive search I found a common denominator they all spoke about in describing the main quality of their Superior Being… “A God wanting to be “present” in the individual lives of all mankind.”
Just like a group of people trying to describe an elephant, some see only the ears, others see only the trunk, others see only the tail, others see only he eyes, and so on and on and on… the elephant is still an elephant regardless from what angle you view it.
I have chosen to view and worship God from the Jewish/Christian tradition viewpoint. The historical descriptions and writings of the Jewish/Christian view of God are most in line with my intellectual pursuits , my emotional need, my environment, and my inborn, instinctive, inherent, intrinsic need to worship a personal Higher Power. With respect as always, Deardra
Thanks Deardra for your comments on this Blog and our separate personal discussions about the novel. I look forward to more comments as you progress through the book.
ReplyDeleteI tried to treat each character respectfully even if I do not share all of his or her beliefs. In the case of Luke Mathews, I have a traditional Christian who is an absolute believer in the Word of God as it appears in the original 1611 version of the King James Bible. Although I do not share his literal belief at all, I did not caricature him by making him a buffoon or a hypocrite, but I tried to show him as a highly competent system engineer who goes out of his way to unselfishly help his fellow man and woman and is logical in all normal aspects of life.
Similarly with the narrator, Jim O'Brian, who is knowledgeable about religion but does not literally believe the scriptures. His pantheistic beliefs mirror mine, but I did not make him a perfect hero. He ignores some of his best ethical instincts and is way too obedient to authority figures, almost destroying the Hawking Plan project in the process.
The heroine of the book, Stephanie Goldenrod is georgeous and uses her sexuality to rise in the corporate world. Yet, she is not the stereotypical "dumb blond". I depict her as smart and well-organized and an exceptionally hard worker. A brilliant diamond, but seriously flawed.
Even the villian of the story, Tsar Sahbaka, is honorable in his own way and is trying, in his obstinate way, to serve the interests of his countrymen in Central Asia who have been victims of a devistating genetic engineering disaster.
As for your personal belief in a personal presence of God in our lives, I think you will find, as you read further, that I depict nearly all the characters as having deep personal beliefs that comfort them in times of stress and loss. In particular, Luke Mathews absolute Christian faith endures and helps him survive the loss of a loved one and his material possesions with equanimity - "The Lord givith and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the Lord." I personally cannot muster that level of belief is any kind of personal God who cares about the fortunes and tragedies of an individual man or woman - but, as Jim cries at one point "I wish I could. I wish I could."
Ira Glickstein
My novel is now available as a .pdf file you can read on your PC or print out. To get it, just send an email to ira@techie.com - It is TOTALLY FREE!
ReplyDeleteIra Glickstein