The top image is from the SONO Switch Tower Museum. A treat little place to visit in South Norwalk CT. I occasionally volunteer there from time to time.
I think that I need to update the sticky post. And add some rules. First the rules.
Comments are very much welcomed. . If you choose to remain anonymous you MUST provide a actual email address and a real, not Tor IP. I want to talk to real people who have real personalities. If you want to not have your comment posted just say so and it will never escape moderation. If you want to find me offline my linked in profile is in the “about” post.
This time, I want to discuss mechs, powered suits, giant robots and the rest of the class of machine that mimic human movements. Nahous, being Japanese, has mechs in his web novel and probably in the manga and the light novel. This isn’t a surprise. Giant robots have been a part of Japanese culture for a very long time for a simple reason. Giant robots sell toys to boys.
Thus the continuing popularity of the Gundam in Japan and other series such as Armored Troopers Votoms.
Giant robots have captured boys imagination in Japan since the 1960’s, so it isn’t a surprise that they appear in a Japanese SF story. In Akira’s case the make obvious very dangerous opponents that he has to defeat and symbols of just how powerful his adversaries are. On the other hand, much to Nahous’s credit, he doesn’t sit Akira in a mech seat and have him battle one on one with other mechs.
From a general worldbuilding standpoint, a writer though, has to explain why the things were built in the first place. The fact is that giant walking machines have been a staple of science fiction since the turn of the twentieth century, but have never made it into reality. The wheel has turned out to be very robust and the KISS principles govern machines sent into harsh environments. Simon Whistler’s video outlines the problems involved.
Another point of view.
That doesn’t mean that people haven’t tried to build walking machines of various kinds for a very long time.
In the mid 2010s there was a surge of people building mechs for show and even to battle each other, but they don’t seem to have made that big a splash since.
I expect that the issues were maintenance related costs and reliability issues. The complexity of a walking machine and the engineering requirements to make a machine like that work in the real world are not insignificant. That is even without considering issues like ground pressure.
The reality is that there were no distinct advantages for walking machines, and the simplicity of the wheel won out. If there are advances in metallurgy, material technology, and sensor and electronics that change that, the mech may get another chance. But wheeled machines would gain from the advances as well. They will also retain the fundamental simplicity that the wheel brings to the problem.
These are first drafts and I hope to have them ready to put up on Kindle soon. I wanted to avoid the GRRM effect by having the entire series more or less written before I released them.
For more world building stuff, the “research” tag has things I used for other series.
Rebuild World is the property of Nahouse, Kadokawa, and Jnovel Club. I assert no rights to the characters and story therein. This is fan fiction. It is no way canon to Rebuild world and has nothing to do with the story and properties created by Nahous.
“People like Meynes do not do what they did in the Republic just once and there were some things available in the Empire until recently. Itireae probably can get that for me and I can send it on to Lythie Harper.”
“That is sneaky, my dear.”
“Zirgoccol has a reputation, but there are still things that are out of bounds. I have no problem squeezing an idiot.”
When Alinis finished, Tassarion said, “That was clever on Justiciar Percaryn’s part. Jastira rushed into something where she should have known that her adversaries would be prepared.”
“They were. I just hope that there won’t be any more suicide bombs.”
“My family liked their little surprises,” Lyrei said. “Being surprised themselves, not so much.”
This time, Want to talk about extreme climate changes in your post apocalyptic setting. In Rebuild World we are confronted with a world that is seemingly mostly desert. The setting is also possibly the Eastern plain of Japan, which climate wise, in not nor has been a desert for a very long time, as in geological very long time. Nahause doesn’t actually say where the story takes place in the webnovel but there are clues. On the other hand, there are mysteries, such as ruins being described as the ancient capital, but the front line being to the East. The problem with that is that the only thing east of Tokyo is the Pacific Ocean. So either the coastline change dramatically or the story is not taking place in a post apocalyptic Japan.
I am going to say that this post is not about “Climate Change advocacy for or against. There are other posts in this blog that discuss the political issues there and what I think about them. This post is an exploration of how climate was different in far past and how it could be again, with the point of view of how a changed climate can be used for worldbuilding. This is a look at what happened and how a changed environment can be used in a story.
So what change in the climate or catastrophic event could do that? The old common trope of nuclear war just doesn’t cut it for me. At least not the way some movies would have you believe. The effects of nuclear weapons have been tested and analyzed and while bad, a nuclear exchange would not be the end of the world except for those in the target areas. I also don’t think that Global Warming would be as catastrophic as the screaming Swedish girl would have us believe and certainly would not create massive deserts in the middle of the continents, because if things are warmer, there will be more water in air, not less.
So, what could cause the climate to dry out so drastically? Fortunately, the answer is right in my front yard, where there is a pile of rocks dropped by a melting glacier at the end of the last ice age. The area where I live was shaped by that melting glacier, which cut rivers and pushed Connecticut’s soil out to create Long Island. All that is an indication that there was a lot of water in that glacier and the other that covered the North American continent. Enough that the climate was rather different, 20,000 years ago or so when things were perhaps 5 degrees C cooler. Also, the water level in the ocean was lower, a lot lower.
The most common reason is a change in the albedo of the earth, reflected light and increased cloud cover causing a decrease in the temperatures of the northern regions and a breakdown of the feedback mechanism that put boundaries on the climate, causing runaway effects until a new equilibrium exists. Using the changed climate can be driver for some of the things in the story, both to get the world from “now” to the Old World in Rebuild World and provide a reason for the tension in the story. If Alpha wants to warm the planet and the new civilization is going to end up underwater, that provides story material.
Next time, I think I will talk about powered suits and giant robots. Until then, happy reading.
These are first drafts and I hope to have them ready to put up on Kindle soon. I wanted to avoid the GRRM effect by having the entire series more or less written before I released them.
For more world building stuff, the “research” tag has things I used for other series.
Rebuild World is the property of Nahouse, Kadokawa, and Jnovel Club. I assert no rights to the characters and story therein. This is fan fiction. It is no way canon to Rebuild world and has nothing to do with the story and properties created by Nahous.
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