Writers steal and don’t let them tell you otherwise.
We’re constantly looking at how the masters put their words, characters, and stories together.
We crib from those works use them in our own.
And those old masters? They cribbed too. The “art” in the art of stealing is to steal from so many sources that the result only seems familiar and isn’t a thinly-veiled copy of a popular story.
A thickly veiled copy, perhaps?
I say that to say this: I was rummaging around my book collection looking for a [REDACTED – TOP SECRET] example of [REDACTED – TOP SECRET] for my new writing project and as usual, came away with an armful of books rather than the one I thought I needed. I was both happy and sad because while I have more sources to flesh out my idea, I added around 1500 pages to my reading list and I still haven’t finished the latest Murderbot novel. When I do, I’ll be re-reading and stealing from the old masters by taking notes, marking scenes, highlighting turns of phrase, and mapping structures.
It’ll be worth it.
What books do you like to re-read? If you could combine two or more stories, which would you pick?
Throwback Read
Steelheart by William C Dietz
Dietz is known for his military sci-fi but this book is more of a lost colony story, albeit one with a huge battle at its climax. The story follows a cast of androids, humans, and aliens stranded on the planet Zuul for various reasons and Zuul’s climate is taking a turn for the worse. The story unfolds as an android and roboticist journey across hostile lands filled with bandits, profiteers, and the anti-technic church in order to deliver a message to the last technical enclave and save the dying planet. A leader will have to emerge and unite all the fractured societies if they’re to survive.
It’s interesting because it was written in the mid 1990’s and spans a gap between cyberpunk sci-fi and climate change dystopian sci-fi while seeming all the more relatable now than when I first read it. I’m also happy to report that while it has a large cast of characters, it’s a stand-alone novel so you don’t have to commit to a trilogy to get the full story of what happens. It’s not ground-breaking science fiction, but it’s one of those solid novels that you don’t see as often as you’d like.
