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Saturday, April 13, 2013

'L' is for 'Lonely Giant.'



‘L’ is for ‘The Lonely Giant.’ This is the greatest prison of the Human Age, built upon the remains of the world’s oldest surviving monastery. It is set in the southern plains of The Empire of Gold and Jade, as far away from civilization as possible, where only fringe farmers work. There is a psychological comfort to knowing The Lonely Giant’s inhabitants are impossibly far from where you live. The Lonely Giant is used to house monsters.

There are the typical creatures – rogue all-chemists, serial killers, nine-legs, that sort of thing. But there are also greater beasts, like manticores and plants that would otherwise overrun entire cities. There are immortal and amortal creatures, such as succubae and golems that humans couldn’t figure out how to slay. There is even record of an astral being which was accidentally summoned to our world and imprisoned within meat.

Some critics question why all mortal offenders are not simply killed. To this, government employees respond that there is a certain comfort to knowing The Empire of Gold and Jade can contain its threats in one distant place.

Some critics also question if the government isn’t doing more than merely containing these creatures. During The Lonely Giant’s history, the Empire of Gold and Jade’s military has attained unusual weapons, including invisibility and the telewire, which were previously thought exclusive to exactly the kinds of monsters they might now be dissecting and studying.

Some critics have to be imprisoned.

28 comments:

  1. 'Some critics have to be imprisoned.' Or killed. Do critics have any useful function in The Enpire of Gold and Jade?

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    1. The tentative appeal of a free press, not unlike what the post-Stalin regime and Trotsky experienced. Solzhenitsyn is a hero of mine.

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  2. Is this an excerpt from your book? Just dropping by to say hi!

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    1. Happy to have you over. This is not from a novel, but does describe the setting of The House That Nobody Built. My A-to-Z theme has been exploring world-building.

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  3. Hmmm. Very... Interesting... 1984ish even...

    Dropping in from A-Z
    Felicity
    http://felicityburnett.blogspot.com/

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  4. Love the world-building you've got going here! Fascinating prisoners and, yes, why would the government kill its prisoners when there might be information and secrets to be garnered? :)

    Laura Eno – A Shift in Dimensions

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  5. The Lonely Giant sounds eerie. Definitely a conspiracy going on if the critics have to be imprisoned there too. Sounds like a whole book could be written just off this place.

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    1. I've written at least one! Hope to have it available sooner than later...

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  6. Very interesting. Makes me wonder what's going on inside.

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  7. I love the Lonely Giant! Thanks for writing more about it.
    You are quite amazing and the Lonely Giant is one super example of your immaculate prowess in the way in which you write.
    Thanks!
    jean

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    1. No, thank you! That was so sweet of you to say.

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  8. Between this and Jangs the Sphere, I could see myself reading an entire book on the hidden workings of the Empire of Gold and Jade.

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  9. And what happens if those monsters escape?

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    1. Actually, that's the plot of my first novel. I'm querying it right now, and I hope you'll be able to read what happens sooner than later.

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  10. This sort of makes me think of a fantasy Guantanamo Bay. The last paragraph is the best, with the hint that technologies may have come from these very monsters. Cool.

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  11. At least they are far away from civilization.

    KaTy Did at: Life's Ride As I See It

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  12. Cool post, John - making me want to write Fantasy. Great stuff.

    Keep going - from another avid A to Z challenger.

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  13. Interesting premise. I this modern or high fantasy?

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    1. High Fantasy is a fair label, and it's definitely Secondary World Fantasy. The A-post on the various apocalypses that have scoured the world is the best way of understanding it.

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  14. If I lived in the Empire of Gold and Jade, I'd be forever grateful for the lonely giant!

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  15. Sounds like a time bomb waiting to explode.

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  16. Love the last line! But my favorite part is that there are plants imprisoned in The Lonely Giant, too. Living in the South with aggressive kudzu, it's about time someone showed those leafy green things who's boss!

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  17. I wouldn't want to live there. Great piece.

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  18. "Some critics have had to be imprisioned" - Love it!

    I have to admit, proving that they can contain the monsters probably is more useful to an empire than killing them. If they killed them, the people would no longer feel that they needed to be protected from them!

    Rinelle Grey

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  19. The Lonely Giant is a neat name for a fictional prison.

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  20. I love these posts. The Lonely Giant Prison Conspiracy ~ A classic government cover-up.

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  21. This sounds like the perfect setting for all sorts of plot twists and character introductions. It's like a petri dish in a lap just primed to grow new things. Great choice.

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  22. Just like the German rocket scientists...

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