‘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.
'Some critics have to be imprisoned.' Or killed. Do critics have any useful function in The Enpire of Gold and Jade?
ReplyDeleteThe tentative appeal of a free press, not unlike what the post-Stalin regime and Trotsky experienced. Solzhenitsyn is a hero of mine.
DeleteIs this an excerpt from your book? Just dropping by to say hi!
ReplyDeleteHappy 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.
DeleteHmmm. Very... Interesting... 1984ish even...
ReplyDeleteDropping in from A-Z
Felicity
http://felicityburnett.blogspot.com/
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? :)
ReplyDeleteLaura Eno – A Shift in Dimensions
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.
ReplyDeleteI've written at least one! Hope to have it available sooner than later...
DeleteVery interesting. Makes me wonder what's going on inside.
ReplyDeleteI love the Lonely Giant! Thanks for writing more about it.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite amazing and the Lonely Giant is one super example of your immaculate prowess in the way in which you write.
Thanks!
jean
No, thank you! That was so sweet of you to say.
DeleteBetween this and Jangs the Sphere, I could see myself reading an entire book on the hidden workings of the Empire of Gold and Jade.
ReplyDeleteAnd what happens if those monsters escape?
ReplyDeleteActually, 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.
DeleteThis 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.
ReplyDeleteAt least they are far away from civilization.
ReplyDeleteKaTy Did at: Life's Ride As I See It
Cool post, John - making me want to write Fantasy. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteKeep going - from another avid A to Z challenger.
Interesting premise. I this modern or high fantasy?
ReplyDeleteHigh 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.
DeleteIf I lived in the Empire of Gold and Jade, I'd be forever grateful for the lonely giant!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a time bomb waiting to explode.
ReplyDeleteLove 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!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want to live there. Great piece.
ReplyDelete"Some critics have had to be imprisioned" - Love it!
ReplyDeleteI 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
The Lonely Giant is a neat name for a fictional prison.
ReplyDeleteI love these posts. The Lonely Giant Prison Conspiracy ~ A classic government cover-up.
ReplyDeleteThis 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.
ReplyDeleteJust like the German rocket scientists...
ReplyDelete