Author Topic: Sci-Fi Story Summary  (Read 1938 times)

Offline THETA

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Sci-Fi Story Summary
« on: December 30, 2008, 04:03:16 AM »
This is me killing two birds with one stone.  First bird, me trying to learn the ways of creating a successful book jacket summary.  Second pain in the ass bird, "advertising" my friend's story.  I'd like feedback on both the execution of the book summary/hook and on how the general story sounds.  More importantly, does it sound eerily like any Sci-Fis you've ever encountered.  Here goes...

Are you still considered a genius if you took up a military conscription on impulse and ended up on a special missions ship with a rank that's about as noticeable as the ship's many flooring tiles?  No clue, all I know is that Papa General wants one of his own to be the one to hit the switch if the mission goes badly.  Bastard blood is still thicker than water.  Well eat your heart out Dad, I didn't even need to carry out the order.  When we reached our destination, we jumped right in the middle of an alien war and they're both looking for an idiot to join up.  Good thing I'm still a genius, right?

So the story is that there's two alien races.  One alien race is a insectoid race, collective mind, lotsa disposable troops, that jazz.  Another alien race is an advanced humanoid reptilian race.  Basically, dinosaurs who in their fairly recent past, combined their DNA with the primitive ape people of their planet to evolve.  The Insectoid are out to simply devour other worlds.  The Dino-men want to embrace the newcomer Earthlings with open arms which they will easily turn into a vice grip of an inescapable alliance.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?  Well, can you trust a race of Dino-men when they've enslaved the entire population of primitive humans on their home planet?  Friendship, not so forthcoming.  Especially since there's plenty of division within the Dino-men race without the Insectoid threat.  What is a lost ship from Earth to do?
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Re: Sci-Fi Story Summary
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2009, 09:30:36 PM »
This is me killing two birds with one stone.  First bird, me trying to learn the ways of creating a successful book jacket summary. 

Authors don't get to do this. Publishers do it for them. Authors then get to bitch about it.

Quote
Are you still considered a genius if you took up a military conscription on impulse and ended up on a special missions ship with a rank that's about as noticeable as the ship's many flooring tiles?  No clue, all I know is that Papa General wants one of his own to be the one to hit the switch if the mission goes badly.  Bastard blood is still thicker than water.  Well eat your heart out Dad, I didn't even need to carry out the order.  When we reached our destination, we jumped right in the middle of an alien war and they're both looking for an idiot to join up.  Good thing I'm still a genius, right?

So the story is that there's two alien races.  One alien race is a insectoid race, collective mind, lotsa disposable troops, that jazz.  Another alien race is an advanced humanoid reptilian race.  Basically, dinosaurs who in their fairly recent past, combined their DNA with the primitive ape people of their planet to evolve.  The Insectoid are out to simply devour other worlds.  The Dino-men want to embrace the newcomer Earthlings with open arms which they will easily turn into a vice grip of an inescapable alliance.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?  Well, can you trust a race of Dino-men when they've enslaved the entire population of primitive humans on their home planet?  Friendship, not so forthcoming.  Especially since there's plenty of division within the Dino-men race without the Insectoid threat.  What is a lost ship from Earth to do?

My first thought here; if other planets are independently evolving such earthlike beings as dinosaurs, apemen and insects, either somebody is setting things up behind the scenes on a cosmic scale, or the author knows damn all about biology and I'm not going to be able to bear the book.
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