Brught Empire Anniversary

Let the third annivesary of The Bright Empire be celebrated. Let joy be
unconfined.

First, there's Part Two of THE HIGH CRUEL YEARS:

brightempire.com/cruel-2.htm

Among other things, you get tp see a fight to the death between Molly and Anya on one hand, and terrible killing machines called menschenjagers on the other (Thanks, Shadar!). You get to see more political machinatons and betrayals, a hostage takeover of Reigel 5's university, and mistakes and misunderstandings among even the good people. There
are also revisions to Part One:

brightempire.com/cruel.htm

Both parts now have theme music links, as will Part Three, anon.

There's also music in the TBE version of "In the Penile Colony:"

brightempire.com/Colony.htm

An SGI Workshop 1.7 entry, it's, an XXX-rated romp that tweaks Aram Khachaturian as well as Franz Kafka. Couldn't include illustrations here at SWM, but at The Bright Empire, it all hangs out, in a story about sisters with different ideas about a harem -- and other things.

Xoronewuthnature's "Asylum," a previous SGI Workshop story, appears at TBE the first time, with a few typos corrected. It's an incredible piece of work: a gripping story and intimations of the world behind it, all compressed into a thousand words:

brightempire.com/Asylum.htm

Finally, there are two essays -- one by me, one by Velvet -- on complementary aspects of the expression of emotion and emotional values in fiction: mine general, hers about the growing phenomenon of hybrid science fiction-romance novels:

brightempire.com/Knowing.htm

brightempire.com/Romance.htm

Enjoy!

--Brantley Thompson Elkins






 

Congrats on the anniversary, Brantley. Looks like I've got me some reading to do...

And here's one for you, Larafan!

brightempire.com/Adaptive.htm

"The Adaptive Intimate" was a story I never expected to write. I'd never have written it if I hadn't read "Ultrafemme -- Gemini" when you put it up here as an entry in SGI Workshop 1.7. As most SWM fans know, your collaboration with Stoneyman had originally appeared three years ago at the Xtreme Strength site as one of a few stories inspired by Anterion about Dr. Julia Brooks and her enhancement treatments. Most of that story is about how Dr. Brooks' nieces get carried away by their enhancement, but it was a thowaway scene at the end that grabbed me:

<<Back in the city is a girl. A young fifteen-year-old girl. A homeless girl who was [never] given any chance in life. A girl who has known nothing but want and concrete all her life. All she owned was the clothes on her back and a cardboard home. All that, and two little pills...>>

Suddenly I knew I had to tell her story. And so I did. Perhaps you and/or Stoneyman had intended to do so, but never got around to it. Hope you don't mind me poaching on your territory.

The title is a variation on "The Adaptive Ultimate," a 1935 sf story by Stanley G. Weinbaum in which a sickly young woman is given a serum that transforms her into a radiantly beautiful but amoral goddess who is immune to any disease and can heal any wound instantly. She has to be put down -- and that isn't easy -- to save the world. But I wanted to do better by Patti O'Dorn than Weinbaum had by Kyra Zelas, and the entire story proceeds from that determination. Still, I hope I've left enough room for you and Anterion -- wherever he is -- and others to pursue the further adventures of Dr. Brooks should you choose to do so at this late date.