Should I write this?

[CloudKiller]

I have an idea for a sci-fi novel in my head and I want to know whether it sounds interesting to anyone or if anyone has any advice or suggestions for me.

Spoiler: Backstory for the setting

It's set a few hundred years in the future. Earth has been left desolated after a huge war but humanity was rescued by an alien race. The aliens had just won a large war of their own against another race and as their evolution had diminished the speed at which they reproduce they needed the help of humanity (relatively fast breeders) to become their army and defend their empire. They promise to give humans access to their technology to one day free them. less than a century later the human army numbers over a hundred billion and the alien race's empire had doubled in size. But they refused to free humans which led to a rebellion. At this point the humans had a thousand to one advantage but the alien race had abilities that bordered on superpowers so the human advantage was negated. Despite this, through sacrifice and sheer audacity humanity prevailed, took control of the empire and became the galaxies strongest race.

This led to a brief time of peace before a civil war broke out in the human empire which quickly turned very destructive and threatened the entire galaxy. All the other races came together to force a ceasefire. This led to the creation of two human nations, one is a democratic but corrupt republic where the gap between rich and poor is extreme and the other is a strict military-gorverned state where rank and honour are everything and all defeated enemies are made slaves. Dividing these two nations is a neutral zone with no governing body and strict immigration laws which stop people leaving for either of the human nations, pirates and private mercenary groups fight for control of space, slavery is commonplace and the lives of the ordinary people are tough.

Each nation unofficially employs powerful pirate crews as privateers to extend their influence into this area of space and provides them with supplies and even new prototype technology to give them an advantages. The story follows one of these privateer crews who work for the military governed state.

Spoiler: Basic plot

The crew consists of:
A captain who was a test subject of an experiment to give humans the same powers as the alien race they defeated.
An expert sniper who is also the pilot.
A techie girl who's the engineer and has four artificial limbs which can be swapped out for weapons.
A big guy who has decades more experience of piracy than the rest and a condition called CIPA that makes him immune to pain but also has some major disadvantages.
A doctor who is utterly insane and has a terrible memory for anything non-medical
and lastly a girl from the Republic who they captured with the intent of selling back to her family but some stuff happened and now they're stuck with her.

Despite being pirates the crew has a fairly friend attitude and whilst they do do steal and kill when they have to would never go as far as slave taking, torturing and causing needless pain.

The story is basically the crew investigating several terrorist attacks on colonies, which is weird b/c there is no governing body linking the colonies together, as well as conflicts with other pirates and some focus on how the girl from the republic has to adapt from her rich, luxurious life to life onboard a pirate ship.

It would feature a mass effect-esque level of technology and hopefully will focus equally on action and plot advancement and character developement with lots of twists along the way.

Any advice or criticism is welcomed.

 

[The Afrodactyl]

Why not? Hell, go for it, then post it up here for some critique.

You never know what it will be like 'til you do it, so I say "Go for it"

 

[Not-here-anymore]

Would you be offended if I were to suggest that this sounds like it might be ever so slightly influenced by Firefly?

The premise sounds interesting, but it seems you've instantly dropped the idea of advanced aliens the second you could make everything focus on humanity.
In a multi-racial galaxy, you will spend a lot of time trying to make relations between various species consistent - it would be worth looking at your various species of aliens and drawing up a backstory (just for yourself - refer briefly to things in the story, but don't make the whole thing a massive galactic history) of cultural information and previous interactions, just to work out how the individual cultures will react to one another.
Assuming that you're not going for 'everyone ignores humans because they're dangerous' thing, writing in alien species will take some work.

 

[Pips]

Just some things for you to think about:

What's new about it? What will set it apart from everything else? You mention a "mass effect-esque level of technology. Be aware that, while this kind of analogy can be a useful shorthand for communicating with others, it can also be a sign that what you're thinking of is NOT actually all that original. You need to be sure in your own mind how your world is different.
How well developed is the technology and where does it fall on the scale of science-fiction hardness? (ie are scientific laws handwaved away, and if not, do you have enough scientific knowledge to make it realistic?)
What, at the most basic level, are you trying to convey to the reader; what is the POINT behind it?

Your section labelled "plot" is more of a dramatis personae (list of characters). Do you have a fully developed plot? It's all very well to say "with lots of twists", but YOU need to know what those twists are.

Overall, I found the history interesting. Part of me feels like that's actually the story, because the "plot" part is so sparse. Are you sure that's not what you want to focus on? Still, I didn't immediately go "Urgh, it's another Star Wars/Star Trek/piece of crap". That's a good start.
The things I've said are not really criticisms, just questions that you need to get clear in your head before you plunge in. Out of interest, have you written anything else before?

 

[Lord Kloo]

Sounds pretty cool, I always like sci-fi, would make a nice change from reading about hordes of green skins and super-macho soldiers in the 41st millennium..

I like the idea about the 'hulk' that is immune to pain, in the movie he will obviously be played by this guy..

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000401/

EDIT: This wasn't very helpful, so, the back story I think will be very important to the overall plot so
lots of time will need to be spent on the birth of these two divided nations and the other relative parts of the story..

As other people say, anyone can make a plot, you just need to be good a writing to make it suspenseful and interesting to read. TBH I think don't think you necessarily need good writing you just need a good plot and a high degree of awesomeness, this it has..

 

[Silent observer]

Hell, I'd read that.

Go for it

EDIT: I'd also be more than willing to have random ideas bounced of me during the writing process

 

[De-Moti]

I see no reason not to.

 

[JoJo]

The setting sounds original enough to me, so I reckon you're alright on part...

While the characters certainly sound interesting from a technical perpective, they must have emotional depth too. Also, is the girl their stuck with from the Republic going to end up as the main love interest? If so maybe a little too predictable in my opinion.

As for actually writing the story, I would advise waiting a while to fully flesh out your ideas before doing it. Accept that if you do write it then it will be a big time commitment and at times will be difficult. As a roleplayer myself, I would ask you to consider using this setting for a storyline roleplay as then you're writing with a lot of other people and you don't have to wait until the story is finished to show someone it. Also it can be really interesting when another player takes the storyline somewhere you never imagined or planned for it.

 

[Tasachan]

Go for it! I'm sure lots of us are here for you to ping ideas off of as you write, too.

 

[The Afrodactyl]

Snippety-doo-dah

Why not? Hell, go for it, then post it up here for some critique.

You never know what it will be like 'til you do it, so I say "Go for it"

I forgot to mention; Send me a copy, I'll be more than willing to read!

 

[dark-amon]

As long as you don't preach to the reader and the story is consistent it will be above the vast mediocre bookcollection the local hobbystore try to shove down my throat.

 

[CloudKiller]

Just some things for you to think about:

What's new about it? What will set it apart from everything else? You mention a "mass effect-esque level of technology. Be aware that, while this kind of analogy can be a useful shorthand for communicating with others, it can also be a sign that what you're thinking of is NOT actually all that original. You need to be sure in your own mind how your world is different.
How well developed is the technology and where does it fall on the scale of science-fiction hardness? (ie are scientific laws handwaved away, and if not, do you have enough scientific knowledge to make it realistic?)
What, at the most basic level, are you trying to convey to the reader; what is the POINT behind it?

Your section labelled "plot" is more of a dramatis personae (list of characters). Do you have a fully developed plot? It's all very well to say "with lots of twists", but YOU need to know what those twists are.

Overall, I found the history interesting. Part of me feels like that's actually the story, because the "plot" part is so sparse. Are you sure that's not what you want to focus on? Still, I didn't immediately go "Urgh, it's another Star Wars/Star Trek/piece of crap". That's a good start.
The things I've said are not really criticisms, just questions that you need to get clear in your head before you plunge in. Out of interest, have you written anything else before?

I do have a plot in my head but it isn't completely pinned down yet. The reason you probably liked the history part is b/c i spent a while creating what I thought a good setting before charging ahead with everything else and i have actually thought about changing to that time before.

I have to say that you comment was quite succesful in that it really did make me think about what i have in mind so thank you and also thanks to the other positive comments on the page.

 

[aww yea]

honestly (and i think this was mentioned earlier) towards the end i pretty quickly thought firefly. the most interesting bit about it had to be the how the humans were enslaved. i think that is a very unique premise... but the idea of a friendly pirating crew is a bit close to firefly. especially with the whole no-mans land.

but honestly i dont think you'd have to change much (or even anything if you told the story right) to avoid that. its just something you should be conscious of.

also not too humany now! everybody likes a bit of exoctic green men

 

[CloudKiller]

Also, is the girl their stuck with from the Republic going to end up as the main love interest?

No, well there's one alcohol and drug fuelled night but apart from that no. The captain is obsessed with a girl he knew when he was a teenager, and no one can compare to her for him. The sniper is in love with the techie girl, the big guy is gay and the doctor is to much of a fruit-loop for love.

EDIT: Also I know none of you will believe me but I've never seen Firefly.

 

[II2]

If you're not above asking for help on a gaming web forum, I assume you won't be opposed to the notion of reading a sci fi writers aid by acclaimed genre author Orson Scott Card.

Buy it wherever you buy books.