Critique request: Living History.

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Reyben

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Does anybody know what the hell skiball is? Seriou
I've recently written a novella, which has been posted in the blogs section for due consideration... but having reflected properly on it, I think I'd like some external critical feedback. The novella concerns clones, dinosaurs and the Concept of Benjamin Franklin- I'll post a link to the full story below, where you can also find a mock cover and a proper blurb. Here, meanwhile, I shall attach an excerpt from the story's opening.

I'm looking for all and any feedback. If you enjoy the excerpt, then why not head over to the website and check out the full story? And if you don't enjoy either or both, well, give me the reasons why.

Thanks for reading at least this far. I'll shut up now and let the writing take over:


______________________________________________________________

Living History,
by Ben Essex
[Excerpt]



I’m flat on my back, and there’s a life flashing before my eyes.

Around me, windows rattle. The floor is shaking- the whole world’s falling to pieces. I’m on a broken train, and it’s kicking itself apart with stress and strain. It could go off the rails at any moment.

The stupid powder wig feels heavy on my head. My clothes are tight; britches and frills soggy with sweat. Behind me, the carriage doors are forced open and five men in body armour burst in. Their heads are helmeted, their eyes are unsympathetic and some of them are bleeding. They’ve just been through a battle.

The armoured men part, and someone else steps up. He’s not dressed like them, not at all. He has a great frilly beard and a tall top-hat. His clothes are immaculately tailored, coloured black. Unlike me, he doesn’t have a belly.

His face is stern and somewhat goat-like. One of his eyebrows seems permanently raised.

“I’m sorry, Ben,” says the man who looks exactly like Abraham Lincoln. “But honestly, how did you think this was going to end?”

The men advance, weapons lit with crackling blue fire. Some of them also have batons.

I tense.

So let’s review. I’m here, in the body of Benjamin Franklin, about to get my brains beaten out. I could ask myself why? But I know the answer.

Because I had a deadline.

I close my eyes.

And at that moment, dinosaurs attack.


*


My real name is Jacob White. I used to have a real body. It was tall and gangly and plain looking, but it was mine.

I used to have a real job, too. I worked for the Applied Fundamentals Division of The Salmon Corporation. What does an Applied Fundamentals Division do? I don’t really know- no one does. Applied Fundamentals is a warehouse department, a dumping ground for whatever projects the company can’t fit elsewhere. Getting to work in Applied is actually quite a big deal. It means the company considers you smart enough, flexible enough and above all unscrupulous enough to turn your hand to whatever their latest vague and seedy project might be.

The Salmon Corporation is not the most above-board company in the world. Actually, it’s run by the Mafia. I’m not sure precisely which Mafia, since they don’t exactly give out business cards. Wait, that’s a lie. They actually do give out business cards, but the cards don’t go into specifics.

The day my deadline came, I got a business card.

It was a Tuesday. 09:23 A.M. I was late for work.

This was in no way unusual for me. My lovely little box-apartment was located on the other side of the city, behind the metro-lines. Getting to the office every morning was a bit of a hike, especially to a man like me- that is to say, a lazy man.

Usually, my tardiness wasn’t a problem. I was high enough up in the department to be sure nobody was going to call me out... except for this particular Tuesday, when I got hauled into my manager’s office and glared at by beady eyes behind little wireframe glasses.

I had a lot of managers. I’d never seen this one before. He was a fat man with sausage fingers.

The Fat Man sat behind his desk. It was nice desk in, and it was in a nice room. There were potted plants.

“Your attendance could use some work, Mr. White,” I was told.

“Yes sir,” I nodded. I didn’t get promoted up to Applied without knowing how to work the system a little bit. Suck up to your superiors, bark at your inferiors. If necessary, grant sexual favours.

“I hope you’re not having any kind of trouble at home, Mr. White?”

“No sir,” I shook my head. “Everything is A-OK, sir.”

"Good,” the Fat Man grunted. “Well, just in case, take my card. If anything is bothering you give me a call, it’ll be dealt with. We at The Salmon Corp care about our employees, you know."

“I know, sir.” He gave me the business card. It was laminated, and bore the Fat Man’s name; Peter Greuze.

It’ll be dealt with. I didn’t want to ask for details, and I didn’t want to take up that offer- ever, under any circumstances. The Corp does take care of its employees. Sometimes it flattens entire neighbourhoods to make life easier for them.

“Well,” Greuze coughed. “Now that you are here, I want to give you your latest assignment in person. We have something rather special planned for Applied this year.”

“Oh yes, sir? That’s exciting to hear.” I wasn’t being flip. Special is exciting.

The Fat Man beamed. “Indeed it is. You see, we’ve decided to expand the Corp’s merchandising rights into hitherto unexplored areas. We want the rights to an American Presidents Action figure line."

I nodded. Fair enough. Action figures seemed a little... small, though.

“But we have certain concerns about image copyright. We want to make sure the Presidents’ images are all exclusively ours. For that, they’ll need to sign certain contracts.”

The Fat Man could see my blossoming disbelief. This was bigger, all right.

“That’ll be your job, Mr. White. We want you to start resurrecting Presidents. All ninety three of them.”


*


Technically, there have been ninety-four Presidents. However, the ninety-fourth (President Huey Jackson II) was only in office for a grand total of forty-seven seconds before his office exploded, so people tend to ignore him. Since Jackson II, the institution has fallen sharply from grace. Nobody pays much attention to the Presidency anymore.

Greuze’s task was certainly something to dwell on.

Walking through a bad neighbourhood at a bad time of night, I lost myself in daydreams of Presidents past. I didn’t need to worry about being murdered or robbed or anything like that- the little salmon symbol on my jacket kept all the lowlifes at a distance.

On the horizon, there were fires. A police helicopter was tumbling through the sky, tracing a rapid path back down to earth. On its way, it clipped a shiny skyscraper; I had to wince. Even if the pilot survived that crash, he was going to be in trouble. The skyscrapers were supposed to stay shiny at all times- very rich people have paid some very big guns to keep them shiny at all times. In the city of America Little, you respect your janitors.

America Little doesn’t really live up to its name. It’s enormous; it spans two coasts and all the land in between. It’s not quite up to the scale of America Large below, but Large is mostly artificial oil fields.

I took the subway in the direction of home, spent the ride chatting to a couple of prostitutes. They wanted to know what working for the Corp was like. I exaggerated a little bit, because I like to impress people. What? We all like to impress people.

My apartment was horribly cramped, which was exactly how I wanted it. I could’ve afforded a much swankier, up-town place- or at least, a slightly swankier, mid-town place- but all that space would just encourage me to clutter. I had what I needed: A few desks, a few drawers, and not enough floor to sprawl on.

That night, I slept to the soothing rattle of the metro-tracks outside. Still trying to wrap my brain around the Fat Man’s order.

Resurrect all the Presidents.

For a few of them that would be easy enough. That is to say, all the ones recently buried. Their bones would provide just enough bio-matter to extract a halfway decent clone. The Corp performed such resurrections fairly regularly, usually in cases of criminal prosecution. Murder trials tend to collapse when the victim turns up alive again, even if only for a couple of hours.

But the Founding Fathers? Everyone pre-Millennium? They’d been dead for ages. What was I supposed to do, invent a Time Machine? Applied had already tried that. The dry-cleaning bills were ridiculous.

All right. Think about this. You’re a smart man.

I just needed inspiration.

That was when dinosaurs attacked.

______________________________________________________________________


For those curious, the full story can be found here:

Prose » Red-Jay.co.uk - RedJay Writing


...And thanks again for reading so far.
 
Reyben, while you've still got time to edit, can you deal with the spaces that come after each apostrophe? They're a bit distracting.
 
Strong mojo here. Tight-ish opening with an intriguing premise and cliff-hanger ending, leading into a nicely dystopic near-future world. The mega-corporation thing is a tried and tested trope, no sense worrying over original ideas (I certainly don't). Bringing the presidents into it as you have done reminds me of Futurama (certainly a positive in my book, YMMV). Though no comedy as yet. But then it doesn't read like you're going for laughs (if you are, you're in trouble).

This random internet yahoo approves. Nothing grammatical to trouble me, flows well, first person narrative working so far (but as usual, removes all sense of peril).
 
Strong mojo here. Tight-ish opening with an intriguing premise and cliff-hanger ending, leading into a nicely dystopic near-future world. The mega-corporation thing is a tried and tested trope, no sense worrying over original ideas (I certainly don't). Bringing the presidents into it as you have done reminds me of Futurama (certainly a positive in my book, YMMV). Though no comedy as yet. But then it doesn't read like you're going for laughs (if you are, you're in trouble).

This random internet yahoo approves. Nothing grammatical to trouble me, flows well,

Thanks, Zachariah (/Random Internet Yahoo... RIY?) I think there are a couple of laughs in the middle, but yeah, not going for them. I love tried-and-tested tropes like the mega-corporation; you don't have to spend ages explaining everything.

first person narrative working so far (but as usual, removes all sense of peril).

That's exactly what I wanted you to think, mwa ha ha...

(-Oh, and to remind someone of Futurama? Always a compliment, says Zoidberg).
 
Weird, but dream-logical...

Um, did you ever post a different version of this ? Just the opening ? Without the Mafia ?? I had a hit of deja-vu...
 
Weird, but dream-logical...

Um, did you ever post a different version of this ? Just the opening ? Without the Mafia ?? I had a hit of deja-vu...


Nope, not that I'm aware of... there might be a link to it floating around in the blogs section, as I said, but other than that, there shouldn't be. I guess it must just have been a glitch in the Matrix.

Though I'm curious, what exactly is 'dream logical' ?
 
I've recently written a novella, which has been posted in the blogs section for due consideration... but having reflected properly on it, I think I'd like some external critical feedback. The novella concerns clones, dinosaurs and the Concept of Benjamin Franklin- I'll post a link to the full story below, where you can also find a mock cover and a proper blurb. Here, meanwhile, I shall attach an excerpt from the story's opening.

I'm looking for all and any feedback. If you enjoy the excerpt, then why not head over to the website and check out the full story? And if you don't enjoy either or both, well, give me the reasons why.

Thanks for reading at least this far. I'll shut up now and let the writing take over:


______________________________________________________________

Living History,
by Ben Essex
[Excerpt]



I’m flat on my back, and there’s a life flashing before my eyes.

Around me, windows rattle. The floor is shaking- the whole world’s falling to pieces. I’m on a broken train, and it’s kicking itself apart with stress and strain. It could go off the rails at any moment.

The stupid powder wig feels heavy on my head. My clothes are tight; britches and frills soggy with sweat. Behind me, the carriage doors are forced open and five men in body armour burst in. Their heads are helmeted, their eyes are unsympathetic and some of them are bleeding. They’ve just been through a battle.
The armoured men part, and someone else steps up. He’s not dressed like them, not at all. He has a great frilly beard and a tall top-hat. (for a man flat on his back you're seeing an awful lot of detail not to mention the trains being shaken to pieces and some guy casually steps in the carriage) His clothes are immaculately tailored, coloured black. Unlike me, he doesn’t have a belly.

His face is stern and somewhat goat-like. One of his eyebrows seems permanently raised. (this would be difficult to see even if you were on your feet but looking up into the dark area of a top hat's rim with the room shaking itself to bits?)

“I’m sorry, Ben,” says the man who looks exactly like Abraham Lincoln. “But honestly, how did you think this was going to end?”

The men advance, weapons lit with crackling blue fire. Some of them also have batons.

I tense.

So let’s review. I’m here, in the body of Benjamin Franklin, about to get my brains beaten out. I could ask myself why? But I know the answer.

Because I had a deadline.

I close my eyes.

And at that moment, dinosaurs attack.


*


My real name is Jacob White. I used to have a real body. It was tall and gangly and plain looking, but it was mine.

I used to have a real job, too. I worked for the Applied Fundamentals Division of The Salmon Corporation. What does an Applied Fundamentals Division do? I don’t really know- no one does. Applied Fundamentals is a warehouse department, a dumping ground for whatever projects the company can’t fit elsewhere. Getting to work in Applied is actually quite a big deal. It means the company considers you smart enough, flexible enough (enough already:)) and above all unscrupulous enough to turn your hand to whatever their latest vague and seedy project might be.

The Salmon Corporation is not the most above-board company in the world. Actually, it’s run by the Mafia. I’m not sure precisely which Mafia, since they don’t exactly give out business cards. Wait, that’s a lie. They actually do give out business cards, but the cards don’t go into specifics.

The day my deadline came, I got a business card.

It was a Tuesday. 09:23 A.M. I was late for work.

This was in no way unusual for me. My lovely little box-apartment was located on the other side of the city, behind the metro-lines. Getting to the office every morning was a bit of a hike, especially to a man like me- that is to say, a lazy man. (comma or - but not both)

Usually, my tardiness wasn’t a problem. I was high enough up in the department to be sure nobody was going to call me out... except for this particular Tuesday, when I got hauled into my manager’s office and glared at by beady eyes behind little wireframe glasses.

I had a lot of managers. I’d never seen this one before. He was a fat man with sausage fingers.

The (don't need the The. IMO it sounds more active without it) Fat Man sat behind his desk. It was nice desk in, and it was in a nice room. There were potted plants.

“Your attendance could use some work, Mr. White, (punctuality maybe) ” I was told.

“Yes sir,” I nodded. I didn’t get promoted up to Applied without knowing how to work the system a little bit. Suck up to your superiors, bark at your inferiors. If necessary, grant sexual favours.

“I hope you’re not having any kind of trouble at home, Mr. White?”

“No sir,” I shook my head. “Everything is A-OK, sir.”

"Good,” the Fat Man grunted. “Well, just in case, take my card. If anything is bothering you give me a call, it’ll be dealt with. We at The Salmon Corp care about our employees, you know."

“I know, sir.” He gave me the business card. It was laminated, and bore the Fat Man’s name; Peter Greuze.

It’ll be dealt with. I didn’t want to ask for details, and I didn’t want to take up that offer- ever, (-,) under any circumstances. The Corp does take care of its employees. Sometimes it flattens entire neighbourhoods to make life easier for them.

“Well,” Greuze coughed. “Now that you are here, I want to give you your latest assignment in person. We have something rather special planned for Applied this year.”

“Oh yes, sir? That’s exciting to hear.” I wasn’t being flip. Special is exciting.

The Fat Man beamed. “Indeed it is. You see, we’ve decided to expand the Corp’s merchandising rights into hitherto unexplored areas. We want the rights to an American Presidents Action figure line." (This was a bit confusing - What they actually want is the rights to make a series of American President Action figures - if that is the case it doesn't come across that way at first reading IMO)

I nodded. Fair enough. Action figures seemed a little... small, though.

“But we have certain concerns about image copyright. We want to make sure the Presidents’ images are all exclusively ours. For that, they’ll need to sign certain contracts.”

The Fat Man could see my blossoming disbelief. This was bigger, all right.

“That’ll be your job, Mr. White. We want you to start resurrecting Presidents. All ninety three of them.”


*


Technically, there have been ninety-four Presidents. However, the ninety-fourth (President Huey Jackson II) was only in office for a grand total of forty-seven seconds before his office exploded, so people tend to ignore him. Since Jackson II, the institution has fallen sharply from grace. Nobody pays much attention to the Presidency anymore.

Greuze’s task was certainly something to dwell on.

Walking through a bad neighbourhood at a bad time of night, I lost myself in daydreams of Presidents past. I didn’t need to worry about being murdered or robbed or anything like that- the little salmon symbol on my jacket kept all the lowlifes at a distance.

On the horizon, there were fires. A police helicopter was tumbling through the sky, tracing a rapid path back down to earth. On its way, it clipped a shiny skyscraper; I had to wince. Even if the pilot survived that crash, he was going to be in trouble. The skyscrapers were supposed to stay shiny at all times- very rich people have paid some very big guns to keep them shiny at all times. In the city of America Little, you respect your janitors.

America Little doesn’t really live up to its name. It’s enormous; it spans two coasts and all the land in between. It’s not quite up to the scale of America Large below, but Large is mostly artificial oil fields.

I took the subway in the direction of home, spent the ride chatting to a couple of prostitutes. They wanted to know what working for the Corp was like. I exaggerated a little bit, because I like to impress people. What? We all like to impress people.

My apartment was horribly cramped, which was exactly how I wanted it. I could’ve afforded a much swankier, up-town place- or at least, a slightly swankier, mid-town place- but all that space would just encourage me to clutter. I had what I needed: A few desks, a few drawers, and not enough floor to sprawl on.

That night, I slept to the soothing rattle of the metro-tracks outside. Still trying to wrap my brain around the Fat Man’s order.

Resurrect all the Presidents.

For a few of them that would be easy enough. That is to say, all the ones recently buried. Their bones would provide just enough bio-matter to extract a halfway decent clone. The Corp performed such resurrections fairly regularly, usually in cases of criminal prosecution. Murder trials tend to collapse when the victim turns up alive again, even if only for a couple of hours.

But the Founding Fathers? Everyone pre-Millennium? They’d been dead for ages. What was I supposed to do, invent a Time Machine? Applied had already tried that. The dry-cleaning bills were ridiculous.

All right. Think about this. You’re a smart man.

I just needed inspiration.

That was when dinosaurs attacked.

______________________________________________________________________


For those curious, the full story can be found here:

Prose » Red-Jay.co.uk - RedJay Writing


...And thanks again for reading so far.

Interesting. A few minor points.

TEiN
 
I liked it too. It seems to fall between comedy and serious, but it works. The only thing I spotted was this:

It was nice desk in, and it was in a nice room


I assume the first 'in' shouldn't be there?


I had a quick look at your link, but my eyes couldn't cope with it in either colour version. My preference would be for a plainer font, and some spacing between lines (1.5-spaced if you don't want to go the whole double-spacing)
 
Hmm. Interesting. A couple of things:


(for a man flat on his back you're seeing an awful lot of detail not to mention the trains being shaken to pieces and some guy casually steps in the carriage) His clothes are immaculately tailored, coloured black. Unlike me, he doesn’t have a belly.

His face is stern and somewhat goat-like. One of his eyebrows seems permanently raised. (this would be difficult to see even if you were on your feet but looking up into the dark area of a top hat's rim with the room shaking itself to bits?)


By this point in the story, the main character quite well knows what "Lincoln" looks like- he's very much not just Some Guy. An argument here might be 'Well, why the hell is he describing him, then?' There are two answers: 'Erm... for the benefit of the reader,' is the obvious and slightly rubbishy one. I prefer to think that the character is just having a bit of an ultra-reflective last moment.

The (don't need the The. IMO it sounds more active without it) Fat Man


Interesting, but in my head, Greuze is very much the definite article- at least from the main character's point of view. And at this juncture.


It was nice desk in, and it was in a nice room
I assume the first 'in' shouldn't be there?


...Damn it.

I think (i.e. hope) that error's just in the extract. Will have to check the main text later.

I had a quick look at your link, but my eyes couldn't cope with it in either colour version. My preference would be for a plainer font, and some spacing between lines (1.5-spaced if you don't want to go the whole double-spacing)

I don't have access to any of my documents at the moment, but when I do I'll see if I can upload a double-spaced version. What would you consider a clearer font? I've been using Times New Roman just because, well, it's Times New Roman.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!
 
I don't have access to any of my documents at the moment, but when I do I'll see if I can upload a double-spaced version. What would you consider a clearer font? I've been using Times New Roman just because, well, it's Times New Roman.

This one (verdana) is good. TNR is OK except that (IIRC) you've made it grey rather than black, which seems to blur the edges of the letters.

God, aren't I picky?
 
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