Trespassers Will Be Vaporized

The pesky issue of invading a planet. So often in sci-fi stories, the bad guys invade a planet when they could just as soon bombard it from space (I wondered myself in films like Star Wars why no one ever bothered to establish air superiority; they just sort of throw the whole thing at you, all at once). I've been thinking about this myself lately, only because such an invasion takes place in the third book of the sci-fi trilogy. There's a legitimate reason as to why the bad guys don't simply nuke the planet from orbit (which they clearly have the means to do), and it causes lots of dramatic ripples between the characters (bad guys disagree, big time) which I like, and it forces to think of ways to present an old trope in new and innovative ways.

I had a very good, busy weekend writing/working on writing stuff. I conducted an interview which will be up soon, I revised a new story and submitted some others. The workshop is a little closer to happening, though the zine still frustrates. I'll need some outside assistance on that one.

Comments

Benjamin said…
About the invading vs. vaporizing thing- I figured it was mostly a thing of either honor or arrogance.

Besides, turbolasers cost money/power, and the dead cost nothing. :)
11:08 PM
Darby said…
Ben: he offers no mercy to enemy planets.
11:14 PM
Benjamin said…
In a past life, I must have been a master of siege warfare, like the Quakers.
1:17 AM
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