Book idea?

[MalReynolds]

Okay... Here goes:

There's a group of soldiers who are specially trained to deal with eco-threats, in particular rain forest fires and other types of eco-terrorism. I know, I know, it sounds weird, but bear with it. They get dispatched to take control of a compound in South America, and head into a cave, where they're supposed to find an eco-terrorist leader.

The main character, let's call him... Mack, is highly trained in not only combating fires, but starting them, etc. For every problem he can fix, he has been trained to cause them, creating problem situations, but at the same time, making his skill set the highest of the group. Despite this, he is not the leader, a woman named Ellen is, and they have an on again, off again affair.

At the compound, which they easily take over as it is suspiciously empty, they find plans for a dimensional gun, one that will in essence, take a person and send him to another version of Earth, one of the infinite in the multi-verse. They assume the terrorists have retreated to the cave system. They rest up, and the next day, head to the cave.

After going down several levels and losing at least 1 soldier to a natural occurence of some sort, they find neither hide nor hair of the terrorists, but in a vast, open room of the cave system, a pool of purple liquid. Mack and Ellen stand back as tentacles fly up and begin killing some of the soldiers, who blindly fire into the purple pool.

At this point, a voice begins speaking directly into Mack's head - the entity is known as Gracie, and was the person who sent out the mission coordinates. She is the 'living embodiment of Earth and everything wrong with it,' and plans on using Mack's body - highly trained in environmental destruction - to wreak havoc, eventually causing the scales to tip in favor of massive global warming, to destroy all the humans on Earth so that she can start over. Mack relays the message to Ellen, and they both retreat with the few soldiers they have left.

Back at the base, they realize Gracie's control is expanding, and there's very little they can do. The soldiers elect to sacrifice Mack, believing that if he were no longer around. Gracie would no longer have the vessel. Mack uncovers charts that show that Gracie's control is expanding because there are several exits to the cave - the more exits, the more that her essence can eek out. He volunteers to rig explosives in the cave and seal it from the inside, halting Gracie's progress and killing him in the process, thereby forestalling her future plans indefinitely.

Before he can take the explosives into the cave, a shot is fired, but goes wide, and a wormhole opens up. Ellen reveals that the plans from the trans-dimension gun weren't just plans, that she found a prototype, and that she's sending Mack away - halting Gracie's progress and protecting him, as she does, in fact, love him. Awww.

Anyways, Mack realizes that Gracie will probably kill Ellen for this, and he cold clocks her, telling the soldiers to bomb the cave. He fires the dimesion gun at his feet and...

Wakes up on an Earth just like ours, but slightly different, as Mack had never existed on this earth.

THE FOLLOWING CHAIN OF EVENTS IS FUZZY AS I ONLY HAVE A GENERAL OUTLINE IN MY HEAD:

Mack comes to terms with the situation, and gets to use the dimesion gun a little more. He begins to master it, somewhat, and the randomness to which alternate dimension he gets sent to decreases. He gets well versed on the theory of the multi-verse, and finds from some scientists that they were working on a tool that would, in theory, merge all of the multi-verses into a single universe, which would be a springboard for the multiverse to continue.

Mack realizes that the best way to get rid of Gracie would be to find a dimension where she does not exist, and merge all the universes into one, expelling the threat of her by erasing her from existance.

Along the way, he gets requests as his job becomes more clear to the public, to find places where certain problems are no longer an issue, such as starvation, as well as much smaller problems - perhaps one where an oafish man didn't lose his wife's earrings.

Throughout all of the universes he explores, he finds out that he hasn't existed in any of them, and it is revealed that he was born outside the space-time continuum to act as a vessel to oppose Gracie, who is, in fact, an ancient evil that crashed to Earth. As she is the ultimate evil, Mack was born out of neccessity.

With this realization comes a cold truth - should her choose to merge all the universes into one without Gracie, it will effectivley wipe out his existance, as he does not naturally exist in any one universe. He eventually finds a universe where the universe compressor is, and finds another where Ellen is alive, but she has no memory of him. The only Ellen with a memory of Mack is the Ellen from the Earth where Mack disappeared. He goes back and they reconcile.

He leaves, knowing that she, and everyone that knew about him, will cease to exist once he fulfills his primary function, and he does, combining all the universes into one without Gracie, where the multiverse immediatley begins again. Mack is wiped from existance, and everyone is saved.

At the end of the book, it's probably shown somehow that Mack is remembered by some people, notably Ellen in the new universe, and that he wasn't completely forgotten.

THE END.

Also, his name probably won't be Mack because that makes him sound like a huge douchebag.

Thoughts?

[bluguerrilla]

Philip Pullman's: Captain Planet Series

Defeating something with self-sacrifice is always awesome.

Also, why wouldn't Gracie create multiple 'Macks'?

[MalReynolds]

She can't. She didn't create him.

He was created as a need for counterbalance to Gracie.

BUT this does beg the question, why can there be multiple Gracies and only one Mack.

Which I need to think about a little bit before I get back to you.

[bluguerrilla]

Oh, I wasn't clear on exactly where he came from. And I misread the part that explained it.


I don't know, it's not really clear what Gracie is and what she's capable of. Does she work through people? If so, how?

[MalReynolds]

The cop out answer, is of course, that there's always more evil than there is good. Unless that Gracie occurs naturally and Mack occurs unnaturally. There's nothing that says Gracie is born out of space/time, so... I think I have my answer there.

Thank you, though, for posing the question that made me actually think about my plot and somesuch.

[bluguerrilla]

The story, as it stands, has what seems like a quasi-Christian background (emphasis on the quasi).

I mean, if he were created outside of the space-time continuum then some omnipotent (good?) being must have created him as a response to the evil threat.

I like the idea of him being created by Gracie but, him being human, turns on her blah blah blah. Or, if instead of being the only Mack, being the only 'good' Mack. Just ideas.

I think the story could work how you have it laid out.

Tell me to stop if this is annoying.

[MalReynolds]

No, no. I like bouncing ideas off of people. That's why I post stuff on here.

I don't want there to be any indication of God - at least, according to the multi-verse theory, there are universes out there where God does not exist.

What I do want is to have something so evil out there, that there has to be a counterbalance - not as any indication of a good outside force - because Mack is born outside of the realm of God as a response to the threat that Gracie poses on everything - but to point out just how evil the entity Gracie is. She herself can be considered timeless, but something born into the realm of man rather than outside of it, like Mack is. He only has one shot - if he dies, then the ultimate evil can take over.

I might give Gracie more power when it comes to universes to make the threat more apparent. Maybe there is only one Gracie and she constantly shifts universe to keep up with Mack - as he is the only person capable of being her vessel, you find out, not just because of his extreme skillz with destruction, but because of his timeless, ephemeral nature.

The way I view Mack is as an angel, but without any outside forces telling him what to do. He was born beyond the control of any God.

If that makes sense...

[andy-o24]

My posts kill threads, so I'm sorry before hand.

This story reminds me of The Matrix in a way that I figure only I would notice so quickly. Since I've seen the movies about 50 times each, let me explain.

In the Matrix trilogy Mr. Smith -the agents, bad guys, antagonist, whatever- are the supreme force that only Neo can stop. The ending of The Matrix Revolutions, where Neo is talking to the machines, sums this up fairly well. He says to the machines that Agent Smith has spread throughout all of the Matrix and is coming here. Only I can stop him.

So...Neo goes into the Matrix, fights Smith, kicks his ass, but in real life, the real world in the movie, dies. Then, at the very end, the Oracle says something along the lines of, "blah, blah, blah, Neo saved us, he might come back."

SOO.....that interprets the idea of the Matrix into your story. I have more details about the movies and their relevance, but I won't bore you.

The way I figure it is, Mack uses the gravity-shifer-thing to go into a new demension, fight some evil, realize his ultimate task, and sacrifice himself to save humanity. Much like Neo did.

This is just how I see it, Mal. I love your story idea, and I'd love to see you get going on it and finish. There's my feedback, take it or leave it, it's up for grabs.

-o24

[bluguerrilla]

In my mind the Matrix didn't end that way.

But I never said this in any post: I'd read this book.

[MalReynolds]

Originally Posted by andy-o24

Words words words

Yes.

But my book idea came to me in a dream. I mean, it's a very basic variation of Plato's algorithim of the cave - a huge chunk of the first part even takes place in said cave - but once he dimension-shifts, I fail to see how it resembles the Matrix at all, save for the basic plot of defeating the ultimate evil.

But it's no biggie. If anything, I think it's cool to have my concept compared to something as nifty as the Matrix, even if the similarities were unintentional.

[devonin]

Forces of evil always jerk around and interfere in things more than forces of good do, which is one of the reasons evil is such a bitch to deal with.

It's also a good reason why there are many gracies and only one mack.

[igotrhythm]

Scrap that idea. Your new book will be based off of Smartdude's quest for a Crowdpleaser AAA. :P
http://www.studenteducation.net/vbz/...ad.php?t=91662

On a more serious note, what time period is this book supposed to be in? Sounds futuristic because I read something about "creating" multiple Macks.

[MalReynolds]

Contemporary. But in the paralell universes, there could be more societal/technological advancements.

So, really, I could turn this into a sprawling series if the notion struck.

[devonin]

So Eco-Sliders? Will there be a sass talking R&B singer?

[MalReynolds]

Ah-ha!

Yes. And Jeremy O' Connel will serve as the template for Mack.

[andy-o24]

Originally Posted by MalReynolds

Yes.

But my book idea came to me in a dream. I mean, it's a very basic variation of Plato's algorithim of the cave - a huge chunk of the first part even takes place in said cave - but once he dimension-shifts, I fail to see how it resembles the Matrix at all, save for the basic plot of defeating the ultimate evil.

But it's no biggie. If anything, I think it's cool to have my concept compared to something as nifty as the Matrix, even if the similarities were unintentional.

I hope this will clarify my standpoint, but if not then desregard this post.

I understand what you're saying about the deminsion shifter being incredibly different from the Matrix. You're right. But, my thinking on connecting it to the Matrix was the when he deminsion shifts, it's like jacking into the Matrix. That was my interpretation of that idea. I still like the book idea but that was my view on it's Matrix conection.

-o24