I had trouble sleeping the other night and when i finaly did i had this weird dream and thought it would make a great novel. This is set in the future, and follows the captain of a ship in the earths fleet. After a mission to a colony to disarm a nuclear wepon which threatens to destroy the whole planet. The captain disarms the bomb and leaves the planet after an ambush attack. Once his left a second bomb goes off destroying the whole colony. He gets set up for the attack by a fellow captain wanting to take over his ship. After a hearing on Earth they find the captain guilty and send him to highest sercured prison in the galaxy. Where most of the inmates are criminals his put inside there. The captain then decides he must escape to clear his name, but in order to do so he must call upon the help of some the most evil people in the galaxy including murders, rapists and extreamists. Plus in order to save his son who is being looked after by the man who set him up he must get help from the person who murdered his wife. what do you think, any feedback will help.
wow. hard to believe it all came in a dream. but it is a pretty good idea and would make a very adventurous plot. i really do like the idea of the murderer helping the mc to get his son back, but you'll probably have to have a very discriptive prolouge and/or first chapter to explain everything.
It's a venerable theme, the falsely convicted trying to clear his name. The Fugitve TV series and movie is a fine example. Go for it!
Wish my dreams were that adventurous. But yes, I think that would be a fairly interesting book to read.
That guy's not having a lot of luck is he? The 'using a band of criminals' is reminiscent of the premise for 'The Dirty Dozen', but that doesn't matter, the plot for The Dirty Dozen was based on a real life event, and it's a good idea, so there's nothing wrong with rehashing it in a new and original way. Nevertheless, I'd be a little bit careful about piling on the agony, in order to not go completely over the top, about the only thing that hasn't happened is someone kicking his dog. That's not to say you have to drop any of your elements, upping the ante with problems is the way to go to keep things interesting. But you might want to consider not tipping your hand too early in the proceedings, so perhaps have the rescue his son element as a 'Now What?' aspect, which comes along just when we think everything is hunky dory, perhaps only then having the hero discover that he's teamed up with someone who murdered his wife. The only other thing I'd perhaps be a bit leery of, is having him as a Captain. This is trap a lot of action stories fall into, in that if there is an FBI agent, he's always 'top of his course at Quantico', or a fighter pilot is always 'the best goddam stick and rudder man in the squadron'. This leaves hardly any room for development, whereas if he was 27th in his class at Quantico and barely scraped through to qualify as an agent, or only a reasonably competent fighter pilot, and so is a wingman rather than a squadron leader, then it presents more of a challenge for him. So why not have him as the ship's surgeon, or the bloke from deck 27 who fixes the coffee machines? After all, unlike on Star Trek, the reality is that the captain of a ship would probably still be on board minding the ship and attending to a million other things, having sent some bomb disposal expert down to the planet to disarm a bomb. In other words, it's far more interesting to have a main character that doesn't instantly know how to strip an AK-47 assault rifle if he suddenly finds he has to use one. None of that is meant to put you off by the way. I think the 'having to recruit a bunch of scumbags' premise has a lot of potential. Al
I agree with the above point. Recently, most of characters have been pilots, just squadron members, not leaders or second in command, or snipers, or some other specialist role. While they're good, they're not gods in their field. As for the scumbags, I would go for a more.... political prisoner basis. Don't get me wrong, prison changes people, but I think having rapists may turn a few people off the book. Keep the murderers and theives by all means, but there are some crimes even other criminals have low opinions of. No, I've not been in prison, but a relative has, and some of his stories of his time inside are .... rather scary. Depending on the setting the 'worst of the worst' may not be that bad, at least next to some crimes we see on TV. It's your story, it's with the whole criminal thing, you need to be careful. I don't know to be honest, when done well, like thre movie We're No Angels I believe, it's very good, but other times it just doesn't work. Now that I think of it, I might see if I can track down a copy of We're no Angels, it was a good movie, and I like Adolf... the adder or viper.
I think It's a fabulous idea. It calls on a lot of human emotion doesn't it? Including betrayal (cause you would image his son would hate his father for working with the murderer or his mother), self-loathing(sp?) and bitterness. I think it would be excillent to write in first person wouldn't it? FW X
I wish I had dreams... It reads like it would be a great story. And I'd like to see how you flesh it out. -XY
I wish any of my dreams were remotely related to my chosen genre. I had a dream last night that would make a good murder mystery, if only I wrote mysteries.
You're not alone rmhazard it happens to me too. My novel on the jewish revolt came from a series of dreams. Maybe past life experiences eh! I like the idea behind your story. Keep me posted on how it goes!
On an interesting side note: In the piece I'm working on, the protagonist uses dreams, or rather one specific dream, to fuel his journey. -XY
whoa...qquick comment...(never really liked sci-fi exsept star wars) thats a freakin sick plot...if it ever does become a novel, let me know what the name is!
