Thank you. I suspect I'd have to have a pretty damn good reason, with substantial support for why things are the way they are.
How about this? In In Conquest Born, by CS Friedman, there were two great warring starfaring human empires. The Azeans had an extensive genetic engineering and selective breeding project (thousands of years) that aimed at a few things: Blonde hair, golden skin (tanned), gold eyes (IIRC), and telepathy. The overt physical attributes were easy, telepathy was more problematic, the genetic link was there but unclear. Their enemies, the Braxin, and more specifically the Braxana, had an opposite breeding program aimed at pale skin, dark hair and eyes, and they considered telepathy an abomination and rooted it out wherever they found it. Those were the Braxana, who were like the Spartiate warriors of old and ran a slave society of mixed- and common-blood humans. Then an Azean girl was born with telepathy skills off the charts. And red hair. So how about a successful breeding program for specific physical and intellectual characteristics that yields someone who fails the physical utterly but excels in the intellectual? It's a broad enough concept that there's no infringement.
I actually can't think of any books that have a system that characters refer to as a caste system specifically, though I do know of some books that have something resembling one. I don't think it's overused. Brandon Sanderson has a caste system based on eye color in the Stormlight Archive series. People with light-colored eyes are nobility and people with dark-colored eyes are commoners. It's indeed arbitrary (or is it? There's magic involved), but isn't the whole idea of noble blood or castes arbitrary to begin with? These things are cultural -- what do the cultures value, what do the religions teach.
I think Hitler thought the same thing. Sorry, all I can think of from your idea is Hitler or other forms of obsession against nonwhites. There's enough of that in the world. I would be very careful writing this book and keep in mind the times we're living in right now. Already the blonde hair blue eyed people are born with privilege while other races continue to fight for rights and equality. Even without a caste system these things are real. That's not fiction. And having the dark bad guys kidnap one of the pretty white people sends the wrong message to me. Maybe you could write a great story with this, but it's not something I would ever read given the subject matter.
Well that's a little prescriptive. A top blade might take on all of those elements and for all those reasons. ..Yeah, but sure, @OP's probably a dull child, hates the black eyes staring down from the ceiling, and knocking on the door.
Christ, you make it sound like I'm writing in defense of a Hilter or Indian-caste system like society. I never mentioned anything about race (you do know it's possible for non-white races to have blue-eyes and pale skin, right?) I'm in the very early stages of planning/outlining (I think I mentioned scraping the color idea somewhere in one of my replies to another poster). I could wake up tomorrow and decide I want the higher folks to have purple eyes and the lower folks to have blue eyes. The point isn't the colors. The point is having some kind of physical identifier. Could be tattoos. Could be horns attached to their foreheads. Color was the first thing that popped into my mind because it's something I and other minorities deal with on a daily basis. Simply put, I'd like to write a Science Fiction story dealing with a caste system from the POV of two characters. On the contrary, I think this is one of the best times to be writing about something like this given what's going on in the world. Even better that it's for the YA genre. One of the fantastic things about being a writer is that you don't have to cater to one person. There's a market for everything and everyone these days.
I'm just seeing this comment for some reason. Very helpful. I haven't heart of the Stormlight Archives. I'm going to have to check it out as soon as I'm able. Sounds like a great read.
God, not sure what's with my alerts, but I'm not getting any letting me know when people comment.... Damn. I really want to read this now. This sounds pretty close to what I'm going for, minus the breeding program (haven't even thought about something like this...but the idea is lovely). An idea similar to this would add more tension/suspense for sure. I haven't gotten far enough in my planning to really flesh out an actual plot yet. I'm still bouncing ideas around. Damn, you must have some great ideas rolling around in your head. Thanks a lot!
You're welcome, and I forget who said it (Stephen King maybe?) If you want to write, you have to have time to read. Or something like that, anyway I've just got decades of voracious reading sloshing around in my noggin. I remember loving that book, but I was also 16 when I first read it, so it may or may not hold up.
I think it was Stephen King. I'm pretty guilty about not making enough time to read lately. I used to read a few books a week. That number has dwindled down considerably over the past five years. I'm embarrassed by it. What are you reading now if you don't mind me asking.
Working my way through a trilogy by a newish author named Ian Tregillis. Don't remember the series name, but the first book is The Mechanical. It's a sort of weird gearpunk/fantasy where the Dutch invented magically powered (the actual power source) clockwork robots in the 1500s and are the dominant world power in the early 1900s, but the robots are sentient, which the Dutch refuse to admit. Definitely not a warmed-over storyline.
I feel like the number of available eye colors is so limited that I'd fear the system being too...small ? Also, there is so much variation in eye color...how do you differentiate forest green hazel from brown hazel, or even blue hazel? A high tech society would realize all the same genetics are creating the hazel effect, wouldn't they? And that blue eyes are nothing more than blue light on colorless eyes. I guess as a reader I'd have a difficult time understanding where they're deriving the significance from. That aside, I DO like the concept on a more metaphorical level. It would also be fun to play with disguises (i.e. contacts) and underground / black market plastic surgery that removes pigment from the eyes. For instance, a celebrity / famous CEO who is discovered to have had his name and eye color changed when he was 12, haha. But whatever with what I think. The concept is neutral right now overall. Just have fun with your ideas and see how they develop.
That sounds like an amazing premise. That the robots are sentient creeps me out (I've had conversations about this with friends), but I'm willing to look past that, haha. I'll for sure check that out as soon as I can find a place that will ship to Korea for a reasonable price. I don't do e-books ^^.
Thanks for the constructive opinion. I really appreciate it. The general opinion/feedback on this thread is making me scrap the eye color thing completely (in terms of eye color being an indicator of status). I might try to thread it into the story somewhere else, however (the example you used with the CEO and underground/black market gave me an idea). That leaves me with having to figure out what characteristics/traits I'd like to use to separate the low, middle, sub, and high classes from each other. The poster Iain from a few post ago gave me a good idea, but I don't want to write a book based on the suggestions of others. I feel like that would be lazy/stealing? If you don't mind me asking, if you do read Sci-fi/Fantasy, what would be a huge turn off in a story like mine?
I'm in Japan and the combination of shipping and storage space converted me to ebooks. I still prefer paper, but $20-30 all in for a paperback? Kindle works.
No problem! And I get that. I look at it this way: suggestions / concepts aren't often unique, neither are they plot or character, they're an idea, and ideas pan out differently depending on the actors / settings involved. There is still a lot of work to do in fleshing out a concept, so I wouldn't at all be offended if you decided to use any of my provided ideas--I would just be worried if they're of good enough quality. XD I don't mind. There are many things that could put me out, but I'm sure there are some common tropes I can't stand. Let's see... I don't much like when at every turn there seems to be some peasant/soldier/commoner/whatever rebelling against their superiors. I suppose it feels too forced, since in life dissenters try to be secretive for fear of the repercussions and for use as a spy. In likekind, I'm not a fan of when superiors lord over their supremacy unnecessarily (especially when they are clear captives). If the person's a kid and ignorant, it's understandable, but if they're supposed to have held this high position for several decades then I just don't buy it. Overall, I'm a sucker for stories like this, though. I can look beyond the above if the tale is captivating enough, so I suppose the only thing I see done somewhat frequently that I really don't appreciate at all, ever, is when the story polarizes both sides (e.g. the working class are all selfless, good or enlightened, the wealthy class are all selfish, bad, or ignorant). That might be an obvious one though. Still, hope that helps.
Ah, nice. I really should make the switch. Where in Japan are you? Military? I only ask because my Dad was stationed in Okinawa for years way back when.
Thank you! And don't I know it. I'm feeling overwhelmed already with the details and plot points I already have. Sci-fi (this is only my second attempt at it by the way) is a whole other monster compared to Fantasy. Developing the technology alone gives me a headache. And your ideas are extremely helpful. Most than good enough! Noted. This will be something to think about while I'm writing, for sure. I'm glad you mentioned the lording bit. I'm still figuring out my antagonist, and I don't want him or her to come off as an evil-for-evil's sake kind of ruler. It's hard to create moments that show this (for me anyway), especially when dealing with a system that's put in place specifically to keep others down. Not as obvious as you might think, haha. I hadn't really given this much thought actually. I've been so focused on the two main POV's that I haven't stopped to think the rebel character might have siblings, parents, or friends who would be against what they're trying to do, and how that might effect his plans. The same goes for the higher caste characters. They can't all be high-brow assholes. There's bound to be someone at the top looking to break the cycle.
