Regarding future history

I posted here in the Setting Development sub-forum, but the setting is also intertwined with Character and Plot Development.

Perhaps I am being too ambitious.

My current, and first, WIP is an interstellar war sci-fi epic set about 2,000 years in the future. There are couple of issues I need to resolve.

1. The past history has a huge effect on the development of human beings. Some people have developed talents, both physical and mental, which are essentially enhanced abilities we already possess. These abilities derive from a specific educational discipline plus the effects, both physical and historical, of the planet on which the person was raised. During the time of my story these abilities are beginning to prominently emerge into society, and the people possessing these abilities are starting to interact, especially in the military – all of those disparate personalities thrown together by a war.

2. The story is (currently) being presented as an historical fiction. An example would be “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance” by Herman Wouk in which fictional characters are inserted into WWII, meet various famous people and participate in crucial events. The issue for me is we are culturally steeped in the history and lore of WWII. If you say to a reasonably educated citizen of the USA ‘Pearl Harbor,’ ‘Midway,’ ‘Normandy Beach’ or ‘the Battle of the Bulge’ they immediately have a point of reference. When I mention “The Battle for Achernar” or “The Cetus Campaign” it will not have the same impact. If you mention Eisenhower, Hitler, Stalin or Roosevelt people have an immediate mental picture; my characters Mad Max Redstone or Zeo Sanchez will not conjure up those images.

I have, in my notes and much more in my head, a fairly comprehensive history of my future universe. How do I convey the sense of a full and rich history without doing data dumps or giving history lessons?

One thing I have considered is a scene of “reconditioning” POWs by introducing them to the “real” history of the galaxy. “Despite what you’ve been told, Earth/Terra is the true origin of the human race. We know this because Earth/Terra is the basis for all science and timekeeping. Earth/Terra is the only planet that orbits it’s primary in one galactic standard year, has a 24-hour galactic standard rotation and is one (1) galactic standard gravity…” and continuing the history lesson from there. But it’s still a history lesson and a data dump.

I have also considered doing what E.E “Doc” Smith did in his Gray Lensmen series, doing short chapters of prehistory to start the story, but have not found a formula that works for me yet.

Another possibility are Encyclopedia excerpts such as was done by Frank Herbert in the “Dune” series.

Am I over-thinking this? Am I thinking too little of my target audience, or would my audience want all of those details? I would appreciate any suggestions.

Just for fun… The story I am writing is actually the prequel to the story I was going to tell. It started as background notes for the characters and just started growing from there. With 2,000 years of history there are plenty of other stories that could take place in my future fictional universe, several of which already have very basic outlines.

 

I believe point 2 is really important. Historical fiction is different from fantasy/sci-fi because the storyworld is our world and holds inherent interest value. Whilst it shouldn't be over-described to a point where it's trying to do the historians' job for them, if it distracts a little from the characters this will often be forgiven - because it's educating the reader.

But this isn't true at all of novel* fantasy and sci-fi. I'm fond of saying "no-one cares what happened in Elfland" but here it's "no-one cares what happened on Planet Zog."
(* some strange people care what happens on Tatooine, but the big franchises have an endless supply of hacks to extend them.)

I'd need convincing a sci-fi setting needs a full and rich history. Since it's all made-up.
Some might find an art-decadent in embellishing something that is made-up, just as a feat of making-uping-ness, but it's already been taken to some pretty ridiculous extremes.
Fantasy-elements are extremely easy to crank out compared with a character-driven plot, so the industrial authors of the latter-20th-century constantly used them as padding: giving the genre a reputation for bookshelf-filling sagas hung on the slightest thread of an idea.

I'd suggest to just dump it all and get on with the story. When editing in 6m+ time, if readers find it unclear why something happens, then pull out the background notes and paste in only as much of this explanatory baggage as is needed for the scene to make sense, then move on.

 

1984 and Brave New World were -- and were regarded as -- dystopian predictions of what our world might be like in the future. I have never encountered any reference to them as either history or "future history" (which, to me, is an inherently paradoxical term). Perhaps if you stop thinking of your story as "history" (which it obviously isn't), any problems will resolve themselves.

 

Hmmm... Okay..... Processing.....

I do get it, but.......

What I'm getting at is the characters are very influenced by the history and attributes of their planets.

After earth began colonizing the galaxy there was "The Great Pulse" (a massive, galaxy wide EMP burst) which devastated technology on most planets. This was followed by "The Great Wait" when debaratrons prevented interstellar travel, so all of the planets were isolated for almost 1k years, and the concept of a unified galaxy was lost. My story is taking place about 500 years after the end of the Great Wait, and the partially reunified core of the original galactic republic is under assault from a militant imperium. Kelly Bowman grew up on a high gravity, lower oxygen planet. After almost 2k years the people have increased lung capacity, are a bit shorter, more muscular and have denser bones, so Kelly is incredibly strong physically when in one standard gravity. However, she is tiny even by Lonirubus standards; she is even more of a "runt" when off-planet, which influences her choices. I have numerous characters that are similarly influenced by their home world. (One planet produces incredible intelligence officers, another produces brilliant healers, etc.)

What I am looking for is a way to convey all of this without the historical data dumps. Do I just write them as they are, disregarding the historical/planetary differences (except in my head/notes), and let the reader figure it out? Or does the need (or not) for historical background emerge from the responses of beta readers?

 

So far humanity (everyone concerned with the story) only occupies some of the Orion Spur and a portion of the Perseus Arm. So only a hundred years or so. All anyone knows is that blank responses keep creeping towards them. As soon as an FTL ship encounters the Pulse it "disappears," so no data. No one knows what or why, only that it is.

 

How to put this...

We're all on a planet right now, with a history and attributes.
And every character and every reader ignores the history and attributes nearly all of the time.
We're motivated by all sorts of things - from animal needs to philanthropy - but world history? The density of the atmosphere?
Putin is the only person I can think of who is motivated by world history per se - and it's part of the problem with him.
Putin is a psychopath who can't link his decisions adequately to relatable human motives, so he always says "I'm restoring the Russian Empire."

Characters in stories need relatable human motives.
Sci-fi is about giving new windows into that, not getting ourselves out of it.

My approach for the OP's Kelly character would be...
She needs to be short to explain some character relationships and interactions... so...
Kelly was born prematurely and is only 4'6". She has cerebral palsy. To compensate for it, she works out intensively and is on a disabled basketball team.

Everyone gets that.
So I can potentially lose The Great Pulse, the Great Wait, the debaratrons, the original galactic republic, the militant imperium, the high gravity, the lower oxygen, and the Lonirubus.
And this is horrible, but my Kelly is slightly more interesting than the OP's - because the reader is starting to be shown who she is. Her strength comes from a choice rather than being tacked onto her by a magic planet.

The Great Pulse only adds to the story if it's the only way to reveal something about Kelly's character. Otherwise it's fantasy-trap.
I believe there is a perpetual risk in our type of fiction that we write endless, interlocking fantasy-elements as a screen, to hide and distract from character. Which is because to some extent they are part of us, and if we have been traumatized we fear revealing ourselves.
Readers can make their own fantasy traps - anyone can generate an infinite mountain of this stuff with ease - they come to writers' stories because they want to spend time with the characters we reveal through our skill and creativity.

 

It strikes me that this is what prologues are for.