Post by peterman on Oct 3, 2024 8:26:04 GMT
Sharing the Foreword, which provides a glimpse of what the trilogy is about.
Unconquered
Foreword
In the beginning, when chaos reigned, I wanted to write a book about two little-known topics, Canada and China. I remember telling someone in New York I was visiting from Canada, and she asked, "Where is it?" Also, whenever I switch on the idiot box to catch the breaking news, I get bombarded by a barrage of China China China, as the bugbear, not Panda bear, delivered by talking heads who know bupkis about China.
Considering I carry the genes of Chinese parents who left mainland China to live in Hong Kong, speak Cantonese and Mandarin, read and write both Traditional and Simplified Chinese scripts, studied Chinese history and literature, and lived and worked in China for twenty years, I may know a thing or two about the country.
Furthermore, my father was a renegade Communist from Yan'an, the headquarters of the Communist Party of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He wrote a historical novel based on his experience as a party cadre and performer at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts. I also lucked out and befriended people in China who had led extraordinary lives. A prime example was Sidney Rittenberg, an American who lived in China for thirty-eight years after the Second World War, of which sixteen were in prison. Sidney, who passed away in 2019, taught me much about China.
As the son of new immigrants trying to build a new life in a new city under adverse circumstances, I was fortunate to have received an excellent education at La Salle College, an English Catholic school in Hong Kong. Baptized at birth and confirmed at eight, I joined the Legion of Mary under the guidance of the iconic Brother Thomas in secondary school and led the Rosary at the school chapel during lunch breaks. I was so pious I once aspired to be a priest. But it was not meant to be. My zeal cooled when divine calling took my spiritual guide away until the year I graduated.
Later, my four years at McMaster University, with two living on Wallace, the rowdiest floor of the famous, or infamous, Whidden Hall residence, which inspired the classic campus comedy Animal House, convinced me to make Canada my home.
By a twist of fate, I pioneered and established Chinese language television for the Chinese Canadian communities across Canada. This adventure led to my twenty years working in China in the television and broadcast technologies industry, witnessing the country's meteoric rise. In short, I have countless Canadian and Chinese stories to tell.
Although writing about Canada is not particularly challenging, China is another matter. One must compete for attention amongst numerous authors who have been composing copious words in voluminous bestsellers on China, and my opinion, no matter how informed, would be buried under a profusion of poppycock.
Rather than taking on a thankless task, I decided to write about socioeconomics instead, despite never having received any indoctrination in the discipline. I didn’t consider it a disadvantage, as my uncluttered mind was unencumbered by preconceptions.
While researching for the book, I came across a quote from a Canadian economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, who admitted, “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” Upon making this discovery, I gave up on the mundane and went for the stars, in other words, science fiction. I realized the sci-fi genre would unfetter my imagination to create faraway alien worlds, travel back and forth through time and predict the future without appearing to have lost my marbles.
Experts and well-meaning friends who knew about my vacillations advised me to stick to one genre and focus on one subject. I could not decide whether I should listen to them or my guts, if guts could talk. After wasting precious time on fruitless philosophical contemplation, I went where my guts took me, namely, the kitchen. As I unsealed the portal of the refrigeration unit and a burst of photons from the fridge light flooded my face, I had an epiphany, one similar to what struck René Descartes: “I think; therefore, I’ll have a beer.” I gave life to an idea and collapsed its Schrödinger Wave Function. I would write an oxymoronic fact-based science fiction with everything in it, including the organic craft beer and the kitchen sink.
I have enjoyed the long and winding journey of creating this pièce de résistance. I must, however, warn treasure seekers they may not find a mother lode. They may hit a leaky pipe and encounter something unpleasant instead. On the other hand, prospectors with a discerning eye and an open mind will discover new ideas, new knowledge, new interpretations of history, new insight into the origin of human civilizations, new questions about the mysteries of our universe, new ways to understand oneself and the world, in other words, new ways to think, and a new theory for establishing a long-lasting peaceful Utopian society, a lofty aspiration previously deemed beyond the limits of human endeavour. In addition, the reader will learn many wild and woolly facts about Canada and China and be delightfully gobsmacked.
Before taking the plunge, I needed to be convinced my socioeconomic theory was not entirely frivolous, I submitted a concise thesis for review by the estimable Professor Justin Yifu Lin, the renowned dean of several economics institutes at Peking University, previous Senior VP and Chief Economist of the World Bank and the Vice Director of the National CPPCC Economics Committee, providing consultation to the Chinese government. Professor Lin parsed my thesis, concluding it was “logical and convincing.” Amen!
Since I'll be writing hard science fiction, and the story has quantum physics, time travel and artificial intelligence in the mix, I must ensure the science has some basis in fact and not all mumbo jumbo. Thanks to the favourable alignment of the stars, I have had the opportunity to pick the superior brain of a real scientist who happens to be my brother-in-law, Professor Peter Ramadge, director of Princeton University’s Center for Statistics and Machine Learning. Here’s a big shoutout to my brother Peter for humouring me and treating my outlandish ideas as worthy of scientific investigation.
For the benefit of readers of all shades and persuasions, I'm spinning this yarn as a fanciful fable, catering to the consummate consumer's insatiable desire for epicurean pleasures. Although it will not please everyone and may even irk the odd reader, it promises to be something completely different and to transform anyone who has the stomach to read it from cover to cover. Carpe Liber--seize the book!
Book 2 of the Series: Bellatrix: The Female Warrior
The sequel delves into the connections between the planets Earth, Shangria and Betel. Lost in the past, Victoria tries to find her way back to the future by visiting the author of Dream of the Red Chamber, thus learning the answers to many of the mysteries in his book. By chance, she witnesses one of the greatest battles ever fought by an invincible general who may have been a Canadian.
Book 3 of the Series: Augenblick: The Blink of an Eye
Readers will explore the concept of establishing a perpetually peaceful society, travel across a realm oft visited by heroes, lovers, demigods, epic poets and daydreaming young girls, and learn how our decisions can reset what has already transpired in the past. All the answers await our arrival at the saga's grand finale.
Foreword
In the beginning, when chaos reigned, I wanted to write a book about two little-known topics, Canada and China. I remember telling someone in New York I was visiting from Canada, and she asked, "Where is it?" Also, whenever I switch on the idiot box to catch the breaking news, I get bombarded by a barrage of China China China, as the bugbear, not Panda bear, delivered by talking heads who know bupkis about China.
Considering I carry the genes of Chinese parents who left mainland China to live in Hong Kong, speak Cantonese and Mandarin, read and write both Traditional and Simplified Chinese scripts, studied Chinese history and literature, and lived and worked in China for twenty years, I may know a thing or two about the country.
Furthermore, my father was a renegade Communist from Yan'an, the headquarters of the Communist Party of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He wrote a historical novel based on his experience as a party cadre and performer at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts. I also lucked out and befriended people in China who had led extraordinary lives. A prime example was Sidney Rittenberg, an American who lived in China for thirty-eight years after the Second World War, of which sixteen were in prison. Sidney, who passed away in 2019, taught me much about China.
As the son of new immigrants trying to build a new life in a new city under adverse circumstances, I was fortunate to have received an excellent education at La Salle College, an English Catholic school in Hong Kong. Baptized at birth and confirmed at eight, I joined the Legion of Mary under the guidance of the iconic Brother Thomas in secondary school and led the Rosary at the school chapel during lunch breaks. I was so pious I once aspired to be a priest. But it was not meant to be. My zeal cooled when divine calling took my spiritual guide away until the year I graduated.
Later, my four years at McMaster University, with two living on Wallace, the rowdiest floor of the famous, or infamous, Whidden Hall residence, which inspired the classic campus comedy Animal House, convinced me to make Canada my home.
By a twist of fate, I pioneered and established Chinese language television for the Chinese Canadian communities across Canada. This adventure led to my twenty years working in China in the television and broadcast technologies industry, witnessing the country's meteoric rise. In short, I have countless Canadian and Chinese stories to tell.
Although writing about Canada is not particularly challenging, China is another matter. One must compete for attention amongst numerous authors who have been composing copious words in voluminous bestsellers on China, and my opinion, no matter how informed, would be buried under a profusion of poppycock.
Rather than taking on a thankless task, I decided to write about socioeconomics instead, despite never having received any indoctrination in the discipline. I didn’t consider it a disadvantage, as my uncluttered mind was unencumbered by preconceptions.
While researching for the book, I came across a quote from a Canadian economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, who admitted, “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” Upon making this discovery, I gave up on the mundane and went for the stars, in other words, science fiction. I realized the sci-fi genre would unfetter my imagination to create faraway alien worlds, travel back and forth through time and predict the future without appearing to have lost my marbles.
Experts and well-meaning friends who knew about my vacillations advised me to stick to one genre and focus on one subject. I could not decide whether I should listen to them or my guts, if guts could talk. After wasting precious time on fruitless philosophical contemplation, I went where my guts took me, namely, the kitchen. As I unsealed the portal of the refrigeration unit and a burst of photons from the fridge light flooded my face, I had an epiphany, one similar to what struck René Descartes: “I think; therefore, I’ll have a beer.” I gave life to an idea and collapsed its Schrödinger Wave Function. I would write an oxymoronic fact-based science fiction with everything in it, including the organic craft beer and the kitchen sink.
I have enjoyed the long and winding journey of creating this pièce de résistance. I must, however, warn treasure seekers they may not find a mother lode. They may hit a leaky pipe and encounter something unpleasant instead. On the other hand, prospectors with a discerning eye and an open mind will discover new ideas, new knowledge, new interpretations of history, new insight into the origin of human civilizations, new questions about the mysteries of our universe, new ways to understand oneself and the world, in other words, new ways to think, and a new theory for establishing a long-lasting peaceful Utopian society, a lofty aspiration previously deemed beyond the limits of human endeavour. In addition, the reader will learn many wild and woolly facts about Canada and China and be delightfully gobsmacked.
Before taking the plunge, I needed to be convinced my socioeconomic theory was not entirely frivolous, I submitted a concise thesis for review by the estimable Professor Justin Yifu Lin, the renowned dean of several economics institutes at Peking University, previous Senior VP and Chief Economist of the World Bank and the Vice Director of the National CPPCC Economics Committee, providing consultation to the Chinese government. Professor Lin parsed my thesis, concluding it was “logical and convincing.” Amen!
Since I'll be writing hard science fiction, and the story has quantum physics, time travel and artificial intelligence in the mix, I must ensure the science has some basis in fact and not all mumbo jumbo. Thanks to the favourable alignment of the stars, I have had the opportunity to pick the superior brain of a real scientist who happens to be my brother-in-law, Professor Peter Ramadge, director of Princeton University’s Center for Statistics and Machine Learning. Here’s a big shoutout to my brother Peter for humouring me and treating my outlandish ideas as worthy of scientific investigation.
For the benefit of readers of all shades and persuasions, I'm spinning this yarn as a fanciful fable, catering to the consummate consumer's insatiable desire for epicurean pleasures. Although it will not please everyone and may even irk the odd reader, it promises to be something completely different and to transform anyone who has the stomach to read it from cover to cover. Carpe Liber--seize the book!
Book 2 of the Series: Bellatrix: The Female Warrior
The sequel delves into the connections between the planets Earth, Shangria and Betel. Lost in the past, Victoria tries to find her way back to the future by visiting the author of Dream of the Red Chamber, thus learning the answers to many of the mysteries in his book. By chance, she witnesses one of the greatest battles ever fought by an invincible general who may have been a Canadian.
Book 3 of the Series: Augenblick: The Blink of an Eye
Readers will explore the concept of establishing a perpetually peaceful society, travel across a realm oft visited by heroes, lovers, demigods, epic poets and daydreaming young girls, and learn how our decisions can reset what has already transpired in the past. All the answers await our arrival at the saga's grand finale.
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