I've recently been thinking about writing a book, but i feel my writing is not up to par, and i only have an idea. I just wanted to know, would you be interested in such a book as this:
[spoiler Prologue] A civilization in its prime, The Holy Empire Izeriil has conquered the world. They have made the biggest medical advances in history on their planet, it is close to a utopia. It is a theocracy, however, and through divine means, when ever someone is born, their death date is fixed by some quasi-deity. The person's death date is known to them, and whenever the do anything, something intervenes to prevent them from dying. This has kept many people happy, allowing them to plan how and when to see what they want be fore the death date arrives. However, recently, a child named Meldric Kerlouzin was born, but no death date has appeared in the offical records. This is the story of how utopias, even the most perfect ones, can come crashing down in ruins with the birth of a single child. This is the story of Meldric Kerlouzin.[/spoiler]
Right now i am thinking the title will be "Death Date".
It's interesting, but suffers from some flaws in logic. If I were living there, the first thing I'd do is A, shoot up a bank, B, tie rocks to my feet and throw myself in the ocean, or C, attempt to kill someone else.
It smacks of quite a bit of predestination, and I'm curious how you're going to reconcile this. For instance, how does our hero escape if the cops that are sent literally cannot die?
"But... I thought a genie couldn't kill anyone!"
"You'd be surprised what you could live thru."
Well, its sort of like in Star Trek: The Next Generation, hwere they've eliminated poverty, etc. This utopia is very advanced, and i'm not sure about the rest of it. it just came into my head when i was at the doctor's 3 hrs ago, and i was like, "Hey, that sounds cool, maybe i should right something about it."
Still....what motive does someone have in this society not to rape, steal, do drugs, drink lots of booze, and cause mayhem? The worse the state could do is incarcerate him, which would be hard enough since catching him would require physical restraints (holding a gun and saying "Don't move" wouldn't be much of a threat, even if it still can cause grevious injury.) Is there some force inside the utopia that perserves the status quo?
Quote from: Xathan, Actually Back This TimeThe worse the state could do is incarcerate him, which would be hard enough since catching him would require physical restraints (holding a gun and saying "Don't move" wouldn't be much of a threat, even if it still can cause grevious injury.)
Actually, the worst the state could do is knock him unconscious at range, then bury him alive with a feeding tube since they know he won't die for another X years. (X is guaranteed to be much, much longer than the guy would want to be buried alive.)
Quote from: Epic MeepoQuote from: Xathan, Actually Back This TimeThe worse the state could do is incarcerate him, which would be hard enough since catching him would require physical restraints (holding a gun and saying "Don't move" wouldn't be much of a threat, even if it still can cause grevious injury.)
Why bother with the feeding tube? He won't starve to death.
Better yet, submerge him underwater, have him drown for X years.
Though the premise is a bit unrealistic, it could be expanded upon to create an interestingly twisted society, I would think.
If the definition of what is to happen is narrowed to simply not dying, it could create a rather interesting, multilayered society. Perhaps utopian, but with some dark undertones. People would be immune from death, but not from injury or pain.
The police would not need to bother with any sort of nonlethal weapons, so they would simply shoot their suspect until he couldn't stand up, and then take him into custody. Massive electric shocks could be applied every time he tried to get up. As for punishment, no, they can't kill you, but with the kinds of things they do to you, they make you wish they could...
All this would likely keep the population in line well enough, perhaps, except for those who have little to lose, as their day draws near. There is a motif of duality, here, as seen as early as "Metropolis"-- a conservative, orderly city of those who have much time left, and a periphery where those with little time left go to indulge in all sorts of debauchery.
More will be coming soon, I completely forgot about this project until now!