Hello everyone,

As promised, I am currently in a project to convert all of the 13 books to PDF files complete with formatting, pictures, etc. This will make it easier to add to your collections, read on portable devices, etc. I am also taking the time to review each book before posting it again, but the revisions will only appear in the PDF formats (editing each post at a time in the forum is arduous and long, heh). I will edit this initial post as each book is added, so without further ado:

Important note: all of my collective work (and ongoing projects) are now hosted on the following website:

http://fiction-stories.com/word/

Book 1 (last update: 31-07-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?0ddaguradr246jj

Book 2 (last update: 16-07-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?9achv6tz9s3y93h

Book 3 (last update: 07-08-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?ymnn84h4s6b6ix8

Book 4 (last update: 22-08-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?94fe4dvd9wtdr94

Book 5 (last update: 04-09-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?qa98ds74mrk3ftb

Book 6 (last update: 18-09-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?b8fg7qxrz0pvbcn

Book 7 (last update 02-10-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?wx9eoezwd14v8us

Book 8 (last update 24-10-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?sn95aehvyoo1pgh

Book 9 (last update 14-11-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jq6wt71qdqqrqwp

Book 10 (last update 26-11-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?vy7kp35ykg397s2

Book 10 Basilisk (Last update 15-01-2012):

http://www.mediafire.com/?z1bvz1aktp73v5x

Book 11 (Last update 10-12-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?y7lvdovvtziu1c0

Book 12 (Last update 10-12-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?ptbcnzkpro991jb

Book 13 (Last update 10-12-2011):

http://www.mediafire.com/?vf1ppx7mmksuq4f

Just gonna take the opportunity to say thanks. You've provided many people with hundreds of hours of free entertainment.


Although I'm still disappointed you didn't ask GPG for rights to publish these...

This, infinity times this.

Sweetness, awesomeness and many thanks!

Can we call you Philippe now?

It's the first time that I've ever linked my virtual identity to my real one, but I thought it was necessary in this case. However, if you guys don't mind, I'd rather still be called dots here

<3<3<3<3

Get em published ya numpty!

Thanks again.

Brilliant But have you thought about aligning the text to both the left and the right, instead of just the left? It would look better (apart from the three word lines, but I don't think you'll have many of those).

Woohoo!


If you're talking Left align vs Justified, personally, I like the way he's doing it now.

I'll peruse my library this weekend and see how texts are usually formatted

That would be the correct term. Anyway, I like Justified better as long as you don't get

Three...................................Word......................................Lines

I checked with most of the other novels that I have and yep, justified is the way to go. I updated the file and the link should remain the same if all went as planned.

Well, while I’m reviewing each book, I might as well post a few things that were going through my head as I wrote them at the time. So here are a few tidbits concerning book 1.

I remember first focusing on Dostya because well, Cybrans were my favorite faction (cloaked ACU with a microwave laser, anyone?) and let’s face it, she was hot. I was growing giddy even as I started thinking of ways to make the AI twining process look cool. The thirst for freedom, especially when the Loyalty Program made was such a complete form of slavery, was also a powerful moment. Making her volunteer for the program was the only way that I could think of to explain why she was on Earth to begin with (a fact which was on the original web site).

As I advanced, I grew concerned about making the Cybrans ‘overpowered’ or ‘superhuman’, which would cause problems later on. Hence why the Machine Complex was created; a way for me to even the playing field across all factions. It was also here that I created Bagby, the Cybran’s version of a wise man, if one could call him that. Reading it back again today, even I grow surprised at how harsh his initial lessons were. Back in those days, I had not imagined that Bagby would become one of the main characters later on.

I also put a lot of thought into the introduction of Doctor Brackman. How could a man, any man, exist for so long and endure so much suffering in war while retaining his humanity? The discussion between him and Dostya was to explain that and was done in parallel to Arnold’s drama for a purpose.

As for Arnold, I wanted to set his character as true as I could; that of a man willing to break the rules to get the job done, but who followed the UEF for his own reasons. The initial drama with him unknowingly killing off an entire civilian settlement was also to nourish the image of how tortured he truly was. That and many other incidents later on, would give credibility to his defection. I added the ‘pure love lost to cancer’ part of Arnold’s history so that he would later connect with the Princess when they met.

While it was a subtle theme, I was also underlining the faults in the UEF and how its own bureaucracy was making it lose the war.

Initially, Desjar just had a support role, one which was not truly meant to grow, but did anyway. At first, I just wanted him to be a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, but other ideas came to mind as the books moved on.

It was also in this book that I introduced Marxon as well as the conflict that opposed him to the spiritual wing of the Illuminate. I did not want to make him into just a “super pilot”, but instead focused on making him a man who fought on every battlefield (tactical, political and even emotional) simultaneously with impressive results. The two SCU pilots under his command were there to show how one of Marxon’s strengths was to gain the loyalty of some of the best elements in the Illuminate. I did not want to introduce Marxon straight away as the Avatar-of-War, because I thought that detailing his rise to power was far too much interesting.

Rhianne was also introduced, if briefly, so that she would not pop out of nowhere later on. I wanted her to have, even at an early age, a strong faith that was underlined with an open mind. Those, I believed, were the characteristics needed to make her into a worthy spiritual leader later on.

Some characters met more or less closely during the book to create a history between them. Arnold nearly killing Dostya before she even left Earth, Marxon having indirectly crossed path with Arnold, Arnold being responsible for the death of Ariel’s family (and explaining her emotional and nearly irrational anger when you meet her in game). All of those were introduced to make things interesting.

And that’s all that comes to mind at the moment. I’ll do the same exercise when I complete the review of book 2 .

Dots, You've taken us on one heck of a ride.

Sorry to see its over, but glad to have played a little part in the story telling as well. ;p

You putting everything into PDFs and such its just shows how commited you are to blowing us away.

Mike

Cheers Dots, nice insights and really shows why you're such an awesome writer and made these work so well.

Although I still say it would have been better if the game would have been based on your stories (imagine how epic that would have been, rather than a few disjointed missions, bloody hell that would be an awesome campaign), it was fantastic how you managed to tie the books into the original game.

Even right down to the interface of their ACUs, the descriptions of the battles with the familiar units, and the characters themselves, never did your stories let me forget that it was the SUPCOM universe I was reading about, not just some random fanfic. That helped incredibly with immersion and, being a player of the game really gave some cool moments when parts of ya stories tied in directly or just subtley with elements of the game.

Fantastic stories for players and non-players alike.

By the way, I am making progress on book 2, but the style that I used back then is so far removed from what I'm using now that it's going through a major revision. I'm correcting soooo many mistakes in the process too

O! If you do an appendix sort of thing, you should include the Basilisk Short Story you wrote......cause its Awesome.

Mike

Yep, I will include everything. Also book 2 should be finished by this weekend. I can't believe the sheer number of corrections that I did

Book 2 has just been added. I have made so many updates that it barely ressembles the version on the forum

Not to be an ******, but I found a typo in Book 1.Should be once. I dunno if you want to go to the trouble of fixing it, but I thought I would let you know.

I found several myself. I think they will have to suffice as is.

Yeah, I've seen a few more since but I've decided not to bother reporting them. I'm really enjoying rereading these especially with your new improvements, Dots.

Correcting mistakes is actually not that bad once you get used to mediafire's update thingny. I'll probably do them in batches a bit later

In that case:
From the bottom of page 3

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