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Novel first came out anonymously in 1818 and under Shelley's name in 1823. Franklin expedition was 1845. However, Frobisher, Hudson, and Baffin (all of whose names are now borne by major geographical features in the Canadian North) predated the novel so could have been known to Shelley.

A novel that really is based on Franklin (besides Seeler's upcoming work, which I hope she gets out soon to cash in on the news) is The Terror by Dan Simmons. I haven't read it but have read and enjoyed other Simmons novels. Many fans have been complaining about an anti-Islamic streak in some of his later work but, given its subject, The Terror doesn't fall into this category and was nominated for a British Fantasy Award for Best Novel.
 
Mendalla said:
Novel first came out anonymously in 1818 and under Shelley's name in 1823. Franklin expedition was 1845. However, Frobisher, Hudson, and Baffin (all of whose names are now borne by major geographical features in the Canadian North) predated the novel so could have been known to Shelley.

A novel that really is based on Franklin (besides Seeler's upcoming work, which I hope she gets out soon to cash in on the news) is The Terror by Dan Simmons. I haven't read it but have read and enjoyed other Simmons novels. Many fans have been complaining about an anti-Islamic streak in some of his later work but, given its subject, The Terror doesn't fall into this category and was nominated for a British Fantasy Award for Best Novel.
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Interesting, thanks. I wasn't thinking that Shelley was writing about the Franklin expeditions specifically, but was living in a time of ambitious and accelerated exploration generally (and it was obvious to me that Shelley was thinking of the pros and cons of human ambition - not just with transhumanism but with exploration and discoveries in general - pointed out a few times in the book, even when Frankenstein cautions Robert about not letting his own ambitions get the better of him as he did, in the story) and so it was just kind of neat when the Franklin thing came up right after reading that book - because my imagination had just been on a tall ship in the arctic!
 
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Also - it was a little eerie with the Arctic/ Russia stuff going on - given that the character was an englishman on an expedition with a Russian crew. It just kind of struck me as an extra interesting coincidence. All of it. Because I had never read the book before. It was mentioned in an article or something when I was looking up stuff about AI. I flipped through my collection one day, and decided to take a bit of a break from posting, give reading it a try. Entertaining book.
 
Mendalla said:
Novel first came out anonymously in 1818 and under Shelley's name in 1823. Franklin expedition was 1845. However, Frobisher, Hudson, and Baffin (all of whose names are now borne by major geographical features in the Canadian North) predated the novel so could have been known to Shelley.

A novel that really is based on Franklin (besides Seeler's upcoming work, which I hope she gets out soon to cash in on the news) is The Terror by Dan Simmons. I haven't read it but have read and enjoyed other Simmons novels. Many fans have been complaining about an anti-Islamic streak in some of his later work but, given its subject, The Terror doesn't fall into this category and was nominated for a British Fantasy Award for Best Novel.
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Mandella, I spent the last two days with my technical advisors formatting, checking for widows and orphans, grammar, typos, punctuation, etc for the umpteenth time. Now we are preparing the cover, and seeking permission to use a particular picture of an Inukshuk. My novel, entitled Ship's Boy in the Arctic - Survivor, should be available in less than a month.
 
Exciting times Seeler! I trust you will let us all know when your book is available for purchase :) What is the age of your target audience?
 
Age of my target audience is late teens to adults of all ages--some younger teens with good reading skills might also want to read it. (I read Gone With the Wind at 14). Generally I'd say 15-16 to 90.
I'll let you know when it is available - believe me. You may not be able to shut me up.
 
Seeler said:
I'll let you know when it is available - believe me. You may not be able to shut me up.
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Maybe we could do a live chat type of thing on Franklin and the book? Basically a thread where people could come at a specified time and ask questions that you would answer in "real time". After the book comes out, of course.
 
Looking forward to it Seeler

On another note I am reading Pilgrim's Progress by Bunyan. Apparently it was #2 on the English bestsellers list-behind the Bible for 250 Years. And when Bunyan became Baptist he was imprisoned for 11 years (that's when he wrote the book).
 
Just finished re-reading the entire Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher. Currently I have several books 'on the go'. Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods", Mercedes Lackey's "Fire Rose", and Dean Russell's "The Initiate Brother"
 
Rowan said:
Just finished re-reading the entire Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher.
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Read and generally liked the first three but haven't gone further. Harry's quite a character and the universe building is superb so I'll likely get back to it someday.
 
Sounds interesting Mendella.
I'm noticing how much things have changed since I began writing this book, calling on my memory of things I had already read, then researching for all the known facts (like when the first search party landed on Beechey Island and found three graves and proof that Franklin had wintered there, they shot a polar bear and discovered it had been previously wounded by the type of gun Franklin's officers would have had), flora and fauna, maps, etc.

Yesterday, I drew a map for Seelerman, to show where Franklin's likely route was and the vacinity of where the ships were abandoned. A few minutes later he looked it up on the computer and called me to see all the info he had found--including the report found in the cairn on King William Island. I asked him if he would like me to show him the pages in my novel where I quote two parts to this note, which were written a year apart.

One thing I am pleased about--no new information so far contradicts anything in my novel.
 
Seeler said:
One thing I am pleased about--no new information so far contradicts anything in my novel.
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That's always the tricky bit with historical fiction, isn't it? Our knowledge of history does advance just as our knowledge of anything else. You can do your best at the research, write something that perfectly fits everything we know, and then some new document or archaeological find throws everything out of whack.
 
Mendalla said:
I'd say so, but it's a relative thing. If I put my mind to it, I'm sure I could come up with denser ones.

EDIT: Put my mind to it. Pretty much anything by Umberto Eco. The only thing denser than the number of ideas in Foucault's Pendulum is the language.
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(y)

I think that's what separates Literature from 'mere entertainment' -- there is so much information contained within that with each reading, I get something new

Just like I get whenever I read such graphic novels as the Sandman (stories within stories within stories, allusions and symbols festooned!) by Neil Gayman, Alan Moore's Promethea, Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan, & Grant Morrison's The Invisibles (he even has a riff with Mary Shelly in it).

So what do you think of Greg Egan?

Oh, here's something you might be interested in: Muslim science fiction
 
Haven't read Egan but now that you've mentioned him, must go look him up.

Sandman was just stunning. That's one of those "blew me away" moments when I realized what Gaiman was doing. It wasn't a stereotypical, classic comic book but an exploration of mythology and story. I'm not sure even "graphic novel" really does it justice.
 
These days my offline reading is limited to textbooks and cereal boxes. I've recently enjoyed reading "The Drama of Ephesians" by Timothy G. Gombis - "Fire & Ice" by Michael Adams - and "Honey Nut Cheerios" by General Mills.
 
Mendalla said:
Sandman was just stunning. That's one of those "blew me away" moments when I realized what Gaiman was doing. It wasn't a stereotypical, classic comic book but an exploration of mythology and story. I'm not sure even "graphic novel" really does it justice.
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My favourite story is 'Ramadan'...the stinger at the end, W O W

S'more authors I find to be Baroque -- China Mieville (this man has a Cecil deMille imagination and lexicon -- I don't know rightly what to call his genre--hard steampunk?) & Tim Powers (he can be quite stark in his works, but I find them to be particularly rewarding -- he creates whole worlds with such seeming ease -- what to call his genre? magic realism? modern fantasy?) & Gene Wolfe (I'm thinking particularly of his The Book of the New Sun series -- there are so many nested gems and allusions and symbols in this series, which starts off sounding like a sword&sorcery book, but...)
 
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I love Mieville (at the time Perdido Street Station came out, Bas Lag was one of the most original fantasy worlds to come along in quite a while) and Wolfe. The latter is one of the finest writers of his generation even if his writing isn't the easiest to follow at times. His novels are very very good but require a lot of concentration and patience from the reader.

Somehow have never got around to Powers but he's been on my "to read someday" list forever.
 
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