Authors and Books

The following is a list of books that I recommend. I've drawn on plot and character elements from some of them.

Arthur C. Clarke

The Light of Other Days

A great read about how wormhole and time-travel technology would actually affect modern society.

Isaac Asimov

I, Robot

A classic. I love the little girl and her robot.

Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game

Another classic about a genius runt of a little kid and zero-g laser-tag. You can't help empathising with Ender with how often kids pick on him.

Alastair Reynolds

Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, & Absolution Gap

An archaeologist uncovers what caused an ancient alien species to go extinct, and the human race could be next.

Peter Hamilton

Commonwealth Saga: Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained

Wormhole tunnels connect plants in distant star systems. An astronomer notices that a star has disappeared, prompting the planets of the Commonwealth to build a starship to find out why. I borrowed the idea of the wormhole tunnels for Beyond the Horizon.

The Void Trilogy: The Dreaming, Temporal, and Evolutionary Voids

Set about a thousand years after the Commonwealth Saga. A realm known as the Void, which grants the desires and wishes of all who enter threatens to destroy the galaxy.

Mindstar Rising

The first book in the Greg Mandel Series. Mandel is basically a human lie detector due to enhancements given to him by the military. With his service over, he takes a job with a major corporation to weed out space station sabateurs.

Frank Herbert

Dune

What reading list would be complete without one of sci-fi's all-time masterpieces? I believe that Dune lives up to the hype. Young Paul Atreides must fight to avenge his father's death and retake control of the desert planet his family once oversaw. The legendary figure that Paul Atreides becomes inspired me to have Lynn take on the role of galactic icon in Destalis.

Dan Brown

The Davinchi Code / Angel's & Demons

Follow historian Robert Langdon as he investigates controversies between the Catholic Church and Science.

Anime / Manga

I believe Anime (Japanese Animation) and Manga (Japanese comics) are some of the most underappreciated forms of fiction. They contain so many good stories that just can't seem to break into the mainstream in the U.S. due to American preconceptions about animation.

Macross

The original Macross is my all-time favorite fictional concept. It aired on Japanese television from 1982-83. The animation shows its age, but it's still an amazing story. An alien spaceship, the Macross, crashlands on modern-day Earth. Analysis of Macross' technology advances mankind by leaps and bounds in just ten years. Hikaru Ichijo (Rick Hunter in Robtech) is a young stunt pilot who abhors the military but gets sucked into the conflict when the aliens return to claim their ship. He falls for the beautiful singer Lynn Minmay (Lynn Minmei) shortly after meeting her. But as he gets to know Misa Hayase (Lisa Hayes), the Macross' flight controller and first officer, his feelings become conflicted. In my writing, I aspire to create characters like Hikaru, Minmay, and Misa. I believe that they're some of the best in fiction. I also draw on the idea of a city inside a spaceship, which I think is just plain cool.

Robotech

Robotech consists of the original Macross plus two other unrelated series merged together as three generations with the plots modified. Robotech introduced me to Anime, just as it did for many others.

Macross Plus

A sequel to Macross. Hotshot pilot Isamu Dyson is assigned the role of test pilot of one of the first Valkyrie fighters capable of performing a hyperspace fold (faster-than-light travel). Sound familiar? It should. I use this idea in Beyond Cloud Nine. Brooke's entry into Earth's atmosphere also draws heavily on Dyson's simliar act.

Macross 2

A sequel to Macross. Years after the alien attack, a new, more powerful alien threat appears in the Solar System. SNN reporter Hibiki Kanzaki gets involved by flying out to report on the first skirmish between U.N. Spacy and Marduk forces. During the battle, he finds and saves the beautiful Marduk princess Ishtar, who controls their pilots with her songs. Along the way, he manages to piss off ace pilot Sylvie Gena. In Beyond Cloud Nine, Brooke and Marie's characters are loosely based on Sylvie and Hibiki, respectively.

Macross Zero

A prequel to Macross. While operating an F-14 Tomcat, the pessimistic Shin Kudo gets shot down by a new reconfigurable fighter plane. He crashlands on the Mayan islands and spends time with the beautiful Sara Nome, a native with strange powers. The first three episodes were so good, but the last two leave much to be desired. The director had the opportunity to set the stage for how the original Macross begins but instead chose to toss in a bunch of unrelated supernatural weirdness.

Ghost in the Shell / GITS: Stand Alone Complex

This near-future cyperpunk thriller follows the exploits of Section 9, the Japanese government's clandestine anti-terrorist unit. Lead by Major Motoko Kusanagi, a former female soldier whose entire body is cybernetic, Section 9 investigates an A.I. that becomes sentient, a master hacker, and a charismatic terrorist. GITS is very philosophical and plot-oriented. The Major often questions whether she actually is who she thinks she is, given that she downloads herself into new bodies on a frequent basis.

Bubblegum Crisis

Four female vigilantes in battle armor fight the Genom corporation and their cyborg boomers in this near-future cyberpunk classic. I've merged aspects of Priss' personality into Brooke's character.

Voltron

A group of young space explorers travel to the planet Eris, where they are entrusted with five robotic lions that can merge together to form Voltron. Believe it or not, both Lynn and Lutar's characters in Destalis are loosely based on Princess Alura and Prince Lotor from Voltron. Laugh if you want.

Caravan Kidd

This comedic sci-fi comic series stars a female cyborg warrior, a sex-starved juvenile, and his money-grubbing sidekick.

TV Shows (Sci-Fi / Drama)

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Battlestar Galactica

Breaking Bad

Airwolf

TV Shows (Non-Fiction)

Morgan Freeman's Through the Wormhole

Sci-Fi Science

TV Shows (Comedy)

Seinfeld

Curb Your Enthusiasm

South Park

Family Guy

Simpsons

Scrubs

Movies

Star Trek

Star Wars

Top Gun

Video Games

Final Fantasy Series

Target Earth

Lufia