Dan Davis is considered to be the Henry Ford of the robotics industry because of his ingenious robotic household servants

Assignment 2 (Beginner)

By Kate Kirk (ladyblue@iquest.net) word count = 1,003

The Door Into Summer

Robert A. Heinlein

Dan Davis is considered to be the Henry Ford of the robotics industry because of the ingenious robotic household servants he invented. But he loses his heart, and then his company, to a conniving woman, Belle. Depressed and on a bender, Dan decides to travel into the future via the newest technology, cold sleep, and take his sidekick Pete, a beat-up old tomcat, along. Dan must be sober to be frozen, however, and, after sobering up, he decides to fight Belle instead of running into the future.

Inspired by the cold sleep contract Dan carries during their confrontation, Belle shanghai’s Dan into a cold sleep tank to get rid of him. Dan awakens into a brave new world thirty years later. Robotic servants abound, making life easier for all. But Dan cannot recall inventing them, even though it appears that he did. Did the cold sleep process erase some of his memory cells? Or is there some other explanation?

Protagonist = Dan Davis

Dan has different conflicts that he must overcome at different parts of the story. At first, Dan’s conflict is to get his company back. In the middle part of the book, after Belle shanghai’s him into the future, his conflict is to figure out why his past seems to have changed without him remembering it. This confusion about the past drives many of his actions in the middle part of the book. Finally, in the last part of the book, he figures out why his past seems to be different than he remembers it, and struggles to make sure that the past he doesn’t remember leads to the future he now wants. A minor conflict is created at the end of the book when Dan misjudges the amount of time he needs to "fix" his past so that it matches the future he wants. (This description is deliberately vague for those who haven’t read this book!!)

Spellsword

Marion Zimmer Bradley

(I know, this is science fiction, too -- sorry)

Darkover is a distant planet populated by a human-like species and other species not so human. Darkover was a recently discovered by the Terrans, who are more technologically advanced than the dominant human-like Darkover inhabitants. The Terrans have established a base on Darkover, but there is not much contact between the technologically advanced Earth people and the seemingly primitive human-like natives of Darkover.

In response to an urgent summons, Damon, a humanoid of the dominant Darkover species, travels to his cousin Ellemir’s home. Not much of a swordsman, Damon and his men must fight their way to her side though an army of cat people. Once there, Damon discovers that the cat people, suddenly aggressive, have stolen away Ellemir’s twin sister, Callista, a gifted telepath. Ellemir and Damon despair of finding Callista, but a stranger from Earth appears out of the snowstorm, claiming to be in telepathic contact with Callista. As strange as it seems to Damon and Ellemir that Callista could reach a stranger and not her family, the telepathic link does exist, even though it is tenuous at times. Can it lead Damon and Andrew to Callista? And can they determine why the cat people have suddenly become warlike and defeat them, thus removing the threat to Darkover?

2 protagonists, Damon and Andrew

External conflict: Both Damon and Andrew must overcome the cat people and rescue Callista.

[The characters’ internal conflicts lend much to the story. Damon feels that he is weak and unworthy, both physically and telepathically. Andrew is thrown into a telepathic culture he thought inferior and must adjust to "a thousand unbelievable things before breakfast." Ellemir must work telepathically when she has always believed herself to be without telepathic talent.]

Guilty Pleasures

Laurell K. Hamilton

(I know, I was supposed to analyze a TV show. I didn’t because: 1) I don’t watch much TV, and 2) I got really sucked into the Anita Blake books. I’m on the 3rd one, and they only came from Amazon.com a few days ago. It was either watch TV., which I don’t usually do, or read and write about books I really like. A big thanks to JL for recommending Blake books – I would probably never have read them otherwise!!)

(Well, you SAID this writing course was for us to learn from based on our own interests. There’s no way I could write TV scripts unless I choose to watch YEARS of TV first!! No way!)

St. Louis: A series of vampire murders is occurring. No, not murders by vampires, now respected citizens of the United States, murders of vampires.

Anita Blake, by profession, is an animator, one who brings the dead back to life. If your uncle’s will is being contested, for example, she can call him up from the grave and ask his wishes. By avocation, however, Anita is a vampire slayer. Or maybe not by avocation, by necessity. She just seems to get sucked into situations where vampires must be slain, against her will and with great effort and trepidation on her part.

Instead of slaying vampires this time, she must work for them. Otherwise, her best friend, entranced once by a vampire and now subject to his call, will suffer. Anita must investigate the vampire murders for the vampires and report her findings, not to the police, but to the master vampire of St. Louis, a powerful undead being who appears, sometimes, to be a beautiful young girl. Although terrified by the master vampire’s power and haunted in dreams by another powerful vampire, Anita seeks the killer throughout the darker side of St. Louis, the "District," which has developed because of human fascination with vampire culture.

Protagonist: Anita Blake

External conflict: Anita must find the vampire killer for the vampires to save her friend, despite her internal conflicts, fear and distrust of vampires and other characters in the book.

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