XBook, Chapter 8, and William is up to old tricks. Yep, he’s talking about the past again. But, he does manage to come into the present later in this chapter. We also get to meet some new alien characters. 

XBook, the old classic narrative of aliens invading after the First World War. But in this novel, we get to see both sides of the invasion. This is a book that I started writing in the late ’90s and I last looked at it almost 15 years ago, but I am reviving it here in audiobook form ... with added criticism. 

After I read out the chapter, I deep-dive analyse the chapter in a “Death of the Author” style. In other words, I explain too much whilst trying hard not to give away spoilers. 

In this episode, I go into worldbuilding and my more unique approach to using Film techniques to create a literary world. I quickly look at German Expressionism and Film Noir. And how did Terry Pratchett build up the Discworld? I also discuss whether William’s heavy use of exposition has been of any value. Likewise, how does all this world-building and exposition impact the narrative - have there been any story-telling advantages to this? Can there be narrative structure in exposition? 

00:02:58 - The Chapter  

00:20:27 - General Notes

00:24:16 - What Is World-Building?  

00:35:55 - What Are the Rules? 

00:37:28 - The Geography of the MotherShip  

00:41:20 - Micro-Narratives of the Socio-Economic World 

00:42:38 - William World-builds Ginger’s Terrain 

00:46:00 - World-Building and Narrative Structure

00:52:52 - Closing 

What are your thoughts on this and previous chapters? Have you spotted something that I have missed? Tell me your thoughts at [email protected]

You can also find me on Twitter at @DanielsNemesis, though nothing much happens there.