Atmosphere
In my futuristic After Eden series, there are no hover-craft. Terrorism concerns prevent any future of flying cars in cities—except for quasi ones that simply hover above the street. However, in Liquid Cool, it’s quite the opposite. Hover-cars, hover-trucks, hover-bikes, jet-packed police—the sky is filled with something or someone flying around. Both are futuristic realities and believable, but completely opposite. Why? In Liquid Cool we don’t know everything yet–we’re patient to allow the world to unfold for us, but it’s always rains (yeah, like Blade Runner, but we know there’s something behind it), it seems the very wealthy people don’t even live on the planet anymore, and people “are stacked on top of each other”, so the monolith skyscraper towers indicate that space is a big commodity in this world. If that’s the case, then the expansion of hover-craft technology would be essential for people to live their lives.
Authority
No cyberpunk, even my reimagined version, would be true to sub-genre without some conflict between individual and “the system”. In cyberpunk books and movies of old, megacorporations seemed to replace governments altogether. Well, that’s what dystopian sci-fi writers imagined, countering the wonderful world government sci-fi of such icons as Star Trek’s Federation. But that was over 40 years ago; we know better. Corporations have gotten bigger, but nothing compared to what governments have ballooned into in not only their inability to stop spending money, but getting involved in every minutiae of our lives.
“…megacorporate gangsters and uber-government goons!”
Liquid Cool shows a world where megacorporations and governments fight for control over each other, with crime plotting in the shadows, trying to outdo both.
Cops & Robbers
In such a dangerous city, the police have to be deadly; otherwise, crime would truly run wild in the streets. In this way, the depiction of police authority differs from other dystopian sci-fi. Metropolis is no police state. The police are as “bad as they can be”, but it is directed solely at the really bad, bad guys and sanctioned by the public.
Cruz has never had even a speeding ticket in his adult life, but the moment he begins “playing” detective he has more run-ins with the police than imaginable. He even has a couple of officers–that he affectionately refers to as “Ebony and Ivory” (never saying to their faces, of course), take a special interest in him. Being called out to his office a couple of times to investigate homicides would do that.
There other divisions (or fiefdoms) in Police Central, such as CIC (Crime Information Center) and the Police Watch. Taking a page out of the headlines with the debate on whether we should equip police with body-cams. Well, in the futuristic Metropolis, they’ve done it, but as with most things done by the government, the results are not always as predicted.
Cruz’s relationship with the police evolves into one that’s complicated. You’ll see.
Villains
“…watch out for tech-tricksters, analog hustlers, and digital gangsters—psychos, samurais, and cyborgs aplenty.”
The kinds of clients Cruz will come across are endless, and some are crazy, but so are the criminals he will have to face off. I don’t want to spoil the fun by revealing the bad guys he’ll face, but we already know that in the Liquid Cool world there are a lot of cyborgs–strangely, not too much in the way of robots or androids…yet. There will also be other kinds of bad guys, as the sci-fi universe has a lot to offer.
What I Enjoyed Most About Writing LC?
It’s was a new sci-fi, futuristic world to build from scratch. The flash and neon, the sidewalk johnnies and psycho cyborgs, a private eye in a rainy 50-million plus super city with his fancy bright red hover-car. Unlike my other series, there is no ending. So I can continue the books as long as I want.
What’s next in Liquid Cool?
It is cyberpunk, even if it’s my retro, neo-retro, reimagined version. So I’d guess artificial intelligence, robots, space, and VR (virtual reality) are strong possibilities.
Read Part I of this Blog Here: The (Sexy) Cyberpunk Way of Liquid Cool, Part I
Get Your Free Copy of the Liquid Cool Prequel, These Mean Streets, Darkly Here Today.
Get Your Copy of the debut novel, Liquid Cool Here Today.
#Cyberpunk #SciFi #ScienceFiction #LiquidCool
Austin Dragon is the author of over 30 books in science fiction, fantasy, and classic horror. His works include the sci-fi detective LIQUID COOL series, the epic fantasy FABLED QUEST CHRONICLES, the international futuristic epic AFTER EDEN Series, the classic SLEEPY HOLLOW HORRORS, and new military sci-fi PLANET TAMERS series. He is a native New Yorker but has called Los Angeles, California home for more than twenty years. Words to describe him, in no particular order: U.S. Army, English teacher, one-time resident of Paris, ex-political junkie, movie buff, Fortune 500 corporate recruiter, renaissance man, futurist, and dreamer.
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