Sunday, May 23, 2010

Tagged - seven awesome things


I've been tagged (again) by Jean Davis to ponder seven most interesting ways a character has died in a novel I've written or read.

Now, the way Jean worded this tag left me feeling duty-bound to find seven interesting deaths from my own world, given how overpopulated it is and how Shayla (amongst others) has been working hard to rectify that situation.

So here, from Ghosts of Innocence, in strict order of (dis)appearance, and ignoring ordinary boring deaths from simple stabbing or shooting or poisoning, I offer the following:

1. Lots of people: Crashing from space in a crippled starship.

2. "Tiger" and "Raven": Beheaded cleanly by a shimmerblade, which is a knife with a vibrating crytsalline edge that can shear effortlessly through anything short of military-grade vehicle armour. I don't think either of them knew what hit them. Final thoughts probably along the lines of "that's odd, why is the floor flying towards my face?"

3. Italo di Flavio of Tinturn: A scapegoat for the crashing starship episode, executed in public by being lowered into a circle of incandescent plasma.

4. Lord Jerve Jamboro: Trapped in the wreckage of his crashed airbike and eaten alive by a hunting pack of flightless, predatory birds. No sympathy there given that he had, not long previously, been directing same birds to hunt down fleeing prisoners.

5. Brandt Carver: Shot through the heart by his own sister, in order to spare him an agonising death when he is accidentally (and irreversibly) poisoned by one of Shayla's own darts.

And, just to show that the tradition endures, from chapter 1 of The Ashes of Home:

6. Assassin #1: In hand-to-hand combat with Shayla, hanging upside down from the eaves of a building in an artificial grav field, steps outside the field, loses his balance, and plunges to his death.

7. Assassin #2: Accidentally incinerated by her own thermal grenade while trying to take out Shayla. Silly woman, she should have known that was never going to end well.

Now I have to tag four people in turn. So...
Cathy Chance
Stella Telleria
Charmaine Clancy
Lexi Revellian

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tell us about the seven most awesome gadgets or pieces of technology you've either written or read about. And Stella, no, foam missile guns don't count.

Have fun! And please accept my apologies if you've already been tagged with this one. I did look first, honest.

6 comments:

Jean Davis said...

The incandescent plasma sounds pretty... or at least more pleasant that being eaten alive by birds of any sort.

I love the last thoughts of the shimmer blade victims. ROFL!

I have to say, the deaths you featured here do certainly make your novel sound very intersting. :)

Botanist said...

Well, I do try to keep things interesting, Jean. Of course, I'd like to think my characters' lives are way more interesting than their deaths :-)

Stella Telleria said...

My seven awesome things are up.

*looks around to make sure no can hear*

I tagged Jean, I wonder if she's tired of getting tagged yet. I think I might need that foam missile gun after all. ;)

Stella

Botanist said...

Hello & welcome, Stella. Wow, that was quick work. Must go and have a proper look now the after-school runs are done for the day.

Stella Telleria said...

I forgot to mention earlier that I like your list. It makes the way I kill characters sound dull. LOL!

Botanist said...

Well, if you gotta go, you may as well go in style :-)

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