Hello again, friends! Welcome back to the A to Z Challenge. For this year’s challenge, my theme is the universe of Tomorrow News Network, my upcoming Sci-Fi adventure series. In today’s post, U is for:
URTHU
“Earth-like” can be a misleading term, both in real life and in the universe of Tomorrow News Network. Lots of planets can be described as Earth-like, in one manner or another. That doesn’t necessarily mean Earthlings would be able to live there.
There are only handful of truly Earth-like planets in our galaxy—planets with oxygen/nitrogen atmospheres, planets with oceans of liquid water, planets with chlorophyll-green vegetation growing on their surfaces. And these very few planets are all the result of terraforming projects funded by the Earth Republic (or later by the Earth Empire).
Terra Nova, Terminus, Xanadu… these are some of terraforming’s greatest success stories. But terraforming technology has had one noteworthy failure: the Earth II project. What exactly went wrong on Earth II? No one knows, but in his final transmission, the Earth II colonial administrator said: “We worked to transform this planet, and the planet worked just as hard to transform us.”
As a result of linguistic corruption, the name Earth II has become Urthu. At least that is the name used by the creatures that still live there.
In The Medusa Effect, Urthu is mentioned only in passing, and that’s all the attention it gets. As the Tomorrow News Network series progresses, will Urthu turn out to be more important than a throwaway line? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I just had a really tough time picking a U-word for the A to Z Challenge, and I’ll never have anything to say about Urthu again. Who knows what the future may bring?
Next time on Tomorrow News Network: A to Z, imagine you’re sitting at home watching the news on the viewlink when the signal abruptly cuts to static.
Planet Pailly 
Haha, well done with U 😉 But I would love to know more about those creatures that live on Urthu!
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Well, maybe their story will be told someday. But for now, I’m going to leave them alone and let them finish doing whatever they’re doing to their planet.
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The description reminded me of Interstellar.. and them finding different planets.
U is for Uncover
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I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I’ve never seen Interstellar. People tell me I should, and that it’s really good.
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Oh you should!
And gravity.. Sandra stands out but in terms of story line.. Interstellar has more of an edge!
Even Martian is pretty good!
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I also still need to see Gravity. I did enjoy The Martian. The book was better, but of course that’s usually the case.
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True! I have to read the book!
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It’s really good. Probably the best hard Sci-Fi novel I’ve ever read.
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Oo. I’m going to get back to reading once this challenge gets over! I’ll be sure to read it 🙂
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I started writing a science fiction novel a couple of years back and maybe after the challenge finishes, I will get back to it. According to the wisdom of the internet, its okay for science fiction books to be much longer than others because they have to do a lot more scene setting or explaining of new worlds. I will follow you…
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I’ve heard that too, that science fiction and fantasy books can be longer. I think a lot depends on your audience, and SFF readers tend to like having big, complicated story universes to explore. That sort of thing doesn’t fly as well with the readers of other genres.
At least that’s my impression of things. I’m still new to the marketing and publishing side of writing, so I don’t really know much yet.
What’s your Sci-Fi novel about, if you don’t mind me asking?
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I didn’t have much of a clue about Urthu and the other things you were talking about, but I know a little something about Xanadu – I can rollerskate, and I can sing the lyrics 😉
M U is about the uniformity in Switzerland I experienced upon returning from the jungle:
https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-z-2020-switzerland-uniformity.html
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Ah yes, that movie was something special. I had to watch it for a film history class.
The name Xanadu has a very long history going back to ancient Chinese mythology. I don’t know the whole story, but it’s supposed to be an absolute paradise.
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Oh, I hope there’s more to the story of Urthu than a throwaway line! It sounds so interesting.
(Click the Blog link on the second row) : V is for Victuals
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It really is just a throwaway line in book one. After that, though… well, I have longterm plans for T.N.N., and the hybridized creatures on Urthu may or may not have an important role to play in those plans.
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