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[[The Enemy]]: Not so much an army as a hostile new kind of history. So ambitious it can re-write worlds, so complex that even calling it by its name seems to underestimate it. | [[The Enemy]]: Not so much an army as a hostile new kind of history. So ambitious it can re-write worlds, so complex that even calling it by its name seems to underestimate it. | ||
[[Faction Paradox]]: Renegades, ritualists, saboteurs and subterfugers, the criminal-cult to end all criminal-cults, happy to be caught in the crossfire and ready to take whatever's needed from the | [[Faction Paradox]]: Renegades, ritualists, saboteurs and subterfugers, the criminal-cult to end all criminal-cults, happy to be caught in the crossfire and ready to take whatever's needed from the wreckage… assuming the other powers leave behind a universe that's habitable. | ||
[[War in Heaven|The War]]: A fifty-year-old dispute over the two most valuable territories in existence: "cause" and "effect." | [[War in Heaven|The War]]: A fifty-year-old dispute over the two most valuable territories in existence: "cause" and "effect." | ||
Marking the first five decades of the conflict, [[The Book of the War|THE BOOK OF THE WAR]] is an A to Z of a self-contained continuum and a complete guide to the [[Spiral Politic]], from the beginning of recordable [[time]] to the fall of [[human]]ity. Part story, part history and part puzzle-box, this is a chronicle of protocol and paranoia in a War where the historians win as many battles as the soldiers and the greatest victory of all is to hold on to your own | Marking the first five decades of the conflict, [[The Book of the War|THE BOOK OF THE WAR]] is an A to Z of a self-contained continuum and a complete guide to the [[Spiral Politic]], from the beginning of recordable [[time]] to the fall of [[human]]ity. Part story, part history and part puzzle-box, this is a chronicle of protocol and paranoia in a War where the historians win as many battles as the soldiers and the greatest victory of all is to hold on to your own past… | ||
== Entries == | == Entries == | ||
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=== History of Faction Paradox === | === History of Faction Paradox === | ||
* The [[Anchoring of the thread|Anchoring of the Thread]] | * The [[Anchoring of the thread|Anchoring of the Thread]] | ||
* [[Faction Paradox armour|Armour | * [[Faction Paradox armour|Armour (Faction Paradox)]] | ||
* [[Audience of the Ruling Houses]] | * [[Audience of the Ruling Houses]] | ||
* The [[Caldera]] | * The [[Caldera]] | ||
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== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
* While editing the | * While editing ''The Book of the War'', [[Lawrence Miles]] described it as "a continuity in a book, it's an encyclopaedia to the War Era universe. It's got a structure rather than a plot, the way history's got a structure or a Bible's got a structure. Some parts of the universe are cross-referenced with other parts, and it all comes together to make up this great big … vision."<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20080509161052/http://www.gallifreyone.com/interview.php?id=miles Outpost Gallifrey Interview]</ref> | ||
* "Design Specs for Advanced Users", | * In the book, some words in each entry are emphasised in bold to point to other entries under that name. This enables the reader to jump around the book and read related entries. "Design Specs for Advanced Users", published on a hidden page on the ''Faction Paradox'' website, purported to reveal the "secret pathway running through the whole volume": one route that covers the entire book by jumping along these links.<ref name="DesignSpecs">[http://www.curufea.com/doku.php?id=faction:factionbook1reading Design Specs for Advanced Users]</ref> This list forms the basis for the organisation of the entries on this page. | ||
* Miles carefully structured the book so it could also be understood if the entries were read in alphabetical order: at one point, he specifically requested that [[Jonathan Dennis]] rename a character to move the respective entry in the book.<ref>[https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Jade_Pagoda/conversations/messages/56227 Re: JP The Book of War]</ref> The entries in several sections of the Design Specs listing are notably given in alphabetical order. | |||
* The Design Specs specified that their listing contained "almost certainly at least one mistake", as well as "a single entry which isn't connected to anything else".<ref name="DesignSpecs" /> The mistake was the listing of the nonexistent "[[Robert Scarratt|Scarratt]]'s Group" entry under "The A-Z of the War", and the single unconnected entry was "[[Parablox]]" (here placed under "The End"). As it stands, "The A-Z of the War" needs both the nonexistent "Scarratt's Group" entry and the "[[Jungle child|Jungle Children]]" entry (grouped under the subsequent "Houses and Orders" section) in order to truly have one entry for every letter of the alphabet. | |||
* Lawrence Miles briefly considered releasing an expanded version of ''The Book of the War'' on CD-ROM.<ref name="SBJunused">[https://simonbjones.blogspot.com/2006/12/book-of-war-unused-material.html Book Of The War unused material]</ref> Though [[Mad Norwegian Press]]' other ''Faction Paradox'' books would be later be released as ebooks, CEO [[Lars Pearson]] said that the number of permissions that would be needed from the contributors made it untenable.<ref name="ebook discussion">[http://gallifreybase.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5668976&postcount=26 Re: Faction Paradox (Non-BBC) - Your Favourites]</ref> | * Lawrence Miles briefly considered releasing an expanded version of ''The Book of the War'' on CD-ROM.<ref name="SBJunused">[https://simonbjones.blogspot.com/2006/12/book-of-war-unused-material.html Book Of The War unused material]</ref> Though [[Mad Norwegian Press]]' other ''Faction Paradox'' books would be later be released as ebooks, CEO [[Lars Pearson]] said that the number of permissions that would be needed from the contributors made it untenable.<ref name="ebook discussion">[http://gallifreybase.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5668976&postcount=26 Re: Faction Paradox (Non-BBC) - Your Favourites]</ref> | ||
* The entry for the [[City of the Saved]] quotes a traveller's lyrical description of the City as "an urban sprawl the size of a spiral | * The entry for the [[City of the Saved]] quotes a traveller's lyrical description of the City as "an urban sprawl the size of a spiral [[galaxy]]… a fabulous shimmering lightscape nonillions of miles across". This traveller was intended to be [[Iris Wildthyme]].<ref name="iriscity">[http://www.infinitarian.com/iriscity.html Iris Wildthyme in the City of the Saved]</ref> | ||
* Miles considered using the [[Sontaran]]s with permission from the [[Robert Holmes]] estate, but decided it wasn't necessary.<ref name="ebook discussion" /> | * Miles considered using the [[Sontaran]]s with permission from the [[Robert Holmes]] estate, but decided it wasn't necessary.<ref name="ebook discussion" /> | ||
=== Who wrote what? === | === Who wrote what? === | ||
Contributors to the book mostly worked on their stories independently, only discovering the added intersections with other stories once the book was released. It was deliberately kept unclear as to which authors contributed which articles, but later releases provided some clues. | Contributors to the book mostly worked on their stories independently, only discovering the added intersections with other stories once the book was released. It was deliberately kept unclear as to which authors contributed which articles, but later releases provided some clues. | ||
* As editor, [[Lawrence Miles]] | * As editor, [[Lawrence Miles]] was responsible not only for writing many entries but also for rewriting and interweaving the other writers' contributions. The "Faction Paradox Family" section was credited to him in the book's notes, and it had been previously released on the ''Faction Paradox'' website.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20011115105551/http://www.factionparadox.co.uk:80/family.htm The Faction Paradox Family]</ref> | ||
* [[Simon Bucher-Jones]] | * [[Simon Bucher-Jones]] contributed slightly more than any other writer besides Lawrence Miles. The final edition of ''The Book of the War'' included at least one entry by him for every letter of the alphabet, including "Lords Celestial", which was interrupted by [[Shift (Alien Bodies)|the Shift]];<ref>[https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/factionparadox/ask-the-author-sbj-t716.html#p4629 Ask the Author SBJ]</ref> the "Design Specs for Advanced Users" included a potentially-related "A-Z of the War" section that featured entries for many concepts also explored in his books ''[[The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)|The Taking of Planet 5]]'' and ''[[The Brakespeare Voyage (novel)|The Brakespeare Voyage]]'', such as [[Robert Scarratt]]<ref>Credited to Bucher-Jones in the acknowledgments of ''[[Weapons Grade Snake Oil (novel)|Weapons Grade Snake Oil]]''</ref> and the [[Leviathan (The Book of the War)|Leviathans]].<ref>[http://simonbjones.blogspot.com/2014/01/shard-apocrypha-brakespeare.html Brakespeare Initialisation]</ref> | ||
* [[Daniel O'Mahony]] | * [[Daniel O'Mahony]] came narrowly in third place for words contributed to the book. He wrote far more for ''The Book of the War'' than ended up in the final draft, and Bucher-Jones only overtook him in the final edit.<ref>[https://removalvan.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/pantechnicon_issue_eight.pdf Pantechnicon Issue Eight]</ref> He drew heavily from his rejected [[BBC Books]] novel proposals, saying "the entire plot of one outline is embedded in there somewhere, while a lot of the background for another became a major part of the Faction universe."<ref>[https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/factionparadox/author-author-dom-t914-s10.html#p5756 Author! Author! DOM]</ref> The planet [[Lethe (The Parliament of Rats)|Lethe]], mentioned in the entry for the [[Lethean Campaign]], previously appeared in his Doctor Who short story ''[[The Parliament of Rats (short story)|The Parliament of Rats]]'', itself a scene from a BBC novel proposal.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20061213205116/http://www.gallifreyone.com:80/interview.php?id=omahony O'Mahony Gallifrey One Interview]</ref> He would later use [[babel]]s, [[Thessalia]], and the [[Order of the Weal]] in his novel ''[[Newtons Sleep (novel)|Newtons Sleep]]''. He stated that he'd had no involvement in [[Michael Brookhaven]]'s filmography.<ref>[https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/factionparadox/brookhaven-a-filmography-t534.html Brookhaven: A Filmography]</ref> | ||
* [[Ian McIntire]] introduced [[Carmen Yeh]] in his unlicensed short story ''Schrödinger's Botanist'' for the 1998 [[charity publications|charity anthology]] ''Perfect Timing''. The related entries were co-written with [[Mad Norwegian Press]] CEO [[Lars Pearson]].<ref name="BotW Question" /> He also contributed to the entry for [[the War King]], including the detail of the unfolded [[hypercube]] on his desk, which was intended as a link to one of his other | * [[Ian McIntire]] introduced [[Carmen Yeh]] in his unlicensed short story ''Schrödinger's Botanist'' for the 1998 [[charity publications|charity anthology]] ''Perfect Timing''. The related entries were co-written with [[Mad Norwegian Press]] CEO [[Lars Pearson]].<ref name="BotW Question" /> He also contributed to the entry for [[the War King]], including the detail of the unfolded [[hypercube]] on his desk, which was intended as a link to one of his other, ultimately-rejected entries.<ref>[http://big-finish-sketches.tumblr.com/post/177895970788/id-a-facebook-post-by-ian-mcintire-which-says-i A Facebook post by Ian McIntire]</ref> | ||
* [[Mags L. Halliday]] wrote about [[Anastasia Romanov|Anastasia]] and the [[Thirteen-Day Republic]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040814202707/http://www.bbc.co.uk:80/cult/doctorwho/books/telepress/halliday/page8.shtml BBC Online Interview]</ref | * [[Mags L. Halliday]] wrote about [[Anastasia Romanov|Anastasia]] and the [[Thirteen-Day Republic]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040814202707/http://www.bbc.co.uk:80/cult/doctorwho/books/telepress/halliday/page8.shtml BBC Online Interview]</ref> She later used Cousin [[Octavia Sutherland|Octavia]] in ''[[Warring States (novel)|Warring States]]''. | ||
* [[Philip Purser-Hallard]] wrote the articles concerning the [[City of the Saved]],<ref name="SWWW">[http://www.infinitarian.com/botwswww.html "So, Who Wrote What?"]</ref> which he had developed for his ultimately-unproduced ''[[Iris Wildthyme (series)|Iris Wildthyme]]'' novel ''[[Iris Wildthyme in the City of the Saved (novel)|Iris Wildthyme in the City of the Saved]]''.<ref name="iriscity" /> He would later revisit the City in his novel ''[[Of the City of the Saved... (novel)|Of the City of the | * [[Philip Purser-Hallard]] wrote the articles concerning the [[City of the Saved]],<ref name="SWWW">[http://www.infinitarian.com/botwswww.html "So, Who Wrote What?"]</ref> which he had originally developed for his ultimately-unproduced ''[[Iris Wildthyme (series)|Iris Wildthyme]]'' novel ''[[Iris Wildthyme in the City of the Saved (novel)|Iris Wildthyme in the City of the Saved]]''.<ref name="iriscity" /> He would later revisit the City in his novel ''[[Of the City of the Saved... (novel)|Of the City of the Saved…]]'' and in [[Obverse Books]]' [[The City of the Saved (series)|''City of the Saved'' anthology series]]. He also wrote the entry for [[House Mirraflex]],<ref>[https://twitter.com/purserhallard/status/926070499729428480 purserhallard on Twitter]</ref> though Miles thoroughly overhauled it in editing. Purser-Hallard commented that he had not written the articles on [[Wallachia]], [[Michael Brookhaven]], [[Grigori Rasputin]], or the [[Spiral Politic]].<ref name="SWWW" /> | ||
* [[Kelly Hale]], who herself is part [[Native American]], wrote the entries concerning Cousin [[Belial (The Book of the War)|Belial]] and the Faction's [[Remote]] experiments on the [[Native American]] warrior tribes. She would later revisit Native America and [[Wounded Knee]] in ''[[Project Thunderbird (short story)|Project Thunderbird]]''. | * [[Kelly Hale]], who herself is part [[Native American]], wrote the entries concerning Cousin [[Belial (The Book of the War)|Belial]] and the Faction's [[Remote]] experiments on the [[Native American]] warrior tribes. She would later revisit Native America and [[Wounded Knee]] in ''[[Project Thunderbird (short story)|Project Thunderbird]]''. | ||
* [[Jonathan Dennis]], who previously | * [[Jonathan Dennis]], who had previously written the story ''The Hollywood Life'' for the [[1999 (releases)|1999]] [[Charity publications|charity anthology]] ''Perfect Timing 2'', created [[Faction Hollywood]] for ''The Book of the War''. However, those entries also included major contributions from at least three other writers,<ref name="BotW Question" /> including Lawrence Miles<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20031218032809/http://www.factionparadox.co.uk:80/interview1.htm Lawrence Miles on Language, Literature and Lying to the Audience]</ref> and Simon Bucher-Jones.<ref>[https://the-voice-of-light-city.tumblr.com/post/171601681800/rassilon-imprimatur-i-think-the-funniest-thing#notes Re:"Through The Eye of Eternity" modest cough]</ref> Dennis would later revisit Faction Hollywood in his story ''[[Remake/Remodel (short story)|Remake/Remodel]]'' and co-write ''[[The Brakespeare Voyage (novel)|The Brakespeare Voyage]]'' with Bucher-Jones. | ||
* [[Mark Clapham]] and Bucher-Jones had earlier explored the [[Celestis]] in their cowritten [[Eighth Doctor]] novel ''[[The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)|The Taking of Planet 5]]''. | * [[Mark Clapham]] and Bucher-Jones had earlier explored the [[Celestis]] in their cowritten [[Eighth Doctor]] novel ''[[The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)|The Taking of Planet 5]]''. | ||
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{{CotS series}} | {{CotS series}} | ||
{{TitleSort}} | {{TitleSort}} | ||
[[Category:2002 novels]] | [[Category:2002 novels]] | ||
[[Category:FP novels]] | [[Category:FP novels]] | ||
[[Category:Stories set in the War]] | [[Category:Stories set in the War]] | ||
