The Universe of Grand Central Arena

Grand Central Arena ("GCA") is my attempt to do a modern version of the immense-scale space-opera adventures of the Golden Age. It begins, as did many such adventures, with humanity's first steps into the vastness of the universe outside of our own solar system - first steps into something far stranger than we had imagined. While detailed descriptions of specific portions of the universe are found elsewhere on this site, this is something of an introduction that touches on all aspects of the universe, and answers some common questions about GCA's universe.

The remainder of this description and FAQ contains spoilers of more or less importance, so if you're a spoilerphobe you'd better stop reading now!

1) What is "The Arena"?

The Arena of the title is a construct of almost ungraspable size - tens of lightyears in diameter - which exists outside of our own, yet has an apparent one-to-one correspondence with every part of our "native" universe. Any species which attempts to use a faster-than-light drive finds itself in the Arena, forced to interact with all the other species there according to the rules of the Arena. Thus, when the heroes of GCA activate the "Sandrisson Drive", they appear in the part of the Arena that corresponds to our solar system, and through the design of that area and specific events are quickly forced/directed to a place, called "Nexus Arena", where all species in the Arena (and thus, presumably, all species in our universe which have attained faster-than-light capability) meet and interact.

The Arena is the product of a technology vastly beyond anything that the current species found within it possess, and whoever or whatever created it is unknown, spoken of simply as "The Voidbuilders" by the inhabitants. In point of fact, it is also merely assumption that this is technology; some factions in the Arena have a very different view of the nature of the Arena and its creator or creators.

In GCA, the words "The Arena" also refer to the intelligence that guides the operation of The Arena, makes rulings and decisions on the various "Challenges" between different Arena "factions", and enforces or arranges the enforcement of its various directives. Based on its behavior thus far, the general assumption is that the Arena's guiding intelligence is a tremendously capable artificial intelligence.

2) Are the rules of the Arena arbitrary?

The answer is basically "yes and no". Speaking as a writer, they were arbitrarily chosen to permit various types of activity and interaction that I wanted in a "New Golden Age" adventure. However, within the universe, they are rules that were designed by the Voidbuilders (or, if there was only one, Voidbuilder) for very specific purposes. From that point of view, they are not at all arbitrary.

The related question would be to ask whether the rules can be arbitrarily changed, and the answer is, in general, no. The Arena (or its guiding intelligence) can make specific rulings in edge cases or new circumstances, and there are certain events and conditions which will allow some methods of "getting around" the rules, so to speak, but the overall limitations of the Arena are pretty much set.

3) "Marc C. DuQuesne"; should I know that name? Is that really him? And since that's not public domain, aren't you taking a risk?

"Should" is a fuzzy term. Marc C. DuQuesne was the principal villain in the Skylark series by E.E. "Doc" Smith, with the first volume (The Skylark of Space) written in 1918 and published for the first time ten years later (1928); two others, Skylark Three and The Skylark of Valeron, were published shortly thereafter in the early 1930s; thirty years more were to elapse before the publication of Skylark DuQuesne in 1965. A modern reader would find these novels bombastic, filled with purple prose, and cliché-ridden - but many of the clichés are ones INVENTED by Doc Smith.

The character in Grand Central Arena is not - precisely - the Marc C. DuQuesne of Smith's novels. He is, instead, a being created in one of the most horrifically magnificent experiments in history, something called Project Hyperion. Marc was created and raised such that he believed he was living in a universe quite similar to the Skylark universe (crossed with Doc Smith's other, most famous, fictional universe, that of the Lensman series). The Hyperion Project collapsed some fifty years before GCA begins, and DuQuesne has gained his own independent identity in that time, but he is in many ways very similar to that original character.

When Grand Central Arena was tentatively accepted for publication, I immediately - not without some considerable trepidation - contacted the estate of Doc Smith's work, as of this writing controlled by Al Trestrail, and let them know the nature of the work and of my extensive "salute" to Doc. To my great relief and gratification, the response was quite positive. That, combined with the fact that my DuQuesne is not actually Doc's, eliminates any concerns associated with that character.

4) Is [some character or event] a reference to [something in a work of fiction]?

While that depends to an extent on exactly what one's asking about, as a general rule, the answer will probably be "yes". While Doc Smith's work was my single greatest inspriation, as a whole Grand Central Arena is a salute to all of those who inspired me in one way or another, and thus there are a lot of direct and indirect references to old-style SF, fantasy, anime, and other things in the novel. There is a (not at all complete!) listing of references in GCA here.

5) Okay, I understand the trick you're using to let everyone talk, but aren't your "aliens" awfully human?

Yes, they are - although the translation tricks involved do sometimes mask some much more alien thoughts and behaviors which only "come out" under certain circumstances. This is both required by the works that I'm referencing, and also reflects my basic belief that any intelligence we can recognize and interact with - any species that manages to make the technological climb to a point where they're flying starships - is going to have a lot of points of commonality with us in basic thought processes. There will be alien aspects - but, quite possibly, no more alien ones than those we see between different human cultures, allowing for some differences enforced by biology.

6) Do you actually know the answers to the big questions, like "What are or were the Voidbuilders" and "why did they/it build the Arena"?

I do. Actually, for the really big questions I have several answers, all consistent with what's shown so far. I have one set of explanations I'm currently leaning toward pretty strongly, but it's possible that later events could change my mind. None of them would be "retcons", however.

7) As you just said "later events", will you be writing more books in this universe?

The answer to that is right now, "it depends", with "depends" being "depends on how many people buy Grand Central Arena". I CAN write a lot more in this universe - it's big enough, complex enough, and fun enough that I could spend twenty years writing in The Arena - and there's a lot of opportunity to answer all sorts of questions in it.

I have written about 40,000 words in the sequel to GCA, tentatively titled Spheres of Influence, but some of those 40,000 will be rewritten if I'm green-lighted, mainly because I fully intend to avoid getting Our Heroes trapped in a political story. I want them out in the thick of things and not playing games with politicians, and that means some careful design of events.

I have also written part of Hyperion Origin, the backstory of Marc DuQuesne, but even if the series takes off I may never finish it; that's a frightening and dark story in the end and not in my usual comfort zone.