Wherever possible, I try to draw on real things, and make the science fiction pieces as true to current research and understanding as possible. It makes it more interesting for those who wish to find out more; because there is something to go to. A big inspiration for some of my ideas, but also just a great read is Physics of the Impossible, by Kaku. He really breaks down the various fictional technologies that have appeared in print, and makes a case for their existence in reality, or why it would be extremely difficult for it to exist. You don’t have to be familiar with physics to enjoy what he has to say. And it might just stimulate your own brain a little.

This is a world advanced from our own by at least a thousand years, and more like 1200 – 1300. The most notable departure is the use of floating cities, and by smaller scale, hover craft. It’s all based on electromagnetic repulsion, the kind used to float a maglev train above its tracks. Everything is capable of being acted upon by these fields, but they require a super-conducting material in order to achieve hovering and flight. The Holy Cities are held aloft by running the power of their plasma core through an as yet undiscovered super-conductor capable of operating at near room-temperature. Kaku gives a brilliant explanation of this. As of now, our superconducting materials aren’t able to operate at the required temperatures.

Linked then to the idea of a floating city is the plasma core. There is a real example of this at National Ignition Facility. I can’t remember where I came across this originally, but the idea fascinates me, and obviously is a great way to create energy. For the purpose of the story, I tweaked it a bit so that there could be a chase scene through the core of the reactor. And the size in the book is immense by comparison to what we’re actually doing. But it is an emerging area of research, and one that may bring us closer to clean and sustainable energy. For the floating city, it provides the juice to make the super-conductors work; and power all the other nice technology in the city.

The only other really fictional item is Avatar, who is actually based on current attempts to build Artificial Nueral Networks that can provide adaptive responses to stimuli. There’s a bit more to Avatar’s story than comes out in Forgotten, however, you will notice some repetivtive structures in his speach. That’s intentional as he is supposed to be operating out of a computer database, merely giving the illusion of intelligence through his responses and recorded vocal patterns. There are some classic examples, like Alice, available to play with online. We’re getting close to understanding how nueral networks form, and even begining to use these to our advantage. Artificial Intelligence is not wholly impossible, but the difference between a system like Alice or my fictional Avatar, and a thinking robot is still a long way off.