John DeChancie

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John DeChancie (born August 3, 1946) is an American author. A Pittsburgh native, he is most famous for his comic fantasy Castle series, and his science fiction Skyway series. He is currently engaged in writing screenplays, teleplays, and prose fiction.

Comic fantasy literary genre

Comic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is primarily humorous in intent and tone. Usually set in imaginary worlds, comic fantasy often includes puns on and parodies of other works of fantasy.

Science fiction Genre of speculative fiction

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, time travel, parallel universes, fictional worlds, space exploration, and extraterrestrial life. It has been called the "literature of ideas", and often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations.

Contents

The Castle Perilous Series

The Castle Perilous series revolves around Castle Perilous (the name is drawn from the Siege Perilous of Arthurian fable), whose lord is Incarnadine, a sorcerer. 144,000 doors (or "aspects") of the Castle each lead to another parallel universe. Some of these dimensions are magical, while others have little or no magic; one of the latter is Earth. Those who find themselves at the Castle often stay to become residents, and (to their surprise) develop a magical power of their own. This gift is apparently random, and can range from a minor telekinesis limited to lifting pencils to super-enhanced senses to teleportation to full conjuration of matter. The main character, a philosophy major from Earth named Gene Ferraro, gains the power of superb swordplay. His best friends include Snowclaw, a giant humanoid covered in white fur, who originally comes from a polar-like clime, and Linda Barclay, a woman from Earth who becomes a powerful sorceress.

Siege Perilous

In Arthurian legend, the Siege Perilous is a vacant seat at the Round Table reserved by Merlin for the knight who would one day be successful in the quest for the Holy Grail. The English word "siege" originally meant "seat or throne," coming from the Old French sege ; the modern military sense of a prolonged assault comes from the conception of an army "sitting down" before a fortress.

King Arthur legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries

King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians. The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthur's name also occurs in early poetic sources such as Y Gododdin.

Earth Third planet from the Sun in the Solar System

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Earth's gravity interacts with other objects in space, especially the Sun and the Moon, which is Earth's only natural satellite. Earth orbits around the Sun in 365.26 days, a period known as an Earth year. During this time, Earth rotates about its axis about 366.26 times.

The Skyway Series

The Skyway series differs from the Castle series significantly; where the Castle series is humorous fantasy, the Skyway series is action-adventure science fiction. The Skyway series traces the adventures of Jake McGraw, who drives a futuristic cargo truck on the Skyway. The Skyway itself is a mysterious road, built by an unknown race of aliens, which runs across various planets from one portal to another. Driving through a portal (a "tollbooth") instantaneously transports you onto a different planet, many light years away. Humans found the Skyway on Pluto and began expanding along it, encountering various alien races along the way. However no one has a map, or knows where the Skyway begins or ends, and because each portal is one-way, only explored sections with a known return path (discovered by trial and error) are considered safe to travel.

At the beginning of the first book Jake finds himself in trouble because a number of parties, both human and alien, are convinced that he has found a map. Some are willing to kill to get it. Jake knows that he does not have a map, but no one believes him. At this point Jake is accompanied only by his father, Sam, who is actually dead but has been "converted" into an artificial intelligence unit that is built into the truck. The truck itself is a large tractor trailer unit, powered by nuclear fusion and capable of operating in a vacuum. The truck's cab can hold 8 or more people and has built-in bunks for sleeping. At the beginning of the first book Jake stops to pick up a hitchhiker (the beautiful and mysterious Darla), which is the beginning of a trend: over the course of the trilogy more and more people are riding with Jake while more and more people are also pursuing him. By the end of the trilogy Jake and his companions have reached the end of the Skyway, met with the beings that created it, and returned months earlier than when they left, bringing the trilogy to a conclusion.

Mind uploading hypothetical copying of a "self" from a brains neural-networks into computer networks

Whole brain emulation (WBE), mind upload or brain upload is the hypothetical futuristic process of scanning the mental state of a particular brain substrate and copying it to a computer. The computer could then run a simulation model of the brain's information processing, such that it would respond in essentially the same way as the original brain and experience having a conscious mind.

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the intelligence of a machine that has the capacity to understand or learn any intellectual task that a human being can. It is a primary goal of some artificial intelligence research and a common topic in science fiction and future studies. Some researchers refer to Artificial general intelligence as "strong AI", "full AI", "true AI" or as the ability of a machine to perform "general intelligent action"; others reserve "strong AI" for machines capable of experiencing consciousness.

Nuclear fusion process where atomic nuclei combine and release energy

Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of energy. This difference in mass arises due to the difference in atomic "binding energy" between the atomic nuclei before and after the reaction. Fusion is the process that powers active or "main sequence" stars, or other high magnitude stars.

Bibliography

The Skyway series includes:

The Castle series includes:

The Dr. Dimension (co-written with David Bischoff) series includes:

The Castle Falkenstein series includes:

From Prussia With Love is a novel by John de Chancie published by Prima Publishing, based on the Castle Falkenstein role-playing game.

Other books by DeChancie:

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Contemporary fantasy, also known as modern fantasy or indigenous fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy, set in the present day or, more accurately, the time period of the maker. It is perhaps most popular for its subgenre, urban fantasy.

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References

  1. "The Official Website For Author John DeChancie".

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy fiction and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with both the database and wiki being open for editing and user contributions. The ISFDB database and code are available under Creative Commons licensing and there is support within both Wikipedia and ISFDB for interlinking. The data are reused by other organizations, such as Freebase, under the creative commons license.

University of California, Riverside public research university in Riverside, California, USA

The University of California, Riverside, is a public research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on 1,900 acres (769 ha) in a suburban district of Riverside with a branch campus of 20 acres (8 ha) in Palm Desert. In 1907 the predecessor to UCR was founded as the UC Citrus Experiment Station, Riverside which pioneered research in biological pest control and the use of growth regulators responsible for extending the citrus growing season in California from four to nine months. Some of the world's most important research collections on citrus diversity and entomology, as well as science fiction and photography, are located at Riverside.