I wrote this small science-fantasy story for my English class.
The story follows Avizina, a reluctant young woman, as she still deals with trauma from her childhood with the Red Sect. She ends up being dragged into a galactic-wide rebellion to stop...
Minds on Fire - Book I: The Revelation tells the story of Avizina, a reluctant young woman, who still deals with trauma from her childhood spent with the Red Sect. She ends up dragged on a mission by the mysterious Lady S., a mind-reader, to stop Pope Comosicus who has been been doing shady stuff in the galaxy. Lady S. also claims she can help Avizina remember her past lives.
The story is an amalgamation of everything I love: science-fiction and ideas about reincarnation and past lives. It takes inspiration from three of my favorite cinematic productions: Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean and The 100. There is also a personal flare of ideas relating to Eastern Europe, more specifically relating to my home country of Romania. Avizina was a male Dacian name and a lot of Dacian history is incomplete, so using Dacian names in my story is my way of keeping their history alive. Other names are taken from Turkish, Hungarian or Greek, all bearing important historical significance to the territory of Romania.
The reason I wrote this story is because I wanted to have a story that is feminine without being too obvious. Best seen in the descriptions of clothing, the mention of flowers and the use of the color pink, the lack of emphasis on beauty or the objectification of women, and the non-toxic friendship that will eventually develop between Avizina and Lady S. This is a rarity in many stories where female characters are always pitted against each other to compete for the love of a man.
Another aspect of my story is the emphasis on the greed and wickedness of humans. I avoided making any of the animals in my story evil (the dragon, kraken and sirens), and instead focused on the evil of religiosity and extremist beliefs. This is why I used names like "Pope", as well as other religious imagery. The moral of the story then is heavily inspired by my own distaste for organized religion.
The protagonist Avizina has been deeply hurt by the Red Sect and especially Pope Comosicus, the evil dark lord and the source of bondage in the story.
The threat is imminent. The galaxy is thinning. Will Avizina be their last hope?
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You will notice that on the galactic map it says upper northern quadrant and upper southern quadrant. In space there is no good way to determine directions so using the four cardinal points is useless. However, for the sake of the story, the western rim (where the Galactic Federation is located) vs the eastern rim (where most crime is committed) distinctions are important to me because it alludes to our primary world distinction of West vs East, and I come from an Eastern European country. The galaxy is supposed to represent The Milky Way and planet Dünyä is supposed to represent Earth, and Demir the planet Mars in the distant future.
