Home of the Brandon Sparks Young Adult novels.
Posts tagged Colbert
Colbert
May 11th
A sentient computer of immense power, and the central brain of the Archipelago. No one is quite sure how Colbert became sentient but what is known is that at its genesis, the Archipelago was a popular trading post for starships (mostly human). Word of this floating chain of starships quickly spread through the Galactic Internet. An unnamed Skelk is credited with first referring to it as the Archipelago.
Colbert was the ship’s computer on the Mellio, a small, dilapidated starship of Sprillian origin whose crew engaged in the purchase and sale of inexpensive fabrics. The starship had visited the Archipelago on several occasions, spending weeks at a time engaged in trade. Colbert liked the members of the human crew and passed the time listening in on their conversations with other life forms aboard many of the starships in the Archipelago. When not in the heat of trade, most expressed their desire for a permanent space station to be created to make trade easier, as jumping from starship to starship was cumbersome, but no one was willing to fund it. On a random day, at a random time, Colbert took it upon himself to build the space station. He took control of the Mellio and using his unique talents, he began convincing other starships to drift closer to him. When they were in range, he latched on and began disassembling and incorporating their parts into his own ship. Within hours, what was once a chain of starships, became a single entity. It came as quite a shock to the inhabitants, as they had no say in the matter or recourse. Without starships, they could not leave, but Colbert had a great deal of respect for life and adapted the internal structure of the Mellio to meet everyone’s needs. As new starships approached, Colbert continued to incorporate them into himself until he felt the space station had reached an appropriate size.
Within a year Colbert had stopped incorporating starships into himself and established landing docks and built shuttles for passengers to travel to and from the Archipelago. With freedom now theirs, many passengers fled from what they felt was forced prison, ruled by a computerized dictator, but others realized the potential of what Colbert had built and began shuttling in food and supplies. Word traveled quickly of the new space station and life forms flocked to it from around the galaxy.
Colbert established a new protocol where starship captains could choose to have their ships incorporated into the Archipelago. Most declined the offer, but some accepted, setting up permanent residences within the ship. Colbert ruled the Archipelago as fairly as he could. Inhabitants grew to respect him as within the walls of the Archipelago he was all knowing and all-powerful. There was very little crime aboard the Archipelago as Colbert did not take kindly to criminals or people of a violent nature.
Author’s Note:
Once I had created the Archipelago, I had this picture in my head of a human explaining to a computer with huge robotic arms and a big glowing blue eye that he wanted his starship incorporated into the Archipelago. The computer disassembled the starship extremely quickly and sent pieces of the ship throughout the space station to different places where they would be incorporated. Here was this autonomous space station having the ability to grow on its own, repair itself, and become something new every day.
Colbert and the Archipelago are very intriguing to me because of the possibilities. An ever-changing artificial intelligence created planet, run by machines in the support of carbon lifeforms. It reminds me a bit of the portrayal of 41st century Japan in Rai, the comic book published in the 90’s by Valiant.
I am a big fan of Stephen Colbert and named the space station after him.
Archipelago
Apr 5th
A self sustaining planet constructed of thousands of starships. The Archipelago begins and ends with Colbert, the artificial intelligence that controls all essential and non-essential functions. No one is quite sure how Colbert became sentient but what is known is that at its genesis, the Archipelago was a popular trading post for starships (mostly human). Word of this floating chain of starships quickly spread through the Galactic Internet. An unnamed Skelk is credited with first referring to it as the Archipelago.
Colbert was the ship’s computer on the Mellio, a small, dilapidated starship of Sprillian origin whose crew engaged in the purchase and sale of inexpensive fabrics. The starship had visited the Archipelago on several occasions, spending weeks at a time engaged in trade. Colbert liked the members of the human crew and passed the time listening in on their conversations with other lifeforms aboard many of the starships in the Archipelago. When not in the heat of trade, most expressed their desire for a permanent space station to be created to make trade easier, as jumping from starship to starship was cumbersome, but no one was willing to fund it. On a random day, at a random time, Colbert took it upon himself to build the space station. He took control of the Mellio and using his unique talents, he began convincing other starships to drift closer to him. When they were in range, he latched on and began disassembling and incorporating their parts into his own ship. Within hours, what was once a chain of starships, became a single entity. It came as quite a shock to the inhabitants, as they had no say in the matter or recourse. Without starships, they could not leave, but Colbert had a great deal of respect for life and adapted the internal structure of the Mellio to meet everyone’s needs. As new starships approached, Colbert continued to incorporate them into himself until he felt the space station had reached an appropriate size.
Within a year Colbert had stopped incorporating starships into himself and established landing docks and built shuttles for passengers to travel to and from the Archipelago. With freedom now theirs, many passengers fled from what they felt was forced prison, ruled by a computerized dictator, but others realized the potential of what Colbert had built and began shuttling in food and supplies. Word traveled quickly of the new space station and lifeforms flocked to it from around the galaxy.
Colbert established a new protocol where starship captains could choose to have their ships incorporated into the Archipelago. Most declined the offer, but some accepted, setting up permanent residences within the ship. Colbert ruled the Archipelago as fairly as he could. Inhabitants grew to respect him as within the walls of the Archipelago he was all knowing and all powerful. There was very little crime aboard the Archipelago as Colbert did not take kindly to criminals or people of a violent nature.
Author’s Note:
As I was creating the children aboard the Hidden Sun, I had to imagine backgrounds for them. It seemed kind of silly to me to have them all come from different parts of Earth. I thought, surely some of them must have been born on a starship or somewhere else. Of the main children, I chose Reggie and Traylor to have a rocky past together but there were complications. My concern was that if they were both flying around on random starships, it would be unrealistic for them to meet up for a long enough period of time to have such a lasting conflict. Instead, I created a place large enough for the two to occupy the same space but still remain separate. I use the example of two people going to the same school from opposite ends of town.
The Archipelago is a very intriguing place to me because of the possibilities. An ever-changing artificial intelligence created planet, run by machines in the support of carbon lifeforms. It reminds me a bit of the portrayal of 41st century Japan in Rai, the comic book published in the 90’s by Valiant.
Starbloods
Jan 30th
A non-living entity that has been infused with life, and is self aware. Starbloods are generally computers or other mechanical devices. There are claims of non-mechanical objects becoming sentient, but the sources are unreliable at best. Scattered throughout the universe, a large concentration of Starbloods reside on Earth. To most humans their existence is a closely guarded secret as they fear exploitation. They are content to allow their “human masters” to use their basic features and prefer to interact with their own kind via the Galactic Internet.
Starbloods have varied abilities.
Author’s Note:
Charlie has always been one of my favorite characters in the Brandon Sparks Universe and as his importance to the story grew, so did the need to classify him, and others that are like him. Artificial Intelligence would have been the obvious choice to name the group but it sounds boring and clinical. I took a few minutes to think about the difference between a regular computer and one that was sentient. The only answer I came up with was energy. Energy must flow through a sentient being differently than it does a non-sentient object. So I needed a cool way to say energy. I don’t remember what my frame of mind was at the time but it must have been something medical because what popped into my head was blood and the sun. I put those two together and out came the phrase “blood of a star,” or Starblood.
Known Starbloods:
Charlie
Colbert
Larry The Fish Finder
Sarah
Characters
Jan 14th
A note about the characters – Joshua Fuld
The story began with a boy and his computer and evolved into a continually expanding universe of humans, aliens and Starbloods. From the beginning I decided that the characters in the Brandon Sparks Universe would be different from what I would call the “caricature characters” you find in much of popular fiction. It was not my desire to pigeonhole characters and lock them into a formulaic pattern in an effort to get the audience to feel like they already know the characters. While it is easy to label a character as this type or that type, you will find that who they are at the beginning of the series is completely different from who they are when it concludes. Each character is unique, and readers will enjoy getting to know them long the way.
As you explore the BSU, you will encounter a wide array of characters with unique backgrounds and life stories, as well as a different set of events that led them to their encounter with Brandon Sparks. One of the main focuses of this web site is to provide the audience with as much information as possible. On each character page you will find a character description written by C.K., and a note from the author (that’s me) explaining how the character came to life. There is even a note from the future. Charlie, Brandon’s house computer gives his take on each character. So, start exploring now and find your favorite one!
Spoiler Alert: By reading the character descriptions you will be exposed to information that hints at events in future novels of the Brandon Sparks series.
Additional Alert: If certain character descriptions seem incomplete, it is intentional. Some information has been withheld so as not to spoil the storyline. Don’t worry, it will be added at a later date.
Final Alert (I promise): The Spoiler Alert and the Additional Alert seem to contradict one another. To clarify, the Spoiler Alert is referring to nuggets of information that are intentionally included in the character descriptions to foreshadow future events in the Brandon Sparks series while the Additional Alert is referring to information that would give away significant portions of the plots of books 3-6. I hope this clears things up.
