GroundTies [Paperback]

Jane S. Fancher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1991

When the database on which human society depends begins mysteriously to implode, the finger of causality points directly to HuteNamid, an idyllic planet on the very edge of human-occupied space.
    The man pointing the finger is Stephen Ridenour, a young computer genius with a knife's edge hold on his sanity. The man targeted is Wesley Smith, another computer genius with the keys to that database and, according to Stephen, a revolutionary new theory about the nature of space itself.
    Admiral Loren Cantrell of the Alliance starship, Cetacean,  is given the task of delivering Stephen to HuteNamid....and keeping him sane--and alive--at least long enough to confirm or disprove his suspicions.
    But HuteNamid holds more than just a singularly attitudinal programmer. Cantrell finds herself up against a log jam of Native American Ethnic Reconstructionists and up to her oft-decorated collar in lies, plots, and deception.
    For within HuteNamid itself lie the answers to some of the oldest mysteries of the universe.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The best first novel I've ever come across...Fancher has the potential to become one of the field's greats." --C.J. Cherryh

From the Author

GroundTies is my first novel. I began writing it October XX, 1988. I remember the day, because it was my XX birthday... (Xs are my doing. ;-}) I had no idea at the time that it would grow to be such an important book in my own "future history." I just wanted to figure out how to write.
     The only writing I'd done prior to this was the adaptation script for the graphic novel of C.J. Cherryh's Gate of Ivrel. Based on something she saw in that project, C.J. encouraged me to try my hand at writing my own story, and she being who she was, I wasn't inclined to argue. However, never having written my own book, I did ask her "How do I start?"
     She said, "Write a one page outline."
Oooo-kay. I'd been dealing so closely for years with C.J.'s future history that I wanted mine as far removed conceptually as possible. In her universe, communication travels only as fast as the fastest ship, ergo, I would have instantaneous interstellar communication, thus the ComNet was born. I wanted to play with a Spacers vs Terraformers sociological scenario, and thus the Ethnic Reconstructionists were born. (I think of them as the Society for Creative Anachronism given planets to play on.) She considers planets to be navigational hazards, I think of them as the ultimate reality-check. I needed a problem, so I made the ComNet vulnerable.
     My outline? I had a bigoted little spacer boy going downworld, encountering Recons and having his misconceptions blown to smithereens while they helped him solve the problem with the ComNet.
     That was pretty much it. Simple, eh? (Little did I realize.)
     I took that page to C.J. and asked, "What now?"
     She said, "Take two characters, throw them in a room together and see what happens."
     That scene became the opening scene of the second section of the book, and is, for the most part, as I wrote it that day. It became the core of a project far greater than I ever imagined.
     My question at the beginning of that day was: How do I start writing? My question at the end of that day was: How do I stop?
     It was, quite literally, the first day of the rest of my life.
Over the years, GroundTies became GroundTies, UpLink, Harmonies of the 'Net and the soon to be released 'NetWalkers, which is a prequel to the others. And there's more to come. Not just the completion of Stephen and Wesley's story, but explorations of other parts of the ComNet Alliance.
     I look forward to sharing the journey with the characters and my amazing readers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Questar (October 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446361488
• ISBN-13: 978-0446361484
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,336,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

On October 24, 1988 in Oklahoma City, OK, at a suggestion from SF author C.J. Cherryh, I began writing. I kept writing because two hours after starting, I had to find out what happened. A little over a year later, I was the startled owner of a three book contract based on the rough draft of my first novel.

I've been writing ever since.

What appeals to me about writing in general is the constant challenge. I'm a generalist and writing is the one thing that will happily use every bit of information and experience you have to put into it. It's constant problem solving, method acting and soul-searching all rolled up into one 24/7 job.

What I love about writing SF/F is...everything. I love the optimism of believing there is a future for humanity. I love the challenge of imagining what that future might be. But most of all, I love the thrill of exploring that future with the interesting and courageous people I find living in it.

But SF/F has another, less obvious, appeal: the ability to write with a social conscience without preaching. It lets writers create worlds in which they can shed light on aspects of current society in a less charged environment. Its a way to help raise awareness without pointing fingers at anyone.

Yes, I have same gender relationships. Yes, I have gender-identification-challenged characters. Yes, sex and obsessive attraction are definitely issues in my books, as are power and its use and abuse. But the genre's one-step-removed perspective also lets me explore the human ramifications of a too-effective educational system (be careful what you wish for), or the curious problems of being siblings and growing up with the kind of misconceptions only close association can create, or what it means to a culture to lose an entire generation's knowledge.

Can you do this in contemporary fiction? Absolutely. But SF/F lets you add extreme ramifications...like what if those sibling misconceptions were suddenly stripped away with the ability to know exactly what those sibs were thinking? What if the educational system were so effective, the subsequent misinformation threatened the very fabric of the universe itself?

In my contemporary vampire fantasy...I hesitate to call it urban fantasy, because in all honesty, it hasn't the right tropes...I'm enjoying exploring the perspective of virtual immortality and what might make life worth living after three thousand years.

And with SF/F you can do all this while have a rip-roaring adventure! What more can a writer ask for?

My formal educational background is in Math, Physics, Astrophysics and Anthropology. I've raised and trained horses, flown planes, and at 51, took up figure skating. I love building things, from costumes to computers, model ships to koi ponds. I play a little guitar, some piano and like to sing.

I actually got started in the publishing world doing art. I worked on WaRP Graphics' Elfquest, helping with inking on the last few volumes of the original black and white, also helping with the colors in the original color volumes. After that, I moved on to my own project, an adaptation of C.J. Cherryh's first novel, Gate of Ivrel.

These days, after many years away from art, I find myself returning to it to do covers for my newest venture, Closed Circle Publications. A couple of years ago, C.J., Lynn Abbey and I decided to join the ebook movement and bring out both our orphaned backlist and some new works that weren't quite what NY was looking for but which our loyal readers were demanding.

I absolutely love hearing from my readers. My blog should echo here, but feel free to join us at:
http://www.janefancher.com/TheCaptainAndLime/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars adventure, technology, and humanities, March 11, 2011

By 

BlueCatShip "benwh" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: GroundTies ('NetWalkers: Original Series) (Kindle Edition)

Netwalkers: GroundTies has several things going for it. You have strong, believable characters, male and female, and they have real quirks, flaws, and strengths. You have high technology alongside low-tech living, with a relevant and believable computer network problem. You have conflicting ideas by several groups, not just two sides, on how these people act and their beliefs and goals. You have space-going humans who think themselves advanced, and some of whom think others are backward. You have planet-dwelling colonists who want to live their lives as they see fit. You have moderates and radicals and kooks. You have real differences in how people live in space, on ships, on stations, on planets, and their cultural outlooks all differ. Then you have a strange technical problem and various groups with vested interests in solving or covering up or exploiting the problem. Now throw in a character who has been uprooted from all he knows and who is struggling to adapt, and a researcher banned for maverick ideas and behavior, and you have the highlights of a really good read. Get the book. Get the other books in the series. You'll want to know what happens next.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great food for thought, March 11, 2011

By 

S. Reynolds (Washington state, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: GroundTies ('NetWalkers: Original Series) (Kindle Edition)

Groundties, complex and character-driven, is a story difficult to forget. Other reviewers have summarized the plot well, so I won't repeat it. Suffice it to say that moral and ethical situations related to technology and relationships are explored with such finesse that you'll be thinking about them for a long, long time. I love this book so much that despite already having it in paperback, I took advantage of its newly-released Kindle format and purchased it again.

Groundties is a GREAT read! Advice from someone who knows: plan ahead to read it on a day off, because it is so engrossing that you won't want to put it down.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As timely today as it gets..., March 11, 2011

By 

cj "cj" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: GroundTies ('NetWalkers: Original Series) (Kindle Edition)

In a web-connected future where intellectual property is infinitely copyable--and a copy cannot be told from the original...
How do the creators survive?
A character-driven novel about corruption, survival and the creative soul.