by Alexander Jablokov
Learn about the worldbuilding process behind Alexander Jablokov’s latest story, “How Sere Kept Herself Together,” now available in our [March/April issue, on sale now!]
“How Sere Kept Herself Together” is the third of my stories about Sere Glagolit, a young woman who is forced to become a kind of detective to make ends meet after her ex-boyfriend takes off with the assets of their business.
That their business involved reselling discarded body parts molted centuries before by an alien species called the Bik tells you something about the city, Tempest, that she has grown up in. And that she uses the knowledge she gained from that earlier business to solve a case (“How Sere Looked for a Pair of Boots”) involving her cousin’s missing boyfriend shows she’s finally found the right career.
Tempest, City of Storms, started with the idea of intense, localized weather within a large urban area. I was inspired by a couple of posts in the great BLDGBLG (https://bldgblog.com/), by Geoff Manaugh, particularly one about lightning, which was the key weather event in Sere’s first case, “How Sere Picked Up Her Laundry”. And the story really is about laundry, though not strictly her own.
Lots of other ideas lurk at BLDGBLG, though Manaugh doesn’t post anywhere near as often as he once did. Things other than giving me story ideas seem to have occupied more of his time. Some people are just selfish that way.
Tempest, a vast city on an unnamed planet, contains a wide range of neighborhoods, each with its microclimate. And each of these neighborhoods tends to be occupied by intelligent species who are most comfortable there.
Tempest is a kind of strange attractor for the various intelligent species of the galaxy. Over the centuries a wide variety of fugitives, vagabonds, and exiles have landed and found themselves a place there. Sere grew up among a variety of these nations, and is familiar with a lot of their behaviors, needs, and quirks. Since her cases invariably require informative and sometimes fraught interactions with other nations, her past experience stands her in good stead.
Sere herself is an Om—human, if you must. She has basic ambitions, such as getting out of the room at the back of her aunt’s house and into her own place, meeting people, and succeeding at this new, somewhat accidental career. She’s pretty fun to hang out with. As a result of her background, which helps her solve her cases, she runs into a wide variety of Tempest’s nations.
Tempest is a kind of strange attractor for the various intelligent species of the galaxy. Over the centuries a wide variety of fugitives, vagabonds, and exiles have landed and found themselves a place there.
For example, in this new story Sere crosses paths with a few Darkwings because of an unfortunate habit they have. Those who’ve been following Sere’s career know she’s met a Darkwing before, in hot, dusty Amtoum, making boots. Despite the fact that Darkwings or their immediate ancestors evolved to fly, Tempest Darkwings either can’t or stubbornly won’t, and despite the fact they are about as sturdy as a paper-and-balsawood kite, appear everywhere in Tempest. Their wings, on the rare occasions that they extend them, are beautiful, and much admired, though as beauty often is, can be a cause of trouble.
And Sere, more significantly, met a Darkwing when she was a girl, and that relationship disrupted that Darkwing’s life, with serious consequences that will only appear in a future story, not this one. So just keep that quiet.
Sere also deals with an Iffrin, a parasite seller, a common profession among this easily infected nation, who have turned a physical weakness into a commercial strength. The last one Sere met was growing a crop of a kind of gill fluke that an aquatic nation put on their own gills in memory of past infestations, then eat in a kind of gustatory revenge. Iffrins are successful citizens of Tempest, and honest in their dealings. Just be careful what you end up buying from them. You may never get rid of it.
I won’t tell you much about one key nation that appears in this story, because their main skill is that you never quite know if you’ve actually encountered them.
Well, that’s enough of that. The Darkwing and the Iffrin had a background in other stories that I thought might be interesting if you haven’t read those stories, but this one is new here, and somehow crept in without my noticing it.
Sere and I are together for the long haul, and I’m pleased this case of hers has found a home at Asimov’s.
From Earth to the Stars 