> Sam decided that his natural length was the novel...

Well, I was just surmising. I certainly think the epic 120,000 word novel, at least, is a format I'm comfortable with -- but I know there's a short story format in me somewhere. I mentioned in email that I've only really written one "real" short story in the last five years that I'm genuinely happy with (not counting short humor pieces, story-oriented or not), but that's one, so I assume there are more in me. Since we talked last, I think I figured it out: I'm *comfortable* with the short story format, but almost all my *ideas* are novel-length ideas, and a couple of my attempts to use novel ideas in short stories didn't work out so well.

> My first novel was barely long enough to fit into the "novel" publishing category (usually defined in "mainstream" fiction as 40,000+ words...)

Yeah, but can you count the words used by the opening info dump? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

> Also, his novel is the first in a trilogy, so even though the book tells a complete story, he still has *more* to say, and has plans for the other two books in the series.

Yeah, but we both know the rest isn't happening any time soon. *sigh*

> The problem with a lot of these questions is that I think a lot of them are *better* left unanswered, at least in *this* story.

I was going to respond to Issachar's post with the exact same thing. That story inspires my imagination. I'm not sure how it does so, but each time I read it, I'm triggered into imagining what kind of daily life the residents of this city must lead. What kind of life is it to life in an only partially inhabited city, where artists must be sanctioned and the police drive up to buildings next door and blow them up.

The other reason I think it's good that you don't bother to explain things like the grunts is that it wouldn't be natural for a story written in the first person to do so. The narrator is a character who was obviously born and raised in this world and would not think to explain those things that differ from the world we know. Try to invent an excuse to explain things, and the storytelling mechanics will become visible and distract from the story's focus.

> One of the few criticisms I personally have about this story is that it's not really much of an SF story--it's just the story of a guy in an SF world. That's not really a *bad* thing, unless you're trying to submit to Analog, but it is one thing that bugs me a little bit.

Don't let it. It may bother an exclusionary genre fan, but as far as actual storytelling goes, personally I think this is better. No matter what the setting, no matter what the genre, most of the best stories are about people.