Synopsis | Characters | MS. Info | Contents
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The novel, The University of Mars, and all writing on this page copyright 2009 by Michael D. Smith

Synopsis

Eighteen year-old Bill North has emigrated to 2065 Australia to work as a Sacred Clerk at the Lord One Christian bookstore in the SongMall. The world is now ruled by the stagnant religious bureaucracy of United World Christianity and its mindless rules restricting most of the world to outdated twentieth century technology.

Bill starts a treasonous novel, The University of Mars, about the ongoing evolution of the human race, but his rambling chapters about stagnant Satisfied Monkeys and evolutionary Super Apes disgust him. Krautie, a homeless German biker, claims to be Klaus von Stuttelmann, the World War II German fighter pilot who led the West Texas Revolution of 2059 at age 137 and was killed by the United World Christians.

After seventeen year-old candle store owner Karen Harrison is injured in a car accident, Bill convinces her to accompany him back to Texas to enroll at an impoverished university created by University president Diamond Wotanda in homage to the martyred von Stuttelmann’s vision. But Karen feels manipulated, still in recovery from her operation and forced to sell her candle store to finance this journey.

Four months later Bill is still working on The University of Mars, but he doesn’t want to emulate his friend Albert or Wotanda, both of whom revel in the hallucinatory consciousness afflicting most of the populace of San Angelo. Bill is bewildered and hurt that Karen broke up with him three months ago.

The alcoholic university provost, Don Holland, declares that his wife is both a hallucination and an alien he calls a Transcendatron. He shoots her, but the body becomes unfathomable, hallucinatory shapes on the floor as Don blows his own head off.

After Don’s funeral, Bill and Karen again fight about how he manipulated and essentially kidnapped her. But, finally seeing the absurdity of their argument, they laugh and fall into each other’s arms. Bill’s writes a new chapter describing how their recent hallucinations could define them as shape-changing Transcendatrons. In the story, von Stuttelmann himself confirms Bill’s idea and says he created the University of Mars to research this problem, then opens a door which inexplicably leads to the Australian SongMall, which he says is the main campus of the University.

Karen believes that Bill’s story must be true, but she’s devastated that she can’t simply find another magical door to Australia. But when she comes to her senses she realizes they need to embrace the difficult, evolutionary work of the University of Mars.

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Characters

Humans:

Klaus von Stuttelmann, 145
Visionary leader of the West Texas Revolution, 2057-2059

William Venan North (Bill), 18
Minor Clerk at the Lord One bookstore in the SongMall, Sydney, Australia

Karen Tansley Harrison, 17
Heiress to the Harrison Candle Store

Krautie
Ancient biker living at the SongMall

Diamond Wotanda, 42
Author, former propaganda Minster for the Republic of West Texas, and President of the University of Mars

Don Holland, 45
Carnationist minister in San Angelo, Texas

Albert Jiston, 18
Student, science fiction writer, and hallucination explorer in San Angelo

Aliens:

Jmros’k / Mozart

Sskei’Te / Steinbeck

Tpo’nijill / Nurse Jill Faller

Myu’kiij / Mary Holland

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MS. Info

Written	1980-2009
Chapters	34
MS.	302 pages (Times New Roman 12, double-spaced)
Words	69,600
Currently input in	Word 2000
Previously published	No parts yet published

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Contents

I. Summer Break

1. The Confessions of St. Augustine

2. Underneath the Entire City of Sydney

3. The West Texas Gateway to Infinity

4. Bill Sludges on Ice Cream

5. His Need for a Poem

6. The Orange Sphere

7. Nurse Faller

8. After Another Argument With Karen

9. Bill Revives at the Thought of a Novel

10. How May I Assist the Super Apes?

11. Larry and His Girlfriend Have at It

12. The Growing Fog in the SongMall

13. Transcendatron Terror

14. Karen Walks into the Dream of the Warhead

II. Fall Semester

15. First Day of Class

16. When You’re Really Running Scared in a Rough Draft Novel

17. Skies Spattered with Death

18. Critical Reaction

19. Heartrush

20. Kidnapped to America, and Drunk

21. There May Be Amplifiers Downtown

22. Mozart and Steinbeck

III. Spring Semester

23. Novel in Progress

24. Separation

25. Mary His Wife Hides Upstairs

26. We’ve Had This Silverware Twenty Years

27. Millions of Shapes

28. Post-Blowtorch

29. Meeting at Christfizz

30. Mushiness

31. The Courtyard

32. The Voice

33. If Only This Were True

34. The Basement

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