User:Robotech Master/Humans First (and Chakat Second)/Appendix: References

Here are some of the other stories in the "Chakona Space" setting that informed the writing of "Humans First (and Chakat Second)". (Note that some of these stories prominently feature adult themes, including descriptions of sex or violence.)

• "Transformations" by Bernard "Goldfur" Doove (Forest Tales #16-18: Part One, Part Two, Part Three) – The story of a human who was accidentally beamed into a new Chakat body due to an act of sabotage wiping his body-pattern but leaving his mind-matrix intact. Sometimes I wonder if Goldfur knew what he was unleashing by making this possible; there have been a number of stories written by other authors predicated on people turning themselves into Chakats or other furries by this process. Some of them have been little more than Mary Sue (or perhaps I should say "Marty Sue") pieces, but others have been thoughtful and interesting. One transporter-transformation piece noteworthy for its good quality is:

• "Rain" by "Chakat Scirocco" – A young woman suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis discovers Oceanwalker's transformation process offers hope of a cure—and if it lets her get closer to a close foxtaur friend, so much the better. I thought this story did a good job of presenting the decision to undergo the process as something that requires a lot of thought, not a spur-of-the-moment snap decision. (This story also ties in with one of the later chapters of Allan Fesler's Folly: The Curse.)

• Ketta stories by Bernard "Goldfur" Doove (Forest Tales #10-11, 13: "Clans", "Crisis", "Ketta's Fate"; Tales of the Foxtaur Clans #2, 4: "Ketta's Christmas", "A Busy Day") – You don't have to be human to be a bigot. Ketta's cameo in this story is a nod to Goldfur's tales of a foxtaur who is incensed that the Chakat Goldfur has mated with the foxtaur todd Garrek. Her fall from grace and subsequent redemption comprise one of my favorite Chakat stories.

• "Dead Men Bomb No Spaceports" by David Green – I had the idea for my story before I even heard of this one, but nonetheless the similarity of the method meant I just had to refer to it in mine. (It's that other bombing incident using Oceanwalker's technology that Johnny mentioned.)

• "Admiral Kline's Speech" by Boyce Garald Kline Jr. – Cited mainly for the throw-away reference to Sterling Pharmaceuticals in my story.

• "The Ties that Bind" by John R. Plunkett – This story of a vicious Humans First shooting, and its effect upon two young Chakats caught in the violence, is where "the Twenty Gig" comes from. Plunkett's stories are good about filling in a lot of background details in the universe, and this was one that was too good not to mine.

• The Last Straw by Tim Rumph – The story of a mixed human-furry family and the pressure they come under from religious elements in the Holy Christian Kingdom of North America. I didn't directly reference it, but I covered a lot of the same ground. (As a resident of the Ozarks myself, I have to be honest that I'm not terribly thrilled that it's been turned into a bigoted Fundamentalist theocracy in the Chakona Space setting, but on the other hand it did give me a lot of good background to work with.)