The Space Emperor
| Original Fiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Space Emperor |
| Author(s): | toadstar |
| Date(s): | February 16, 2019 (posted on tumblr) August 11, 2020 (most recent AO3 update) |
| Length: | 41162 words |
| Genre: | Original slash |
| External Links: | original Tumblr post, Archived version AO3 mirror, Archived version |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Space Emperor is a work of original fiction by glumshoe (AO3 username "toadstar").
Development
The story begane with a short, humorous Tumblr post:
“‘No’?” echoed the space emperor. “‘No’?! No one. Ever. Tells me. ‘No’.”He advanced, close enough that the threads on his rich robes could be counted by the naked eye. After a furtive glance over his shoulder, he dropped his voice to a desperate whisper and said, “Could you… could you do it again? Please?”
“No.”
Glumshoe continued to elaborate on the joke by playing on Space Opera tropes, and with fan response it grew into a plotted story about a Space Emperor and his intended assassin going on capers throughout the galaxy.
As the story grew, many readers encouraged glumshoe to post it to AO3. Others had concerns about whether the story was "fannish" in nature enough to be hosted there, but after further discussion on tumblr the author did upload it to AO3.[2]
Reactions & Reviews
one of my favorite things about your writing is how good you are at subtly working worldbuilding into your descriptions and dialogue without making it feel obvious or overly expository. like the bit where you show us cyborgs are stereotyped as religious with a couple natural and concise lines of dialogue, and how you slowly build up our picture of the Djesh and Djenubi with little references peppered throughout the story, and how naturally and smoothly you work in tiny bits of extra detail about your universe and its different cultures into the imagery you and your characters use. you weave them in without making them glaringly obvious or clunky so that it adds to the immersion instead of breaking it, which is really hard to do and i rarely feel is done very well. it's so satisfying to read and really good to come back to when i feel like crap because i can just get lost in it and know i'm going to enjoy every minute.Anonymous ask submitted space-emperor Tumblr blog (which is maintained by glumshoe) [3]
Fanworks
- Ok so I recently discovered The Space Emperor by toadstar on ao3..., Archived version, by death-to-the-triffids, 2020
- tumblr user @glumshoe backed into my car today and drove away..., Archived version, sketches by snagerdragon, 2020
Resources
- #space emperor tag on Tumblr
References
- ^ Tumblr post, Archived version by Glumshoe. Posted 6 February 2019. Accessed 17 August 2022. If you're logged into tumblr you can find the top of the thread here.
- ^ People asking you to not go on AO3 bc it's "only" for fanfic are acting as if there is a limited number of space when like..., Archived version, anonymous Tumblr ask, answered by glumshoe, with followup discussion by others. Posted 19 May 2019. Accessed 17 August 2022.
- ^ Anonymous ask, Archived version submitted to space-emperor tumblr blog, which is maintained by glumshoe for housing the story. Posted 1 April 2022. Accessed 17 August 2022.