The whole idea started when I read a series involving humans actually exploring space for the first time. Think "Enterprise" but with a lot more action. That got me thinking. I decided to take the concept and mix it with a future setting that I came up with on my own. The whole idea of a massive human "federation," "empire," or any other all inclusive political entity is total bunk. Human populations can agree, but our race in general will always run into irreconcileable situations. My opinion. That's why my story starts from one of several human inter-stellar nations launching a long range, long term exploratory mission. They aren't based on Earth, they actually have some political beefs with the Terran Federation...if I get to the point of a sequel (which will require some major revision of what I have so far; I'm a perfectionist to a degree) issues will surface.

As is, the story is about a long range and long term (meaning it's measured in years) exploration mission into entirely unknown space. The characters expect to encounter the unexpected, and hope that they can deal with what happens next. I would honestly qualify it as space opera first, and scifi/adventure second. Most of the main characters have special psychic powers...they seem a bit overpowered, which is why I plan to spend Tuesday, my next day off, doing revisions.

So I guess I'm asking you all to check out my story on Wednesday, once I've fixed it...

How "hard" do you intend on having this series be? Judging from the mention of psychic powers, it seems there will be some degree of softness. Though perhaps you could explain these abilities through technological means? Like maybe what seems like "powers" are actually commonplace skills available thanks to an advanced brain-computer interface.

Also, how realisticially do you plan to portray space travel? Will "Space [Be] An Ocean"? How about other worlds/alien cultures (if any)? Will there be "Planets of Hats", and "Single Biome Planets" or more authentic, diverse, more-than-likely uninhabitable (and uninhabited) ones? If there are aliens, will they be truly bizarre, unconventional types or a bunch of "Rubber Forehead Aliens"?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceIsAnOcean

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlanetOfHats

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SingleBiomePlanet

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RubberForeheadAliens

If you want to either try for something a little fresher, or at least be aware of what "tropes" you're going to be using, check out TV Tropes (it's great). Specifically, try "Speculative Fiction Tropes" and this:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness

Hope all that helps more than bothers. ;)

It's fairly soft, and the science part is more setting and plot devices while the main focus is the characters and what happens to them, and it's mostly a space opera. Most of the science is only explained at the basic level, such as ftl travel being performed by compressing the space around a vessel to let them move through it faster under normal drive.

As to the psychic powers, those are actual inborn talents that allow some people to alter the world around them to varying degrees for different effects over a wide range, depending on the type of talent one possesses. Less than 1% of the human population have such abilities, and not all of those are even aware they have them. Two of the main characters are remarkably talented psychics capable of things that cause even other psychics to often regard them with suspicion and fear (particularly because they frequently demonstrate their destructive potential in their mercenary work), and their interactions with other people are a large element of the story, which mostly revolves around them.

The setting does include neural computer interfaces like you mentioned, and technology is sufficiently advanced to match just about anything psychics can do, as long as you have the right equipment.

There are other races, but intelligent life is fairly rare and you usually have travel fairly long distances to find another sentient species. So far I've only specifically mentioned two, only one of which is vaguely humanoid, and the main characters stumble into the middle of a war between them. Both of those races live in similar environments to Earth, but the next race I'm developing has significantly different biological requirements and breathe atmosphere poisonus to humans.

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