Once, you make some excellent points! I've tried to extrapolate their advanced technology based on current trends, such as AI computers with vocal interfaces. It's why the MC talks to the computer in the prologue. I've received a few critical comments about the fact that he talks to the computer while trying not to crash his ship, but given current trends in technology, it seems like it would be natural for him to ask the computer what's happening, and for the computer to respond (vocally) with the information he needs. I mean, if I can ask my Amazon Echo about the weather each morning, why shouldn't the MC be able to ask his ship's AI about the planet he's about to crash on?
There's supposed to be an autopilot that will land the ship safely, but because of the ion storm frying the ship's systems, the computer and autopilot go offline, so the male MC is forced to use manual controls to land the ship--something he hasn't done since flight school. He wants to land in an uninhabited area, like the deserted northern continent, but instead, he buzzes the top of a skyscraper on his way in and realizes he's about to crash in the middle of a city. At the last minute, he's able to steer towards a forest at the edge of the city instead, so his ship remains hidden. I end the scene right as he crashes, but I may go back later and have him mention that airbags, or a forcefield, or some other form of safety mechanism that automatically deployed, even though the computer was fried. Otherwise, he'd never have survived the crash-landing. He didn't need medical attention, just suffered a few bumps and bruises, so you're right, there had to be safety precautions that kicked in. I don't want to go into too much detail about the crash, but perhaps the female MC will ask him how he survived, years after the fact, and he can casually mention the safety precautions that automatically protect the occupants of the ship during a crash. Thanks for the suggestion!
Realityfix, good questions! Many will be answered, either in the course of this story, or in the sequel, which I've just barely started working on. Still don't have an outline yet, and I've only a vague idea of where I want it to go with it, but I've written a few scenes. The ship crashing is actually the prologue of the first novel, and it's a different POV than the bulk of the story. The prologue's MC is the man from another world, while the main story is from the POV of a woman who's native to the planet. (Although, I am considering the possibility of adding a number of scenes from his POV, since the novel is woefully short at this point, only 65,000 words, when I'd like it to be at least 90-100,000. If I can't think of a good subplot to weave in, I'm either going to have to add scenes from the sequel to make it longer, or else add a second POV.)
The male MC isn't wanted by the police, but he's next in line to be the dominus of the Regime, a spacefaring civilization that spans hundreds of systems and thousands of worlds. It's sort of like a monarchy, his older brother is slated to be the dominus after their father is killed. He feels his presence isn't required, and he hates his people's stuffy traditions, and etiquette, and their utter lack of strong emotions (he's something of a throwback, able to feel deeply, whereas most of the upper class has bred out "inferior" emotions), so he basically runs away, in the hopes of "finding himself." His people don't come looking for him until the sequel, when his brother dies and he's needed to rule, but there's definitely the possibility of his people interfering with the world war that's being fought on the world he crashed on. At the beginning of the sequel, the male MC is captured and tortured by a military leader who finds his spaceship and realizes he's from another planet, and desperately wants advanced technology to help them win the war. The MC doesn't tell them anything, but they probably glean a few ideas from examining his ship. I'm planning for the military leader to stage a coup, taking over his country, at some point. Perhaps he'll use the advanced tech to try and win the war, and so the "aliens" will finally step in and stop the war, since it's being fought unfairly with their tech. I'm absolutely terrible when it comes to writing military strategy and politics--the first novel is supposed to be a sci-fi romance, not a political/military story!--so I've been trying to avoid a plot that gets into the politics of the world war, but it may be unavoidable.
It's not a patriarchal society. The country the female MC lives in is vaguely communistic or socialistic in nature, very military oriented, with a general as their leader. The female MC is a strong woman, but she's not the type to try and effect major changes or overthrow the government. She was orphaned as a toddler and raised by the state, which means she was essentially brainwashed her whole life to believe the state is always right, the state wants what's best for the people, yadda-yadda-yadda. She starts realizing that the state lied to her, first when her best (and only) friend dies and she's chastised by authorities for mourning her loss, and later, when she visits another country on a secret mission and sees for herself that the "enemy" she's been raised to hate is just normal folks. She comes to realize that everything she's been taught is wrong, but she lacks the courage to do anything about it. At least until the sequel, when she finds out she's pregnant and doesn't want her baby to be brainwashed the way she was. That finally gives her the courage to defect. I've been thinking she might need to find that courage in the first book, rather than the sequel, but I can't figure out how to include everything that needs to be included for that kind of subplot, without making the story way too long.
