Michael Smith

The UR Jack Commer Michael Smith

The UR Jack Commer consists of early and later experiments that never made it to the published Jack Commer, Supreme Commander series. Jack's first appearance in the fifth-grade "Voyage to Venus" electrified the author's nine-year-old self and sent him on his writing path. Kid consciousness unfolds in increasing maturity through the first few stories and the abandoned eighth-grade draft of The Martian Marauders. "The Martian Holes" then showcases the author's wild but somehow amusing post-college writing style. The interviews with Jack in "Zorexians" develop a new adult flavor; in addition to finally admitting that he's way in over his head with the sexy, unattainable Jackie Vespertine, Jack also muses on his long acquaintance with the author and critiques his writing procedures. The author eventually integrated child and adult consciousness when he revised the eighth-grade version of The Martian Marauders into a fast-paced adult novel, then wrote a cycle of Jack Commer novels.