Office Maxi is a Noblebright novel. NobleBright is a genre that I recently discovered that most of my stuff happens to be in. The easiest way to explain it is that if Game of Thrones assumes the worst in humanity and postulates that humans are awful at their core. Noblebright assumes the exact opposite of that in fiction. That doesn’t mean there aren’t bad guys or people who do awful things, it just means that most people try to do the right thing even when no one is looking.

To me, Noblebright more accurately describes the world than its opposite counterpart. I don’t mean to say that “bad guys” don’t exist. It’s just that even the worst the world has to offer is guided by their own morality system. Heinous acts often get justified as the right thing to do by the perpetrator for a variety of reasons.

For example, humanity has done terrible things to different groups of people throughout the ages, and its often justified because the oppressed group is categorized as subhuman or dangerous for humanity. When soldiers storm a village and execute everyone of fighting age, they aren’t doing it out of malice, but rather because they are told they are taking dangerous people out of the fight.

The same goes with political violence. When a group dehumanizes the other group and talks about how dangerous they are, it’s easy to pull it out of the realm of a disagreement, to the people are dangerous and they can’t be allowed to live, go free, etc. It’s not that the secret police of the oppressor are all bad, it’s that they are doing what they feel is right.

Noblebright postulates that good people do terrible things not because everyone is rotten at their core, but that people are easily convinced of something that isn’t true, so they act accordingly. Beliefs can be hijacked to make people do all sorts of bad things, but if we stopped to talk with them, treat them as a human, and do lots of therapy, maybe we’d find out why they are behaving the way they do.

That’s not to say that talks and negotiations will always work. Sometimes even the Enterprise needs to use their torpedoes. Star Trek is probably the most popular example of Noblebright that comes to mind. But Noblebright assumes even the worst of us deserve dignity and respect because it’s better for all. One simply must look at the justice system to see that the premise is true. Most countries that focus on rehabilitation of criminal behavior have low rates of people returning to prison. Whereas countries with the punishment model has high rates of people going back to prison.

What that tells me is that respect and caring for one another, (something that Noblebright assumes we all do in our core), helps lower crime rates over anything else, and makes it harder for the belief systems to be hijacked into doing awful things. I recall the story I heard of a high school student who had no intentions of joining a terrorist cell, but after he was treated with suspicion by his peers and being falsely accused of bringing a bomb to school (a charge the FBI dropped after an investigation), he went out and joined a terrorist cell. Why? Because during his darkest moments, when he thought everyone in the world was against him, a recruiter for the terrorist branch treated him with kindness and used that moment to hijack his belief system.

But what about those doing the hijacking? The people who manipulate others for pleasure, power, or who are just plain evil, the classic villain twirling their mustache? They still exist in the Noblebright universe because they exist in real life too. I prefer to think of it as the 9 out of 10 rule. Nine of ten people you meet will give you respect and dignity if you provide it to them. 9 out of 10 people who committed a crime won’t commit another one if you give them therapy and fix some of the circumstances that brought them to crime in the first place.

9 out of 10 people will strive to do the right thing based on what they believe to be true about the world. Then there are those assholes. The ones who don’t care what they do to other people so long as they get their power. There is also an argument to treat those people with respect too, they could have a mental illness. I’m not saying mental illness is the reason for every single person who’s done something bad, but I can say that it can account for a lot of it.

There are people because of wiring in their brain, who just don’t feel empathy. They learn to mock feeling it because of societal expectations, but the truth of the matter is they don’t know they are hurting other people because they can’t feel it. Now give that person a shitty childhood or tell them the only way they have value in life is by making lots of money, or give them a drive for power, and this person who feels no empathy will do terrible things, because there is nothing in their brain telling them not to.

A person who lacks empathy could saw off the leg of another person and feel no more invested in that moment than if they were sawing a block of wood. That brain wiring, preventing their empathy circuits from triggering doesn’t always make them a serial killer collecting body parts in their basement. It can also lead them to a life as a ruthless CEO or a politician. I’m not saying all of them are because remember 9 out of 10 are doing what they think of as the right thing sometimes for the wrong reasons.

The clinical definition of a person who feels no empathy is Antisocial Personality Disorder, or psychopath as most TV shows would call it. But whatever it’s called, it’s a real thing, you can put them in a brain scanner and show them images that would make most people squirm, and there is nothing whereas the empathy of regular people would go off the charts. So, they hurt people and don’t understand why it’s wrong. They simply don’t feel it.

And that’s just one of the plethora of mental illnesses out there where one person causes harm to another which is starting to account for a lot of those 1/10. So, the question is do we treat everyone with dignity and respect so we can help the 9/10’s or build our society because of the of those 1/10’s?

That’s what I feel is the core of Noblebright. Fiction that shows the possibilities if we focus on the 9/10s rather than shaping our whole world view because of the 1/10. It assumes that people will do the right thing, and the heroes are forged because at the core (at least 9/10’s of us) are noble and the future is bright. And those 1/10’s can be a part of the future too because even if a person is in rehabilitation for the rest of their life, they are at least in a situation where they aren’t harming anyone.

Office Maxi is Noblebright because fundamentally, I believe most people are good in the core even if they are led astray by politics, mental illness, societal pressure, circumstance, upbringing, or any of the other reasons a person goes off the rails. Despite that fundamental belief in the heart of the story, Maxi still finds herself in an imperfect society where she becomes a glimmer of hope for a better future.

However, she must fight every step of the way for that future (after of course she accepts her destiny). There is some resistance from her in the beginning of the story because she is stubborn, probably one of the most stubborn characters that I’ve written.

However, like most Noblebright fiction, when she finally does accept the role she has to play in the shape of events to come, she will be nothing less than a hero, and the book will probably be one of the most heroic stories I have ever written. If the Misfits of Carnt were ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Maxi is an extraordinary person in extraordinary circumstances. So, if you’re looking for action, adventure, humor, and a badass heroine Office Maxi is the book for you.

Also book 2 is already underway and don’t worry, it will not affect the timeline for the release of Carnt book 4, which my guess is this summer, (in addition to Time Burrito book 5). If you enjoyed any of my books, this is the one you don’t want to miss.

Maxi’s first week in a groundbreaking gamified workplace is disrupted by a snarling, drooling printer with large, pointy teeth and a murderous disposition.

After nearly becoming the red toner liquid refill during a killer inkjet’s afternoon snack, Maxi decides to investigate the mysterious company that’s more associated with slimes, zombies, and dragons than office work.

Luckily, she is equipped with an interface that is similar to her favorite RPG-style video games. For once, being a gamer will be good for more than just getting a couple bucks during her live streams.

Maxi normally enjoys LitRPG Urban Fantasy adventures, just not the dying part. Hopefully she can max her levels before the end is nigh and the beasties devour humanity.

Read Office Maxi today!