07-17-2021, 10:47 AM
Hi There! Welcome to OA 
To answer your second question first - I'm Todd. I've been part of OA since around 2001. I wear various hats, including editing the website, being and Admin here on the forum, and an officer of the OA projects managing board. My primary interest in the project is technology and engineering, particularly megaprojects, transapient tech, and wormholes. But various other areas and ideas capture my interest at any given moment.
In terms of recommended reading: A basic thing to understand about the Orion's Arm project is that it is primarily made up of entries in the 'Encyclopedia Galactica' a fictional knowledge compendium existing approx 10,000 years in our future and describing the history, culture, technology, habitats, and inhabitants of that distant time. So when it comes to gaining an understanding of the Orion's Arm setting, I'm initially going to recommend some articles that will help you come up to speed on the setting more quickly. Specifically:
Galactography
Culture and Society
Technology
Sophonts
The History and Science sections, as well as the wider EG in general (accessible via the six main topics listed here or just by searching different letters of the alphabet) are definitely also worth exploring. Be warned that it's not unusual for new folks to get 'lost' in the EG for weeks at a time.
In terms of fiction set in the Orion's Arm universe, we have two collections of published stories and a novella and short story available on Amazon and Smashwords, as well as numerous stories available for free on the OA website. Out of those, my recommended works for getting a feel for the OA setting would be:
A Day in the Life of a Bureaucrat
A New Way
Dirty Hands
Festival Season
In the Garden on Eden
A Minor Demonstration of Power
Dragon's Teeth
Infanticide
Keeper of the Faith
Under the Looking Glass
Also, more generally - the Traveler's Notes short stories are often descriptive of specific places or ways of life in the settting.
Note that the timeline of the OA setting is some 10,000 years long so different stories can take place in different time periods, sometimes separated by hundreds or thousands of years.
Hope this helps and once again - Welcome to OA!
Todd
To answer your second question first - I'm Todd. I've been part of OA since around 2001. I wear various hats, including editing the website, being and Admin here on the forum, and an officer of the OA projects managing board. My primary interest in the project is technology and engineering, particularly megaprojects, transapient tech, and wormholes. But various other areas and ideas capture my interest at any given moment.
In terms of recommended reading: A basic thing to understand about the Orion's Arm project is that it is primarily made up of entries in the 'Encyclopedia Galactica' a fictional knowledge compendium existing approx 10,000 years in our future and describing the history, culture, technology, habitats, and inhabitants of that distant time. So when it comes to gaining an understanding of the Orion's Arm setting, I'm initially going to recommend some articles that will help you come up to speed on the setting more quickly. Specifically:
Galactography
Culture and Society
Technology
Sophonts
The History and Science sections, as well as the wider EG in general (accessible via the six main topics listed here or just by searching different letters of the alphabet) are definitely also worth exploring. Be warned that it's not unusual for new folks to get 'lost' in the EG for weeks at a time.
In terms of fiction set in the Orion's Arm universe, we have two collections of published stories and a novella and short story available on Amazon and Smashwords, as well as numerous stories available for free on the OA website. Out of those, my recommended works for getting a feel for the OA setting would be:
A Day in the Life of a Bureaucrat
A New Way
Dirty Hands
Festival Season
In the Garden on Eden
A Minor Demonstration of Power
Dragon's Teeth
Infanticide
Keeper of the Faith
Under the Looking Glass
Also, more generally - the Traveler's Notes short stories are often descriptive of specific places or ways of life in the settting.
Note that the timeline of the OA setting is some 10,000 years long so different stories can take place in different time periods, sometimes separated by hundreds or thousands of years.
Hope this helps and once again - Welcome to OA!
Todd