It's here

The sequel, The Forsaken Empire, was published today on Amazon.com. I'm glad I was able to finish it. I was actually laid off from my job back in September, so I had the time. Hopefully, readers will enjoy it. Below is the prologue to the book. Thank you for all your support!

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This is my story—the death of my people.

The white-haired woman spoke these words. Not through her voice, but through her mind.

She stood on the planet, steady and quiet. Slowly, she walked into the bitter cold and then into the outskirts of the city. If she could have been seen, she might have appeared like a harmless stranger, simply passing through. 

But no. She was here to kill. Her steps moved along concealed.

Perhaps the white-haired woman knew nothing of the people here, or of the local language. No matter. They would all soon understand.

“The story,” she whispered. The phrase started off slow and sat in the air, looming in the frigid wind. Then it exploded like thunder and came pouring forth as the white-haired woman spoke louder, using her own language—the language of the dead.

Nearby was the audience. There were thousands of them. Thousands of sentient souls living in a city of snow. Given their very nature, they were poised to hear and feel the woman’s story. She had moved beyond words and language to the raw emotions that coursed through her mind. No one would be deaf to it. And so no one would be spared.

She walked on through the icy street, cloaked in the faux shadows of machine tech, hearing the innocent scream. She watched as one person after another heard her tale and then fell to their knees.

The death of my people. A great and ancient empire that exists no longer.

The cries continued. The citizenry—her victims—convulsed and bled in their pain. Men, women, and even some of the youth would all bear it. And then they would fall. Their minds became empty as the trauma turned fatal. They died by the thousands and were left to freeze in the cold.

The white-haired woman embraced the sight. Her tale was laced with agony. It demanded vengeance. To her, no one was innocent.

This is my story. The end of everything. The end of my world.

She finished her words, enduring the fatigue. Her alien eyes wept in black. She then staggered and dropped to the icy ground; her face looked grief-stricken. It hid behind a hand, but still the tears came. They drenched her cheeks in streams of liquid ash.

Next to her was the soul-less machine. He stood by her side, counting.

Fifty. A hundred. Then thousands.

He was analyzing the surrounding death. The machine spoke no story. Spun no tale. But like the white-haired woman, he yearned for vengeance; his body was cloaked in the same fabricated shadow.

“Over ninety percent of the population has been affected,” he bellowed in his calculated and heartless voice. “A near-complete death rate.”

Hearing this, the woman focused and then pulled back. The powers of her mind receded. The death grip released.

The story has been told. The vast audience has been left silent. She scratched her face, almost in a daze. The two hands were covered in her own blackened tears. Rising from the ground, she looked at the dead city. It was now hollow. Hollow of life.

The woman felt almost the same.

“Are you losing control?” the machine asked.

“No,” she whispered, seeking to silence any doubt. She felt the freeze and then recalled the bone-chilling cries. She came away tired but content. “Let them know my pain,” she vowed.

The woman and the machine walked on, and the constructed shadows hid their every move. They would soon leave this world, having acquired what they wanted. 

But even though they had killed this remote city, there was more death to be had. The whole galaxy, and then existence itself, would feel their wrath.

Almost there

The sequel is almost ready to go. I've updated the main website to talk a little bit about it.

A sequel

Yes, a sequel is on the way. The hope is to finish the first draft in a few months. I've been working on it since October of last year, and it's been going well.

The tentative title is: The Forsaken Empire

The Destroyer

Bad guys in fiction are always pretty fun. Writing them especially so. Unlike Arendi, the Ouryan agent came to me almost naturally. I've encountered so many great mischievous characters across sci-fi and fantasy that trying to envision one wasn't hard.

When I was coming up with the Destroyer, I naturally thought of the Klingons from Star Trek, and their love for war. This Klingon in particular was fun to watch.

Gowron, former leader of the Klingon Empire. He has a very devilish smile, and eyes that so easily light up in fury. Like any good Klingon, Gowron loves to battle. Maybe too much, even if it's not always the prudent move. Dare I say, he's a little bit crazy, but in a good way. His first appearance in Star Trek was classic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwRXPSJL7E4

"You will die, slowly, Durrraaaasss..." 

Another character I thought of was the Operative from the film Serenity. He's a "believer" who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, even if it means killing the innocent. However, he's not just a thug, but an intelligent man, who believes the ends justify the means. He's also fairly arrogant, and quick to assume he's bested his opponent.

"I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done."

I don't know why I picked the Destroyer's human form to be that of a blonde-haired man. Maybe I was thinking of Roy Batty from Blade Runner. His character held this repressed rage and frustration, only it's often masked by a smirk. He's an artificial man that is desperately seeking answers, and is willing to use terror to get them. 

"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave." 

What's interesting about all these characters are that none of them are truly villains. In some cases they're heroes, or they have some redeeming quality. I think for true villainy I thought about stories written by Neil Gaiman. From what I remember, he expertly crafted characters that were essentially murderers and happy to kill. Below is the Corinthian, a dream turned nightmare that's featured in Gaiman's Sandman comic book.  

I was probably thinking of all these characters when I came up with the Ouryan Agent. But I suppose you could view it from another angle. In a way, the Ouryan Agent is an almost extreme version of Julian. Here is a man who's become solely devoted to war, and enjoys nothing else, even at the cost of his own humanity. It's psychotic and even sad, but was certainly fun to write. 

Arendi

I think of all characters in my book, Arendi Soldanas was the hardest one to define. For a long time, I frankly had no idea who she was, or what made her tick.

It's funny that originally I had planned on making Arendi a male character. This was 7 years ago, when I only had a kernel of an idea for my novel. I thought it would be cool if a human android had managed to escape the enemy shield. I think naturally I thought of Data from Star Trek as the template for this new character.

I quickly brought this idea to my dad, who is also a huge sci-fi fan. He thought it was interesting, but wondered if perhaps the android should be female.

"Then she and the main character can fall in love," he pointed out.

That seemed like a rather brilliant idea to me. However, after that, I didn't really know what to do with it.

How human is she?  What is her personality? Has she talked to humans before? Who is her creator? What is her purpose? 

This was a really tough dilemma. To iron out all these details, and somehow, have it all make sense. But then to make a romance out of it? Daunting.

Thankfully, it came together over time. And for fun, I took inspiration from an unlikely movie.

I saw the film Roman Holiday as a kid, and I remember the ending, being surprised by it. I don't want to spoil the story, but for those who know the movie's conclusion, I suppose it unsettled me a bit. (Although it is realistic.)

It wasn't ever intentional. But later on after my book was done, I did think, Arendi's journey with Julian is somewhat loosely reminiscent of this film.

The female heroine is trapped in a life she doesn't want. She ends up escaping. A man finds her sleeping. Initially, there is distrust, but they end up going on an adventure together.

Maybe, subconsciously, I wanted to continue that film's story, somehow. I guess it's inevitable to think about what could be, just as the characters in this film do in the end.

So to remember it, my novel does offer a futuristic take on a scene in that movie. I think it fit well with what I was thematically trying to do with Arendi's character.

As for Roman Holiday, the film still holds up quite well, and it's worth checking out. Another classic.

Armor

I work as a journalist, so I'm writing all the time. But hammering out fiction is a tough task.

I know with my novel, it wasn't easy to write, especially at first. The early drafts were unfocused, with the language and style all over the place, not to mention the lack of fleshed out characters, and world.

This was quite frustrating, and at times very discouraging. But one thing that helped me work through it was this book, John Steakley's Armor.

This book is often considered a military sci-fi classic. It's similar to Heinlein's Starship Troopers in premise, although its more of an anti-war tale. Mankind is fighting an ant-like race of beings, and our protagonist is sent to join this grim conflict, donning his power armor.

He was alone.
No ants here at all. He was in what looked like a dry river bottom and he was alone. He blinked, straightened up from his crouch, took an instinctive step back toward the way he had come.
And the ants appeared.
First one, then three, then nine, a dozen, all clambering over the dune toward him. 
He blazed them all, severing limbs, melting giant skulls.

The prose can be visceral, jumpy and eccentric, but I think I found something I liked in it. That cold, distant, and sometimes matter of fact feel to his writing.

Armor is a fairly dark tale, and you get to see the battles from the perspective of Felix, a hardened, and yet emotionally-wounded soldier, who also happens to be unkillable.

The writing, especially in the first chapters, can convey that emptiness the character feels. There's also a sense of adrenaline, pain and tragedy that lingers throughout passages dealing with our protagonist and his inner struggles.

Why am I still alive? 
He had time to wonder before the shadow loomed over him and there was no time for anything but the struggle and maybe no time even for that, for all was cloudy and indistinct, the ant hazy before him, but moving so quickly, hammering at him, smashing at his chest and faceplate but he couldn't seem to move so quickly as should, as if he were in a thick mist that held him but freed the ant to rake and pummel him from side to side. My God! My God!

Not the easiest sentence to get through, but I liked the unique approach. Ultimately, Armor helped me think more about tone, and what atmosphere my book should give. If it's the end of the world, then my words would need to reflect that.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102327.Armor

Sentinels of the Galaxy

Back in the day, I used to be a big watcher of anime. It's funny that maybe the first anime I ever saw is one that some sci-fi fans despise.

Lensman was of course based off the old school sci-fi series by the same name.  Originally written back in late 1940s and 50s, the books are known for defining the whole space opera genre. They revolve around so-called "Lensmen", who are sort of like prototype Jedi that possess special mental/telepathic abilities, They fight in a conflict that has lasted for eons, and even shaped the early history of man.

The books were actually out of print for some time, until a re-issue in the late 90s, from what I believe.  But I came across the series as a young boy, when I watched the anime version at a local indie theater with my dad.

Fans of the Lensman books generally seem to hate this animated movie adaption. This is mainly because it's only loosely based on the novels. Rather, the anime is basically a knock-off of Star Wars. You have your Darth Vader wannabes, a young boy growing up on a farm, and your Han Solo-ish, Princess Leia-like characters.

That said, this anime blew me away. Mind you, I was about 5 or 6 when I first saw this. So really, anything with spaceships, big battles, and aliens would impress me.

However, one thing that was more original about this anime was its style. The adaption came out in 1984, and in it, are several scenes that use computer-generated images. This seemed to be quite ahead for its time.

The adaption also came during a golden age for anime industry. So the drawings are high quality, and the action kinetic. My favorite part was the character, Worsel, or the "Dragon Lensman" who speaks to our main character telepathically.

Although its fun to reminisce, it's hard to still enjoy this anime now. This movie is really more for kids, than for adult sci-fi fans, and the Star Wars similarities can be distracting at times.

Later on, I did read some of the actual Lensman books in high school. The experience was quite jarring, simply because the stories are so different from than the anime in style and scope. The Lensman books actually bears more similarity with the Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon; although the plots are grand with action and adventure, the stories are also fairly dated.

From what I remember, in the Lensman universe, there is actually only one galaxy, which came about when two of them collided with each other. The main characters are all generally flawless as people, and the stories contain little moral ambiguity. I don't think there are even traditional computers in this world, and you see the term "atomic" appear every now and then.

There's also some maybe unintentional funny names in these book. For instance, there's a weapon called the "nutcracker" which involves crushing a target planet, by using two other planets to smash it together.

That said, it is mind blowing to realize that these books are crammed with giant ideas, during such an early age of sci-fi. As others have said, the Lensman books were really the Star Wars of their time. They even supposedly influenced George Lucas in his making of the first Star Wars film.

Those interested in watching the anime adaption can actually find it on YouTube. Given what I've said, I can't really recommend it, but I'll always have fond memories of watching it for the first time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g5xFo8YowQ