Friday 12 March 2021

Starting A New Science Fiction Series

Those of you who pay attention to this rather irregular blog might have noticed a new book listed on the Works in Progress sidebar. The Shattered Stars (Tech Scavengers Book One) is the start of a new science fiction series. It will be a mixture of Firefly and Mad Max, set in a far future where the galaxy has plunged into a new Dark Ages.

Three hundred years ago, the Galactic Imperium was riven by civil war. Entire planets were nuked, trade routes crumbled and, worst of all, the jump gates that tied the galaxy together stopped working. These products of an ultra-secret government experiment can be found every fifty light years or so, but all have either been destroyed or have broken.

Now the galaxy is a patchwork of independent planets and petty empires. Many have relapsed into savagery. Others struggle along with only the technology of the twenty-fifth or even the twentieth centuries. The myriad alien races, which once traveled the stars along with their human counterparts, are stuck on their home planets and scattered in tiny numbers across space. Limits on faster than light technology means that even the fastest spaceship can only travel a few light years a day. Everyone from the poorest algae farmer to the most brutal despot dreams of a time when the jump gates will reopen and the galaxy will once again be united.

This is not the only technology that has been lost. Even the most advanced worlds are at least a couple of centuries behind what humanity once achieved. Tech scavengers make good money working as interstellar archaeologists, digging up old machines and figuring out how to make them work again. Some are employed by rulers or rich merchants, while others are freelance.

But whoever your patron is, it’s a dangerous job. Because old technology is the new currency, and people will kill for it.

So when will book one come out? Some time this year. I can't be any more precise than that because I have a heavy load of ghostwriting right now. As I said in a previous post, this year will see new installments in the Masked Man of Cairo series and the Toxic World series as well. You can follow the progress on the sidebar!

1 comment:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That sounds really good!

Looking for more from Sean McLachlan? He also hangs out on the Civil War Horror blog, where he focuses on Civil War and Wild West history.

You can also find him on his Twitter feed and Facebook page.