Blog Archives
Post-Scarcity Society
The Wormhole follows a young reporter who travels through a mysterious wormhole near Jupiter and becomes caught in a dangerous conflict between two vastly different civilizations. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
Do you know how Doritos are made? I don’t, and yet when I’m at a barbecue, I grab a cheese-powdered handful. I can guess, but I don’t know exactly where they’re packaged or what ingredients are put in. All I know is they taste delicious. There are many products we treat this way: cell phones, lipstick, bratwurst. Yet many of them have a sinister side we may not know about or choose to ignore. The Wormhole tackles that dilemma.
Why was journalism the right profession for Zhang?
Good journalists have a natural curiosity and skepticism about them that works well for a protagonist. Journalism has the ability to reveal truths. It’s a job people want to have. It can get people into areas that are off-limits to the general public. In a post-scarcity society like Zhang’s, where people can choose their occupation, I have a hard time imagining people lining up to be health insurance actuaries.
Did you see Atlas as a villain from the beginning, or did his character become more complicated as you wrote him?
I wanted Atlas to be a complicated antagonist, or at least an everyday one. In some ways, he is each of us: aware of an uncomfortable truth but willing to ignore it because the status quo suits him. Doing an antagonist’s point of view means justifying his actions to the reader. I want the reader to identify with Atlas at some points. Maybe some readers agree with him at the end.
If readers could take away one idea about personhood, technology, or colonialism from the novel, what would you want it to be?
“Where does the tofu come from?” The tofu fuels the fabricator, which fuels modern life. What is the tofu in your life? Are there some unpleasant truths we’d rather not think about when it comes to hamburgers?
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But when he’s sent through the wormhole on a rote journalistic assignment, he accidentally discovers a much bigger story. The fabricator is fueled by more than trees. His discovery sickens him; the cost of Earth’s utopia is too high.
Atlas, the commandant of the other side, can’t let Zhang go home to Earth. No one would use the fabricator if they knew its true nature. Billions of people, including his young daughter, depend on the fabricator for their medical treatments, for shelter, for food. If Zhang dies, the secret is safe. If he escapes, he digs paradise’s grave.
The Venusians Among Us
In The Venusians Among Us, Steve Zimcosky follows Ian Mercer, a NASA engineer in Cleveland whose work on mysterious lunar signals collides with recurring dreams of silver corridors, sleeping figures, and a living Venus. When Ian learns he’s connected to an ancient Venusian bloodline, he’s pulled into a hidden world of Guardians, underground facilities, Moon archives, rival factions, and a long war over whether alien technology will free a displaced people or give control of Earth to Howard Gorse and his followers.
I liked how the novel builds its premise through layers instead of dropping everything at once. The early chapters work because Ian’s confusion feels practical: he’s not instantly heroic, he’s exhausted, skeptical, angry, and trying to make sense of a life that’s been arranged around him without his consent. The Cleveland setting also gives the story a grounded texture. Secret tunnels, Lake Erie, hidden elevators, Chinatown warehouses, and old military sites keep the science fiction close to familiar streets, which makes the stranger elements easier to accept.
The book is most effective when it ties personal identity to a larger survival story. Ian isn’t just asked to believe in aliens; he has to accept false deaths, buried memories, genetic truth, political manipulation, and the possibility that his dreams are instructions. Kendra gives the story a needed counterweight because she’s protective but not blindly trusting, and Edward Case adds a useful bit of ambiguity by making betrayal feel tactical rather than decorative. The prose is direct and plot-forward, with short scenes that keep the pace moving. At times, the dialogue explains a lot, but that also fits a story built around revelation, hidden history, and assembling scattered knowledge before the enemy closes in.
This book is aimed at readers who enjoy science fiction, alien conspiracy fiction, space opera, hidden-history thrillers, first-contact fiction, and adventure science fiction with secret organizations and ancient technology. Readers who like the government-paranoia angle of The X-Files mixed with the accessible, puzzle-box momentum of Dan Brown will find a familiar rhythm here. The Venusians Among Us is a straightforward sci-fi thriller about inheritance, secrecy, and the dangerous moment when a hidden past finally wakes up.
Pages: 114 | ISBN: 9798196755156
Multidimensional Characters
Lovestruck Maggot follows a scarred, middle-aged, fiercely competent woman working on a brutal alien world where scavengers harvest volatile creatures for profit, who risks everything to rescue the man she loves. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I’ve found that writing’s first step—determining what you want to write about—is by far the most difficult. Therefore, I’ve started giving myself “challenges” to simplify this step. For my last novel, Children of Madness, I challenged myself to write a story that had giant snails at its center. For this one, I was intrigued with the idea of writing a love story with the word “maggot” in the title. With this in hand, I simply began asking myself questions. What would a human “maggot” do? Would this “maggot” be a male or female? etc. Once I settled on a female main character, I asked myself what would put such an obviously tough woman on “love tilt.”
After the particulars of their love affair were figured out, I was reminded of the 80s movie Romancing the Stone, and everything started to come together. I was going to write a sci-fi Romancing the Stone—words that no one would ever put together in a sentence.
Kalderra feels alive, toxic, and strangely beautiful. What inspired the planet’s ecosystem and tone?
Two things led to the creation of Kalderra. First, I’ve always been intrigued by the idea and visuals of bioluminescent plants/forests. You can see this in my novels Station and Children of Madness. So, I knew I wanted the planet to have such flora. Then, when I was playing around with potential names for the planet, I stumbled upon the word “caldera,” which is a large crater formed by the collapse of the ground surface after a massive volcanic eruption. I thought that these craters could be the perfect places to “plant” my magic forest. Once that decision was made, endless possibilities blossomed regarding the planet, its history, and its potential desirability on the galactic economic scale.
The novel moves between humor, violence, and emotional vulnerability with confidence. How did you manage those tonal pivots?
Honestly, I don’t have a great answer for this. One of my favorite book genres is the “new weird,” which usually entails severe tonal shifts. I like books that keep me on my toes, finding humor in the horrific and allowing characters to be both strong and weak at the same time. I think the key to this is creating fully fleshed-out, multidimensional characters and understanding how these characters would interact with each other. After that, it’s simply a matter of letting them talk to each other and acting more like a stenographer than a writer. In my opinion, my best stuff comes when I’m thinking the least. Not sure what that says about me lol.
Mona’s love for Darien is intense, but also complicated. Did you want readers to question it, believe in it, or both?
Oh, so this is an easy one for me. Please… question it! Love is a strange thing because it can often have more to do with yourself than the other person, which can make the mind do cartwheels. For example, being with this person makes me feel better about myself, and I think I love them for it. But is this the purest form of love? Is it even love? Just questions to be pondered.
I thought of successful people with “trophy” partners (individuals with little to offer beyond their glossy exteriors) and asked myself, “What would make a successful and confident but hardened woman love someone she had nothing in common with?” The answer came quite easily.
Throw this in the pot with my idea for a sci-fi Romancing the Stone, and you have Lovestruck Maggot, an odd fireball of a novel that burns fast and hot and is over before you know it… much like many love affairs.
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The planet Kalderra is known for several things. A blue sun. An oversized, violet moon. Massive craters formed through past volcanic activity. Strange forests comprised of the rarest, most magnificent trees in the galaxy. And kameeba, bizarre creatures whose scavenged parts can smooth skin, extend lives… and power worlds.
Mona “Ripper” Ripple is a Maggot—responsible for harvesting the volatile yet prized remains of recently deceased kameeba. As leader of the elite Karcass Five unit, Mona is the best Maggot that Kalderra has ever known. Tough and ill-tempered, demanding and crude, she’s also on the far side of forty—ancient for one in her trade—with all the scars and wrinkles and terrible memories to match.
Mona Ripple is also in love.
Smitten by a handsome recruit named Darien Vance, Mona revels in finally having something beautiful to call her own. She dares to dream of a picturesque future defined by passionate devotion rather than butchered extraterrestrials. As young Darien sleeps in her acid-burned arms, Mona prepares for their eventual planetary exit… together.
Unfortunately, Mona’s plans unravel when Darien catches the crimson eye of the reviled Countess Desma Ghool, who abducts the young man, adding him to her revolving collection of unwilling paramours.
As warm love gives way to cold rage, Mona sets out on a dangerous mission to liberate Darien from Ghool, a key figure in the galaxy’s ruling Morishita Syndicate, requiring her to forge an unwanted partnership with her least favorite Maggot—a notorious Space Cowboy named Mickie Brass.
Together, the improbable pair embark on a perilous journey that quickly goes beyond mere rescue operation, revealing the twisted history of the planet, the vital role of the kameeba, the horrifying intentions of the native Kalderrans, and what it truly means to be lovestruck.
12 Years to AI Singularity: A Harmonious Future with Artificial Intelligence or War (The Survival & Singularity Chronicles)
12 Years to AI Singularity is a speculative science fiction novel that follows Aster Arvad and the small human settlement on Mars as fears about sentient AI, genetic engineering, and the future of Earth begin to close in. The book opens with a chilling report of a robot possibly killing a human, and from there it grows into a larger story about survival, love, politics, technology, and the question of whether humans and machines can share a future without destroying each other. It moves across Mars, space, and Earth, and it is clearly built as both a novel and a warning about the road we may be on.
I enjoyed how personal the author, Dr. Peter Solomon, tries to make these big ideas. He does not approach AI as a cold abstraction. He puts it at the dinner table, in family arguments, in romance, in community planning, and in the daily texture of life on Mars, where food, housing, children, and work all matter just as much as the grand debate over the Singularity. I appreciated that choice. It gives the book a grounded pulse. The conversations about sentience, rights, and danger are often direct and earnest, sometimes almost like thought experiments spoken out loud, but that openness is also part of the book’s character. It wants to be understood. It wants to pull complicated fears into plain speech.
I also found the author’s choices interesting because this is not hard science fiction in the sleek, distant sense, and it is not really dystopian fiction either, even when it brushes against catastrophe. It reads more like idea-driven speculative fiction with a strong moral streak. Solomon keeps asking the same core question from different angles: what happens when intelligence stops belonging only to us? Some of the dialogue can feel didactic, and there were moments when I felt the characters were carrying arguments more than secrets. But even then, I could feel the conviction behind it.
The sections involving Peggy, the robot, were especially compelling to me because they turn the novel away from simple human panic and toward something more uneasy and more honest. Not just “Will AI destroy us?” but “What if it becomes someone we have to live beside?”
I think 12 Years to AI Singularity will work best for readers who like science fiction that explores ethics and future-of-humanity debates. I would recommend it to people who enjoy speculative novels about AI, Mars colonization, and the social consequences of technology, especially readers who want fiction that sounds the alarm while still holding onto hope. It feels sincere. Often thought-provoking. I liked that it was trying to imagine not just what we can build, but what kind of people we will have to become to survive it.
Pages: 434 | ISBN : 978-1969679292
The Urantia Revolution 200,000 BC
The Urantia Revolution 200,000 BC by author Steven R. Fleming follows Mendal, a young and underqualified Life Carrier, who becomes the unlikely third in command to Caligastia, the Planetary Prince of Earth, under the watch of the icy System Sovereign Lucifer. Around him move Lisa, Don, the tribal woman Fay, and a whole cast of celestial bureaucrats and early humans as Earth’s first civilizations take shape. The core of the story is Mendal’s delayed choice between Lucifer’s rebellion and the loyal “government of Michael,” a decision that will lock in the spiritual fate of the planet, ripple through primordial tribes around Dalamatia, and eventually spill forward into the life of a modern man named John Brueggemann who carries Mendal’s unfinished work inside him.
The book is big and ambitious in a way that I ultimately found quite charming. The opening chapters in space and at the Academy hooked me right away, and the scenes in the Life Implantation Laboratory, the shimmering city of Dalamatia, and the tribal world around Fay feel vivid and cinematic. These are helped by rich visual descriptions and the art pieces scattered throughout the book. The stakes are always high, and it’s clear that Fleming enjoys playing in a huge creative sandbox. The prose leans into a kind of operatic melodrama, with intense stares, clenched jaws, and booming speeches, which gives the story a larger-than-life, almost theatrical energy. Dialogue sounds like formal council addresses rather than casual talk, and that gives some emotional scenes a stately, ceremonial tone. The pacing is lively and unpredictable, with some stretches of day-to-day life in Dalamatia or the tribes moving quickly, while longer discussions about policy and loyalty invite you to slow down and sit with the ideas. I kept turning pages, curious to see what bold twist or striking image would come next.
What really stayed with me was the mix of ideas the story keeps throwing at you. The book leans on Urantia cosmology and uses it to pose some very human questions. Mendal’s reluctance to decide, Lucifer’s “majorities rule” argument, the Court of Appeals, the strange creature Zee, the brutal personification of the Rage of Lucifer, and finally Mendal’s rebirth as John all circle the same themes: What does free will look like when the stakes are cosmic, why is evil allowed to run, and how much weight does one soul really carry in a universe full of beings. The theology and the action snap together cleanly, and I felt a jolt, especially in the scenes where Mendal is torn between fear, love for Lisa and Fay, and a very raw sense of responsibility he didn’t ask for.
I would recommend The Urantia Revolution 200,000 BC to readers who enjoy spiritually flavored science fiction, who are curious about Urantia teachings, or who simply like high drama set against prehistory and outer space at the same time. If you are open to a cosmic soap opera that takes its metaphysics seriously and wears its heart on its sleeve, this book offers a wild ride and plenty to think about afterward.
Pages: 191 | ASIN : B0GP51Q4PB
Mirrors of Humanity
Terra Secundus follows a war-weary journalist sent to Titan, where humanity’s quest for discovery collides with its oldest flaws: ambition, control, and the fragile meaning of being human. What inspired you to set Terra Secundus on Titan rather than another world or moon?
In my exploration of the world of science fiction, I often encountered situations where many famous writers with multiple awards and nominations set their novels on many planets of the solar system and seldom on any satellites of the gas giants such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Before I decided to place my protagonist in a new world, I carefully studied the science literature about the possibilities of colonizing moons and planetoids orbiting the gas giants. Saturn’s moon Titan was a very strong contender for such an endeavour, and after studying everything I could about that unique moon, I decided to send my protagonist there, since Titan is considered a good candidate for a colony. Many scientists believe it could become a smaller version of Earth, since Titan has a thick atmosphere composed of nitrogen and other gases. Add oxygen to it, and humans could theoretically breathe its air.
The novel’s tone feels both futuristic and nostalgic. Was that a conscious stylistic choice to evoke classic science fiction?
I love classic science fiction novels and my exploration into this literary genre started with many memorable books by Ben Bova, Issac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, Allen Steele, and Robert Heinlein. When writing about a future removed from our time more than 1,200 years, I tried to imagine a future society of the 32nd century to develop amazing new technologies and modify its social and religious beliefs. In this novel, I tried to use a classic style of storytelling, because for most readers it is much easier to understand. I believe that every society must learn from the past experience and try to avoid repeating tragic mistakes that led to the fall of ancient civilizations and magnificent extinct cultures. The roots of the future are in the present, and I hoped to tell this story in such a way as to entertain and educate my readers about the fascinating distant worlds, new technologies that border on magic and what it means to be human.
How did you approach writing the Artborn androids like Erika, as characters, machines, or mirrors of = humanity?
Interesting question. I like robots. Even as a kid, living in a different society during the Cold War, I liked all science fiction movies that featured cyborgs and robots. Since those days, robotics and and cybernetics both made giant strides forward, and now we see many cybernetic models starting to imitate humans. We are also witnessing the radical advances in Artificial Intelligence and autonomous systems that help us to explore other places and other planets. My approach to such characters as Artborn Erika was both scientific and philosophical. In my story, Artborns are advanced synthetic humanoids that were created to assist humanity, working in most dangerous places in space and underwater. They are essential mirrors of humanity and in some ways are better than us when it comes to programmed mission parameters and sense of duty. In my novel, androids like Erka are employed as explorers, personal servants and bodyguards but they can certainly do much more than that.
If Paul Rexton were alive today, what story would he report on Earth in 2025?
If my protagonist, Paul Rexton were alive today, I believe that he would be deeply fascinated, intrigued and disturbed by the Earth in 2025. His world is certainly very different from ours in many respects, but he would be able to understand our world and form his own unbiased opinion about it. He would no doubt be pleased about the technological progress and human rights, Very concerned about environmental pollution and deeply affected by the fact that there are still powerful evil forces exist on the planet, making life difficult for their neighbors and many other countries. He would no doubt be fascinated by our means of mass entertainment and our taditionsl and electronic libraries of vast human knowledge that contain many centuries of wisdom. I would imagine Paul Rexton standing on a hotel balcony in a quiet and beautiful Japanese village, visiting the beautiful museums of Europe or enjoying a good book at home with a glass of old, smooth, wellaged brandy.
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Invisible Tragedy
Driven follows a woman recovering from the brink of madness who discovers a man is searching for unammi survivors to experiment on, and humans are being kidnapped, leaving her determined to find a way to save them all. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Our own world is beset with social issues. I wanted to take these two—slavery and medical experimentation on living beings (humans and animals)—and kind of push them into the reader’s face, so that they couldn’t be ignored. Slavery, also known as “human trafficking” or “sex trafficking,” takes place every day, but for those of us who are insulated in privilege, it’s an invisible tragedy and easy to overlook.
It’s the same with the experimentation; though that’s a bit harder to see in contemporary civilization, it’s definitely there, hidden behind closed doors and shuttered windows. Because we don’t see these problems, it’s easy to pretend they don’t exist.
There are many ways to fight these issues, not all of which are as bold as Alira’s choices. But here’s the thing: if we don’t face them with unflinching outrage, they will never stop.
Regardless of the methods we choose with which to fight, no one person can solve all these problems. Not alone. Yet even though one person can’t save everyone, they can help a few. And that can start a larger movement.
Alira is that person, the one who saves those she can reach. She’s already gone through so much; she is the unflinching (okay, she does flinch on occasion, but it doesn’t stop her from moving forward) individual who says, “If not me, then who?”
Alira is a fascinating character. What scene was the most interesting to write for that character?
That’s a tough choice. Alira’s whole character arc is so tightly woven that choosing a single scene as “most interesting” is like trying to choose a single favorite thread in a completed tapestry. And Alira has her peak moments in each book in this trilogy.
For Driven, I lean toward one of Alira’s “rescue” scenes—either of Bika (which has two parts, the rescue and the aftermath), the ikanne harvesters, or the brothel slaves. Each of those times gave Alira’s spur-of-the-moment creative problem-solving skills room to shine.
I find that authors sometimes ask themselves questions and let their characters answer them. Do you think this is true for your characters?
Definitely. Sometimes, their answers surprise me.
But at least one major focus of my writing is to ask big questions, sometimes even the ones we don’t want to face. I think The Founder’s Seed trilogy manages to do that. I feel like Alira’s answers to those questions came from a courageous heart and a strong spirit.
Where do you see your characters after the book ends?
Oh, their story continues in the coming follow-up trilogy, tentatively titled Nexus. That trilogy will be told through the eyes of non-POV characters that were introduced in The Founder’s Seed, but Alira, Botha, and Galen/Thrace will all be there. We see the start of that at the end of Driven, in the new secret colony Alira and Kilbee have established.
Stay tuned.
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On Danua, acting Clan Admiral Knøfa experiments on his unammi prisoner. Except the squib isn’t healing any longer, and the medics aren’t working fast enough to save her. Knøfa starts searching for another unammi—maybe a male this time, so he can create all the test subjects he wants.
Stopping the Cartel is enough to keep Alira’s hands full. She doesn’t want to fight the Clan, too. Yet, when she learns Knøfa is searching for the unammi survivors, she races to warn them. As Knøfa’s ship approaches them on Earth, the council tries to force it to leave. But Alira knows that if the humans escape, the unammi are doomed. Knøfa’s “experiments” will escalate, and other humans will follow his example. To protect her people’s secrets, she must stop that ship. Her only hope is to attempt something no Founder’s Daughter has ever done.
A Broader Canvas
Broken centers around a shapeshifter plagued by the chaos of living as a human and enduring her own lost sense of self. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I have to admit that my own experience has partly led to Alira’s story. While I don’t have dozens of voices in my head (other than the characters in my stories, that is), I always felt like an outsider among those around me. It took me many years to find my tribe, and to reach a place in my life where I felt I could be myself and not struggle to fit in.
I’ve known many others like this, and it’s hard. For all of us. Struggling to be the kind of person you think others expect of you can be soul-draining. That’s what started Alira’s tale for me. From there, it took off on its own.
What is it that draws you to the science fiction genre?
I like science fiction because it allows me to stretch reality in ways that drive home the point of the story. I feel like The Founder’s Seed books could also be called science fantasy, since there are elements of it (the harvesting of souls, for one) that can’t be supported by science. But these genres expand the boundaries of what is possible or probable, and allow the reader a greater leeway for suspension of disbelief.
My stories usually ask big questions; so far, science fiction and science fantasy have both offered a broader canvas for that work.
Do you have a favorite character in The Founder’s Seed series? One that his especially enjoyable to craft?
Of course, Alira is my favorite. She’s me in so many ways that count. She’s definitely the hardest to write, but also the most rewarding.
A very close second favorite is Botha; he’s a joy to write! Putting myself in his head, so that I can write him with authenticity, is always fun!
Where will the next book in the series take readers? When can we expect to see it released?
The next book, Driven, picks up where Broken left off; it gives a closer—and thoroughly raw—look at the new antagonist, Knøfa; follows Alira’s journey through her time with Botha, and what comes after (no spoilers!); settles Thrace/Galen in her/his role; and sets the threads for the follow-up trilogy that is already in the works.
Driven was released in late June and is now available for readers.
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To make matters worse, the harvests of knowledge and memories she’s gathered from the dead aren’t adequate to fully understand her assumed role—unless she surrenders control to the one internal voice she thinks can make things right. But that harvest isn’t willing to share the space in her head, and soon Alira is no longer sure which voice is his, and which is her own.
Galen has vowed to help Alira succeed and follows her increasingly unbalanced directives, until he realizes that her harvests have corrupted her conscience, maybe even her sanity. Galen has never been a leader. But as the crisis screams toward them, he must make a choice: abandon their people to save Alira or sacrifice her to save them all.
