An interesting sci-fi experiment from John C. Wright

My wife and I met fellow authors John C. Wright and his wife, L. Jagi Lamplighter, at LibertyCon last year.  They're a delightful couple, and it was a pleasure to get to know them.  I've also reviewed one of John's books here before.

Now John's trying something new.

An internet magazine hired me to write an old-fashioned space opera in the mood and flavor of ‘World Wrecker’ Hamilton to run in fifty or so weekly episodes of two-thousand word each.

However, the magazine folded and returned the rights to me. It is my wish to bring it to my fan (Hi, Nate!) directly.

The title is SUPERLUMINARY.

The plot is this: The sole survivor of an illfated expedition to Pluto finds the Infinithedron, a library of supertechnology from the alien race that created life on earth and guided evolution to produce mankind.

He returns to earth only to discover world war has decimated civilization. Rather than sharing the secrets, he uses them to conquer mankind, impose peace and order, but also abolishing aging, disease, famine.

Lord Tellus (as he calls himself) imprints each of his children with a different branch of the alien science, but the whole of it is taught to none. These Lords of Creation (as they call themselves) are commanded to create life on each of the worlds and moons of the solar system. Scores of artificial intelligent races are fashioned, who adore the children as godlike. The secret of faster than light drive Lord Tellus keeps to himself: mankind he keeps in the solar system. But what is his reason?

He goes mad, and his children rise up in rebellion, and he vanishes, leaving behind mysteries and guesses.

Aeneas Tell, son of Lady Venus, youngest of the imperial family, dreams of overthrowing the his family in favor of a republic, but when he introduces a rebel into the imperial palace for a coup, he is betrayed, and barely escapes with his life, and flees to Pluto.

Here Aeneas discovers the horrific secret his grandfather was hiding, and an ancient evil that sleeps beneath the eternal ice. Aeneas finds himself snared in a labyrinth of intrigue, striving somehow to convince his Machiavellian family to cooperate against a mutual foe none of them credit.

Read the first episode here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/superluminary-01-5489523

There's more at John's Patreon page.

The idea behind Patreon is that subscribers pay the artist/author/whatever a monthly amount in return for free access to their work.  In John's case, he's asking for a paltry $1 per month.  That's a bargain in anyone's language, although if you're feeling generous, a larger pledge is always an option.  He'll publish one episode of Superluminary every week for a year, hoping that he can make enough money from interested readers to make it worth his while.  (At the time of writing, 34 patrons have pledged a total of $155 per month.  I'll be joining their ranks shortly.)

I think it's a great idea.  If you like classic, well-written science fiction tales that carry a moral and make you think, they don't come much better than John's.  Recommended.

Peter