Hoshi and the Red City Circuit is set in the liminal universe. I call it the “liminal universe” after the first book I wrote about it, which may or may not ever see the light of day. Other stories, though, have seen the light of day, and here is the list so far if you want to play in the ‘verse:
Hoshi and the Red City Circuit is my novel from Argawarga/Autonomous Press. Due to their unique neurology, only the enslaved Operator caste can program the quantum computers that run 26th century Red City. When three of the caste are ritually murdered, it’s up to private investigator Hoshi Archer—herself a recently liberated Operator—to help the police solve the case. Things get complicated when one of the victims turns out to be Hoshi’s ex-girlfriend, and power-hungry bureaucrats and old rivals stir up new problems. An immortal, amoral alien may even be involved. To unwind the plot to take over the city, Hoshi must decipher a deadly computer program and learn to communicate with the alien, before it’s too late for the next victim—and the city. Paperback and ebook available from autpress.com; free ebook with paperback purchase! Also available in paperback and Kindle from amazon.com, from Powell’s City of Books, or ask at your local bookstore.
“Heat Seeking Entities” is a short story set about 30 years prior to Red City Circuit (around when Hoshi was born), and features a very young Caran Watts, who appears in passing in Hoshi in a bit of world history. That story is available in the Spoon Knife 3: Incursions anthology, from Autonomous Press. In the icy-dark of Ganymede’s slums two compromised thieves, both after the same prototype, shelter while law enforcement looks for them. As the troops invade their refuge, each must decide whether to betray for a better chance of individual success—or to risk an incursion into the other’s world and remain hidden. Order direct from Autonomous Press (free ebook with paperback), from Amazon, or ask your local bookstore to order it and carry it!
Pulped Free – I make a free web comic Pulped Free set in the liminal universe when I’m tired of words, and kind of at random. I’m still in “learner mode” with the medium–knowing how to draw and knowing how to write does not automatically make one know how to create graphic stories, heh. But it’s fun for me, and it’s there, and the web site has pages about world concepts that could be of interest by themselves. The comic occurs in the same time period as “Heat Seeking Entities” and, after some intro stuff and a bit more of Caran and his BFF Djen, follows a miserable band of space pirates on a space ship possessed by an unstable élan as they navigate damage and look for loot.
Resonance – Coming later, a new novel exploring the dynamics between hope and fear, set on Jupiter’s Galilean moons. This novel covers the events leading up to the world at the time of Hoshi.
Lastly, I joke (except it’s true, not a joke, sadly) that I make my own fan art. There are a number of random character drawings from the stories. Also, a little animation of the first few paragraphs from Red City Circuit.
