Art by Pablo Defendini. Image: TobiasBuckell.com
Science fiction author and geek dad Tobias S. Buckell has a Kickstarter project going to fund a return to his Xenowealth universe.
I was introduced to Buckell’s novel Crystal Rain back in 2008 and was immediately drawn in by the unique and vivid settings and characters, which mix ancient Earth-inspired cultures and mythologies with alien races and high interplanetary stakes. Buckell further built on this universe in the mind-blowing sequel Ragamuffin and his twist on a space-zombie invasion, Sly Mongoose.
Buckell’s been plenty busy in other arenas –- he likes to play in near-future Earth spaces like the two Metatropolis books and his forthcoming Arctic Rising novel, and he also wrote the Halo tie-in The Cole Protocol – but outside of some short stories, he hasn’t revisited the Xenowealth setting on a grand scale.
But he wants to. So he’s put together a Kickstarter campaign running through October 19 to fund the writing and publishing of a fourth book in the series titled The Apocalypse Ocean. His explanatory video notes that there’s a sort of teaser to the novel in his 2009 Clarkesworld story “Placa del Fuego.”
So, let’s see: Humans. Aliens. Cyborgs. Wormholes. And possibly blimps.
Punch my ticket, please.
