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EVERGENCE

 

"Denouement follows revelation follows shock follows universe-sized realisation ...  Most satisfactory."

(West Australian)

 

The first of several big-scale space opera series set against the backdrop of a human-dominated galaxy, Evergence begins with Morgan Roche attempting to complete a difficult mission for her masters in the Commonwealth of Empires and ends with her questioning the nature of her own existence as war grips the entire galaxy. 

 

The New York Review of SF described it as "space opera of the ambitious, galaxy-spanning sort" while Asimov's called it "genre-savvy and capably written, full of adventure and Asimovian imperial vistas...[w]ith echoes of vintage Jack Williamson and Poul Anderson, as well as Niven, Asimov and Vinge". 

 

Inspired equally by Blakes 7 and Star Wars, this series never aspires to be more than "a very satisfying classic Golden Age-style yarn" (Locus) but it does so in style.

 

 

The Prodigal Sun

 

(Sean Williams & Shane Dix)

 

In the far future, humanity has colonised the outermost reaches of the galaxy, and society has evolved into a variety of castes, from the godlike High to the barely sentient Low.  In between are the mundanes, both Pristine and Exotic.  Empires have risen and fallen, and the Dato Bloc has just seceded from the Commonwealth of Empires ...

 

ORBITAL AMBUSH

 

Morgan Roche is a commander in the intelligence arm of the Commonwealth of Empires.  Her mission is to escort the artificial intelligence unit known simply as "The Box" to her superiors.  But en route her ship is attacked by Dato Bloc raiders, forcing Roche to escape to the surface of the prison planet Sciacca's World with the help of Adoni Cane -- a genetically enhanced warrior whose past is a mystery even to him.

 

Marooned and hunted, Roche must protect the Box at all costs.  But what about Cane?  Who created him and why?  The answers may be the salvation of the human race -- or its damnation...

 

"The Prodigal Sun is a close-knit personal story told on a galaxy-sized canvas. Filled with action as well as intriguing ideas."  Kevin J Anderson

 

"George Lucas missed a sure bet when he chose to film his own Big-Dumb-Object-filled script for The Phantom Menace (1999) rather than open up his precious project to outside sources. He could have turned, for instance, to Sean Williams and Shane Dix, adapting their new space opera Evergence: The Prodigal Sun (...) into his beloved Star Wars mythos. He would have started with a book that is genre-savvy and capably written, full of adventure and Asimovian imperial vistas .... Dix and Williams ... deliver tons of action in straightforward, economical prose noted for its clarity. And they offer wide-screen baroque plotting never out of control ... With echoes of vintage Jack Williamson and Poul Anderson, as well as Niven, Asimov and Vinge, Williams and Dix proudly continue a vital tradition, proving SF as diverse a field as ever."  Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction

 

"[A] very satisfying classic Golden Age-style yarn. The novel is entertaining, enjoyable and sets the stage solidly for the forthcoming books in the series. ... strongly recommended ... "  Locus

 

" ... space opera of the ambitious, galaxy-spanning sort ... fast and furious action ...a good read."  New York Review of SF

 

The Dying Light 

 

(Sean Williams & Shane Dix)

 

Long before the Commonwealth of Empires, long before the Dato Bloc rebellion, the Sol Apotheosis Movement created a group of super-soldiers to spread their agenda throughout the galaxy.  But something went dreadfully wrong, and entire solar systems ceased to exist ...

 

THE ENHANCED WARRIOR

 

Morgan Roche had been an intelligence agent for the Commonwealth of Empires.  But she turned renegade to determine the truth about a man named Adoni Cane.  The answer -- that he was the last of the genetically enhanced warriors called the Sol Wunderkind -- shook the foundations of her world.

 

Now Roche is faced with an even more frightening fact: Cane may not be the last of his kind.  A star has vanished, leaving only a terrible emptiness in space.  Word spreads across the galaxy: The Sol Wunderkind have returned.

 

Roche finds herself at the centre of the coming conflict, as she struggles to penetrate the layers of deception surrounding the origins of the super-soldiers -- and the even deeper mystery concerning the artificial intelligence called "the Box" -- an entity that seems to have a sinister agenda of its own...

  

"This variety of New Space Opera, with its greatly increased possibilities for intrigue and (more important) for encounters with remnants of a long and little-understood past, is closer to the adventure pulps that ruled the magazine world when Doc Smith was just getting started. It recreates the pulpy world of exotic cities, lost wonders, and undiscovered countries that has powered everything from Talbot Mundy and A. Merritt to Leigh Brackett and Star Wars (there's that Saturday-matinee motif again) and that cyberspace cannot quite replicate. I'm not sure what an Evergence is, but finding out promises to provide hours of fun."  Locus

 

The Dark Imbalance

 

(Sean Williams & Shane Dix)

 

In the Sol System, Earth is no more.  But aboard the various starships and space stations orbiting the still-burning sun live the remnants of mankind -- unaware of the danger they're in from an army of genetically enhanced warriors determined to destroy all humanity ...

 

THE CHOSEN ONE       

 

Renegade intelligence agent Morgan Roche has been charged by the High Humans to protect mankind from the threat of the clone warriors.  Pursuing one such warrior into Sol System, she strives to learn the true identity of the enemy, and how to defeat them.

 

It is here, in the light of the star called Sol, that Morgan will learn the truth -- about the artificial intelligence known as the Box, about the man who calls himself Adoni Cane, about the High Humans ...

 

And about her destiny.

 

"Space opera, like its grand musical cousin, couldn't exist without duplicity, ambition, lust, stupidity, and greed, and by the time the fat lady sings, whole worlds can be laid waste - and, oddly enough, it's this recognition of pain and evil as the generating forces of adventure that make A Dark Imbalance so satisfying."   Locus

 

"Denouement follows revelation follows shock follows universe-sized realisation ...  Most satisfactory."  West Australian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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