Been very quiet for months because I was working…still am…on my science fiction books set in the open source world of the Paradisi Chronicles that I helped create. This week Under Two Moons, the second book in my Caelestis series has come out as a ebook, to be followed in mid September by the third book, Through Ddaera’s Touch. Both books will be available in print by the end of September.
In the early decades of the twenty-first century, the problems of climate change, epidemics, civil war, cyber terrorism, and nuclear proliferation have set Earth on a path of escalating disasters.
In the year 2025 AD, ten men and women come together to address these problems. These individuals each have enormous personal wealth that they made in a variety of commercial enterprises around the globe. What they have in common besides their great wealth is a deep pessimism about the future of Earth and an enormous optimism about space exploration as the only viable solution for the continuation of human kind. To that end, these men and women, who call themselves the Founders, begin the Paradisi Project.
The purpose of the Paradisi Project is the colonization of New Eden, a recently discovered planet in the Andromeda Galaxy that scientists deem capable of sustaining human life. The Paradisi Project harnesses the best minds on Earth to develop the scientific breakthroughs in intersteller travel and wormhole technology needed to transport the ten Founding Families to New Eden to establish a viable colony. Once there, their mission will be to ensure that this new colony doesn’t make the same mistakes that are destroying Earth.
Meanwhile, the Founders had left behind on Earth the SS Challenge, the 11th ship and the prototype for the rest of the Nautilus Fleet. The Reachers, employees of the Reach Corp, were promised passage on this ship if they retrofitted for the long journey to New Eden, and as a reward for their role building the space elevators, stations, and ships that made the Paradisi Project possible, but when the time comes for their journey to New Eden, they face nothing but betrayal.
By the fifth generation of settlement, New Eden isn’t quite the paradise the Founders hoped for and there are the beginnings of a movement to resist the ten Founding Families and the Council of Ten that governs the world.
Between Mountain and Sea (Caelestis Series Book 1) features Mabel Yu, one of the Founders who made the journey to New Eden, and her descendent, Mei Lin Yu, who, in 165 AA (After Arrival), comes to live at Mynyddamore, the ancestral home that Mabel Yu built in the first years of settlement as a place where Founders and Ddaerans, the natives that were already living on New Eden, could live in harmony. Here, Mei Lin discovers secrets about herself and her family’s past that will forever change her destiny.
Under Two Moons (Caelestis Series Book 2) is set in 167 AA, two years after the events of Between Mountain and Sea, and features Mei Lin Yu and her family and Ddaeran friends as they discover visitors from a distant past and a threat to Mynyddamore’s future.
Through Ddaera’s Touch (Caelestis Series Book 3) (Coming soon!) begins right after the conclusion of Under Two Moons, as Mei Lin works to forge an alliance between Ddaerans, New Eden citizens, and Reachers to resist their common enemies.
After you finish Between Mountain and Sea, Under Two Moons, and Through Ddaera’s Touch, I would suggest you read the short stories in Chronicle Worlds: Paradisi and the two series of novellas by Andy McKell and Cheri Lasota that detail the experiences of the Reachers on the SS Challenge. For the beginning of the story of a different Founding Family–the Kuttners, do check out The Stars are Red Tonight, a novella I have co-written with my daughter, Ashley.
Under Two Moons, a science fiction action adventure novel, is the sequel to Between Mountain and Sea and is the second book in Louisa Locke’s Caelestis series in the Paradisi Chronicles (an open source science fiction series created by multiple authors).
You are so amazingly productive, ML.