Science Fiction
BLURB:
Above a horrified New York City, genetics and ethics collide as
the fallen emperor and a banished exile of the same herculean race ignite into
battle over the city’s rooftops. In the streets below, a brilliant young
scientist has discovered a technology that can defeat them both, yet might be
more terrible than either.
Set both in modern New York City and in the technologically
sophisticated yet politically savage world of Anthem, Anthem’s Fall unfurls
into a plot where larger than life characters born with the prowess of gods are
pitted against the shrewd brilliance of a familiar and unlikely heroine.
Guest Post:
Creating the World for Anthem's Fall by S.L. Dunn
Anthem’s Fall is my debut novel, and the first
book in a new series. It’s a genre-bending story, with some aspects of science
fiction and others of fantasy. The novel introduces readers to the barbaric
world of Anthem, along with the mysterious technology that comes to unite
Anthem and our world. It is scheduled for publication on July 31, 2014.
Above a horrified New York City, genetics and
ethics collide as the fallen emperor and a banished exile of the same herculean
race ignite into battle over the city’s rooftops. In the streets below, a
brilliant young scientist has discovered a technology that can defeat them
both, yet might be more terrible than either. Set both in modern New York City and in the
technologically sophisticated yet politically savage world of Anthem, Anthem’s
Fall unfurls into a plot where larger than life characters born with the
prowess of gods are pitted against the shrewd brilliance of a familiar and
unlikely heroine.
It was enjoyable to
create two worlds in Anthem’s Fall,
but far more of my creative efforts went to Anthem than the recognizable
streets of New York. It was an amazing process to create a whole world,
complete with a history, ideologies, cities and a government. The tricky part
was then taking all of that created content and presenting it to the reader in
a way that didn’t detract from the plotline. Writing Anthem’s Fall was a constant balancing act between providing
essential back story, but at the same time keeping the plot moving forward.
Here is an Excerpt:
It had its certain
comforts and learned familiarities, but New York had never felt like home. The
initial novelty of Manhattan and all of its cultural and architectural grandeur
had long waned, and what she once regarded with wonder, she now felt only a
moldering cynicism. These days Kristen Jordan considered the soaring edifices
and crowding streets to be the material shape, the substance, behind the
insatiable and thoughtless ambition of the modern. Nudging her straw
against the melting ice cubes at the bottom of an empty vodka tonic, Kristen
looked about the shabbily decorated and dimly lit college bar. Glowing neon
beer signs and television screens hung on walls that enclosed a dozen booths
and tables. A distinct smell of stale beer and hot wings hung in the air, yet
the nearby conversations of fellow academics, exultant and self-assured,
ignored this atrophy.
Kristen studied
genetics at Columbia, and her brilliance was unrivaled. Sitting quietly and
gazing across the young faces of the bar, Kristen wondered if she stood out
among her outwardly preoccupied and self-satisfied peers, or if they too were
all carrying unspoken anchors of anxiety and doubt. On some level, though, she
knew her general restlessness was an unfortunate byproduct of her intellect,
and not an affliction shared by the masses.
From
across the table her fellow graduate student Steve Armstrong had started
rambling over the loud rock music, his hand clutching a perspiring glass of
beer. “My point is that there’s a difference between intelligence, or even
consciousness for that matter, and awareness.
They’re two entirely different phenomena that are always lumped into the same
category. Don’t you think?”
Kristen
Jordan groaned and rolled her eyes, which elicited a laugh out of another
graduate student sitting beside her, Cara Williams.
“I
don’t care, Steve,” Kristen said, her voice distracted and leaden. “I hardly
think it’s a topic worthy of lengthy discussion. There’s no way of knowing for
certain because that kind of technology doesn’t exist.”
“Are
you kidding me?” Steve gulped his beer and glared at her, his words faintly
slurred. The alcohol added a note of indignation to his tone. “You’re saying we
shouldn’t consider how a new technology will operate?”
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