So I haven’t really mentioned it all that much this summer, mostly because things have been completely crazy between that nasty summer cold, an already-aggressive publishing schedule, and being invited to participate in more bundles than I ever expected. However, today (already for a few of you who read clear to the bottom of newsletters and such), the fifth Science Officer book comes out.

The Doomsday Vault is now available and pre-orders should have been delivered to your machines.

“It seemed like a legitimate heist when someone hired Storm Gauntlet and her crew to go hijack some cargo. Pirate ships did that sort of thing.

However, whoever hired them didn’t count on the Science Officer’s sneakiness. Paranoia. Whatever.

The situation didn’t make sense. No one would deliver cargo to a dead planet. It had to be a trap. Someone had set them up.

But who? And why?

The Doomsday Vault follows the adventures of Javier Aritza, Suvi, and the rest of the crew of Storm Gauntlet in a story with unexpected twists, as well as surprising consequences.”

This is also the beginning of a four volume arc that I call the “War of the Pirate Clans,” which will be the end of Season One.

I write these books like episodes of a British television show. (BBC, if you are listening, feel free to contact me about developing these characters for real. I have copious notes about Season Two already worked up. I just won’t get to them until Jessica is done.)

Interestingly, I have also set this story up as part of a much larger arc that I will write someday, involving Doyle Iwakuma, and thus, tying Alexandria Station more firmly into one grand whole.

I had a lot of fun with this story, and this arc. Unlike some authors I have read, I believe that all well-developed characters will evolve and grow over the course of a long series of books. That includes the villains as well as the heroes.

One of the key conflicts in the Javier Aritza books is with Djamila Sykora. The Dragoon is a hard woman, a warrior-monk in a male-dominated culture who will not take a gram of shit from people. I got to explore that here. I won’t spoil the rest of the series, but things will take several unexpected turns with that woman.

I also got to fill in more history of the universe. Javier’s time is rich with current events, but it is also the earliest set of stories that I have written in the Alexandria Station universe, so far. But The Doomsday Vault also takes place in the year 7550CE. Or, a little over five and a half millennia from now.  Five and a half millennia ago, Uruk was still a thing, in Sumeria, and the Egyptians were just starting down the road that would eventually lead to the pyramids.

And mind you, I have a spreadsheet entitled “The Future” where the first three line items are the birth of Yuri Gagarin, Chicago Pile 1, and Vostok 1, so you can imagine the sorts of notes I have about our future in that world. And I promise to get there, eventually.

But that takes time. Get Season One in your hands. Finish off Jessica’s story. Write other things. Circle back to Season Two and the long eras of the times until Javier is born in 7510CE.

I think you will enjoy this story. My readers to date have. And it sets up the sixth book, The Last Flagship, which I just sent to Fabulous Publisher Babe(tm) this week. It comes out in October.

At the same time, I am just about ready to send volumes 7 & 8 to the first readers shortly.

The Hammerfield Gambit

The Hammerfield Payoff

Those are most likely going to both come out together in December, because I intentionally did a cliff-hanger in 7. (Don’t all tv shows cliff-hangers season enders?)

I look forward to your thoughts and comments. Characters will evolve. Worlds will be upended. Things will go a direction you never saw coming. But it will be fun.

shade and sweet water

bd

West of the Mountains, WA