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Patchworld Nova
When the province of Nova Scotia is abducted from the face of the Earth, humanity finds itself shuffled among new intergalactic neighbors in a vast patchwork landscape. A disgraced explorer must face their own past and cross a teeming wilderness of stolen alien worlds in order to save his home.
Strange dangers and surprising revelations abound as humanity struggles to find its place - and survive - in the great quilt of the cosmos.
Strange dangers and surprising revelations abound as humanity struggles to find its place - and survive - in the great quilt of the cosmos.
334 pages, Paperback
Published September 7, 2024
3 people want to read
About the author
Jude Mire
13 books10 followersHi, I'm Jude Mire, an author from big 'ol Chicago who moved to a tiny town by the ocean in Nova Scotia! I love writing horror, science fiction, fantasy, and weird fiction. I've written an awesome super-hero series for Griot Enterprises, have been published in several online magazines, was a two time DeathScribe Radio Play finalist, and ran a live horror reading series called Cult Fiction in a swanky bar. Spooky!
Across genres, my work has an emphasis on exploring the atypical, expanding diversity, and creating relevant visions. If those are ideas you can get behind then, by all means, please become a patron!
Across genres, my work has an emphasis on exploring the atypical, expanding diversity, and creating relevant visions. If those are ideas you can get behind then, by all means, please become a patron!
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 28, 2025
This story reminiscent of Valerian, City of a Thousand Planets (the book, [a rare instance of movie preceding book] which I liked, never watched the movie). The reader is treated to an adventure through a bunch of alien environments, but that’s pretty much where the similarity ends. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it’s got interesting characters that have dimension and consistency; it’s got vivid descriptions of bizarre alien environments and creatures; and a steady driving plot that never gets forgotten along the way. I could picture every aspect of the book, it is very well written.
You follow characters along an arduous journey and you really feel the dragging nature of this quest. It’s written so well that when the characters find a place of respite about halfway, I was just as suspicious as they were and then found myself relieved. The way it’s written pulled me in so much, the respite felt like a breath — a calm in the storm, yet I wanted to dive right back into the fray.
As I’ve previously noted, I am a sucker for creatures and environments, so this book was right up my alley. There are nearly dozens of fascinating and well described environments, not to mention fitting inhabitants and creatures — I loved it. I tried to come up with some kind of feedback or something I didn’t care for, but I got nothing. Seriously good work here, if you like scifi — definitely read this one.
You follow characters along an arduous journey and you really feel the dragging nature of this quest. It’s written so well that when the characters find a place of respite about halfway, I was just as suspicious as they were and then found myself relieved. The way it’s written pulled me in so much, the respite felt like a breath — a calm in the storm, yet I wanted to dive right back into the fray.
As I’ve previously noted, I am a sucker for creatures and environments, so this book was right up my alley. There are nearly dozens of fascinating and well described environments, not to mention fitting inhabitants and creatures — I loved it. I tried to come up with some kind of feedback or something I didn’t care for, but I got nothing. Seriously good work here, if you like scifi — definitely read this one.
October 22, 2025
𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒃𝒚 𝑾𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑵𝒐𝒘! 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑱𝒐𝒏 𝑻𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒆.
Nova Scotia’s most famous UFO sighting came in Shag Harbour in October 1967. Locals saw weird orange lights on an otherwise dark October night. The lights dove toward the water, scuffing along the surface, leaving a yellow wake. They haven’t been seen since.
Jude Mire doesn’t specify that his aliens are our friends from Shag Harbour, but I decided to think they were. And they have returned.
Instead of abducting a random person off a lonely highway, these aliens decide to abduct Nova Scotia. All of it.
Patchworld Nova opens on the 103, near Yarmouth, where our hero Troop was born. “The world saw the spaceship coming years before it arrived. It was enormous. A flat disc of a thing, four times wider than the moon,” Mire explains. “The math had it tearing through the solar system like a speedboat, rearranging everything in its wake. A terrible, world-ending cosmic speedboat. Everyone panicked.”
And then Nova Scotia was surrounded by huge pillars of light, extending from the soil to space. The massive space ship, which they call the Dyson Platter, slices Nova Scotia right out of the planet and sets in on a mysterious craft heading far from Earth, purpose unknown.
Troop was born when all of this happens, right on the 103. “What remained of the province, transported to the alien vessel, was roughly 37,000 kilometres. Supposedly, Earth was something like 500 million square kilometres.” Troop can’t quite believe Nova Scotia was once the small part of anything.
The novel gets through this in a brisk preamble and then the main adventure takes place on space Nova Scotia a few decades later.
We meet what may be the first Mi’kmaq in space, as they handle the change better than anyone and soon have an independent community known as the Abidance up and running. In a repeat of early settler history, when the first Europeans relied on Mi’kmaq kindness and craft to survive the early 1600s, the space Scotians are soon seeking help from the Mi’kmaq.
Suddenly, the boss aliens abandon the Dyson Platter and the Nova Scotians discover that the platter has hundreds of slices of stolen worlds. They must reach the Spire in the centre to avoid disaster. The rest of the book unfolds like Dungeon Crawler Carl, or Ready Player One, taking on a video-game level of fun as the Nova Scotians sprint through slices of world and battle an array of aliens.
Mire’s imagination runs wild here, with some aliens looking like mobile oil spills, others so tiny they colonize someone’s ear, and one nasty fog-like beast that is ravenous to eat the entire platter.
Troops and the others realize that the fate of their platter world now depends on what happens to space Nova Scotia.
I met the author, Jude Mire, at HalCon in 2024, where he personally sold me this book. He wrote it, he edited it, and he published it. All so you can have fun for a few hours, and never look at Nova Scotia the same way again.
I’ve always loved historical fiction, or local literary fiction, for the long-lasting ties it makes to the landscape I see every day. I hadn’t realized that you could do the same thing with speculative fiction.
Nova Scotia’s most famous UFO sighting came in Shag Harbour in October 1967. Locals saw weird orange lights on an otherwise dark October night. The lights dove toward the water, scuffing along the surface, leaving a yellow wake. They haven’t been seen since.
Jude Mire doesn’t specify that his aliens are our friends from Shag Harbour, but I decided to think they were. And they have returned.
Instead of abducting a random person off a lonely highway, these aliens decide to abduct Nova Scotia. All of it.
Patchworld Nova opens on the 103, near Yarmouth, where our hero Troop was born. “The world saw the spaceship coming years before it arrived. It was enormous. A flat disc of a thing, four times wider than the moon,” Mire explains. “The math had it tearing through the solar system like a speedboat, rearranging everything in its wake. A terrible, world-ending cosmic speedboat. Everyone panicked.”
And then Nova Scotia was surrounded by huge pillars of light, extending from the soil to space. The massive space ship, which they call the Dyson Platter, slices Nova Scotia right out of the planet and sets in on a mysterious craft heading far from Earth, purpose unknown.
Troop was born when all of this happens, right on the 103. “What remained of the province, transported to the alien vessel, was roughly 37,000 kilometres. Supposedly, Earth was something like 500 million square kilometres.” Troop can’t quite believe Nova Scotia was once the small part of anything.
The novel gets through this in a brisk preamble and then the main adventure takes place on space Nova Scotia a few decades later.
We meet what may be the first Mi’kmaq in space, as they handle the change better than anyone and soon have an independent community known as the Abidance up and running. In a repeat of early settler history, when the first Europeans relied on Mi’kmaq kindness and craft to survive the early 1600s, the space Scotians are soon seeking help from the Mi’kmaq.
Suddenly, the boss aliens abandon the Dyson Platter and the Nova Scotians discover that the platter has hundreds of slices of stolen worlds. They must reach the Spire in the centre to avoid disaster. The rest of the book unfolds like Dungeon Crawler Carl, or Ready Player One, taking on a video-game level of fun as the Nova Scotians sprint through slices of world and battle an array of aliens.
Mire’s imagination runs wild here, with some aliens looking like mobile oil spills, others so tiny they colonize someone’s ear, and one nasty fog-like beast that is ravenous to eat the entire platter.
Troops and the others realize that the fate of their platter world now depends on what happens to space Nova Scotia.
I met the author, Jude Mire, at HalCon in 2024, where he personally sold me this book. He wrote it, he edited it, and he published it. All so you can have fun for a few hours, and never look at Nova Scotia the same way again.
I’ve always loved historical fiction, or local literary fiction, for the long-lasting ties it makes to the landscape I see every day. I hadn’t realized that you could do the same thing with speculative fiction.
August 30, 2025
Imagine a highly-developed civilization roaming the galaxy, gathering pieces of different planets and "patching" them together on a massive plain, there to be nurtured and watched over, possibly as a rescue. Then, imagine that these keepers abandon this world they have cobbled together. Finally, imagine what might happen if one of these patches begins to invade and consume its neighbours. It is like a massive pet rescue gone very, very bad.
Troop was born as Nova Scotia was abducted into this patchworld, and because the civilizations forming this world are barricaded from one another, he has never been able to leave. Now, their overseers have departed and one patch is invading and literally consuming the occupants of other patches. Troop has attempted to breach the barricade before, and spent time in jail as a result. In the present crisis, he is called upon to find a way to the central control zone to resolve the crisis. A high task.
What follows is the most incredible world building, for author Jude Mire has crafted many, many worlds, with various forms of communication, each world with a unique culture, geography, and environment. Troop and his friends weave their way through the worlds, with close calls, abrupt dangers, and help from unexpected sources. It is like The Odyssey to the power of ten. And yet, it all makes sense. Nothing vague. It is clear, concise, and quite marvelous, a tale filled with suspense, heroic moments, and wit.
As I read an early edition, I read for content only. I am delighted to recommend this book for the sheer wonder of the story, one that will stay with me for a long time. And I loved the fact that although the story is complete in itself, there is a door left open that allows further exploration of Troop's worlds. An added bonus.
Troop was born as Nova Scotia was abducted into this patchworld, and because the civilizations forming this world are barricaded from one another, he has never been able to leave. Now, their overseers have departed and one patch is invading and literally consuming the occupants of other patches. Troop has attempted to breach the barricade before, and spent time in jail as a result. In the present crisis, he is called upon to find a way to the central control zone to resolve the crisis. A high task.
What follows is the most incredible world building, for author Jude Mire has crafted many, many worlds, with various forms of communication, each world with a unique culture, geography, and environment. Troop and his friends weave their way through the worlds, with close calls, abrupt dangers, and help from unexpected sources. It is like The Odyssey to the power of ten. And yet, it all makes sense. Nothing vague. It is clear, concise, and quite marvelous, a tale filled with suspense, heroic moments, and wit.
As I read an early edition, I read for content only. I am delighted to recommend this book for the sheer wonder of the story, one that will stay with me for a long time. And I loved the fact that although the story is complete in itself, there is a door left open that allows further exploration of Troop's worlds. An added bonus.
October 25, 2024
I was sold at ‘Nova Scotia gets abducted by aliens.’ But of course, Jude can’t do anything half-assed, and it’s not just that the people get abducted. The literal province gets sucked up from the earth and stuck on a puzzle-piece quilt of different worlds on a dyson plate moving through space.
I was blown away by the sheer depth of the worldbuilding. At first glance, this book seemed like a sandbox episode. But it was clear early on that I was going to get some cool creatures and alien worlds. The creativity in some of these species knows no bounds, and each of them has their own way of communicating and surviving in their own patch.
All of these species have had to adapt to life on the plate, but of course to spring the story forward, something’s gone wrong. Not only have resources stopped coming from the mysterious overlords, there are terrifying aliens breaking through the once-impenetrable walls and completely eviscerating entire species.
When you strip Patchworld Nova down to its bones, it’s a hero’s journey. Troop is a flawed character with a mommy issues and a tough past that he has to face and overcome in order to save the day. It’s a tale that’s been told in many ways. But never quite in this way. Every single page, every single interaction, every single leg of the journey had me salivating over what was going to happen next.
Jude’s wheelhouse might be horror, but this is some damn good science fiction. There are some visceral elements and some weird elements, which still make it feel like a Jude Mire book. But even newcomers to his work that enjoy good science fiction to sink their teeth into will love this.
I received an Advanced Review Copy of this book and am leaving this review voluntarily.
I was blown away by the sheer depth of the worldbuilding. At first glance, this book seemed like a sandbox episode. But it was clear early on that I was going to get some cool creatures and alien worlds. The creativity in some of these species knows no bounds, and each of them has their own way of communicating and surviving in their own patch.
All of these species have had to adapt to life on the plate, but of course to spring the story forward, something’s gone wrong. Not only have resources stopped coming from the mysterious overlords, there are terrifying aliens breaking through the once-impenetrable walls and completely eviscerating entire species.
When you strip Patchworld Nova down to its bones, it’s a hero’s journey. Troop is a flawed character with a mommy issues and a tough past that he has to face and overcome in order to save the day. It’s a tale that’s been told in many ways. But never quite in this way. Every single page, every single interaction, every single leg of the journey had me salivating over what was going to happen next.
Jude’s wheelhouse might be horror, but this is some damn good science fiction. There are some visceral elements and some weird elements, which still make it feel like a Jude Mire book. But even newcomers to his work that enjoy good science fiction to sink their teeth into will love this.
I received an Advanced Review Copy of this book and am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews