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A World Called Ocean
Alis Dorican is an Observer - trained in the art of using the alien Ceti technology woven into her skull to record everything she sees and experiences through the medium of her senses. Her sister, another Observer, has disappeared while traveling on Ocean - a planet almost entirely lacking in landmasses. Technologically backward and lost to humanity for several centuries, Ocean has only recently been re-contacted, and its people, surviving on vast, organic ships and ruled by Fleets, are untrusting of outsiders.
Nonetheless, Alis must travel there if she has to have any hope of finding out the fate of her sister. And at the same time, she must follow up the clues found by a scientist who died there, centuries before - and who might just have uncovered the fate of the alien race responsible for creating the great interstellar gateways before mysteriously vanishing.
EXCERPT
“Get in.” Maquina motioned her inside and the guards piled her in, following her into the dank, smoky interior. From the outside, it was a little like the steam trucks back in Hope, but a lot smaller and lighter looking, made of Ocean’s precious metals. She could hear its boiler bubbling away somewhere beneath the passenger compartment.
She also hadn’t failed to notice it was sitting on rails. As soon as they were in, the truck driver released his brake and the vehicle started to pull away, slowly. She peered out of the open window and thought train was probably a better word. She realised Maquina was sitting above the carriage, in the open air with the driver. They were already starting to move quite fast.
And then they were airborne.
The rails rose above the surface of the first Ship they had crossed to, above the point where it abutted with its neighbour. The rails seemed to be supported by a spindly construction of planks, much too much like a roller coaster for her taste. She felt her stomach lurch as rooftops slid by a just a few metres below, the steam train cruising merrily along above the ‘Fall’s oblivious citizens.
She could see other elevated railways in the distance. The air was hazy with patchwork bridges and pulleys and ladders. Ships slid by below, blurring together into one homogenous mass the closer they got to the centre of Leviathan’s Fall.
Where Ships abutted each other, she saw the spaces between were almost entirely concealed by permanent-looking overpasses and bridges. She even saw small hang-gliders cutting through the air in the distance, and at least one powered flyer coming in to land on a long runway built across the entire length of one Ship close to the heart of Leviathan’s Fall. She recorded it all.
Nonetheless, Alis must travel there if she has to have any hope of finding out the fate of her sister. And at the same time, she must follow up the clues found by a scientist who died there, centuries before - and who might just have uncovered the fate of the alien race responsible for creating the great interstellar gateways before mysteriously vanishing.
EXCERPT
“Get in.” Maquina motioned her inside and the guards piled her in, following her into the dank, smoky interior. From the outside, it was a little like the steam trucks back in Hope, but a lot smaller and lighter looking, made of Ocean’s precious metals. She could hear its boiler bubbling away somewhere beneath the passenger compartment.
She also hadn’t failed to notice it was sitting on rails. As soon as they were in, the truck driver released his brake and the vehicle started to pull away, slowly. She peered out of the open window and thought train was probably a better word. She realised Maquina was sitting above the carriage, in the open air with the driver. They were already starting to move quite fast.
And then they were airborne.
The rails rose above the surface of the first Ship they had crossed to, above the point where it abutted with its neighbour. The rails seemed to be supported by a spindly construction of planks, much too much like a roller coaster for her taste. She felt her stomach lurch as rooftops slid by a just a few metres below, the steam train cruising merrily along above the ‘Fall’s oblivious citizens.
She could see other elevated railways in the distance. The air was hazy with patchwork bridges and pulleys and ladders. Ships slid by below, blurring together into one homogenous mass the closer they got to the centre of Leviathan’s Fall.
Where Ships abutted each other, she saw the spaces between were almost entirely concealed by permanent-looking overpasses and bridges. She even saw small hang-gliders cutting through the air in the distance, and at least one powered flyer coming in to land on a long runway built across the entire length of one Ship close to the heart of Leviathan’s Fall. She recorded it all.
390 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 1, 2020
5 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 28, 2021
Simple plot with predictable yet contrived turns. Disappointed, there was potential in this idea.
Displaying 1 of 1 review