The Brain and Mind discussion

The eom Expression: Beautiful Chaos - A Satirical Science Fiction Adventure


Jeron Hayden yearns to explore and discover strange new worlds, but he’s just a shuttle pilot for hire.

Diverted by Enforcers, Jeron ends up on the wrong side of a dumpy orbital community over Saturn. He’s given a book he’s not supposed to have, granting him access to the rebellious tech black market.

Jeron becomes a smuggler, working with an illegal sentient AI.

Enforcers never stop enforcing, so Jeron and thousands of other rebels set out for Rieva, a beautiful world of endless potential. There, they form a new civilization based on freedom. Beer flows freely, and life is good.

The Enforcers have a mandate to stop the tech revolution underway on Rieva and an unlimited budget. War is the only possible outcome of such mandates.

With planet-ending weapons in play, monumental distractions can lead to mass death. The echoverse—a realm of entangled thoughts, emotions, and ideas, is a monumental distraction for Jeron.

Eom, an alien philosophy, holds the potential to reshape Jeron’s mind, allowing him to navigate the echoverse and possibly end the war. His guide to eom is a beautiful alien woman named Calira.

Your guide to eom is a sentient AI entity with no name. He was born amidst war. Along the way, he figured out how to get free beer, which would have been nice if he could drink it, so he’s got that going for him.

"The eom Expression" is a satirical science fiction adventure about the nature of existence, the mind, and individuality. It explores finding joy even amidst the uncertainty of a technological singularity. Enjoy the journey!

That sounds intriguing. I generally don't enjoy space salvage / pirate / rebel sorts of stories much, but your description hooks my attention. You are right that the cognitive, existential, and personal navigation of complexity make this novel attractive. Thanks!

Hi Mark, The entire story revolves around cognition, ideation, memory and imagination. The echoverse concept was my way of exploring these ideas. I was inspired by The book “On Intelligence” by Jeff Hawkins, as well as Ray Kurzweil’s “The Singularity is Near.” There are three types of minds explored, human, alien, and sentient AI. The book isn’t entirely about the mind, but much of what occurs in the book involves the echoverse, though that aspect only fully comes into play in the second half. The narrator himself emerged into the echoverse as a sentient virtual mind. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

PS. There are rebels, but for most part, they are just trying to get through life. Its not heavy on plotting to take down the empire or piracy, but rather just avoiding enough BS so as to enjoy a few beers in peace.

Thanks for the follow-up. I'm curious about the length. Many sources of advice for fiction writers advise against sci-fi novels exceeding about 150K words (though we know some commercially successful novelists routinely surpass this – Neal Stephenson, Kim Stanley Robinson, etc.; and we know many sci-fi writers break a longer novel up into several partial novels, none of which is independently a complete story). I'm curious about your decision to keep your 1,250-ish-page novel as one volume. That would be long even for epic fantasy. I'm asking as an aspiring sci-fi writer. Did you weigh options for how to package the story (one vs multiple volumes)? If yes, what were your decision factors and criteria?

My WIP has enough going on conceptually to reach 1,000 pages or more. My initial thinking is to structure it as at least three novels, and I wold want each to be enjoyable and understandable by itself. Part of my thinking relates to the prevailing opinion that building a backlist is necessary for the long-term earnings of independent authors.

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

What is your series about? When is it going to be available?

It was originally going to be 2 separate books, but it works better as one due to the way the character’s minds entangle in the quantum realm of the echoverse.

Personally, I always loved long science fiction books. Peter F Hamilton wrote multi-book series that I would just rip through as fast as possible. I understand that many people might shy away from a long read, but in the science fiction and fantasy genre, I feel that there are plenty of readers who can sit down to read a long story. Lord of The Rings is one obvious example as is Game of Thrones.

Much of the fun of these types of stories is in the characters and worlds they inhabit. People want to be sucked into the fantasy.

There is an aspect of this story that involves rule breakers. The characters in some way represent the “unruly particle” mentioned in the creation story on the first page. I felt the need to break some writing rules to keep with the spirit of the story.

That said, the length prohibits it from being printed in paperback format, or probably any other format. Its 2 books for the price of one though, so hopefully that helps people get over their book length anxiety.

To answer your questions more directly, I gave almost no thought about length. I had an idea and wanted to explore it completely. It will be a series though, because I enjoyed writing this story and I plan on exploring that form of joy indefinitely.

Last thought on length. Editing was a chore. I would highly recommend using Scrivner, or something similar as it helps organize everything from characters and settings to chapters and scenes. This made editing much easier because I could keep notes in each scene folder so I wouldn’t have to scroll through a huge document for a simple continuity reference.

Bravo for ensuring you enjoy your writing.

I use Scrivener and am learning to use Aeon Timeline, which I’m sure will help me keep the elements of my story (and story universe) straight. AT integrates with Scrivener and Ulysses.

I'll have to look into Aeon. My timeline wasn't very complicated, but there was enough going on to be a challenge to manage at times.

David wrote: "What is your series about? When is it going to be available?"

It's about a neuroprosthesis inventor who believes she knows how to realize mind cloning but has suppressed that knowledge because she feels the dark side of evolved human nature would be amplified too much with virtual immortality. She's been looking for a way to temper those undesirable evolved traits through neural augmentation, but doesn't feel she's gotten far enough along to make mind cloning safe. Then an engineered pandemic (I came up with this before COVID) slams her family, forcing her to revive her R&D as a possible way to save her daughter. There's a lot of other sci-tech and geopolitical elements, but that's the gist.

Not sure when it will be available. I'm a ponderous writer. I've rebooted it twice. About 250K words under the bridge.

Rebooting is my specialty. Lol. This sounds very interesting. Let me know when it is available.

Mark wrote: "David wrote: "What is your series about? When is it going to be available?"

It's about a neuroprosthesis inventor who believes she knows how to realize mind cloning but has suppressed that knowled..."

Have you made any progress on this one? Let me know if you want any help.

I'm circling my novel concept like it's a dark continent that has repelled several expeditions but must be known. I'm learning about myself and getting closer to figuring out how my brain needs to approach this project. I've been studying narrative design frameworks and keeping a quill in the ink by writing short stories. I've also been digesting bits of guidance on adjacent skillsets like author platform, publishing alternatives, personal essays, and—of course—writing craft. Thanks for your offer of aid. I may reach out for a beta reader when I have a clean manuscript.