Blurb

Initiate Le discovers a radical new philosophy, only to be drawn into a simmering social conflict about to boil over.

Le should be happy. He is about to graduate high school, his marks in math and science are beyond exemplary, and his boyfriend is a rising star within the Resurgence. But try as he might, Le can’t shake the feeling that his life is off the rails.

One evening, he stumbles upon Initiate Stok breaking into a zone, one of many dangerous, cordoned-off regions of the city. Against all reason, Le follows Stok inside, and what he discovers will change both him and the course of his entire civilization.

Equal parts love story, adventure, and social philosophy, Alterra is the story of three young men striving to reunite two societies that are, quite literally, universes apart.

Read if you are interested in…

• scientific versus religious ideological conflict
• discovering how a love story can morph seamlessly into a military SF adventure
• a relatively quick read

Inspiration

The inspiration here was my pushback against two groups: an acquaintance who admitted that he thought all religious people were some combination of delusional and stupid; acquaintances who believe in the ideology of the technological singularity. My interpretation of the existence of such obviously unhealthy ideologies is society’s compartmentalization of intellectual inquiry into the sciences exclusively. Alterra is about that.

It’s hard to cite a novel or author that inspired me here, as I don’t really see this theme expressed anywhere else. In terms of setting, it’s an extrapolation of Voyage Embarkation, albeit on two universes completely disconnected from ours.

Editions