Progress update on The Akasha Frontier
The Akasha Frontier (Book One of Splinters), is a science fantasy novel that I have been working on and off on for the past decade or so. It is inspired by Maumoon’s dictatorship, as well as the ravaging effects that climate change may have on our planet in the near future. It originally began as a short story, that slowly evolved into an entire universe. I began serious work on it in 2017, and I’m currently at a little over 30k words, so there is still a long way to go. Most of the time so far has been spent world building. However I’m pretty happy that I’ve managed to create a coherent narrative so far, and my characters and settings feel real to me in my mind. Now that the initial grind is over, writing is fun and I’m making good progress each day. Spending more time on this novel has been great for me as it has allowed me to write about my experiences in a totally different setting that is more detached from the madness of contemporary Maldives. Also a huge shoutout to the team behind Scrivener, an amazing piece of software that my disorganised mind would be totally lost without.
I currently do not want to share too much, but here are the opening pages to give you a taste of what it will be like.
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2042 - Colonisation of Mars begins.
2065 - Climate change wreaks havoc on Earth. Crops begin to die out. Some areas start to become uninhabitable due to extreme temperatures.
2066 - The UN is disbanded. The most powerful nations join forces to create The League of Nations. Poorer nations are barred from joining, and as a result they slowly disappear.
2067 - The League assumes complete control over all academic and scientific institutions. Independent academic research is outlawed. Deemed outdated and dangerous, all printed media is burned. League controlled Artificial Intelligences automatically censor any scientific or educational materials on electronic media.
2068 - Colonies are fully established on Mars. The capital, Utopia, declares itself an independent nation. Free of League Control, they rapidly become the centre of commerce for the Sol System.
2070 - Exoplanetary mining starts on Mercury.
2073 - Political turmoil and unrest caused by the assassination of their leader results in Utopia falling back under control of the League.
2075 - [R E D A C T E D] is discovered on Mercury that when combined with [R E D A C T E D] on Mars can create an alloy that is impervious to heat.
2080 - The alloy revolutionises many industries, the most notable amongst them being space travel. Ships and probes are coated with a thin layer of the alloy which makes them invincible against heat and radiation.
2082 - Umbrella cities, enclosed constructions which are resistant to increasingly violent weather patterns, are established at Earth’s major metropolitan centres.
2084 - Scientific probes sent into the centre of the sun by the [R E D A C T E D] disappear mysteriously.
2085 - Earth experiences its first major global firestorm. All populations that lived outside of the umbrella cities are completely wiped out. Earth is a husk of its former self. A blue planet no more, what remains of the oceans are small lakes of acid where only the hardiest of microorganisms survive. Forests and other biomes are non-existent.
2086 - It was discovered that the probes were emerging in the [R E D A C T E D]. It was decided that this information must remain secret from the general public at all costs.
2088 - The League of Nations unveils the discovery of two new habitable planets; a new frontier, one that will serve as a solution to the food and resource crisis. They call the system the Akasha Frontier.
2090 - The first colonists depart for Iris and Atlantis on titanic drone ships.
2096 - Atlantis becomes the major supplier of Earths water; massive pumps begin to bleed the ocean planet dry. Scattered farming colonies are established on their borders. Some farmers escape the official zones to create their own breakaway villages. The League allows them to live in peace as they do not perceive the farmers, who are completely deprived of modern technology, as a threat to their operations. Meanwhile, Iris is home to several tightly regulated plantations that grow luxury organic produce. It is also home to the mega-trawler; a gigantic floating city that cruises the waters, indiscriminately capturing whatever marine resources it happens to come across. On Iris, deserters are treated much less kindly and are shot on sight.
2142 - The present. 100 years since the colonisation of Mars began.
