Burn the Sky

What is Burn the Sky?

  • Cold world in nuclear winter

    The world

    During the final days of the second age of Gian civilisation, the planet Jorth had become a wasteland, leaving the factions to fight over pockets of resources.

    Megloinium bombs have left the surface in a nuclear winter.

    Burn the Sky starts as the third age of Gian civilisation begins. It follows the lives of Jayne and a few others who fight for freedom or their own power in a world filled with desolation.

    The struggle for resourses begins.

  • struggles of life on Jorth

    The people

    Jayne Doe - at the age of seven, her life is turned upside-down, seeing her neighbourhood burn to the ground.

    Gaius Sempro - The father of the town Hope and Surprime, leader of the “free” world. His catch phrase is “What’s passed is past”, suggesting you can’t change what’s already happened.

    Sage Solon - The runner up contender for the position of Surprime of Hope

    Artimus Wyrm - Raised into the military world before the bombs, and can’t stop being miltary

    Elihus Kinton - Cult leader of female assassins

    Fafnir Mylaekar - Known to most as Commander. Former Commander of The Watchtower forging a new world with LunaTec.

  • Cities reclaimed by nature and cold

    Intrigue

    Set in this post-apocalyptic world, there are still those who wish to follow in the steps of those before.

    Murder throws the new world into chaos and a mob want to hang the primary candidate. He must clear his name before he can continue his work.

    While the pains of nuclear winter continue, Actors move in and twist the innocence of the Surprime, Elihus shuffles people around and LunaTec occupies the tunnels close to Hope.

    There is more happening in the background as generations move on between the two books.

Jaxson and Artimus outside of LunaTec

What’s passed is past

A portion of the story is told from Jayne’s point of view as she progresses through childhood and adolescence, allowing readers to understand her developing perspective. The first few chapters are written from the perspective of a seven-year-old girl. Her voice is in the first-person present tense, but don’t let that spoil it for you. You can read some reviews here or on Goodreads. The remaining chapters are written in the third-person past tense, narrating the story from the viewpoint of just a handful of people. Both books span a period of twelve cycles (years).

This mix of point of view and tense doesn’t leave the reader guessing who they are reading, and the Jayne chapters engage the reader in the life of this growing woman. Reviews on Goodreads have left both books with a 4.75 star rating.

The first-person chapters break from the typical style used in most other first-person books. Most authors overuse the “I” and “me” personal pronouns, choosing to write “I could see..” or “I could smell…” using the character to interact with the environment. In contrast, we wrote the other way, describing the environment and how the first person interacts with it. When writing, this gave the feeling description was vital to set up what was about to happen.

World-building in fantasy and science fiction is essential for the imagination. Too much is boring to read, and too little can leave the reader with white-wall syndrome. This leaves a fine line between the two.

a time machine

Time Travel consequences

What would you do if you could go back? Your good intentions might cause harm. If that invention you began making was supposed to be made by the real creators, and they would have helped homeless shelters with the profits, how would history change?

What if you couldn’t change anything?

There are a few different theories of time travel-

The paradoxical approach - What happens “could disrupt the space-time continuum and destroy the universe” (Zemeckis & Gale, 1985). Just the act of going back in time can change things.
Alternative timeline - “…the time continuum has been disrupted, creating this new temporal event sequence, resulting in this alternate reality” (Zemeckis & Gale, 1989). Anything you do in the past skews off into a new timeline and doesn’t affect the space-time continuum.
Self-consistency principle - time can’t be changed. There is never a first time you time travel or a last. According to the timeline, the act of time travel would always happen along with your actions.

This last one is where the Burn the Sky universe sits.

This image reminds me of ‘The Time Machine’ from the 1960 movie titled the same.

References-
Gale, B (Writer), Zemeckis, R (Director), Back to the Future II (1989, Nov 22). [Film]
Zemeckis & Gale (Writer), Zemeckis, R (Director), Back to the Future (1985, July 3). [Film]