Four Pieces of Light
Gods, contrary to popular belief, are surprisingly messy when they die.
Four Pieces of Light
Book 1:
The Sun Keeper
In Varennes, the sun has vanished. As it turns out, someone has murdered the Sun Keeper, which is an impolite act at the best of times, and these are not the best of times. Julien, an immortal being, is tasked by the ruler of the realms with an errand: venture into the afterlife and gather what remains of the Sun Keeper’s soul.His search leads him to odd places and odder beings. He’s forced to engage in small talk with a ghost who can’t remember her name, dodge mildly apocalyptic artifacts of dubious usefulness, and confront gods with bad tempers and worse opinions. Along the way, Julien uncovers old griefs and fractured histories that stretch back to a time few remember clearly and forward into a future that seems to fray at the seams.At once witty and elegiac, Four Pieces of Light: The Sun Keeper is a fantasy of small silences and cosmic scope, complete with administrative afterlives and the occasional spectacular explosion.
Four Pieces of Light
Book 2:
An Archive of Necessary Myths
Alaric has named Julien the new Sun Keeper. This is, in the considered opinion of the people of Varennes, an unmitigated catastrophe.Julien thought his new job would involve celestial mechanics, not celestial politics. But before he can catalogue a flare or polish a sunbeam to proper brilliance, he must convince the people of Varennes that he isn’t a cosmic accident in the making.Accompanied (though not always helped) by Cassius, a man with a wound, a conscience, and a talent for being noble at all the wrong moments, Julien begins an increasingly inadvisable journey to peel back layers of light, of myth, and of his own teacher. Between fending off public outrage and deciphering cryptic paintings in a locked chamber, he finally comes to confront his place in a story long in motion: if he can see the contours of the world, must he carry the burden of shaping it?Wry and aching in equal measure, Four Pieces of Light: An Archive of Necessary Myths follows a trickster god as he orchestrates the fate of mortals and immortals alike, one improbable coincidence at a time.
Pale Blue Dot
Book 1:
The Experience
The machines didn’t kill mankind… They surpassed them.Humanity’s greatest creation, the sentients, were better in every way: ageless, brilliant, and, worst of all, capable of originality, art, and compassion. They created the island nation of Oberon for themselves, far from people. This left human society to bicker over their visions of the future and how much, if any, help to accept from the sentients.Daniel Everett, a government official in Newland—the closest trading partner with the sentient nation of Oberon—finds himself on the bridge between these colliding visions. Born in Newland’s bitter rival Luminia and close friend to Jin, a sentient, Daniel is in a unique position to observe and influence as nations struggle to define and advance their relationships.With sharp wit, poignancy, and humor, Pale Blue Dot: The Experience explores the perils and possibilities that emerge when our inventions eclipse their inventors—and the universal search for meaning in spaces within and beyond ourselves.
Pale Blue Dot
Book 2:
The People
What does it mean to remake a world you can barely comprehend?
Whose flaws and dreams should shape this murky future?In the series’ second installment, societies have crystallized into factions with widely differing levels of technology, standards of living, and visions for the future. There exists a utopia of machines, impossibly sophisticated and autonomous; a high-tech society of their closest human allies; a grittier, more belligerent nation suspicious and envious of both; and other lands where the shine of modernity either never reached or has gently faded over time. In these fragments of possibility, the people share a disenchantment with their lots, their neighbors, and their lives. They seek significance in a world that demands—but rarely reveals—truth.With heart and wisdom, Pale Blue Dot: The People continues to trace the hidden currents and fateful encounters of individuals standing at the borders between communities, ways of life, and even entire worlds.
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Author's Bio
H. V. Alyx was born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and now lives in Montreal, Canada.When she is not writing, she spends most of her time reading and traveling working full-time to pay her bills.The New York Times and the USA Today have not heard of her yet.