Overview
A corporation, Alchemistica, sends a team to Gondwana, a planet covered with a thick jungle. The planet is perfect for pharmaceutical prospecting, full of exotic vegetation loaded with even stranger chemical compounds that may make Alchemistica rich or kill the prospecting team or both, it is all the same to their corporate bosses. The newest member of the team, biochemist Lani Callis, wants to impress the team's veterans on her first prospecting trip, but she must overcome her own limitations to do so. Alchemistica hired Lani on the strength of how well she did on a holographic video game, not on how well she relates to others. She must learn to communicate to survive, for, as the human team studies Gondwana, it becomes apparent that the planet is also studying humans and the two do not speak the same language.
Authors note: Message from Gondwana is a short novella set in the same universe as the Eichi Testaments, which although well in the future, still bears all too many similarities to the current humanverse, especially the pursuit of profit. Humanity has spread across a hundred worlds, united by the Second Galactic Empire, an authoritarian Church Universal, and the corporations or kartels. Message from Gondwana takes place some seventy years before the main story arc of the Eichi Testament series. Although categorized as hard science fiction, the science in Gondwana is less about physics and rayguns than it is biology and genetics—although a laser karbine does come in handy from time to time. The novella also shows the writing style of David Wiley, including a flawed, but strong female protagonist, plenty of sharp dialog, some romance (how can being stuck on a planet of lush jungles not be romantic—unless it is because that jungle wants to kill you?), and characters getting themselves out of sticky situations (usually) by their wits and not just with a bigger gun or through newly-discovered superpowers. Enjoy!
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940046069945 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | David Wiley |
| Publication date: | 07/27/2014 |
| Sold by: | Smashwords |
| Format: | eBook |
| Sales rank: | 565,827 |
| File size: | 283 KB |
About the Author
David Wiley is a pseudonym for Dave Felstul. By day I am a scientist who lives in Oregon. I was worried that people would have trouble remembering, spelling, or pronouncing my given name, so I decided to adopt the name of a childhood hero, Wile E. Coyote, for my pen name.
I wanted to be a writer from an early age. After being unduly influenced by the first Apollo mission with Armstrong and Aldrin walking on the moon in 1969, there was never any real choice as to my area of writing, science fiction. This was predictably followed by many early stories, lavishly illustrated with spaceships, deathrays, and aliens.
Some of us outgrow our dreams, others merely postpone them.
I did combine my love of science and writing in several technical journalism jobs—including for a computer magazine where I not so presciently proclaimed that "the new Microsoft Word and Microsoft mouse could do a few interesting things, but were not as good as existing products and would never work well together."
After realizing that my options in science journalism were limited, I stuck with the science half of the equation for many years. Only recently am I beginning to realize that deferred dream of spaceships, deathrays, and aliens. Although it is debatable whether the humor has improved since those early efforts, the science has hopefully done so.
My science background has certainly pushed me towards the hard science fiction genre, but I have a definite bent towards biology and not just physics. I want to explore what happens when future technology meets real life. How would a far-flung galactic civilization maintain a common culture or genetics? Will a raygun work in a downpour? Will we have holographic assistants like the doctor in Star Trek Voyager or will the holos be used for advertising shills instead? Unfortunately, I know which one my money and those of the corporations will likely be on.
I am exploring these ideas in books set in the Eichi Testaments Universe, Make No Martyrs, Message from Gondwana, and others as they make it through the review process.
To conclude, my hero, Wile E Coyote had a business card. If you think about it, the card is perfect for a science fiction writer. "Wile E. Coyote, Genius, Have Brain – Will Travel." Who knows where our imaginations can take us? Maybe one day Acme will even sell a rocket ship that works!