Lost in a cyberpunk world

A few months ago I published my second full novel, Through Stranger Eyes. Through Stranger Eyes is the first instalment of a cyberpunk / futuristic dystopic world I’ve been working for some time now. I drew a lot of inspiration and was strongly influenced from movies and books like Altered Carbon, Blade Runner and others. The series name is Matriarchs – Silicon Gods.

Last year I also finished drafting book 2 of the same trilogy. The title is Through Silica’s Apex (provisional title) and I was working on plotting book 3. I’m happy to announce that I have not only finished plotting that third book but that I have also started drafting it. I’m actually 30,000 words in already.

This trilogy wasn’t an easy task for me. One reason is that it’s the first series I’ve ever attempted. The other is that each book is a separate story (with limited mention of things that have happened in previous books) however, when all three books are read in sequence, the reader gets a clear picture of what’s been happening behind the scenes from book 1. Another thing to note is that each book takes place years apart from the others. Book 2 for example (Through Silica’s Apex – provisional title) takes place 10 years after the events of Through Stranger Eyes and book 3 (Through Virulent Time – provisional title) takes place well over a century since the events in book 2. The main thing is that certain key players’ actions in Through Stranger Eyes affect the events and mindset of other characters throughout the world and consequently, the rest of the books. That’s also true for book 2 that will have a major impact on book 3 and the characters that populate it.

That means that each book has its own main characters, although in some cases (I won’t go into detail or spoilers here) some characters or their names appear in all three of them.

In the future (unsure when yet) I plan to expand on this cyberpunk universe and create more stories and maybe even full novels. The fact that each book has a rather big time gap between the others in the series provides me with great flexibility. Plus the fact that the things happening in these books happen at a global scale, so I think it’s safe to say that there’s room for more characters and stories.

If you have never read anything cyberpunk, anything like Altered Carbon or Neuromancer or have never watched Blade Runner, or if you have done all the above and are looking for something similar, Through Stranger Eyes is available on Amazon and is free for Kindle Unlimited users.

Worldbuilding

When the idea behind The Darkening formed and I visualised the story’s details, I thought it would be best to spend as much time on world building as possible. The basic rules of my post-apocalyptic world took shape at that stage, as well as the time frame for the main event. But a lot of the world and the problems it would create took shape as I started writing the story.

My main character lives away from the city, in an abandoned farm house, in its basement. If one could walk in broad daylight (not that it can happen, given the peculiarity of the world) and stood at the top of the house, a nearby city’s skyscrapers are the first thing that would catch the eye. I knew that from the start. I had a clear picture in my head about its appearance. All that remained in my head and none of it appears in the story. I had stories for a few of the residents as well. All these remain in my head and notes. Background story about the world.

Another thing I knew from the very start was that John would have only one prolonged memory, a tormenting one, and it would be of his family in another place. There was no reason to have him in a different place than the one he lives during the events of the novel, other than it just made sense, so I went along with my gut feeling, and I haven’t regretted it since.

However, John’s (my main character’s name) proximity to the city was a last minute addition as I wrote the first draft. I hadn’t thought about it at first, but then a question popped into my mind: what drove him there? If he survived, why leave his house, which had a basement, therefore shelter, to risk going somewhere else? Keep in mind that John has no memory of his past, aside from that one memory. He doesn’t know how he ended up there.

But I somehow had to come up with an answer, so I wouldn’t have readers going: “Hang on! If he had a basement in his home in the city, why is he now in another place?!” I’m doing my best to avoid questions like these, and that’s one of the things my brave beta readers will assist me with. Anyway, this led me to come up with a problem, in order the current state of my main character to appear as the solution to it. Kind of like reverse engineering. And the problem was, lack of food. Deprive a living being of either one of sustenance, water or safety and the environment becomes hostile for that organism. At least that’s what he has surmised so far. Ask yourselves this: should a catastrophic event was to take place, and pockets of survivors endured in the big cities, where would they get food from? Raiding half-demolished supermarkets is one thing, but how long would that last them? What would they do afterwards?

Based on that, I now have an even clearer picture of what the world looks after The Darkening. It no longer revolved around my main character and what happened to him, but at the back of my mind I have the idea of what is happening at the same time in that nearby city, and the rest of the world.

What do you think? What is the mental picture you get when someone tells you “post-apocalyptic world?” Do you think of a nuclear wasteland stretching for miles in every direction? Do you see a lash jungle with no humans because of a lethal toxin or a virus? Or perhaps a pockmarked planet from a meteor shower? What do you think the problems each event would create to the survivors, if any? WIll it be sustenance related or not? Let your imagination run wild and comment below of how you imagine something like that. Don’t be afraid to try a different approach. You might be surprised by the outcome and end up with killer shadows 😉