She did, just as she’d done for other strange visitors. This wasn’t her first encounter with crazy schemers, just one of the more credible ones. It didn’t matter whether she agreed with all the different agendas around here. What mattered was that people were free to try things, to squabble, and to see how far each of their ideas could go.
Tess waved goodbye to them and walked the decks of her home once more, watching people go by with countless ambitions. One of her rental robot birds flew overhead and she smiled; she’d already helped to shape the dreams that others followed.
“Well, back to work,” she said, and with Zephyr she returned to her lab to try making new things once more.
Those early years on Castor were the end of one tale, and the start of a thousand more.
Author’s Note
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This is a revision of my first novel, originally written in 2009. I’d been interested in the idea of floating island colonies since at least when I took introductory college classes on ocean engineering and made a little underwater camera housing. I’d wanted to devise a science fiction setting that was (1) near-future, (2) plausible and not reliant on freak chance events like asteroids or aliens, and (3) optimistic. So here’s a story where a group of people is able to get along tolerably well while doing Future Things.
I should talk a little about the Pilgrims. I wanted a group with bizarre religious ideas, so this bunch latched onto a historical figure and built a personality cult around him. The fictional group isn’t intended as a slight against people honoring the real Confederates. I shouldn’t need to bring this topic up at all; most readers will understand that an author doesn’t always agree with his characters. But in the years since this book was written, there’s been a disturbing trend toward censorship of dissent, to the point of people illegally tearing down statues and even physically attacking public speakers. I’ve started to feel the edge of this hurricane myself: In 2018, publisher FurPlanet retroactively erased a story of mine from a collection, months after publication, because it had offended somebody. So, I feel the need to speak out and to make it plain that I don’t endorse those who’d erase ideas they disagree with.
On to a happier subject. The colony of Castor shows up repeatedly in my later books, which makes this one loosely related to the Thousand Tales world. Among other changes, the seastead is now located in a different place. Despite the updates, the facts of this book still aren’t fully consistent with the Tales. Anyone keeping track should consider “Island” only semi-canon for that. (Tess seems not to age, for instance.) The year when this one takes place is deliberately vague but if taken together with Tales, it’d make the most sense around 2029.
The book that focuses most on Castor besides this is “Crafter’s Heart”, which is set almost entirely there and during 2038-9. This book owes its existence to “Freedom City” by Phil Geusz, a superior story which is set on a well-established colony. That colony’s founders include two characters that I kind of ripped off as the Pierponts. The Seasteading Institute (https://www.seasteading.org/) has more information about seasteading as a serious proposal. I don’t agree with everything they stand for, but they’ve thought about crucial problems like “how can this be made economically viable?”
About the Author
Kris Schnee has been a parrot trainer, an MIT graduate, a zoo intern, a lawyer, a game designer, and most recently a software developer. He lives in Florida.
Galleries:
http://www.amazon.com/Kris-Schnee/e/B00IY1HDDY/
(Amazon author page)
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The Crafter Series
Crafter’s Passion
Crafter’s Heart
The Thousand Tales Series
Thousand Tales: How We Won the Game
2040: Reconnection
The Digital Coyote
Thousand Tales: Extra Lives
Thousand Tales: Learning To Fly
Fairwind’s Fortune
Liberation Game
Also By Kris Schnee
Everyone’s Island
Striking the Root
Dragon Fate: Interactive Fiction
Perspective Flip
Mythic Transformations
Tales of Kitsune
Fateweaver’s Quest
Copyright
Copyright (c) 2013, 2018
Kris M. Schnee
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Tithi Luadthong, https://www.shutterstock.com/g/tithi+luadthong.
Thanks to Melange Books for releasing the e-book rights that made this second edition possible.
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