There is war and conflict in the books, but the emphasis is on the word “Preparations” – getting ready to win a coming war. To do that, you need prosperous, free, people and a vibrant economy.
Calmena is basically hell. In fact, the human residents have a belief they have been abandoned by whatever gods there may be, but they’ve got close up experience with demons – fractal demons.
In the Rediscovery series, we find out Earth is a lost colony. We don’t know why modern humans came to Earth, but we know an Imperial starship landed on Earth about 54,000 years ago, and never left. The hypothesis is it was thrown there out of a fleet action during the Outsider Wars, but that’s conjecture only – no records have survived.
But at some point likely about ten thousand Earth years ago, the fractal demons found Earth, and having already found the Empire and realizing what a threat humans could be, decided to remove some humans from Earth to nearby Calmena (Epsilon Indi A II), where they already had a project going, to see if they could cultivate a domesticated line of operant humans.
The viewpoint character for the series is Joseph Bernard (“Joe”), the nephew of Grace, who is viewpoint character for Rediscovery. We meet him as a 22 year old who (being Grace’s nephew) is one of the few people with experience with Imperial technology in the immediate aftermath of the Empire coming to Earth. He’s contracted as the engineer and legal commander of a flight to neighboring stars looking for usable planets.
His expedition runs afoul of a group of humans on Calmena who are holding a precarious independence from the fractal demons. He is briefly enslaved, and in the process of freeing himself and the other survivors of the expedition, he meets Asina and her toddler daughter, Tellea. Asina is a breeding slave, and because Tellea is operant, Asina has some privileges denied to most slaves. They manage to escape with their starship, only to be intercepted by the Empire and discover that Joe has made a serious error of omission, for which he must make restitution.
Joe is sent to the only Imperial base on Calmena to work off his indenture. Because it’s isolated with not much to do, the garrison is fighting off what the French Foreign Legion calls le cafard. There is a period of about two Earth years when he’s working and indulging in whatever pleasure he can get when he’s off duty. It’s not heroic, but it is accurate to the history of such outposts.
That changes one day when Asina returns to Calmena through the base. The Empire found she was operant, gave her the mental training for her powers, and trained her in what she needed to know to start working to move Calmena in the direction the Empire wanted it to go. She’s actually been looking for Joe, and when she sees him on Calmena, she takes advantage of the opportunity and recruits him to her project – advancing the humans of Calmena so they can better resist and even thwart the fractal demons. The first place to work is in territory held by neither demons nor the pseudo-feudal human agaani, bringing more advanced technology (Blacksmithing, etcetera) to the humans while building a society capable of resisting the fractal demons. Together, they create a society of free humans capable of resisting the aggressive agaani
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E1PZL5S
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The second book, Building The People, opens some thirty years later. Joe and Asina have led the building of the city of N’yeschlass, literally ‘no slaves.’ It’s a high medieval level city of perhaps ninety thousand people, leading a confederation of similar cities in resistance to the demons, as the local agaani have been defeated and absorbed. But it’s time for them to move on, as they have been in N’yeschlass too long to continue in their current roles any longer without being revealed as non-Calmenan.
After a brief holiday on Earth, they end up back on Calmena with a new contract: Bring sailing vessels to a world that has never known anything more advanced than a canoe or a raft. They found a new colony, naming it Windhome Bay, and begin building the first of a series of new vessels to advance trading amongst the humans.
Meanwhile, the fractal demons have a new trick up their sleeves to subdue the developing humans which are becoming a threat: Lemuure, a demonic caste whose bite deposits infectious viruses leading to the mental control of the victim by the biting demon. A large wave of lemuure arrive through a nearby world gate (demonic technology), headed towards Windhome Bay and nearby settlements. Joe and Asina have to get inventive to have any hope of survival.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072J6YML1
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The third book, Setting The Board, opens some fifty years after the second. Joe and Asina have taken time to raise three children on Earth,but now they’re grown it’s time to return to Calmena for more difficult projects in a more difficult setting: It’s time to open a new front on a different continent, and they’re taking over an established outpost in a city still controlled by agaani, but the location is important as it is the port through which the easiest oil to get will be shipped to the rest of the planet. They are going to begin by introducing marine diesels to drive those ships, and later, introduce the Calmenans to flight.
The first problem is the agaani of Yalskarr are both greedy, and jealous of the success of the shipyards Joe and Asina are assuming control of. They are making things increasingly difficult for both the shipyards and the ordinary people of Yalskarr. With their fortress on a high hill between Yalskarr’s two harbors and the fact that they are operants, however weakly trained, they are in a position to make themselves a problem for anyone who wants to use Yalskarr commercially – or even just to survive in the city.
The second problem is the demons are growing increasingly uneasy about the advancements and capabilities of the humans of Calmena in general. They’ve been completely pushed off Wimarglr continent by the N’Yeschlass Confederation, and their hold on the other continents is slipping. There is an oft-quoted truth, “Demons are lazy, not stupid”, but because they’re not stupid they’ve realized they can’t be lazy any longer and they need to make some kind of effort to push back against the humans.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WQGYK7L
Books2Read link: https://books2read.com/b/3JDXpK
The fourth and final book in the series, Moving The Pieces, opens with the revelation that the fractal demons are on the move – the long prepared-for war between them and the Empire of Humanity is imminent. The free humans of Calmena are caught in the middle, as the planet is still held by the demons, and they will be using the Seven Gates to move massive invasion forces through Calmena and into the Empire. It will cost them little to divert a small portion of the flow to smashing the human cities of Calmena.
Joe and Asina are still in Yalskarr, although approaching the end of the time they can maintain their masquerade of being ordinary Calmenans. Yalskarr has advanced to the threshold of atomic power, although the Empire has given strict orders not to import the technology, it’s only a matter of time before someone on Calmena figures it out for themselves. War against the massive numbers of demonic units is a mixture of highly mobile forces and fixed defenses.
Meanwhile, the demonic attacks on the Empire have begun, striking (among other targets) the population centers of Earth. It becomes a matter of hanging on by fingernails against the massive demonic assault on Calmenan cities until the Imperial counter-offensive begins. Joe and Asina are front and center, improvising defenses and helping the defenders, hoping there will still be something to save when the Empire moves.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SP1Q66M
Books2Read link: https://books2read.com/b/31RXpa
The Preparations For War series is complete. If I ever write another Joe and Asina story (I do have ideas), it will be standalone or a new series.
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