The premise of the series is that the Empire has discovered a planet orbiting Epsilon Indi held by the fractal demons, where they have been breeding enslaved humans for several thousand years, hoping to create human serfs who can compete with Imperial operants. It hasn’t been working out well for them – not only is the best they’ve done so far about equal to a mid-range Second Order Guardian, they don’t have all of the factors that enabled Imperials to really learn to use their talents. Humans being human, there are a fair number of enclaves of free humans, and they treat each other not much better than the demons do.
It is into this setup that we step, as the Empire has discovered a direct link from this world to the fractal demons’ home environments, so whomever controls Calmena has a strategic base from which to strike the other. But the Empire is preparing thoroughly for war before it begins – and one of the things they are doing is bringing civilization to the free humans, enabling them to be an even bigger thorn in the side of the Fractal Demons.
The series is four novels, and is complete. It is a grunt’s eye view of the hidden war between the Empire and the Fractal Demons. It is largely written in parallel, albeit ahead of the events of Politics of Empire series. Preparing The Ground (Amazon link Books2Read link) begins a few months after the annexation of Earth by the Empire, telling the story of bringing advanced metal-working and building the first free city on Calmena. Building The People (Amazon link Books2Read link) is roughly a generation later, the beginnings of the age of sail. Setting The Board (Amazon link Books2Read link) starts almost a century after the second book, uses late Victorian Age technology. Finally, Moving The Pieces (Amazon link Books2Read link) is the story of when it all came to a head, with post World War 2 level technology.
The first main character is Asina, a shagra-my native of Calmena, which means she has an child with operant talent. Prior to her rescue (by Joe), she was a breeding slave of one of the human enclaves, and one of the first things we discover about her is she is operant herself. She is taken to Earth for training by the Empire, and volunteers to be the first of a group of people to return to Calmena to help the Calmenans free themselves from the Fractal Demons.
The viewpoint character is Joe Bernard, a mixed race American from Earth. He’s sentenced to indentured labor on Calmena, in the one base the Empire maintains, hidden in the Collision Range, the highest mountains on Calmena. It’s a boring life, and what the French call le cafard runs rampant, with meaningless sex being the most common outlet because there is no reason for it not to be (no explicit descriptions; I believe in fade to black) – until he is rescued in turn by Asina, who wants an ally and assistant for her new project.
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