Rediscovery was the series first of my books published. I’ve learned a bit more subtlety since then, but nowhere else do you find as much background for the Empire of Humanity. It is told through the viewpoint of Graciela Juarez (‘Grace’), an Earth native from Riverside California in the United States. When we meet her, she’s a 28 year old part-time college student and full time employee of a chemical company. She’s an American of Mexican ancestry; her grandparents were the immigrants but her family is still Mexican culturally.
The series begins with The Man From Empire. The basic background is this: Instead of an Earth human falling through the metaphorical rabbit-hole, someone comes through the other side to Earth to start if all off.
Humanity is widespread through the universe. It comes from having experienced at least three major disasters that produced massive numbers of refugees in any ship that could escape. One of them was pre-history, well before any surviving records, and all we know about it is the fact it happened. We don’t even know that it was only a single occurrence. The second was somewhere between ten and eleven thousand Earth years before the Empire, when the then-current Human Confederation fell to the C’Tangi. The final episode was the Ston Rebellion and Interregnum, taking place from roughly 3000 Earth years ago to roughly 2000 Earth years ago.
The Empire’s most salient feature is a group of powerful psychics, once known as ‘mindlords’, currently called ‘operants’ or ‘Guardians’. After more than a hundred thousand years of the Empire, the original few are now about fifteen percent of the Imperial population. They have no advantages in law, but have massive advantages in ability. The one who arrives on Earth, Osh Scimtar (aka ScOsh) is from this group.
He explains that he’s chasing the perpetrators of a terrorist attack at home, who are presumed to be remnants of the Ston Rebellion. He and Grace discover and frustrate the Stons and an unexpected addition.
In the second novel, A Guardian From Earth, Grace is given the opportunity to visit the Empire and learn to use her newfound abilities as only a people who have applied the scientific method to them for a hundred thousand years can teach. But when she comes home for a visit, she discovers all is not well on Earth. There are still opponents of humanity she and ScOsh did not deal with the first time. With the aid of one ally and some advanced Imperial technology, she deals with the threat.
In the third novel, Empire and Earth, Earth is unraveling politically, a result of removing the manipulators who had been controlling Earth for so long. The Empire has no desire to step in; far easier to wait until it all falls apart and pick up the pieces. But Grace doesn’t want it to fall apart at all, and sets herself to the task with a will.
The first three novels are a ‘tight’ trilogy; there is a break of only a few seconds between The Man From Empire and A Guardian from Earth, overnight between A Guardian From Earth and Empire and Earth. The final novel of this series, Working The Trenches, takes place several years afterwards, detailing Grace and her husband Asto’s enlistment into Planetary Surface Forces and their induction and experience in the Merlon’s Eyes, an intelligence gathering unit focused on the Empire’s potential adversaries.
The first three novels were written at once, from the same basic idea; Working The Trenches was a follow-on from asking ‘what do they do next?’ It is available as individual novels, or a consolidated single book.
Rediscovery is available both in e-book and paperback from Amazon or any of the Books2Read retailers and library services.
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