Connected Worlds is an intentional riff on Zelazny’s Amber, Michael Moorcock’s Tanelorn, Brian Daley’s Cinnabar, and others. It is the setting for my current primary work in progress, working title “Bubbles Of Creation” It’s been several years since I worked in the setting, so I’ll describe it for you. The first book is “The Fountains of Aescalon” (Amazon link here and Books2Read link here). The second book is “The Monad Trap” (Amazon link here, Books2Read retailer link here)
“Fountains Of Aescalon” is both about exploring the Connected Worlds and an accidental romance. The character of Petra was inspired by Circe from the Odyssey, a demigoddess cursed to seduce and punish men suspected of infidelity. She was intended to be a short term foil to Alexan; instead she stood up and insisted that she had a better plan, and she was right.
Alexan is a complex character. His origin is in the Empire of Humanity, before the Ston Rebellion and Interregnum. It wouldn’t be wrong to think of him as a ghost – he began as a splinter, in a time when the Fifteen Families were just beginning to discover splinters and their uses. Once he sorts out who he really is, he knows he cannot stay in the Empire, and his destination is suggested by an ally.
Alexan is a difficult character to write (progress has been slow, but the idea has a hold on me). It’s difficult to create opposition of such a nature as to constitute a credible threat to him, but reviews tell me I’ve done well on that score in the first two novels. “Bubbles of Creation” will likely be the last Alexan story (although I thought “The Monad Trap” would be the last until I had this idea); I have at least one other idea centering on a different character (tentatively titled “The Crazy Lady”), and there is no reason I cannot write as many other stories of the Connected Worlds as I want.
“The Monad Trap” is a story partially about Alexan’s self-imposed quest to learn more about Aescalon and environs, and to advance himself and others in the process, and partially about attempts for revenge upon him from beyond the grave.
Aescalon is a small place at the very center of existence. It consists of a cavern on the order of 25 miles (40km) in diameter, with what appears to be a neutron star at the center of it. Near the surface of the cavern are 165 First Order Connected Realms (165 is the number of combinations you get when you take 11 dimensions chosen 3 at a time). These are full on universes; the majority of the first story is spent in Migurd, one of the first order Connected Realms which has a pseudo-nordic air crossed with something resembling Arthurian legend, but it’s an entire world all by itself and we barely scratch the surface of Migurd in the first book.
There are roughly 20 million Second Order Connected Realms, and even larger numbers of Third and Fourth Order Connected Realms. They are progressively smaller, however.
There is a massive and unparalleled power source centered on Aescalon. Deities and other extraordinary entities are drawn to it – as are those who wish to become deities, and as Alexan discovers, there are multiple ranks of deity. However, each and every deity must have a ‘divine curse’, something that constrains their behavior in a way as to defy volition, at least in that regard. There is also at least one trap for the ambitious but unwary along the way to climbing the divine ranks.
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