Welcome to the Hyades.

For the past four or so years, I have been working on a full-length novel, Sailor for the Second Dusk, part of a larger writing/worldbuilding project called Keepers of the Silent Suns.

Sailor for the Second Dusk is a retrofuturistic epic science fantasy novel, inspired by classic sci-fi/fantasy and medieval Asian cultures, set in a humanity inhabiting fourteen star systems across the distant Hyades Cluster.

The novel is still very much work in progress, but I will periodically post previews and related media on this part of my website.

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The universe is old. Incomprehensibly old. Old enough that even the vast, alien minds that have inhabited it since its birth cannot truly understand its age. It is here that humanity tore itself from the grasp of its cradle and sailed into the great beyond. It is here, in this little galaxy with a thousand names, that it defied the whims of nature and spread like a raging fire, claiming star after star for its own in a spider’s web of colonization, a crackling gout of consciousness sending its starship embers far across the gulfs of darkness.

And just like a fire, we burned ourselves out in our hubris, left our civilizations crumbling into so much stellar ash, until only frail pockets of life remained where great trading hubs once stood. But a sedentary existence leaves us unfulfilled, and like a nearly forgotten song of childhood, the stars still softly call to us. With scorched and scarred hands we still reach out towards the limitless unknown, yearning for the open road.

And in a small cluster of stars once and once again known as the Hyades, where a new humanity rose from the ruins of their ancestors' self-inflicted apocalypse…

We discovered something. Something we thought impossible, something to forever change our very nature, a gift left from bygone eons that promised to unlock riches beyond imagining.

But as always, humans are fickle, petty things, and they trapped themselves in stagnancy, ever content with their discontent, and all of it by their own making.

Or so we thought. For the only constant we know is change, and change is nigh for the Hyadeans.

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The Dynasty has ruled the Hyades Cluster for nearly six centuries now. It is built on rigid hierarchy and strict feudalism, with most of its population leading lives of hardship and toil to support the extravagant luxury enjoyed by a miniscule nobility. For most, there is no chance for wealth or honour.

Once, one could not travel across the Hyades without encountering starship fleets and busy stations, but now the Cluster is filled with empty ruins and lonely voids.

Yet even in this cruel cluster of distant stars, there is hope.

The galaxy still shines bright in a hundred night skies, and its song still calls out to those who dream of better days. In the farthest fringes of the Cluster, mysteries await discovery, and secrets remain hidden. And in the Inner Reaches where civilization still bustles, arcane gifts have found their way into the hands of a fortunate few, for the dreams of an old interstellar dominion have not died... and neither have the gods who once formed its council.

In Sailor for the Second Dusk, two rival factions clash in search of old legends, and a small handful of individuals find themselves caught in the crossfire. Lowly commoners find extraordinary power, and dangerous outcasts find burning purpose. A humble grain farmer is exiled to outer space after losing his home, and finds himself aboard a starship crewed by motley criminals, while the illegitimate daughter of a noble turns to the stars to escape a fate of servitude.