InterstellarNet: Enigma -- a mystery (starts to be) revealed

I am delighted to announce the beginning of the release of InterstellarNet: Enigma. It's the latest -- and IMHO greatest -- of the InterstellarNet adventures. (And fair warning: this is a commercial post.)

Historian Joshua Matthews has landed a terrific new position, and with it the opportunity to write the definitive history of the Interstellar Commerce Union. In those annals, he plans to focus attention -- in his opinion, long overdue -- on the improbability that an interstellar community even exists.

But somehow, returning home from the party thrown to celebrate his good fortune, he has lost a month of his life. Everyone is certain he’s been away on an epic bender. And so, rather than promoted, he is disgraced, unemployed, unemployable ... and unaware just how lucky he actually was. 

The novel is already garnering some great comments. For one:

“When people talk about good hard SF -- rigorously extrapolated but still imbued with the classic sense-of-wonder -- they mean the work of Edward M. Lerner, the current master of the craft. InterstellarNet: Enigma is Lerner’s latest gem, and it’s up to his usual excellent standards; a winner all around.”

-- Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues

You know how bunches of SF, like Star Trek, has bunches of alien civilizations that conveniently reside near one another (and to humans)? And how those civilizations often have similar enough tech to make their conflicts a fair (read: plot-worthy) fight? After the Great Silence of fifty years of SETI, how can one explain such scenarios except as authorial convenience/contrivance?

You may be too polite to ask, so I will: how do I explain the clustered intelligences that comprise the membership of my own InterstellarNet community?

I haven't. Till InterstellarNet Enigma ...

Did you catch the unusual wording of my opening sentence? Release begins because FoxAcre Press is introducing the novel as an ebook serial. Check out InterstellarNet: Enigma, Part 1 / The Matthews Conundrum for the Kindle (and in other formats, over at bn.com and the Apple iBook store).

Also available even as I type (on Amazon, so far, with the other ebook outlets to come): InterstellarNet: Enigma, Part 2 / Championship B'tok.

(Aside to Analog readers: Part 1 expands and revises the 2013 novella of the same name. Part 2 expands and revises the 2014 novelette -- and Hugo Award nominee -- of the same name. Together, these episodes comprise about 1/3 of the novel.) 

"Yes, this is a hard science story, and yes, it’s really, really good."

-- Kristine Kathryn Rusch, author of the Retrieval Artist series

These opening installments cost a mere -- and hopefully irresistible -- 99 cents each. Of course, the publisher (not to mention, your humble blogger) anticipates that when readers reach the end of an episode they'll be chomping at the bit for more. (And not to worry: the novel is complete. The final episodes will follow along soon.)

As readers wait ... perhaps they'll while away some of the time by posting a review of the previous installment. Amazon, etc., reviews are a big help to authors. (I can hope, right? Hey, I disclosed upfront this is a commercial announcement.)

I'll post as each exciting new episode is released -- every one with its own gorgeous cover art -- and for release of the omnibus ebook edition, and (last of all) for publication of the print edition.

Options being good, I'll also note that the omnibus ebook edition -- the full novel -- is available for pre-order. Ditto the not-yet-released portions of the serial, via Amazon's brand-new InterstellarNet series page.

If you will permit me a closing observation ... the InterstellarNet novels stand alone, but they're even better together. If you're new to the InterstellarNet series, check out the celebrate-the-new-book-release promotional pricing (ebook reduced to $2.99) for InterstellarNet: Origins and InterstellarNet: New Order.