Astrophysicist Reggie Straifer has an idea. He’s discovered an anomalous star that appears to defy the laws of physics, and proposes the creation of a deep-space mission to find out whether the star is a weird natural phenomenon, or something manufactured.
The journey will take eons. In order to maintain the genetic talent of the original crew, humankind’s greatest ambition—to explore the furthest reaches of the galaxy—is undertaken by clones. But a clone is not a perfect copy, and each new generation has its own quirks, desires, and neuroses. As the centuries fly by, the society living aboard the nine ships (designated “Convoy Seven”) changes and evolves, but their mission remains the same: to reach Reggie’s mysterious star and explore its origins—and implications.
Eons later, the convoy has returned to LQ Pyx to begin work on the Web, the alien megastructure that covers the star. Is it a Dyson Sphere, designed to power a civilization as everyone believes—or something far more sinister?
Meanwhile, Planet United’s littlest convoy, long thought to be lost, reemerges in a different sector of deep space. What they discover holds the answers to unlocking the Web’s greater purpose.
Each convoy possesses a piece of the Web’s puzzle . . . but they may not be able to bring those pieces together and uncover the structure’s true nature before it’s too late.
According to your website, you are represented by DongWon Song of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. What do you love most about your agent and why?
DongWon is an advocate first and foremost, and is very communicative, which is great. His experience as an editor has been invaluable to me personally, and he is extremely business and marketing savvy. Best of all, he's done a great job connecting his clients to one another, so we kind of have a built-in support system of people who are all going through the same processes. Go #TeamDongWon!
Support systems are so necessary. It's also interesting how Noumenon explores the realities that come with being born into myriads of different lives. How are the story's characters shaped by this experience, and in what ways, if any, does it impact their empathy?
I think, on the outset, it effects the reader's empathy more than the characters'. The clones know they are clones, but they don't retain memories from the clones that came before them, they really only inherit their genes and their job, so there isn't much that's different for them than for people that aren't clones. The reader, however, gets a long-term sense of personal connection, even though the characters are technically different people from chapter to chapter.
But, as time goes on for the convoy, and the generations pile up, people do start to connect more emotionally with their clone ancestors. I think being able to look back over thousands of years of records and see your face staring back--even if it's not strictly you--would certainly change your relationship with things like existentialism, sense of mortality, and the importance of other people. I've tried to write most characters in the Noumenon series as exceptionally empathetic--even the AI--so, yes, I do believe the social structure aboard the convoy does have a long-term positive effect on their empathy.
Indeed! What was your experience writing the sequel, Noumenon Infinity, and was there anything that surprised you?
Noumenon Infinity more or less follows the same structure (a series of vignettes) as Noumenon, but with one exception: it has two alternating storylines that follow two separate deep-space convoys. Originally, I'd only planned to write about one of those convoys in the sequel, Convoy Twelve. But my editor, David Pomerico, suggested some edits for book one that really necessitated the continuation of Convoy Seven's story into book two, which I think ultimately made both books much stronger.
What a fantastic way to explore how storylines can further intertwine. What are some of your current projects?
I recently sold a fantasy series to Tor. The first book is THE MASKS OF ARKENSYRE, in which the enchanted death mask of a mass murder is stolen, effectively raising him from the dead and unleashing his reign of terror once more. This series is full of magical artifacts, mystery, monsters, and mayhem. I had a great chat with my editor, Will Hinton, and I'm very eager to dive into revisions. In the meantime, I've been working on a new sci-fi novel. The sale hasn't been officially announced yet, but I think fans of Noumenon and Noumenon Infinity will be excited!
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Buy: BookPassage ~ Amazon.com ~ Barnes & Noble ~ IndieBound
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