Solarpunk mystery novel released today (slrpnk.net)

submitted 3 weeks ago by AEMarling@slrpnk.net to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net

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Didn’t plan on publishing my solarpunk novel this week. But it feels like the time for a story that’s radically hopeful.

We outlive capitalism. In a post-scarcity society, people do things not out of desperation but for joy. Xavi loves nothing more than putting on a silicon tail and swimming as a mermaid. She performs for children. Xavi encourages them and their parents to protect the clean water of the city’s canals. A community treasure, she is the first person who comes to mind when excited doctors develop a surgery to turn someone into a merperson. Xavi pioneers it, pushing the boundaries of transhumanism.

Then the mermaid goes missing.

A local citizen detective discovers Xavi had texted them “help” the night before, when their devices were silenced. The Citizen Detective Society mobilizes across the globe. They hope to crowdsolve the mermaid’s location and soon. Every passing hour reduces the probability they’ll discover her alive.

You can find the ebook on this indie site as well as the two more mainstream ones.

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[-] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 weeks ago

Awesome! This is an exciting surprise!

I read a preprint of this, and I really loved it. Everyone should check this book out!

[-] AEMarling@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

Thanks for beta reading. That is essential to the writing process.

[-] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

It was genuinely my pleasure.

[-] AEMarling@slrpnk.net 6 points 3 weeks ago

Illustrator Bochica uses knowledge to make the world a better place, to help people express the utopia inside them. He is a social muralist, who supports war-victims communities in Colombia. Concerning the cover art, he wrote the following:

*The technique used was mixed, acrylic and ink on canvas. Painting this piece was a real challenge—synthesizing and imagining a culture made of many ancestral cultures. The arch was inspired by art nouveau but also by Hindu art, while the figures reference both southern and northern Native American cultures. The pillars are like “totems” of Native American origin, but the figures are inspired by Indigenous peoples of South America and the South Pacific, from Easter Island, the Maori, through the Incas to the Mayans and Aztecs. These columns also reference the legend of “Huitaca” from the muysca people, which speaks of a demon who ascended and became the owl—a symbol of wisdom and knowledge in many cultures. In this case, I wanted to refer to the novel’s great library. The circles are inspired by the sun but are also inspired by speakers, referencing the “voice of the people” and social organization within solarpunk.

At the top, there’s a kind of staircase inspired by the “chakana,” an Incan symbol representing the connection between the human world and higher realms.

The mermaid is inspired by “Yemaya,” who is an Orisha or goddess in the Yoruba culture from Haiti.*

[-] UniversalMonk@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

Love this cover!

[-] will_a113@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

Just wanted to drop a note and say I binged this and then Murder in the Tool Library in 2 days. What a nice little universe you've built! I had never even heard of smashwords before your mention, but I've made a couple of other purchases in the last few days and will certainly use it to try and build a big enough library to distract me for the next 4 or 5 years :)

Out of curiosity, do you have any recommendations for other solarpunk or similarly utopian indie fiction?

[-] BrightFlame@wandering.shop 3 points 2 weeks ago

@will_a113 @AEMarling I finally started reading Missing Mermaid today. Grabbed me right away, AE. (btw, my solarpunk, cli-fi book The Working is also on smashwords... and elsewhere)