A giant, spaceship hovers over a dusty, walled fantasy cityscape. In the foreground, two figures stand in shadow looking out over the scene. The words 'An Agent's Guide to CASCADE, by Gus Ryer' is along the top. His website, gusryer.com, is below.
A slide with metadata and story elements for CASCADE:
Genre: Science Fiction w/ Fantasy Elements
Wordcount: +-130,000
It also shows the book covers for the following:
ASHES OF THE SUN, Django Wexler
THE ARCHIVE UNDYING, Emma Mieko Candon
ELDER RACE, Adrian Tchaikovsky
NOTES FROM THE BURNING AGE, Claire North
Ps5's Horizon Zero Dawn
Below that are the following phrases:
Found family
Failed terraforming
A vast, hidden history
Nanotech magic system
Epic fantasy quest in a sci-fi world
Ancient mechanical gods
Arachnid mammals & guard drones
Sword (1) vs. Railguns (lots)
A warrior woman w/ a winged helmet, armor, cape, and spear is along the right side of the image, fractured into triangles. Part of the following pitch is along the left:
2,000 years in the future, a galactic human empire fell, severing TRAPPIST-1e from other inhabited worlds before its terraforming could be completed. Wild nanotechnology ravaged the land, and civilization fell into a dark age. Eventually, the God Keepers—engineer priests who restored ancient nanotech—rose to power.
While Lendi dreams of life outside the God Keepers, Falder is desperate to keep his best friend from abandoning their order—and him. But, when an ancient machine god crash-lands in a ball of fire and gray death, it severs Keepers from nanotech, plunging the world back into chaos.
Meanwhile, Sedna and Renfrik have little patience for Keeper rules or mysticism. But, when a flood of nanites in the god’s wake consumes their home, they’re left with nothing to protect but each other...
Chapter 1
THE RUSH IS ON! This Tuesday, Planetfall, Inc. announced it would join the rash of megacorps racing to deploy terraforming infrastructure through the newly stabilized Taurine Strait. Previously dominated by New World Corporation, the franchised development of pseudoterra worlds is slated to be the hot market sector of the twenty-fifth century.
-Excerpt from InvestSyder: Stellar Ed., June 15, 2398
The streets of Mahyan never fully slept. Night’s darkness, not yet broken by either the sun’s rise or the blinding, baleful Eye of Toros, wrapped Lendi more completely than her robes. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that eyes were on her. She wanted nothing more than to run.
An eager vendor barred her way with his stringy arm. “A fine morning calls for a fine meal, miss.” He smiled and fanned out a selection of skewered mutton and whalemeat wrapped in sea grass. Pungent, spiced oil dripped onto the dusty street.
ASHES…SUN ❌ HORIZON ZERO DAWN
When a machine god severs the world from ancient nanotech, two engineer priests, a blademaster & her warrior-poet twin must hunt it for a cure—and revenge.
Failure will doom the world to divine wrath, but success may be deadly.
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