Where Giants Sleep

‘Tread gently where giants sleep.’  City 5 Holy Book SSG1005, Volume 6.2.

Influenced by the work of authors such as Paolo Bacigalupi, Anne McCaffrey, and N. K. Jemisin, the epic dystopian trilogy ‘Where Giants Sleep’ comprises Emergence, Second Dawn, and Ouroboros. Aeons after interplanetary war, an undersea city (City 5) containing a dystopian society emerges into an Eden where magic is real. The ripples from this event will spread back in time and across the galaxy, leaving nothing unchanged. 

The first novel, Emergence, centres on the arrival of an undersea survival city containing a brutal, fascist society in a new and magical Eden. Conflict and love soon follow.

City 5

17,000 years earlier, seven undersea cities came into existence to survive the Scitha invasion, a warlike race from across the galaxy. Shaped like a starfish and feeding off natural resources, City 5 provides home to over thirty thousand people. The city is sentient, with its own agenda and ambitions. An autocratic elite led by matriarch Hedra Darke rules with an iron hand, repressing and controlling. Strict laws govern the many sects, including age limits, and the Lawkeepers make sure it stays that way. An ex-gladiator, Lawkeeper Lucas Venn holds the Freedom of the City in recognition of 100 kills. He regrets every one of them.

At the top, dynasties struggle for power. The most privileged consider themselves to be eternal gods and have rejuvenated many times since submergence. Sects in C5 hold differing beliefs about the Surface, but all agree on two things. That none can live there, and they are the only survivors from the invasion.

The Royals discover the magical and Edenic Rift with its forests and mineral deposits, and nature-loving peoples. They see no beauty – only resources to be exploited and slaves to do their bidding. They resolve to return the planet to how it used to be, with giant cities and endless wealth, ruled over by the strongest dynasty. Knowledge of emergence disrupts the city, unleashing beliefs and the desire for freedom amongst its peoples. The Dynasties fight for control of the new world as the city itself reveals a secret agenda.

The Rift of Life

The surface is not all that it seems. The great war did more than destroy the old world. It changed nature and left behind an alien technology beyond understanding. The clans that live in the Rift and the Outlands, and the ruined Machines are linked to the planet in ways the city dwellers cannot comprehend. These include wyvernkind and the Magda Stones, alien relics from the invasion. The Great Tree is the strangest of all, a mystical one-eyed giant sleeping below the Rift. Caia Esvane’s embittered father banished all dragonkind, and the world now awaits the coming of the new Witch Queen.

An epic dystopian trilogy

The Where Giants Sleep trilogy is much more than a clash of cultures. It follows the lives and fates of families caught up in an unjust war, and concerns the battle of beliefs – magic versus technology, progress versus sustainability, love versus hate. As new threats arise from the distant past, the sects from the city and the Surface clans must work together for what they believe in.

Click on the links to discover more about the ‘Where Giants Sleep’ trilogy – EMERGENCE, SECOND DAWN, and OUROBOROS.