If you’ve been following our social accounts, you’ve seen the announcements and previews. If you’ve busy and are just catching up, we’ve a new novel coming! Exile Machine is a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, cosmic horror thriller by resident author, Alexander Mharcei.
If you’re looking to get a preview (ARC reader) copy, the sign-up is in the purple banner on our homepage. Otherwise, you can expect the pre-orders to go on sale during the first week of February. The book release will be March 1, 2025.
While most will expect the story to be dark, given that it’s post-apoc and cosmic horror… and it’s certainly dark fiction. The story is an exploration of a dark setting named Evernight. Let’s take a look at the author’s notes:
My new novel, “Exile Machine,” has an interesting setting.
Two ecumenopolic planets with similar orbits experience an astrological disaster, when a metallic asteroid passes between them–causing their orbits and rotations to lock.
For the inner planet, half the planet exists in light and the other half in darkness. This is Kyn-hnul.
The smaller outer planet, drops into permanent eclipse. The population begins to freeze, ash fills the air. Food becomes scarce. Scavenge or die.
Could this happen in really life? Rumor has it, yes. It’s actually possible from a hard sci-fi perspective–though the odds of it occurring would require some cosmic intervention. Don’t loose any sleep over it! Mharcei is somewhat known for throwing esoteric settings into his stories.
What are the characters like?
The story starts on the smaller planet, Nyn’vel.
Pre-disaster, we read about a girl in a temple. Already the world is difficult. Already the world isn’t… right. There are things no one wants to talk about.
This tiny girl is Liliss. Little more than a quiet attitude with a brush and a bucket. A child in the shadow of monks. A character reborn of her namesake, Lilith.
What will she become, once she’s older and standing in the shadow of a planet?
Meanwhile…
The sun hasn’t come up in over a decade, and yet somewhere there’s a cricket scratching away its love song. A terrible tune that gets in your head.
It has the same familar notes… the ache for a sunrise, the warmth of a bonfire, the comfort of a new pair of gloves. Sounds like a dream.
Aric would dig it out, if it wasn’t already in his head. He’d scream to drown out the music, if only the dip-disc behind his ear hadn’t recorded the melody.
This book has something for Arkhelian’s core readers: science fiction and cosmic horror. There are also some undertones from familiar subgenres: cyberpunk and space westerns.
See you in the dark!
(Oh yeah, almost forgot… this story is currently being reviewed for adaptation! Imagine that!)
