In his Japan days he explored and photographed abandoned places in Japan, such as ruined theme parks, military bases and underground bunkers (see pictures on michaeljohngrist.com). These explorations provide ample inspiration for his fiction.
Last Mayor (post-apocalypse - complete)
1. The Last (available in audio)
2. The Lost
3. The Least
4. The Loss
5. The List
6. The Laws
7. The Lash
8. The Lies
9. The Light
Soul Jacker (cyberpunk - complete)
1. Soul Jacker
2. Soul Breaker
3. Soul Killer
Ignifer Cycle (epic fantasy)
1. The Saint's Rise (available in audio)
2. The Rot's War (available in audio)
Short fiction
Cullsman #9 - 9 science fiction stories
Death of East - 9 weird fantasy tales
GLOSSARY
Aether – The space beyond the aetheric bridge, where all souls manifest as star-like lights, and lines representing all connections they've ever made with people or places exist.
Aetheric Bridge – The doorway at the center of the Solid Core, beyond which lies the aether. No-one has ever crossed it until Ritry does so.
Afri-Jarvanese – A language, part African dialect, part Japanese.
Arcloberry – A berry discovered preserved as a seed, deep within the melting Arctic pack ice.
Arctic War – The resource wars for the hydrates under the Arctic ice, in which nations and nation-states cast aside old alliances and made every effort to grab as much ocean as possible. Ritry fought in the Arctic War aboard a subglacic, as a marine.
Arene – The name given to marine who fought in the deserts, hunting for the last reserves of petroleum. They fought in suprarene tanks. Arene is Latin for Sand, hence 'arena.'
Asiatic – A term similar to Asian, but different in that 'Asian' refers to sections of the 'old' world, before sea levels rose and tsunamis leveled whole island nations, while 'Asiatic' refers to the countries and peoples of the new map.
Blood-mic – An internal communication system used by the chord, similar to bone micronodes which capture sound as it transmits through the jaw-bone. Blood-mic captures vibration of sound in the blood, much like sound was transferred to the forming Ritry Goligh in his liquid artificial womb, then relays it to the others.
Bonds – The invisible lines created in space by the passage of human beings. Existence creates bonds, as do thought and emotion. These bonds connect the people who made them to the people, places and things they connected to. Strong emotion, powerful thoughts, powerful action, pain, love, all can create exceptionally powerful bonds. Cutting them, or Lagging them, can create vast power, which can be channeled to exert control over others. They can also be 'surfed,' where their power is used without Lagging, as Ritry does at the godships. These are the resource Mr. Ruin lives off.
Calico – The city Ritry lives outside of, surrounded by a tall tsunami wall. Within the walls life is somewhat utopian, with very little crime or poverty.
Calico Reach – The wealthiest, most exclusive part of Calico, in the hills.
Candlebomb – A type of bomb, like C4.
Chord – A team of 7 marines, each with a name that is one note of a seven-tone scale.
Crull – A genetic cross-breed of sea gulls and crows.
CSF – Cerebro-Spinal fluid, the natural fluid that the brain sits within. Deplete this, for example by drinking a lot of alcohol, and you get a bad headache.
Elba – The island to which Napoleon was banished.
EMR machine – ElectroMagnetic Resonance machine, used by graysmiths to aid in jacking minds. Currently such machines exist as fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imagers) and can be used to take pictures of the brain at work. They don't yet allow writng/rewriting of the mind.
Exos – External suit muscles that augment human power.
Godship – A ship commissioned and boarded during the period of global tsunami while the Arctic War played out, filled with the world's greatest believers. They were all crushed in the tsunami.
Grapnels – Grapnel hooks fired from rifles, with an incoiling function built in.
Soul Jacker – A specialist, like Ritry, who is capable of hacking into another person's mind, and implanting or erasing memories and knowledge. In the Arctic War they served as interrogators, morale officers, briefing and debriefing specialists, skills teachers, and psychologists. Now they primarily work in education, implanting knowledge and massaging it into place. Some, like Ritry, may also erase bad memories. The name comes from the action of extreme forms of hacking, where it seems that the soul itself, or the free will, of a person has been hijacked.
Jack-site – Where a Soul Jacker works, usually equipped with EMR and lots of CSF.
HUD – Heads Up Display, a marine's helmet that can display lots of data on the inner visor-screen.
Engram – What a Soul Jacker injects when imparting new knowledge. It is injected through the eye socket and into the brain as a silvery liquid, containing memories or skills.
Lag, the – The worm-like creature that protects the mind. It seeks to destroy any foreign bodies, including even the inhabitant of that mind, if they come in conscious contact. It can be delayed by giving it thoughts and memories to consume, but it cannot be killed so long as the mind itself is alive.
Lag (v) – Reflecting the erasing action of the Lag, Ritry coins this term to mean erasing memories through the bonds, without resorting to erasing them while jacking in EMR.
Mindbomb – A bomb that functions like an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) for the human mind, stopping all thought and killing any people within range instantly. Soundless and without percussive blast. It can be survived if the mind is shielded within an EMR of some kind.
Molten Core – The exterior part of the brain, most closely related to the gray part, ie the cortex. Embodied during a jack as liquid magma, because it is always in flux.
New Anglais – A new language, a mixture of English and French.
Proto-Calico – The floating raft city that hugs the tsunami wall of Calico, built out of the wreckage of past cities, ships, and anything else. Held up on floating blue barrels, and made up of numerous individual rafts called Skulks. The people who live here have no protection from future tsunami. Their city is essentially ungoverned and lawless, bar the efforts made by Don Zachary to cement his stranglehold over commerce.
QC – Quantum Confusion particles, capable of dissolving regular matter. In this they act a lot like anti-matter, but can be targeted. A QC pistol contains and shoots them.
Rusk, proto-Rusk – Nation-state comprised of remnants of Russian peoples.
Screw, the – The propulsive screw that drives the sublavic ship.
Sino-Rusk – Nation state comprised of partly Russian and partly Chinese nationalities.
Shock-jacks – Stimulants that are stored in sublavic suits, and can be drawn on to negate the effects of shock, pain, and trauma.
Skulks, The – The floating neighborhoods that tile the coast of Calico, making up proto-Calico. They are typically built from flotsam and jetsam, float atop blue barrels, and house the poor, indigent, and those unwilling to live within the order of Calico.
Solid Core – The interior part of the brain, hidden inside the cortex, where no one has ever been before. Here the Lag is stronger, the pathways are myriad and labyrinthine, and somewhere in the center the aetheric bridge is fable to sit. Through this doorway, great power rests. Researchers jacked Ritry for much of his childhood, searching for a way in.
Subglacic – A ship that goes under the ice, used broadly in the Arctic War for stealth and hunting out hydrates.
Sublavic – A ship that goes under lava, used by Ritry's chord of marines to travel through the Molten Core.
Suprarene tank – A giant tank used by arenes who fought in the desert duri
ng the war.
Tsunami wall – The wall around Calico, protecting it from giant tsunami brought on by the War and global sea-level change.
Copyright © 2019 by Michael John Grist
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author.
Cover art by Jozef.
Soul Jacker Page 23
