The Dark Element, the opening chapter of a new Earth opera
Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 8:23 pm
Hello,
My name is Mason J. Torall. I'm an aspiring author who has spent the past two years working as a writing partner with bestselling author Colleen Oakes: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorColleenOakes. My debut novel, The Dark Element, is a sci-fi for an evolving world where people are concerned more and more about where we as a species might go.
I'm a little jaded on the notion of a self-inflicted apocalypse. Yes, movies like Book of Eli and Children of Men are fun and interesting, as are dystopian future stories like The Hunger Games, The Giver, or Ender's Game. Hell, even video games like Fallout 3 and Telltale Games' The Walking Dead are a blast to play, but all of those stories have something in common:
They have very little hope.
Yes, these stories are about finding hope in a ruined world, but… what if we looked at a world that isn't there yet?
The Dark Element is indeed a dark story, where Earth is being harvested by the usurping alien empire known as "The Collective", who betrayed humanity after 20 years of goodwill and took the planet for themselves. Humanity is beaten, battered, and bloody, and the tyrannical Over-Seer is near a solution to eradicate us once and for all, and yet...
Underneath it all, This story is rooted in hope, not clawing for it. 130 years in the future, humankind has already fought our last war against each other. That war ended not with nukes, but with discovery. We tended and repaired a ravaged planet and looked at last to the stars before encountering the aliens, and we will do so again. Now, to free our home and recover our path to becoming a great people, we must turn to the Elementals--enigmas to both humans and aliens--and one in particular: Damien Vilan. Damien is an Elemental of Darkness, able to wield black holes and smother minds in shadow. By all rights, he should be a villain… but he isn't. Damien is an imperfect hero, but with the seeds of greatness in him if he can only survive the crumbling Seattle Islets.
After all, what better place to look for a beacon of light and hope, than in the one thing that spans space, time, and the universe?
What better place to search for it, than in Darkness?
And that's my story.
If you're interested, please check out my Kickstarter below, where you can donate as little as $5 to get your name PRINTED in the book,
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/689142360/the-dark-element-a-debut-novel
or you could donate worlds more to receive rewards like:
-Signed copies
-Concept art
-Museum-quality art prints of this painting (this is only a sneak peak):
-Even have a character NAMED AFTER YOU in the sequel!
And I'm happy to share and support your projects too, seeing as Kickstarter is a collaborative process and all!
Cheers!
Mason
My name is Mason J. Torall. I'm an aspiring author who has spent the past two years working as a writing partner with bestselling author Colleen Oakes: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorColleenOakes. My debut novel, The Dark Element, is a sci-fi for an evolving world where people are concerned more and more about where we as a species might go.
- FacebookCoverFinal.jpg (33.62 KiB) Viewed 763 times
I'm a little jaded on the notion of a self-inflicted apocalypse. Yes, movies like Book of Eli and Children of Men are fun and interesting, as are dystopian future stories like The Hunger Games, The Giver, or Ender's Game. Hell, even video games like Fallout 3 and Telltale Games' The Walking Dead are a blast to play, but all of those stories have something in common:
They have very little hope.
Yes, these stories are about finding hope in a ruined world, but… what if we looked at a world that isn't there yet?
The Dark Element is indeed a dark story, where Earth is being harvested by the usurping alien empire known as "The Collective", who betrayed humanity after 20 years of goodwill and took the planet for themselves. Humanity is beaten, battered, and bloody, and the tyrannical Over-Seer is near a solution to eradicate us once and for all, and yet...
Underneath it all, This story is rooted in hope, not clawing for it. 130 years in the future, humankind has already fought our last war against each other. That war ended not with nukes, but with discovery. We tended and repaired a ravaged planet and looked at last to the stars before encountering the aliens, and we will do so again. Now, to free our home and recover our path to becoming a great people, we must turn to the Elementals--enigmas to both humans and aliens--and one in particular: Damien Vilan. Damien is an Elemental of Darkness, able to wield black holes and smother minds in shadow. By all rights, he should be a villain… but he isn't. Damien is an imperfect hero, but with the seeds of greatness in him if he can only survive the crumbling Seattle Islets.
After all, what better place to look for a beacon of light and hope, than in the one thing that spans space, time, and the universe?
What better place to search for it, than in Darkness?
And that's my story.
If you're interested, please check out my Kickstarter below, where you can donate as little as $5 to get your name PRINTED in the book,
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/689142360/the-dark-element-a-debut-novel
or you could donate worlds more to receive rewards like:
-Signed copies
-Concept art
-Museum-quality art prints of this painting (this is only a sneak peak):
- Sneak Peek.jpg (220.8 KiB) Viewed 763 times
-Even have a character NAMED AFTER YOU in the sequel!
And I'm happy to share and support your projects too, seeing as Kickstarter is a collaborative process and all!
Cheers!
Mason