A.T. AGOSTINO's
The Universe of the Odyssean Reach
It is almost a thousand years in the future and humanity is united under the banner of the Union of Earth. From the long settled Core Region to the frontier of the Odyssean Reach, we have worked together to spread peacefully among the stars. But in the decades since the horrific Braxis War, when the Union and their neighbors the Yhena were viciously attacked by a supposedly friendly species, the Union has questioned itself. The desire to explore was tempered by the need to secure and support the star systems that were already inhabited. Priorities were changed and laws were passed. The colony systems of the Odyssean Reach, the latest frontier of the Union, were left undeveloped. Massive system-wide construction projects were cancelled. The involved and time consuming process of terraforming farmland was halted on the newest world of Big Sky. Resources and personnel had to be diverted to the devastated star systems left by the war. But now, over forty years later, nothing has changed. Except that a new disaster is now threatening the far off Union. And with the new laws in place, the Union's Parliament has made the harsh decision to cut the Reach off from what little support they already had. Now over two billion people must survive in a universe that just got much colder and darker...
The First Installment
The Odyssean Reach: Pathfinder
In the frontier of the Odyssean Reach, Samuel Hobbs is making a living on a small survey vessel cataloging asteroids for a mining company in the Gateway System. He is fairly new to the Reach and is looking forward to making a life alongside distant family members after a career spent as a survey officer in the Union of Earth's Rescue and Patrol Service. But Samuel has been cursed to live in interesting times and when the Union is forced to cut the Reach off from any and all support, millions of people on the distant world of Big Sky are suddenly facing starvation.
Samuel is recruited by Gateway's government because of his hyperspace survey experience and tasked to captain the old survey vessel Francis Drake and finding a faster supply route to Big Sky. The current route is too long and the isolated star systems of the Reach don't have enough cargo ships to keep up trade between their systems and keep the colonists of Big Sky fed. A new hyperlane must be mapped and the transit time cut down.
Samuel must recruit a crew and execute the mission with little time and no room for error. But danger awaits in the depths of hyperspace as the crew of the Frankie D encounters the unpredictable forces of the universe as well as mysterious warships taking advantage of the absence of the powerful Union of Earth Navy.
Join Captain Hobbs, his crew, and the entire Odyssean Reach as they embark on adventure in this debut novel!
The Plan
Building the Reach
I'm hoping to write an entire series of books detailing the struggles of the Reach as they transition from a frontier region dependent on the greater Union to a small nation in their own right. I don't want to just tell the big stories about fleets of warships and historical figures leading them (although there will be plenty of that) but also the smaller stories about the rancher, the construction worker, even the delivery driver. The people on the ground who are swept up in events and need to figure out a way to make do.
​
If that sounds interesting, please keep me in mind as I finish the manuscript for Pathfinder. I also plan to write some short stories set in the Odyssean Reach universe to publish for free either here or somewhere I can link them for free. Stay tuned and thank you for your time!