Matthew Medney - Böcker

A Dystopian Sci-fi gaming thriller that examines the need for and risks of Big Tech. The power and flaws of innovation and the beauty and destruction of money. Gaming will never be looked at the same after you engage your senses.“I should have said more. But how could I know? The world, the game, ugh... the game. But now we are here. And there’s no turning back.” While Remi remembers how we got here, we journey back in time through her unreliable memory in this prequel to the present day dystopia we live in. Love, death, and control all sit at Remi’s doorstep, but again, how did we get here? Let Remi take you on a journey and Engage with your senses in this high-concept Sci-Fi thriller.

On an Earth with a dying Sun, there are two kinds of people. The Chosen. And the left behind. We thought it was over. We thought we had lost. A burnt out star left us without enough warmth to thrive, our days as a species were numbered. But then, then a miracle happened. We received a transmission from an alien civilization that scanned our Sun and knew we needed help. So they threw us a life raft in the form of designs for Space Arks, we built 3.  Interstellar capable, with pre-programmed coordinates to bring us to their home world, a place we were told could be called home. 100,000 humans per Ark, chosen to represent the best in us, a last ditch effort to save humanity.  Do I trust these aliens? Hell no. But what choice do we have? Paulson’s the name, Caleb Paulson, you can think of me as the architect of this mission. We’re heading to this alien system with no idea what lies ahead.

100 years ago, they vanished. No one knew why, no one knew how — no one knew anything. The scientists were stunned, hell the world was stunned, and as for myself, I knew it was a moment that would haunt our history.My name is Betty Anders, a small-town teacher with an intrepid husband. David and I lived our peaceful, uneventful lives in Nebraska: I taught, while he pursued his research in biogenetic engineering. His breakthrough discovery — quantum entangled botany — gave us hope for a brighter, more sustainable future... which turned to utter fear when the government took it too far. Of course they did.Our remaining peace evaporated when the missiles started falling, fired by cruelly-intentioned leaders of the Alliance. I know what you’re thinking... WHAT freaking missiles? But bear with me, there’s a lot to cover, and not a lot of time. Soon we found ourselves confined to David’s bunker, frantically searching for any information. Who was left? How had the fallout altered the landscape? I couldn’t help my mind go to the simple prevailing truth that my husband’s scientific break- through is now the most important piece of knowledge on the planet.As we brace ourselves to leave the bunker, I wonder, above all, if these events are somehow linked to the great mystery of what happened with the Native Americans those 100 years ago.While David and I find our place in this post-apocalyptic world, we need your help in summoning the courage to push forward as I have a feeling that the lines of history are all converging on this moment in time.

Genetic manipulation has poisoned the ecosystem of the earth. Since the Unraveling, no newborn lives past puberty and earth is a warring, wild land. To create the cure, a reclusive madman and his animal army must kill their way west to save a girl that might unlock the door to the future. Bale, heir to the Gencore corporation fortune, has turned his back on both family and company after they caused the collapse of civilization. Now, he lives in a compound with a zoo’s worth of half-tame predator animals who are his only friends. When a mysterious woman offers Bale the chance to restore the world by aiding her quest to save the only teenager anyone has seen for a decade, Bale becomes a reluctant savior. He agrees to escort the women, leading a pack of wild beasts on a quest across a dangerous, dystopian America. Will they survive the journey? Is it already too late?

The year is 2449 - Abel Kane is an autobiographical author working on his next book. And what a book it is: the life story of the beloved senator turned Presidential candidate, Jim Palmer. While investigating his subject matter, Abel witnesses a murder that opens up a pandora’s box and calls into question everything he thought he knew. The victim appears to have been a machine in human skin. The mere existence of this aberration suggests it is part of a surreptitious takeover. Determined to find answers and get to the truth, Abel finds himself caught in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy. And the more he uncovers, the more Abel begins to fear he might be the only human left.

Liam Kerr is your typical 16 year old boy in 2293... He wakes up, eats breakfast, goes to school, and, in 24 months, he will make the biggest decision of his life. Now, I know what you’re thinking, and no — it’s not college. Human ingenuity has evolved past that. Upon graduating from grade school, the need for that 4+ year advanced education exercise is truncated into a single, instantaneous download of information. Instead, the human paradox in the 23rd century is simply the decision of a lifetime, made at the age of 18. Facing the transition from teenager to adulthood, all humans must decide what is more important: traveling the cosmic ocean as an android, devoid of most capacity for emotion; or living out their days as a “biological” on earth, confronting all the beauty and ugliness of the human paradigm.  Even with science fantasy technology being harnessed, physics still has its limits. Only highly-advanced nanotech machinery can travel and particularize up- and downstream, withstanding the crushing forces at these unimaginable speeds. The biological human body cannot withstand this (though not for lack of trying: decades of failed missions have brought us to this solution). The optimal way to collect interstellar data and information is thus to fuse the human consciousness into a one way ticket, human machine hybrid. An Android.  Mind transfers and other robotic innovations are commonplace in the 23rd century, but again we find that with great innovation comes the ever present caveats. The biological transfer only works at the age of 18, due to the health of the synapses’ in the brain. Any older and it becomes uncertain if the transfer would work — by the age of 30 it’s akin to suicide. Earth has achieved marvelous innovation. Unimaginable science fiction has become science fact, including the most impressive feat of them all: the ability to travel at Faster Than Light speed. Humans have unlocked the possibility to visit countless worlds filled with intelligent life. A dream that science has imagined since the dawn of Copernicus. Now fully-realized, the question that festers in every adolescent is simple:  “What is the price of the stars?” Wishful thinking has been lost to time. Science fiction folly of fairytale endings and dreams of a long and fruitful life on earth, ending in a fusion of man and machine into the dark horizon of space and time with the never ending adventure of the cosmos was nothing more than a fool's errand. .  The great humor, as the people would refer to it, is the poetic truth that no species beyond the earth could ever meet a biological human. No matter how clever their technology was, no matter how elegant their solutions may be, humanity would never encounter another species face-to-face. Only their Derivative Andronic selves had that honor.  The time is now nearing for young Liam to decide what type of being he is destined to be. A space-faring machine with an undying consciousness and the prospect of endless adventures throughout the cosmic sea… or the beautiful biological man nature had intended  him to be. Earthy desires will pull him to stay, while his cosmic curiosity for greater knowledge and experiences will push him to leave. This is now every human’s decision to bear. But only Liam can ultimately decide for himself — his destiny, his future; his mortality, or immortality.

Time. Space. Existence. The end of all things. The beginning of something new. The reconciliation of decisions. This is what awaits our fatal remains of civilization at the last black hole at the end of time. The Neo-human, Harmony, Multitude, Remnant, Echo, and the Time Traveler all are summoned by chance, fate, or technology to discuss the trials and tribulations of the stardust ancestors they arose from. But what is there to do, when all of time is ending, when the last particles of the universe are dissipating and moving on from the realm? That is a question for our unlikely conclave to decide. What type of legacy will they, can they, leave a dying universe?

There is no Drake Equation. There is no question on sentience. The galaxy is alive and filled with life. The only issue: we humans aren't invited. The Galactic Star Alliance awaits your exploration. In this illustrated novel co- created & written by Matthew Medney (Heavy Metal Magazine CEO & NYU adjunct professor) and John Connelly (Lockheed Martin Aerospace Engineer), humankind acknowledges the vastness of time, the cyclical nature of civilization, and the obscurity of our own history. If our galaxy is so full of sentient life, why has no one said hello? We thought of a simple, logical reason: no one wants too. Stepping back and casting an objective eye on ourselves, it seems painfully obvious that humans lack a fundamental respect for our planet and for each other. We possess extremely short memories and long grudges, and the likelihood of receiving alien tools to hasten our expansion seems downright foolhardy. The Galactic Star Alliance has been alive and well for millions of earth years. Hundreds of thousands of sentient worlds and trillions of beings walk, run, and crawl across the many home worlds of the Alliance. This revelation led to many questions: How is faster-than-light speed travel possible, and could cohesive, interstellar civilizations exist without it? Is it conceivable to govern a coalition not of different countries, but of different species? Each question led to another and each answer built our world, piece by piece until it spanned thousands of answers and millions of light-years. As for the title, from where would our judges watch us? But our galaxy has spoken to us humans. There are some who believe it is out there. Not as science-fantasy but as science. Introduce Bernard William Hubert. World renowned astrophysicist, and Lead Scientist of the seminal company of exploration, Outer Limits. While on loan to CERN, a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions leaves Bernard as the sole survivor. While the scientific community & world looks to him for answers, he simply states the unthinkable "it has to be aliens." Inconceivable to the world, the Hubert family is investigated and his family's name tarnished. Disgraced and shunned. Bernard claws his way back into the equation with his new company C.O.R.E as they work tirelessly to design an engine capable of interstellar travel. Follow Bernard on his road to redemption and discovery in this ensemble cast of futurism, space travel and the fate of our species.This illustrated novel includes 35 pieces of beautiful, full-color, painted artwork by Utku Ozden.