Subodhana Wijeyeratne – författare

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is among the six largest national space agencies in the world, along with China's CNSA, US's NASA, and Russia's Roscosmos. JAXA's budget is more than $1 billion USD—bigger than France or Germany individually, and more than that of Italy, India, Canada, and the UK combined. And yet, Japan's significant contributions have largely been absent in the history of space exploration, and space exploration largely absent in the history of technology in Japan. The Islands and the Stars corrects this conspicuous oversight. Through meticulous archival research in Japanese and anglophone archives, Subodhana Wijeyeratne examines the history of Japan's space exploration efforts over nearly a century.Wijeyeratne traces the evolution of Japan's space program from its early origins in the 1920s, through the postwar period of rapid technological innovation, to the consolidation of its various institutional elements into JAXA in 2003. He situates Japan's space programs within the broader history of the country's postwar recovery, economic growth, and cultural identity, while also considering their place within global trends in space exploration. Through this narrative, Wijeyeratne not only illuminates Japan's centrality to the global history of science and technology, but also offers insights into the future of global space exploration, emphasizing the importance of diverse voices and perspectives in the quest to understand our place in the cosmos.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is among the six largest national space agencies in the world, along with China's CNSA, US's NASA, and Russia's Roscosmos. JAXA's budget is more than $1 billion USD—bigger than France or Germany individually, and more than that of Italy, India, Canada, and the UK combined. And yet, Japan's significant contributions have largely been absent in the history of space exploration, and space exploration largely absent in the history of technology in Japan. The Islands and the Stars corrects this conspicuous oversight. Through meticulous archival research in Japanese and anglophone archives, Subodhana Wijeyeratne examines the history of Japan's space exploration efforts over nearly a century.Wijeyeratne traces the evolution of Japan's space program from its early origins in the 1920s, through the postwar period of rapid technological innovation, to the consolidation of its various institutional elements into JAXA in 2003. He situates Japan's space programs within the broader history of the country's postwar recovery, economic growth, and cultural identity, while also considering their place within global trends in space exploration. Through this narrative, Wijeyeratne not only illuminates Japan's centrality to the global history of science and technology, but also offers insights into the future of global space exploration, emphasizing the importance of diverse voices and perspectives in the quest to understand our place in the cosmos.

The fate of humanity hangs in the balance while the Gods play.The distant future. Humanity is ruled by the godlike Dawn and her Triangulan allies. Her Golden Swarm keeps the garden world of Prithvi safe. Her nephew’s Red Fleet secures the rest of the Nine Worlds. In the depths of the system, her regents—the Charioteer of Daitya, and the Huntress of Himenduh—bolster her authority with their own fleets, their own armies, and their own power. So it has been for three thousand years.But, of course, nothing lasts forever.On Daitya, a refugee family arrives from Prithvi. A mother sells her daughter into slavery. A princess seeks forbidden knowledge. Their lives could not be more different, but their stories are intertwined. They will meet in the belly of the juggernaut Skо̄lex—a vast, living starship (vimana). They will witness the fall of kingdoms and the destruction of fleets and the toppling of the old order. They will participate first-hand in the confrontation, millennia in the making, between the Dawn and her long-estranged sister, the Night, who has traveled a million light years to right an ancient wrong.They will discover that not all is as it seems. The Triangulans are not gods. The Dawn is not just. And above all, the future—their future, humanity’s future, the future of the Nine Worlds of Surya—is nothing like what they thought it would be.Welcome to the battlefield of gods and humans. Welcome to the Nine Worlds of Surya.