The Exode Saga

cover art by Charles Vinh

Sadly, I've never read any stories written by Daniel Sernine. I'm intrigued by the idea that Sernine wrote a series of stories called "the Exode or Argus sequence" which apparently are "about a benevolent extraterrestrial organization keeping watch on the Earth".

Exodemic
Back in July of 2001, I began working on a story that came to be called Exodemic. That was a kind of alternative history novel in which the entire course of human civilization was changed because one Earth woman was accidentally saved from dying. Stories set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe all explore the implications of alien visitors having reached Earth many millions of years ago.

In this blog post I explore the origins of what I now call the Exode Saga, a sequence of linked stories that are set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe.

Exode

Exode (original cover)

As discussed here, it was not until May of 2012 that I began writing the novel called Exode. Exode was conceived as a stand-alone novel that would describe the adventures of an Earthling named Hana during her exploration of the galaxy and Genesaunt society.

Exode Trilogy
As discussed here, it took me about a year to realize that the story told in Exode is actually part of another story that I had already written called The Start of Eternity. So, in 2013 I began the task of crafting another novel (Trysta and Ekolir) that would fit naturally between the events described in The Start of Eternity and those of Exode. Also, I changed the name of the first book in the trilogy to Foundations of Eternity.

The Exode Trilogy

I soon discovered that weaving together the Exode Trilogy was a major project, much larger than I had initially imagined. Last year, I tried to summarize the first three years of play and investigations that were required to create the Exode Trilogy. During 2014, I had become aware of the the fact that the Exode story was really an example of investigative science fiction. In 2015, I blogged about the fact that the Exode story is also recursive science fiction.

For several years, I contented myself with the idea that I was writing fan fiction. My approach to creating the Exode Trilogy became rather formulaic: I viewed myself as an investigative science fiction story writer who was trying to discover the secret lives of my favorite science fiction authors as they had existed in the previous Realities of Deep Time.

The Exode Saga

The Exode Saga (image credits)

The demise of the Exode Trilogy came during 2016 when realized that I was integral to the Exode Saga. No longer could I keep separated my role as the Editor of the Exode Saga and my role as a character in the story.

My collaborating authors played a central role in the conversion of the Exode Trilogy into the Exode Saga. Back in April of this year, I listed 7 of my most important collaborating authors. Since then, there have been some changes, so here is an updated list:

Trysta Iwedon

1) Thomas
2) Parthney
3) Ivory Fersoni
4) Izhiun
5) Angela
6) Alpha Gohrlay
7) Zeta Gohrlay
8) Yōd

Syon and Gwyned

Of course, after I discovered that the Exode Saga is a recursive science fiction story, it became almost impossible for me to resist the impulse to depict most characters in the story as being writers. A good example of this is twist is provided by Grean, who has contributed text from her mission reports (example).

Trysta Iwedon has long been renowned as the mother of Thomas. We should attribute many of the personality traits of Thomas to the powerful influence of his mother. According to the infites that I obtained from Parthney, when Trysta was in her second life, living as Syon at Lendhalen, she was often bored and so she wrote several accounts of how she passed the time while waiting for the return of Rilocke to Earth.

Lost Literature

Spacetime Bubbles - original
cover art by Henry Van Dongen
and William Randall

The problem of missing stories such as Syon's 'Teleportation Vacation' is the vexing problem that must be confronted in the first book of the Exode Saga (A Search Beyond). The cover illustration shown here for 'Teleportation Vacation' (to the right on this page, above) is a reconstruction by Zeta. It may be that this story was never put "into print". Apparently Parthney saw the title 'Teleportation Vacation' as just one among the many stories that was present in the Lendhalen data-banks; it was of interest to him only as part of his attempt to understand his unusual relationship with Gwyned.

Of course, for those of us on Earth, information about Gwyned's study of alien teleportation technology would be quite valuable. Almost certainly, we Earthlings will never get to have contacts with technologically adept people such as Gwyned who have had a chance to study the advanced technologies that are available within Genesaunt Civilization. Some parts of Deep Time simply cannot be revealed to we who reside here in the Final Reality.

in Deep Time

It is incumbent upon the Dead Widowers and my other collaborators to assemble as much of the missing history of Humanity as we possibly can. It remains to be seen how much of the secret history of Humanity we will actually be allowed to share with everyone else! Sometimes it seems like we have been cursed: we struggle to reveal the past, but some truths about being human are not good for us to know...

Introduction to the Exode Saga

Next: investigating Deep Time

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