The world runs on code, but not all code is safe.: Failsafe a Science Fiction Action Crime Thriller by Jeff Sylvester Book Tour with Guest Post & Giveaway
The world runs on code, but not all code is safe.
Failsafe
by Jeff Sylvester
Genre: Science Fiction Action Thriller
The world runs on code, and not all code is safe. This is why Anna Flynn has a job.
Matter Manipulation Devices alter the physical world, turning dreams into reality. But some dreams are treacherous, and the streets are filled with mods that manipulate matter in illegal and dangerous ways.
As a seasoned MMD agent, Anna fights back against the criminals who misuse these devices and traffic in illegal mods. When she intervenes in a plot to assassinate one of the world's most respected political leaders, her methods draw the ire of her superiors, and she finds herself under investigation from her own agency.
Increasingly isolated and unsure whom she can trust, Anna works to unravel a conspiracy that would unleash the worst potential of matter manipulation technology on the world.
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She had to move. Popping her eyes open, she
pushed forward into the room as quickly as she dared. As she entered, she found
the security guards taking cover behind various pieces of furniture. Klein—the
only man in a security uniform—carried a staff like Anna’s. The two women with
him had smaller handheld devices. None of the three had engaged with Ben,
wisely taking her advice, and that had probably kept them alive. She hastened
her pace, trying not to reveal her presence while still making it to Ben before
he reached the bedroom door. She assumed the door was sealed, but also that
this wouldn’t pose a problem for Ben.
Indeed, Ben gestured, and the door
disassembled. He did have access to manipulate Shah’s home. Anna wasn’t
surprised.
He turned to shuffle backwards, focusing on
the security guards while retaining the same awkward firing stance. With the
direction he was facing, Anna knew when she got close enough, he’d see her
regardless of whether her concealment mod was still active or not—light and
sound bending only worked at a distance. Intending to startle him, she clicked
off the mod and lunged forward, aiming her staff at his gun.
The effect was exactly what she’d hoped for.
Ben’s eyes went wide as she materialized out of thin air. He was still
registering her sudden appearance when her staff connected with his hand and
the gun went flying. At the same time, Klein and the two other security guards
bounded out from behind their cover. Ben grunted as he recovered, then crouched
down to face Anna, his body tense and ready to strike. She prepared for it,
pivoting her weight back into a defensive stance. One attack by him and she’d
have him incapacitated. It would all be over.
Except he didn’t attack. As the three guards
closed in, his eyes shifted to them in alarm, and he turned and bolted into the
master suite.
“Who are you? Stop!” Shah’s panicked voice
spilled through the open doorway.
“I’m coming!” Anna dashed in after him, Klein
and the other two guards on her heels. She found the councilwoman and her
husband backed up against the far wall, Ben advancing on them. She leapt at him
and landed a strong blow across his back, crumpling him to the ground. Moving
past him, she placed her body in front of the Shahs.
The three security guards lined up across the
doorway, blocking any escape. Klein gave Anna a curt nod. Their communications
had saved his life, and he knew it—she thought she could count on him not to
mention her use of the concealment mod.
Anna looked down at the defeated man with an
icy stare. She wanted to pity him, knowing that whatever this had been, he
hadn’t been sure of his actions. But people had died, and he’d shot her
partner. Empathy has its limits.
“It’s over, Ben.”
“It’s not.” He stared up at her, a sudden calm
taking over his features. His voice contained no trace of its former waver.
Right now, at this moment, his determination was absolute. “I can do this. And
I will.”
He rose to his feet and extended his arm. His
hand held something small and dark green. It appeared to be military. A weapon.
A bomb.
“No.” The protest escaped Anna’s lips as a
whisper. Her staff shook in her hand as she arced it forward toward the
explosive, but before it could connect, the world around her vaporized in a
brilliant flash. And then there was nothing.
The road to inspiration for Failsafe was a twisted one, as I
suspect is the case for many novels. I’ve had numerous ideas living in my head
for novels for decades; in fact, I even wrote 90% of a first draft just after
I’d graduated college. I didn’t end up finishing that one because the ending
was too dark for me, or at least, too dark for me at the time. But it was one
idea among many, most of them science fiction, and there are some really
interesting plots and worlds I’ve wanted to explore.
Yet the story of Failsafe is a new one. Mostly new, that is.
The idea of “matter manipulation” and action heroes wielding staffs is one
that’s been around in my head for decades, but Anna, Daniel, and the world they
inhabit came into my head while on vacation last year. During the evenings when
we weren’t at the beach or pool, my wife was playing the new Zelda game while
the kids watched TV, and I pulled out my iPhone and sketched out a plotline,
which, as it turns out, hardly resembles the novel after three drafts and
numerous edits. But it got me started!
The nugget that had gotten stuck in my head was from an Ezra
Klein podcast I’d listened to where he and his guest discussed the modern
struggles of men: how many were falling behind while their female peers
thrived. One bit that really struck out was when they brought up male college
students who said something like “if you want to be successful in group
projects, make sure you have a woman on your team”. And so I’d ruminated on
this, considering what a future world might look like if everyone thought this way:
if women were favored in culture, and assumed to be smarter and possess more
capabilities than men. To be clear, I don’t believe either this or the reverse.
Cognitive abilities aren’t affected by gender, even though human history
contains repeated offenses of women being treated as inferior. But, the podcast
had gotten something stuck in my brain, and I decided to write a novel and
explore this world where the artificial ceilings had been removed for women and
they thrived while men fell behind.
So, if you read Failsafe and think “Jeff sure does like strong
women” like one of my Beta readers commented, this is why. I was envisioning a
world where women were the cultural default. I didn’t set out to make a point
or with an agenda, but rather just tell a story with that backdrop and see how
it changed things. I threw in the “matter manipulation” idea that had been
running around in my mind for a long time, and Failsafe is what came out.
When you read the novel, you might find all of the above odd,
because while the book hints at this world (certainly most of the main
characters are women), it doesn’t address the social norms around gender much
in terms of theme or plot. I’ll chalk this up to being a first-time novelist,
and perhaps biting off more than I could chew. As I wrote the novel, I fell in
love with the story of Anna, Daniel, and their relationship, and they took hold
of my imagination and pushed everything else into the background. I suppose
what actually inspired Failsafe was my own marriage: though Anna and Daniel
aren’t my wife and I (I admittedly share many traits with Daniel, but Anna is
nothing like my wife), they are a
middle-aged couple who care about and support one another. This is the type of
romantic relationship I don’t see in our modern stories as often as I’d like.
I ended up with a female action hero who exists in a world
where female heroes are the norm, and this, at least, has its advantages. Anna
isn’t “James Bond with breasts”. She’s an excellent government agent in a world
where women are expected to be great, and she isn’t fighting against a system
opposed to her gender, which is often the setting for female action heroes.
This all gives her a unique feel as a heroine, at least for me, and that made
both her and her husband interesting to write
Where I ended was very different from where I started, but I’m
OK with that. The road to inspiration was long and winding, but also a lot of
fun, and what came out was an action-packed story featuring a middle-aged woman
and her husband, two people I really enjoyed getting to know. I hope you’ll
enjoy meeting them as well!
Jeff Sylvester has been a professional software developer most of his life, but also enjoys writing and creating music. He and his family live in Suwanee, GA.
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I liked the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
DeleteThis sounds like a really interesting story. I enjoyed the post.
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DeleteGreat- Thank you for reading!
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