The Phantom of the Earth (Books 4-5 Omnibus Edition)

✍ Scribed by Raeden Zen

• Publisher: CreateSpace
• Year: 2016;2015
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 998 KB
• Edition: Books 4-5 Omnibus Edition
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN: 1493735705

✦ Synopsis

THE PHANTOM OF THE EARTH: BOOKS FOUR-FIVE

The Phantom of the Earth (Books 4-5) Omnibus Edition contains The Descent into the Maelstromand The Restoration of Flaws.

In The Descent into the Maelstrom, newborns Oriana and Pasha Barão are developed in preparation for the Harpoons, while Champion Gwendolyn Horvearth campaigns for Antosha Zereoue's bid to oversee Project Reassortment. Meanwhile, Jeremiah Selendia teaches his youngest son, Connor, more about his heritage and telepathic abilities, and a renewed accord leads the Beimeni Polemon to a city long forgotten. Will Oriana and Pasha earn a bid during the Harpoon Auction? Is Connor ready to confront the Liberation Front's deadliest foe? Can Gwen accept her new role at Antosha's side? The young grow up fast in Beimeni, and this new generation's choices will shape the fate of transhumankind.

In The Restoration of Flaws, with the Liberation Front scattered in the East and much of the Leadership deceased or in custody, the situation for Jeremiah and Lady Verena is dire. Captain Broden Barão has been exiled to the Lower Level, while Supreme Scientist Heywood Querice reluctantly accepts Antosha's new strike team, which will execute the commonwealth's most daring mission ever. Antosha's new protégé, Champion Oriana Barão, fights her way through time and space to discover the truth about her family, Reassortment, and its cure. The actions of the few will determine the fate of the many in The Restoration of Flaws,the explosive fifth book of The Phantom of the Earth.

---

MORE ABOUT THE PHANTOM OF THE EARTH

The Phantom of the Earth is a thought-provoking post-apocalyptic science fiction series. It relies heavily upon synthetic biology and quantum physics.

**

Review

Wilcox Editing Services Q&A with Author Raeden Zen

Erin Wilcox: Hi, I'm Erin Wilcox and I'm here with author Raeden Zen, who is a client of mine and the author of the Phantom of the Earth series. How are you, Raeden?

Raeden Zen: I'm doing well, how are you?

EW: Excellent, and I'm very excited to be talking with you today about your books. Would you run down, just very quickly, what are the titles of the five books that you've written?

RZ: Sure, so there are five books and the first book is The Song of the Jubilee, the second book is The Gambit with Perfection, the third book is The Synthesis and the Animus, the fourth book is The Descent into the Maelstrom, and the fifth book is The Restoration of Flaws.

EW:**And all told, how many pages have you written? Or words, or however you want to measure?****

RZ:**In total it's about 415,000 words or about 1,650 pages.****

EW: Wow. So it's this huge big-canvas story, and there's just a whole lot of great world stuff, and there's always that question about how are we going to enter this world and find a way in. So I'm curious, and I'm sure our listeners are also curious, who is the main character that we meet first in book one?

RZ:**The first main character is Johann Selendia, and he is the son of the resistance leader. Initially, the conflict begins where the government has apprehended his father and Johann must act as leader of the resistance in his father's place.****

EW: And he is the resistance leader for what movement? What conflict is Johann engaged in?

RZ:**So the conflict is called the Evolutionary War and it's basically a decades-long guerilla war between the Liberation Front and the government of Atticus Masimovian. Johann's father and his mother founded the movement, although at the time of the story his mother has already been killed by the government, and his father at the start of the story has been taken captive. So Johann has to make a choice when his older brother unexpectedly arrives at his inaugural celebration, and he delivers new intel. His name is Zorian, and he lets Johann know he has new intel and schematics to the prison where he tells Johann that their father is being held.****

EW: Okay, so the plan is prison break--and spring Dad. Alright, very good, and where is all this happening?

RZ:**So it's happening inside the earth. It's really a three-dimensional setting, but the main setting is 2,500 meters deep inside the earth. That's where the main commonwealth lies, and then the rebels are sort of holed up in a shallower depth of 300 meters, but all of the story ... most of the story ... is inside the earth.****

EW:**The rebels and the resistance leaders are one side in the Evolutionary War, and would you outline the other side?****

RZ: Yeah, so the main other side is the commonwealth--it's the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni. It's led by Atticus Masimovian and his wife, Isabelle Lutetia. Basically, it comes down to a vision for how to lead humanity in this sort of advanced world where everyone can live forever. If they serve the government, the government will allow them access to gene therapy that will enable them to live forever, and it's sort of a conflict between how to handle that kind of technology, how to handle immortality. The government handles it one way, where if you serve them you get it and have access to it, and the rebels don't feel that's the way the world should be run. They think everyone should have equal opportunity to basically live their lives the way they want, and that's essentially what the battle is over...

Read and/or listen to the rest of the interview at wilcoxediting.com.

FROM THE EDITOR

It was a pleasure to edit Raeden Zen's Phantom of the Earth Series, a subterranean post-apocalyptic that readers of hard science fiction will enjoy. As much credit as Raeden deserves for getting the science right, consulting with leading researchers in the field of synthetic biology and synthesizing information from a wealth of primary sources, what makes this series most compelling for me is the intergenerational conflict it explores. At its heart, this is a story about two families, the Selendias and the Barão-Rheas, who share a common goal of reclaiming earth's surface for humanity. But they come from factions with very different ideas about how much personal liberty the citizens of Beimeni should sacrifice to achieve this aim. 

Eternal partners Broden Barão and Damosel Rhea, both scientists, work within Chancellor Masimovian's regime to defeat the plague that drove humankind underground. High achievers within a society that prizes scientific progress, they have every reason to accept the status quo, even if that means banishing underachievers to the Lower Level and sending insurgents to their deaths on the earth's surface. At the series' outset, the Barão-Rheas consider their lives forfeit to the greater cause of humanity's survival, just like anyone else. 

Meanwhile, Johann Selendia, interim president of the resistance movement, strives to free his father from imprisonment and keep his underdeveloped brother from harm. The urgency behind this mission is both tactical and personal given that Johann's father, the founder of the Liberation Front, stands to reveal sensitive secrets if he cracks under interrogation. At stake are the lives of millions of members of the Liberation Front, including children, a rare sight in the commonwealth, where babies are developed into adults in a matter of days. 

What I so enjoy about this series is that neither death nor banishment can extinguish the true history of the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni, which surfaces bit by bit despite the efforts of those in power to snuff it out. A five-book series is the perfect format to advance this big-canvas story, giving us first a glimpse, then a footing, and finally the full scope of the world Raeden Zen has created. From book to book, children, siblings, and compatriots take up the flag for their cause before it hits the ground. Endings are therefore beginnings, the line between good and evil blurry at best. Discovering Beimeni along with its characters is an intense ride that reaches epic heights by the series' end--an experience not to be missed.

**

-Erin Wilcox, Editor

**ABOUT THE EDITOR

The former nonfiction editor of Drunken Boat and copyeditor for Alaska Quarterly Review, Erin Wilcox has edited some of the finest talent of our day, from literary legend Grace Paley to 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Gregory Pardlo. Erin maintains a vigorous freelance editorial practice specializing in literary and speculative fiction. She has edited work nominated for Hugo and Pushcart Prizes, and her clients have placed work with big-5 publishers and reached top-ten status in the Kindle store. Erin writes for trade and scholarly journals such as *Copyediting, Text,*and *The Rumpus.*Her creative work has been featured in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Praxis: Gender and Cultural Critiques(SUNY Oneonta), Cold Flashes(University of Alaska Press), and The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide(University of Arizona Press). Her story "Half a World Away" was nominated for a 2014 Pushcart Prize.

PRAISE FOR THE SONG OF THE JUBILEE (BOOK 1)

David Estes, Author of The Moon Dwellers-- "[THE SONG OF THE JUBILEE] is a major SciFi book. It is extremely well-written and has a compelling post-apocalyptic hook. The characters and their situations are interesting (scientist, rebel leader, etc.). The underground but highly technologically based setting is vividly described."

IndieReader Official Review -- "In a post-apocalyptic world, trans-human scientists fight a deadly disease while rebels battle with the leaders of Earth's last Commonwealth. ... This is the beginning of a complicated and intricate science fiction epic. ... The characters'personalities and backgrounds are revealed bit by bit in the course of the story, naturally and believably, so that they appear as three-dimensional people with real backgrounds and understandable motivations - no cardboard heroes or villains here. THE SONG OF THE JUBILEE is a vigorous yet thorough introduction to a very promising new science fiction world."

Rowena Hoseason, Top 50 Reviewer (Amazon UK) -- "Dazzling. That's the impact of this intro to an extensive dystopian sci-fi saga. The first book in a series of five, [THE SONG OF THE JUBILEE] sets the scene and themes in a complex, carefully crafted future history. ... [It's] a relatively short book. It contains a complete story arc, but it is only the tip of the overall tale. If you find yourself intrigued by the extensive cast of characters and the unfolding multiple scenarios, then you'll want to hop straight on to the next in the series, [THE GAMBIT WITH PERFECTION]."

From the Author

First of all, thank you for taking the time to read The Phantom of the Earth. None of this would be possible without you! Thanks to my friends and family for your support and patience during this process. Thanks to speculative fiction authors David Brin (The Postman, Uplift Saga), who read the first chapter of The Song of the Jubilee and offered writing advice, Jason Gurley (Eleanor, Greatfall), who designed the cover art for the ebooks, and Tammy Salyer (Spectras Arise Trilogy),who copyedited the manuscripts. Thanks to Mike Corley for creating the maps.Thanks to Penn State-University Park astrophysicist Dr. Zachary Prieskorn for reading several drafts, providing scientific and editorial perspective, and forming the space and time travel appendix. Thanks to Harvard University synthetic biologist Dr. George M. Church for searching the manuscripts for opportunities and offering scientific suggestions. Thanks to Columbia University synthetic biologist Dr. Harris Wang for meeting with me to discuss the project. Thanks to iGEM participants Clay Swackhamer (biological engineer), who read the manuscripts and provided scientific and editorial feedback, and Michael Easterbrook (chemical engineer), who read The Song of the Jubileeand The Gambit with Perfectionand supplied scientific suggestions with a focus on the Reassortment Strain. Thanks to Matt Harkenreader (nuclear engineer) for helping me flesh out the terraforming appendix. Thanks to Victoria Chen (science engineer) for reading the first three books and providing scientific and editorial perspective on *The Song of the Jubilee.*Thanks to the Chinese University of Hong Kong iGEM team for sending me their updated research on synbio data storage (E. cryptor). Thanks to my beta readers: Amber Triplett, Bill Sullivan, Carl Nelson, Casey Miller, Cheryl M-M, John Boettcher, Joyce Gravino, Karen Klink, Kathryn Cunningham, Kelsey Mecher, Laura Johnson, Lauren Stoolfire, Michelle Hofacker, Natalie Hughes, Rowena Hoseason, Veronica Sardo, Violet Lauderdale, and Yulande Lindsay. Thanks to my concept artists: Daniel Kvasznicza (300, Arkham Origins), Juan Carlos Barquet (The Origin Mystery), and Julian Faylona (who designed the cover art for the paperback omnibus editions). Thanks to Polgarus Studio for formatting the books for publication. Special thanks to my editor, Erin Wilcox, without whom this project would never have been completed.

**While synthetic biology and other technologies are treated fictitiously in The Phantom of the Earth, I delved into many excellent nonfiction models for inspiration.*The most influential sources included: Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves by George M. Church and Ed Regis, PhD, The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe by Lynne McTaggart, More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement by Ramez Naam,Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earthby DK Publishing, andAlgorithmic Puzzlesby Anany Levitin and Maria Levitin. Other sources that helped me apply concepts of earth science, theology, martial arts, what could happen to the planet's surface if humans suddenly disappeared, exoplanets, quantum physics, classical physics, metaphysics, and time includeThe Earth Machine: The Science of a Dynamic Planetby Edmond A. Mathez and James D. Webster;Time Travel and Warp Drives: A Scientific Guide to Shortcuts through Time and Spaceby Allen Everett and Thomas Roman;The World Without Usby Alan Weisman;Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness by Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner;Exoplanets: Finding, Exploring, and Understanding Alien Worldsby C. R. Kitchin;God's Universe by Owen Gingerich;The God Theory: Universes, Zero-point Fields, and What's Behind It All by Bernard Haisch;The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi; "Wormholes, Time Machines, and the Weak Energy Condition" by Michael S. Morris, Kip S. Thorne, and Ulvi Yurtsever, published inPhysical Review Letters; andA Question of Time: The Ultimate Paradox and the Secrets of Consciousness, a compilation of articles fromScientific American. Discovery Channel'sInside Planet Earth and National Geographic'sDown to the Earth's Core*also influenced details inside Vigna and Earth. Note: any egregious errors beyond what would be considered acceptable artistic license in applying the science or technology to The Phantom of the Earth are my own.