NOVEL NEXT Author's Note
Hello everybody. I would like to take a moment to address certain aspects of the story as well as some of the feedback I’ve been getting. It’s also entirely optional, so feel free to skip straight ahead to today’s chapter.
I always read comments when they are posted in order to see how the story is being received and what I can do to improve it over time. The Genesis Saga was originally a novel that was adapted to be a web serial rather than a story originally written in a serialized format. As such, the original chapters vary in length, which can affect pacing.
In this web version, I have re-parsed the chapters and I try not to post anything below 2000 words. I’d rather release longer chapters instead of ones under the targeted word count. The result is that some chapters in the novel might be equivalent to multiple standard posts worth of content when I deem it necessary.
Because the story was originally a novel, what might feel like a lull in the plot was really something designed to be read rather quickly over the span of a few chapters in the book. At the current release rate, it may take several posts to get through these few chapters instead of an hour or so when reading the book thus making it feel like the story pacing is slow. This is an unfortunate side effect of adapting a novel into a format it wasn’t originally designed for.
The first volume currently being posted (chapters 1 to 45) is already published on Amazon. I cannot make any changes to the story until future volumes. That said, I can keep in mind current feedback for future use later in the series and have already used it to help correct certain aspects of unreleased material.
The Genesis Saga is a character centric story that explores the psychological consequences of the events undergone by the main characters in the beginning. Aptly named a saga, the story is a slow burn that takes time to explore characters’ psyches in addition to developing the plot and mystery surrounding the initial experimentation.
The story is long. I cannot stress this enough. Currently 2000 pages worth of content are written, and I expect at least another 200 to 500 more before the series comes to an end, with the possibility of even more should there be a need for additional volumes to finish the story. As you can imagine, all cannot be revealed at once.
Exploring the consequences of the initial experiments, both psychologically and the actual impact they will have on Verilian society, will be a gradual affair. Every experiment had an explicit reason to be showcased and will be explained over the course of the story. They were not random, nor were they simply torture for the sake of torture. There were tangible goals behind each of them. As the story evolves, more time will be spent exploring the Verilian Society, the impact of Adrian’s arrival, the reasons the Gru’ul did what they did and how the Verilians respond to that.
At its core, this is not an action and adventure story. Those tags aren’t present for a reason. The main tags are psychological, drama, mystery, and space opera. Certain actions or events may seem somewhat unrealistic or overly dramatic to some, but that’s entirely the point.
There will be drama. It is an opera set in a soft sci-fi setting. The main cast is an alien society with non-human norms, customs, and etiquette. This is not set on Earth and should not be expected to be an exact replica of what we would consider normal.
Which brings me to the military and its command structure, an ongoing point of dissatisfaction among certain readers. After careful consideration of the feedback I’ve received over the course of the story, I’ve come to the conclusion that perhaps the facsimile I wrote may not be as realistic as what is expected. However, as I previously stated, I cannot change what is already published and have to accept the sequence of events in the first book. The best I can do is improve future volumes of the story thanks to your feedback.
For those of you who have read this far into the story only to find that it isn’t what you initially expected, thank you. You took a chance on a new story and gave me valuable insight into how to improve both as a writer and as an author. That you have given me so much of your time and patience is something I will forever be grateful for. While it does sadden me that some readers will discontinue the story, your thoughts and comments are very important to me.
There is so much left to come in The Genesis Saga, and I hope that my readers who do continue to read the story will come to love it as much as I do. For those who want to see what happens next without waiting, you can purchase A Planet to Nowhere on Amazon or read ahead on my Patreon for only 2$.
As always, thank you for reading and for your support.