A repository of writing by Lachlan Marnoch - short stories, fantasy, science fiction, science fact, and adjacent opinions.
Leafshrine is a village built (or rather, grown) into a cluster of erefal trees (Magnum ludicrum). It is fair to say that the villagers build their entire lives around these remarkable plants - which, at over a kilometre tall, are the largest in Proesus, and likely all of Pendant.
Read MoreThis is my last week in the village of Leafshrine, a tiny community of Austia (Teensies explorator) deep in the Erefal Woods. Although I have worked with Austia before, I have never spent so prolonged a period living among them. The Austia, as a civilized species, have endured discrimination from as far back as history goes - owing chiefly, I believe, to their insectoid nature.
Read MoreWhen I first heard of Anther Strein, and of the famous Theory for which she is chiefly responsible, I was sitting in a lecture hall at the University of Manifold. I was about to fall asleep. I was wrenched rudely back to full consciousness by the sheer audacity of the assertions being made before me. Only once I had assured myself that the words emanating from the professor at the front of the room were not, in fact, generated by my own semi-conscious hallucination, but were uttered in complete sincerity, did I begin to realise the full impact of what I was hearing. The elegance of Anther’s ideas and the fundamental truth behind them struck me deeply; they cast new insight on everything I knew of the living world. I wished immediately that I had learnt of them much earlier.
Read MoreAnther Strein is a travelling naturalist in the science fantasy world of Pendant. In her studies of the astounding animals and plants of her surroundings, a question has often nagged her - how did such diversity come to exist, and how does it adapt to the ever-shifting conditions of the natural world? A dangerous idea is forming at the back of her mind: one in which gradual change, rather than instantaneous creation, is the main driving force of the natural world.
Join Anther on her journey across the continent of Proesus, as she records her observations of bizarre animals and plants and unravels the mysterious relationships between life, magic and natural selection in an enchanted world.
Read More“The world is flat. God made it that way.” Granddad says this all the time, so we buy tickets to space.
Read MoreThe fish was minding her own business when a fissure opened in the ice above her, and she was sucked unceremoniously upward.
She wasn’t really a fish, of course. But she had fins, she had gills, her shape was ideal for slicing through Europa’s subsurface oceans. The obvious difference, biochemistry aside, was her lack of eyes, and some deep-water Earth fish don’t have those anyway.
Read MoreHey all! Just a quick post to inform that I've got three pieces of writing in the new Grapeshot! If you're on campus, go grab a copy or ten - it's free.
Read MoreThe Vagarist, my correspondent from Verse 1.3.1, has posted an article on the Web of Worlds Wiki about Mrithi! Mrithi are the elephant descendants that, after human extinction in the early 22nd century, evolved to become Earth's second technological species. Recently, the species featured in my story Intro to House-Ape Studies. Click the link below to find out more.
Today I'm launching the Web of Worlds Wiki, which is our new repository for information on a vast myriad of worlds - kindly provided by collaborators across multiple universes. We have started with an article on Planet Eaters, which you may recognise from my short story. The article (written by The Locksmith, my Verse 12 correspondent) presents some known details about their biology and behaviour. We plan to build on the Wiki for some time, with further information about the worlds in the stories on this site. Please enjoy!
Seeds is a science fiction novel (in progress) set in a far future, following a society of humans that travels from star to star and seeds their planets with life.
Read MoreWhen I heard that Ridley Scott was planning an Alien prequel, way back in 2012, I was pretty hyped. Then, I was disappointed. Now, after Alien: Covenant, I find myself appreciating Prometheus a whole lot more.
Read MoreIt's been ages since I posted last. I've been thinking a bit (a lot) lately about writing, and what it means to me and what I want to do with it. I've said this before... but I'm hoping to post a lot more in the near future. I've got plans, man, big plans1, you just wait.
So anyway, I thought I'd post this to get the ball rolling. This is a story and a universe I've been working on in bits and pieces since the Planck epoch. The Richell Prize, a novel-writing competition, prompted me in 2015 to go ahead and get the first few chapters done. I didn't make the shortlist, and I wasn't expecting to, but it did succeed in getting me to put some actual stuff down. Two years later and I haven't added much - you know how it is - but I thought I'd put it up here anyway. It's a bit rough in retrospect, and it could definitely use some work. One day, man. One day.
Legacy: The God of Night (a sample)
1 Plans are at most mild to medium in size.
Elya continued to fly the Supernought as they fled back to the bridge, which was not an easy journey given that his suit's jets, and several of Delton's bones, were broken. The ship was accelerating at full power now, away from the nucleus-forsaken rock behind them. Without the ship's inertial muffling, they would have been no more than red stains on the rear walls; even with it they were struggling to move against the acceleration.
Read MoreThe dead ship hung in space, spinning slowly. With active surfaces disabled, its hull mirrored the distant stars perfectly. Even without stealth measures it was visible only by the constellations it altered as it passed before them, blotting out stars and replacing them with new ones. As it turned, however, the craft’s interior became visible, exposed by jagged sections of missing hull. There were no sparking cables, no vapours leaking from smashed pipes. Just a broken eggshell.
From the launch bay of the SDU Dubious Honour, Delton watched the incongruous opening draw closer as the Semartus ship matched the Supernought’s velocity. She floated in the airlock with a dozen other crewmembers, both Darax and Semartus, vacuum suits ready and sealed.
My war started a long time before the Tulisan. I was getting old before they were even a blip on SDU deep space radar. I'm a veteran, you know, from the Storm border conflicts. I enlisted right out of school, as soon as I could. I was stationed on Bulwark, my homeworld, actually, which has the happy distinction of playing host to no less than three Storm invasions. And one Tulisan invasion.
Read MoreThe Planet Eater swung around the yellow star and closed in on his prey. The blue planet swelled into his view, emerging from the milky strew of stars. He could feel the radio waves emanating from it; see the spectral lines of molecular oxygen in its atmosphere, its swarm of tiny satellites. This was a planet at the peak of its lifespan. His mouth started to water.
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