Writing Space Opera Science Fiction with Essa Hansen, author of NOPHEK GLOSS
In this episode, I’m talking with Essa Hansen, author of NOPHEK GLOSS. This debut science fiction adventure follows Caiden, a teenage mechanic who discovers his simple but highly regimented life is actually one of servitude on a hidden slave planet.
When his entire colony is sent to slaughter, Caiden alone survives, fleeing the vicious creatures who devoured his people. After taking refuge in a strange, abandoned vessel, he is saved from capture by a band of explorers, and whisked off planet—with only trauma and rage as mementos of his previous existence.
Among the stars, he discovers a multiverse of strange lifeforms, alien cultures, and unfathomably powerful foes. Torn by grief and guilt, accompanied by a quarrelsome found family, and in possession of a dangerously unique ship, Caiden wrestles with his own mysterious origins while facing a singular question:
How can one boy take revenge on a vast, evil interstellar political entity?
NOPHEK GLOSS is an ambitious and imaginative space opera novel that arrives November 17th from Orbit Books. Available wherever books are sold:
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Watch this interview on YouTube
Resources Mentioned in this Episode
New York Comic Con @ Home 2020 “Telling Tales Between the Stars Panel
Moderated by Fictitious host Adron Buske. Featuring Elaine Mongeon & Glen Zipper (Devastation Class), Tochi Onyebuchi (Rebel Sisters), Essa Hansen (Nophek Gloss), Elizabeth Bear (Machine), and Christopher Paolini (To Sleep in a Sea of Stars). Watch it on YouTube.
Susan Dennard’s “1-Page Synopsis” plotting system on Pub(lishing) Crawl
About Essa Hansen
Essa Hansen grew up in beautifully wild areas of California, from the coastal foothills to the Sierra Nevada mountains around Yosemite, before migrating north to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. She has ranched bison and sheep, trained horses, practiced Japanese swordsmanship, and is a licensed falconer. She attended the Vancouver Film School and works as a sound designer for SF and fantasy feature films.
Follow Essa Hansen
About NOPHEK GLOSS
“A sucker punch to the senses…a killer story with real heart and soul.”–Alastair Reynolds
When a young man’s planet is destroyed, he sets out on a single-minded quest for revenge across the galaxy in Nophek Gloss, the first book in this epic space opera trilogy debut — perfect for fans of Revenger and Children of Time.
Caiden’s planet is destroyed. His family gone. And, his only hope for survival is a crew of misfit aliens and a mysterious ship that seems to have a soul and a universe of its own. Together they will show him that the universe is much bigger, much more advanced, and much more mysterious than Caiden had ever imagined. But the universe hides dangers as well, and soon Caiden has his own plans.
He vows to do anything it takes to get revenge on the slavers who murdered his people and took away his home. To destroy their regime, he must infiltrate and dismantle them from the inside, or die trying.
