What happens when you have a “surprise” sequel — one you didn’t know you were going to write — and you have take a story further without compromising what’s come before? M V Melcer has given this quandry some thought, and explains how it worked out for the sequel that become Inversions.
M V MELCER:
I wrote Inversions to examine what happens after the story ends, after the hero fights their battle and rides into the sunset—or disappears into cryo-sleep as the case may be. Initially, Refractions, the first book in what is now The Guardian Cycle duology, was conceived as a standalone, an account of a rescue mission to the ill-fated colony on Bethesda (described on my previous Big Idea post). At the end of that story, the protagonist made a decision—a choice that would affect everyone on Earth. While Nathalie was convinced her decision was right, she also knew she wouldn’t have to live with its consequences, at least not for as long as she slept in her cryo-pod on the way back to Earth.
But as I finished writing Refractions, the question of those consequences and the rightness of Nathalie’s decision stayed with me, demanding to be explored. Inversions is the result: a tale of repercussions of somebody else’s choices and their effects on those who took no part in making them.
It started as an appendix: a brief summary of the events immediately following the news from Bethesda. But that was too dry, too abstract. It covered the events but didn’t really delve into their impact. What I needed was a story, one that could work independently from the first novel. And, even more, I needed the characters to bring that narrative to life. Once I figured out who the protagonists were, the story materialised.
Inversions follows three people facing their challenges in the world they inherited: Earth devastated by climate change and political turmoil, humanity split between the masses on the surface and the elites building their future in orbit. Each of the characters charts their own path, making new, very different choices in how they want to shape their world. Jason follows in his Aunt Nathalie’s footsteps, fighting to save Earth from a climate crisis even if his methods often stray into the grey zone. Ranath believes Earth is beyond salvation and humanity’s only chance is a new start—but only for her chosen elites…
Inversions: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Waterstones|Audible
Source: The Big Idea: M V Melcer
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