Tomes of Sagittarius (Series)

## Overview:

"The Tomes of Sagittarius" is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy book series written by Christopher Dorsey. The project began in 2017, and the first book in the series "Universe Eight" was released in 2022. The series takes place almost entirely on a fictionalized Abrahamic Afterlife, though the gods of previous superstition are deceased, leading to humans and life running free (and rampant) across its surface. What the afterlife is, and why it exists at all, is one of the greatest mysteries in the novels. The legends of the Afterlife state that at one point, the land was whole, but was split into nine parts during an event called "The Rift." Book one takes place on the eighth piece of nine, on Universe Eight. Within the Tomes of Sagittarius there are various magic systems, some conflicting with each other, that give certain characters abilities over others. Some of these figures are known as "apocolites", who wield swords of impossibly-sharp crystal. Each apocolite is granted a super power that gives them an edge in battle, or social situations. The first book, "Universe Eight", introduces readers to a world beyond death, where all individuals from Earth, including extinct and extant animals, converge. This fictionalized afterlife, reminiscent of a "fallen heaven," serves as the primary setting for the story, offering a backdrop for exploring philosophical and metaphysical questions. By blurring the boundaries between science fiction and fantasy, the challenge is put forth to the reader to question their conventional notions of the afterlife, allowing them to reflect on the implications of such a world.

Themes such as "loss and love," "coming of age," and "violence being appropriate in the face of tyranny," are all featured heavily in the text. The characters not only confront their own mortality but also face profound existential questions about identity, purpose, and their place in the universe. The afterlife serves as a crucible for personal growth and self-discovery, pushing the characters to confront their fears, forge new alliances, and ultimately embrace their true selves, for good or ill. With its expansive cast of characters, "Universe Eight" offers a sociological lens through which readers can examine the complexities of human society and interpersonal dynamics. The afterlife becomes a microcosm of diverse backgrounds, cultures, and belief systems, leading to intricate webs of social interactions. The novel deftly explores the dynamics of power, hierarchy, and social structures within this unusual realm, shedding light on the human condition even in the face of the afterlife. By presenting a sociological perspective, "Universe Eight" prompts readers to question and reflect upon their own social environments. Like in many popular fantasy series, the character's success or survival is not guaranteed.

The first grouping of books in the series take place on Universe Eight, in a land known as "Thane's Isle." Thane's Isle is an industrial powerhouse, reminiscent of America in the 1900's. One of the main difference between Thane's Isle and America to be noted is the personal automobile did not take over public transportation, and much of Thane's Isle is dependent on its vast railroad system to continue commerce. Thane's Isle has been embroiled in a six-year (or cycle) long civil war with a socialist rebellion known as the "People's Republik", which aims to remove powers from the monarchy, and establish a more equitable society. The main characters, the "Chosen Five", are initially told this rebellion is their enemy, but their own ideas on the conflict begin to come forth as the story progresses. Before the civil war, Thane's Isle was embroiled in a conflict with the other continent on Universe Eight, "The Sun Nation," which is just as vast and powerful as Thane's Isle, though propaganda states otherwise.

## Origins and History:

### "Zombies" (Film):

The "Tomes of Sagittarius" books originally became a concept when Dorsey was in 8th grade, though it started as a film, as opposed to a book. With a handheld camcorder, he as a few of his friends and neighbors created a film, titled "Zombies" that involved five musicians being transported to the afterlife after their car is hit by a train. There, they are hounded after by the evil ruler of the afterlife, "Z", before finally gaining the weapons and magical know-how to defeat the evil that plagued them. Very little in the movie actually had to do with zombies, save for the denizens of the afterlife being able to resurrect themselves. The climax of the film culminates in the character of "Chris" finding the "quantum helmet" which made all denizens of the afterlife mortal, thereby leveling the playing field. When Z is defeated, Chris chooses to resurrect his friends, and play the show they intended to play at the start of the film.

### Production:

The film's production was rife with scheduling problems, had no script, and was made entirely by amateur 9th graders (and child neighbors who participated for fun). The acting was poor, and the special effects were limited by the "FX Home" program, which provided the movie with rudimentary lightsaber effects. The lightsaber concept would be abandoned later due to copyright issues, and the wisp blade replaced it when the first drafts of the book were written. The movie was originally designed as a massive chase scene, where the actors would try to play a game of manhunt with toy lightsabers, and the end would either result in the defeat of the zombies, or the victory of the living. However, this concept was abandoned when the far more numerous living bested the zombies over and over again. Eventually, a plot was loosely set in stone, and the movie was completed. Without knowledge of audio engineering and editing, some portions of the film were silent, or the atmospheric music was louder than the dialogue, making it impossible to hear the cast. Zombies was debuted publicly once, but was taken off of Youtube at the request of the embarrassed cast. The film was printed on around a dozen DVDs, and it is assumed all copies of the original "Zombies" movie are lost.

### Relation to Novels:

Many of the salvageable plot beats were reworked by Dorsey to fit with the massive scope of the first five novels. From the second book; "Prisoners & Pirates" to the fifth book; "The Convergence", plot points can be loosely recognized from the film. While the "Zombies" film was amateurish and received poorly by peers, it provided the necessary springboard for the lore of the series that would come in the next decade.

### Zombies 2: The Rise of Solomon (Film)

Believing falsely that the first film was a success, author Chris Dorsey began work on a second film, continuing the story further. "Zombies 2" included friends Dorsey met in high school, most of them musicians from music classes at North Haven High School. The neighbors who played "zombie children" in the previous installments were not permitted to participate, at the behest of their parents who found the previous film too crude and vulgar for their Christian sensibilities. Other actors refused to participate as well, leaving Dorsey to find a new cast for the sequel film.

#### Fate of "Zombies 2":

Zombies 2: The Rise of Solomon, was never completed. Cast members lost interest and quit until there were not enough left to reasonably finish the movie. Conflicts between cast members and Dorsey led to issues that forced last minute cast changes, but the likeness of actors was not convincing, and the amount of re-filming required was too much of a task. Like in the previous installment, the movie was plagued by wooden acting, special effects issues, and audio problems that make the film nigh unwatchable. There are minutes of the film where the footage was lost, and Count Basie's "April in Paris" plays over a blank, dark screen, only for the footage to pop in and out at seemingly random intervals. The film was never posted anywhere, and no copies other than Dorsey's are known to exist.

## Beginnings of the First Work:

In Dorsey's senior year of high school, he decided he would write the story in his head down, and make the work a tangible thing that people could enjoy, with none of the production snags and issues relying on scheduling. The first draft of the book was completed in 2015, but the writing skill was not up to par, and the book was abandoned and rewritten. Dorsey rewrote the first novel; "Universe Eight," three times, until it was realized that starting where the movie began, was not a good way to introduce the audience to the world. The concept slowly but surely drifted away from zombies as Dorsey read more literature and fantasy works, and learned story telling elements from author George R. R. Martin's work, as well as being inspired by other forms of media. "Universe Eight" was rewritten one final time, in 2019, before finally being published three years later. It was edited by Whitney Morsillo, and features a forward from beta-reader and long time friend of Dorsey, John David Short.

Universe Eight focuses mostly on the character of Benjamin Reynolds, and his grandfather, Peter. After Ben is lost in a mysterious accident, he arrives on the Afterlife confused, scared, and alone. Separated from his grandson by the sea, Peter is tasked with bringing Ben back to the Sun Nation, to complete the Reynolds family hierarchy that has existed long before Ben arrived. It is unknown at this point in the story how this hierarchy came to be, other than most of Ben's family (including Ben himself, but sans Peter) are all apocolites, mystical warriors of the land of the undead. Eventually, Ben and Peter reunite, but under the circumstances of war, and they don't receive the warm reunion they wished.

There are five point-of-view characters in "Universe Eight," and each tells a different perspective on the Battle of Fort Lightchild.

The characters are;

Ben Reynolds - Chosen Apocolite of unknown ability. Bassist and bass vocalist of Eight Nites Out.

Peter Reynolds - Ben's grandfather and Captain of the SNCV Abraham

Julia Nixon - A recruit soldier stationed at Fort Lightchild

Andrey Ivanov - A Knight of the Northern Isles, known as "The Butcher of Hero's Folly".

Leon Broks - An apocolite Child of Ice, who serves thane Zenzele Azikiwe as a Thane's Guard.

The stories conclude in a bittersweet manner, preparing the tone for future books. The threat of the God-King Xolomon looms over the reunited Chosen Five.

The concepts detailed in Universe Eight are that of a schism in author Dorsey's mind regarding religion, as well as fictionalized versions of life experiences. Many of the books feature situations that are somewhat based on real events in Dorsey's life, but have been fictionalized to the point where they are not recognizable. Much of the afterlife concept comes from Dorsey's experience in childhood. Dorsey's parents struggled with alcoholism, and were unintentionally neglectful, resulting in Dorsey refusing to believe the myth that Christ would return one day. With the cynicism for the christian faith cemented, Dorsey wrote a bastardization of heaven, where the Abrahamic god was dead, and there was a concrete, tangible reason for why Christ did not return, being deceased himself. These base concepts began the lore, for Dorsey explored the idea "what came before god in this place?" as well as what happens *after* god.

"Universe Eight" initially did not sport these concepts until the final rewrite. After the death of Dorsey's grandfather, Dorsey made a tribute to him by including the character of "Peter Reynolds" in the book. Having Peter be from the Sun Nation, a mysterious desert land across the sea, created the initial conflict that spawned more of the tangible historic lore, and 'Universe Eight', in the author's mind, became a larger world than just a house on a cul-de-sac. When the book was finally finished, Dorsey realized based on the numerous events that led to the ending of the series, there would have to be twenty books in the main body of work in order for everything to be tied with a bow.

## The Writings of the First Pentilogy:

Dorsey, during his time at Berklee College of Music in Boston, continued writing the story of Universe Eight (then the title of the series, not just the first book). While playing in bands and touring with musical acts, Dorsey discovered marijuana and psychedelic drugs, which both provided a boon and a hinderance to his artwork. The concepts of life existing before humans on the afterlife entered the story, and the "evolved dinosaurs", "neanderthal empires" and the Gevvyd were further developed during this time. During one psychedelic experience, which Dorsey described as being "at least seven grams of mushrooms," Dorsey wrote the first draft of the fourth book in the series, "The Red Fire", without having written the second or the third. Dorsey recalls little of the writing, only that he came to, and the book was half finished before him. After a brief hospitalization, Dorsey went sober.

Dorsey finalized the entirety of the story, and the rough plots and themes of each book, solidifying the ending of the series. It was decided that each of the first five books would follow a different point of view of the "Chosen Five", along with other characters that provide context to the world around them. Each of the five boys, being new to the afterlife, experience the world vastly different to the natives and denizens, some who are born on the afterlife, and some who are not. After the fourth book solidified much of what would happen to the characters of Sal Toole and Jeremiah Woodard, Dorsey was more easily able to guide the story to the point of "convergence", which later inspired the title of the fifth book. Using what little information remained of the first film "Zombies", Dorsey was able to draft plot points on a larger scale, and have the events of the movie translate better into text format, with the context of the lore making previously disjointed events make sense.

In 2020, Dorsey wrote "Prisoners and Pirates," and in 2021 wrote "North We Go." In 2022, after two years of sobriety and self reflection, Dorsey decided "Universe Eight" was finished, and hired Whitney Morsillo to edit the text. It was published later that year, and the editing for "Prisoners and Pirates" began in short order. Prisoners and Pirates was released on June 8th, 2023. In late 2022, Dorsey began the first draft of "The Convergence," which to this date is the longest book in the series, at a predicted 1300 manuscript pages. Dorsey plans to release one book a year.

## Series Future:

Dorsey plans to write the series to completion. Currently there are twenty books planned, as well as multiple spin-off series. The twenty books will tell the story of the Chosen Five in their battle against the god Sagittarius, where the spinoffs will focus more on "day in the life" scenarios on the Afterlife.

The first planned spinoff series is "Tales of the Tomes", which will detail 'in between' stories that provide more context to political situations and world events, and may be written in short-story form, or full length novels.

The second planned spinoff is a trilogy from the perspective of Jack Harmann, a Sunnese bounty hunter and uncle to the character of Ben Reynolds. Whether this spinoff is part of Tales of the Tomes is yet to be seen.

The third spinoff series is titled "Tales from the Eastern Gate", which details the creation and working life of the Eastern Gate Railroad, a fictional railway company on the continent of Thane's Isle. Much of this series will involve Dorsey's knowledge of railroads, folklore stories from real "Earthen" history, and stories told by other railroaders with permission from the storytellers.