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Gus Ryer

@gusryer.bsky.social

Reader, writer, tinkerer. Querying CASCADE- far-future SF w/ nanotech, ancient gods, & hidden history. Also LIFT, space elevator derring-do. gusryer.com He/him #AmQuerying

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Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · 2w ago

🚨 SEEKING HEIST CREW 🚨 Must: 👵 be retired 💵 have mob debt 🚀 fly spaceships 🤖 preference given to candidates w/ parasitic AIs in their brain Don't be: 😤 my ex partner (even if you fly spaceships) 🤮 his fiancée LOGAN LUCKY 🤝 SPACE SWEEPERS 🤝 2021 Suez Canal fiasco #QuestPit #Q #SF #BookSky

A black hole spirals in the distance, a fiery trail of material getting sucked into it from across the image. Approaching is a circular, doughnut-like spaceship or station. The title LANE BREAKERS runs along the bottom, the second word highlighted in bright purple and appearing to fall off the edge. A red ALERT box connected to the ship says 'Now Querying', and the wormhole is labeled 'Taurine Strait' COMPS & META INFORMATION Along the bottom right, a black and white sketch of a old woman in a space pilot's outfit holds a glowing magenta martini glass. Smoke from her cigarette glows and wafts in pinks and blues. Genre: SF Heist Audience: Adult Wordcount: +-100,000 Themes and Tropes: Blue collar heist (Re)found family Grungy space life Sentient AIs Comps: Logan Lucky The Quantum Magician The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Cascade Failure The Suez Canal incident Space Sweepers THE HEIST: Desdemona Skene hates her job. She spends each day as a glorified crossing guard for traffic through her system’s wormhole. But, ever since she botched a flight of her own, it’s all she has. Dez’s friends have moved on, her ex is seeing someone new, and she’s in debt to the mob. At eighty-three years old, it’s not like she’s a candidate for promotion. But then Dez learns that the largest civilian ship ever designed by humanity will be passing through her friendly neighborhood wormhole. Piloted by an experimental AI, this cruise might prove computers are finally able to successfully navigate wormholes. Stock prices will blast into orbit, but it’ll spell unemployment for Dez and thousands of human pilots. Probably her home station too. If that ship’s taking her down, Dez is going to drag it along for the ride—and make a tidy profit along the way. She’ll need to gather a crew (if her old friends will still talk to her), shake the mob, and outwit megacorps and empires both. THE CREW Golden boxes house titles and descriptions of characters. The top one, Dez, is a magenta circle that looks sci-fi. Desdemona ‘Dez’ Skene Washed up and too poor for retirement, Dez has a drinking problem and a mob problem. She might have one last job left in her Hacker Finn's got a heart of gold, more backdoors than a hardware store, and would rather be playing video games The Faces Dez’s parents might be older than moon dust, but Hank and Gwen have been conning people for almost a century. They still haven’t lost their touch Sentient Adbot Marty, the uplifted, digital adbot who dreams of personhood. He also happens to live inside Finn's head Crack Pilot Vil is the fastest sled pilot on Midway Station, famous for crushing the illegal racing circuit. Also, he's Dez’ ex of thirty years The Muscle The best mechanic on the station, Caius brings some well-needed muscle. But, most annoyingly, he's Vil's new flame
Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · 2w ago

HORIZON 0 Dawn 🤝 ARCHIVE UNDYING When a machine god severs the world from ancient nanotech, two engineer priests, a blademaster, and her warrior-poet twin must hunt it for a cure—and revenge. Failure will doom the world to divine wrath. But success? That will be deadly. #QuestPit #A #SF #F #Q

A giant spaceship hovers over a dusty, walled fantasy cityscape. In the foreground, two figures stand in shadow looking out over the scene. The words "An Agent's Guide to CASCADE, by Gus Ryer" is along the top. His website, gusryer.com, is below. A slide with metadata and story elements for CASCADE: Genre: Science Fiction with Fantasy Elements Wordcount: +-130,000 It shows the book covers for the following: ASHES OF THE SUN, Django Wexler THE ARCHIVE UNDYING, Emma Mieko Candon ELDER RACE, Adrian Tchaikovsky NOTES FROM THE BURNING AGE, Claire North Ps5's Horizon Zero Dawn Below that are the following phrases: Found family Failed terraforming A vast, hidden history Nanotech magic system Epic fantasy quest in a sci-fi world Ancient mechanical gods Arachnid mammals & guard drones Sword (1) vs. Railguns (lots) A warrior woman with a winged helmet, armor, cape, and spear is along the right side of the image, fractured into triangles. Part of the following pitch is along the left: Lendi never asked to be a God Keeper—one of the engineer-priests who command ancient nanotech. Abandoned on their temple doorstep and raised under their strict thumb, she longs to escape. She almost gets her chance when an ancient machine god crashes to the planet in a blaze of fire. But, instead, Lendi is dispatched far away—alongside her devout friend—to investigate the disappearance of a remote village’s Keeper. And she’ll be tracked. In that village, Sedna has no patience for their Keeper’s rules or mysticism, especially since the fool vanished. She’s more concerned with defending her people with her warrior-poet twin. But, when a flood of malfunctioning nanites devours her town, Sedna and her brother are left with nothing but each other—and vengeance. As the four converge... Chapter 1 THE RUSH IS ON! This Tuesday, Planetfall, Inc. announced it would join the rash of megacorps racing to deploy terraforming infrastructure through the newly stabilized Taurine Strait. Previously dominated by New World Corporation, the franchised development of pseudoterra worlds is slated to be the hot market sector of the twenty-fifth century. -Excerpt from InvestSyder: Stellar Ed., June 15, 2398 The streets of Mahyan never fully slept. Night’s darkness, not yet broken by either the sun’s rise or the blinding, baleful Eye of Toros, wrapped Lendi more completely than her robes. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that eyes were on her. She wanted nothing more than to run. An eager vendor barred her way with his stringy arm. “A fine morning calls for a fine meal, miss.” He smiled and fanned out a selection of skewered mutton and whalemeat wrapped in sea grass. Pungent, spiced oil dripped onto the dusty street. Lendi glared at him, her legs practically vibrating with the..
Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · 2w ago

QUANTUM MAGICIAN 🤝 LOGAN LUCKY When an AI-piloted space hauler threatens her home station, aging & indebted traffic controller Dez decides to rob the hell out of it. She's got a plan & a motley crew. But, when things aboard the target aren’t as expected, all bets are off. #QuestPit #Q #SF #A

A black hole spirals in the distance, a fiery trail of material getting sucked into it from across the image. Approaching is a circular, doughnut-like spaceship or station. The title LANE BREAKERS runs along the bottom, the second word highlighted in bright purple and appearing to fall off the edge. A red ALERT box connected to the ship says 'Now Querying', and the wormhole is labeled 'Taurine Strait'COMPS & META INFORMATION Along the bottom right, a black and white sketch of a old woman in a space pilot's outfit holds a glowing magenta martini glass. Smoke from her cigarette glows and wafts in pinks and blues. Genre: SF Heist Audience: Adult Wordcount: +-100,000 Themes and Tropes: Blue collar heist (Re)found family Grungy space life Sentient AIs Comps: Logan Lucky The Quantum Magician The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Cascade Failure The Suez Canal incident Space SweepersTHE HEIST: Desdemona Skene hates her job. She spends each day as a glorified crossing guard for traffic through her system’s wormhole. But, ever since she botched a flight of her own, it’s all she has. Dez’s friends have moved on, her ex is seeing someone new, and she’s in debt to the mob. At eighty-three years old, it’s not like she’s a candidate for promotion. But then Dez learns that the largest civilian ship ever designed by humanity will be passing through her friendly neighborhood wormhole. Piloted by an experimental AI, this cruise might prove computers are finally able to successfully navigate wormholes. Stock prices will blast into orbit, but it’ll spell unemployment for Dez and thousands of human pilots. Probably her home station too. If that ship’s taking her down, Dez is going to drag it along for the ride—and make a tidy profit along the way. She’ll need to gather a crew (if her old friends will still talk to her), shake the mob, and outwit megacorps and empires both. But if she pulls this off, she might just get to live out her dream of a quiet retirement.THE CREW Golden boxes house titles and descriptions of characters. The top one, Dez, is a magenta circle that looks sci-fi. Desdemona ‘Dez’ Skene Washed up and too poor for retirement, Dez has a drinking problem and a mob problem. She might have one last job left in her Hacker Finn's got a heart of gold, more backdoors than a hardware store, and would rather be playing video games The Faces Dez’s parents might be older than moon dust, but Hank and Gwen have been conning people for almost a century. They still haven’t lost their touch Sentient Adbot Marty, the uplifted, digital adbot who dreams of personhood. He also happens to live inside Finn's head Crack Pilot Vil is the fastest sled pilot on Midway Station, famous for crushing the illegal racing circuit. Also, he's Dez’ ex of thirty years The Muscle The best mechanic on the station, Caius brings some well-needed muscle. But, most annoyingly, he's Vil's new flame
Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · 2w ago

SPACE SWEEPERS 🤝 LOGAN LUCKY When an AI-piloted space hauler threatens her home station, aging & indebted traffic controller Dez decides to rob the hell out of it. She's got a plan & a motley crew. But, when things aboard aren’t as expected, all bets are off. #QuestPit #Q #SF #A #BookSky

A black hole spirals in the distance, a fiery trail of material getting sucked into it from across the image. Approaching is a circular, doughnut-like spaceship or station. The title LANE BREAKERS runs along the bottom, the second word highlighted in bright purple and appearing to fall off the edge. A red ALERT box connected to the ship says 'Now Querying', and the wormhole is labeled 'Taurine Strait'COMPS & META INFORMATION Along the bottom right, a black and white sketch of a old woman in a space pilot's outfit holds a glowing magenta martini glass. Smoke from her cigarette glows and wafts in pinks and blues. Genre: SF Heist Audience: Adult Wordcount: +-100,000 Themes and Tropes: Blue collar heist (Re)found family Grungy space life Sentient AIs Comps: Logan Lucky The Quantum Magician The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Cascade Failure The Suez Canal incident Space SweepersTHE HEIST: Desdemona Skene hates her job. She spends each day as a glorified crossing guard for traffic through her system’s wormhole. But, ever since she botched a flight of her own, it’s all she has. Dez’s friends have moved on, her ex is seeing someone new, and she’s in debt to the mob. At eighty-three years old, it’s not like she’s a candidate for promotion. But then Dez learns that the largest civilian ship ever designed by humanity will be passing through her friendly neighborhood wormhole. Piloted by an experimental AI, this cruise might prove computers are finally able to successfully navigate wormholes. Stock prices will blast into orbit, but it’ll spell unemployment for Dez and thousands of human pilots. Probably her home station too. If that ship’s taking her down, Dez is going to drag it along for the ride—and make a tidy profit along the way. She’ll need to gather a crew (if her old friends will still talk to her), shake the mob, and outwit megacorps and empires both. But if she pulls this off, she might just get to live out her dream of a quiet retirement.THE CREW Golden boxes house titles and descriptions of characters. The top one, Dez, is a magenta circle that looks sci-fi. Desdemona ‘Dez’ Skene Washed up and too poor for retirement, Dez has a drinking problem and a mob problem. She might have one last job left in her Hacker Finn's got a heart of gold, more backdoors than a hardware store, and would rather be playing video games The Faces Dez’s parents might be older than moon dust, but Hank and Gwen have been conning people for almost a century. They still haven’t lost their touch Sentient Adbot Marty, the uplifted, digital adbot who dreams of personhood. He also happens to live inside Finn's head Crack Pilot Vil is the fastest sled pilot on Midway Station, famous for crushing the illegal racing circuit. Also, he's Dez’ ex of thirty years The Muscle The best mechanic on the station, Caius brings some well-needed muscle. But, most annoyingly, he's Vil's new flame
Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · 2w ago

Seriously, people are sleeping on this book. I'm only partway through but, if you can tolerate/enjoy the Hugo-ian minutia, it's great! You got storms, hubris, pining, a bucolic yet wild setting, drama, and humor. What more do you want?? #AmReading #BookSky

Toilers of the Sea, by Victor Hugo against the backdrop of a sandy beach. The cover shows a wind and sea-battered rock.
Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · 3w ago

Call me crazy, but across three social media platforms not a single person voted for Hugo. Felt bad. Couldn’t let the ol’ guy have no love. Toilers of the Sea it is! And I’ve already had a whole chapter on grass haha #AmReading #BookSky

A hand holds a copy of Toilers of the Sea, by Victor Hugo against the backdrop of a sandy beach. The cover shows a wind and sea-battered rock.
Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · 4w ago

And so it begins: trimmed a neat 350 words from the first handful of chapters. Need about 70/chapter on average - should be doable!

Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · 4w ago

PHEW. Finished addressing each and every beta reader note, along with some other revisions to Lanebreakers! Only problem? It's now sitting at 103,712 words, and I told myself I would query this sub-100k. Time for ONE last read-through/trim. Anyone got coffee? #AmWriting #WritingCommunity #BookSky

Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · last mo.

Finished THE CRYING OF LOT 49, by Thomas Pynchon - still reeling. It's like swimming in the ocean: let the waves/prose take you. If you dunk your head, there's a whole world to see. You'll just have to find your bearings once you're topside again. Loved it! Would recommend. #AmReading #BookSky

A hand holds a copy of THE CRYING OF LOT 49, by Thomas Pynchon against the backdrop of a cluttered bookshelf. The title is spray painted with n stencils over a painting of a figure looking at a distant billboard that displays a brass horn.
Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · last mo.

🚨 SEEKING HEIST CREW 🚨 Must: 🧓 be retired 💸have mob debt 🚀fly spaceships 🤖preference given to candidates infected with w/ parasitic AIs Don't be: 😡 my ex 🤮 my ex's fiancée JUST ONE MONTH UNTIL QUERYING! Logan Lucky/Space Sweepers/Suez Canal fiasco #UnhingedPit #W #SF #BookSky

A black-and-white sketch of an older woman with attitude against the backdrop of swirling stars. She's smoking and holds a pink and purple glowing martini in one hand, and she has a brace on her propped-up leg. The title LANEBREAKERS leans along the top of the image in gold and neon pink. A tagline reads, "She's waited eighty years for the heist of a lifetime."
Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · last mo.

One of the benefits of my computer being out of commission for part of the day was getting bonus time to dig into The Crying of Lot 49. This book’s wild. Much more enjoyable than I expected. Reminds me a lot of Catch-22 (my high school comfort read). More thoughts to come! #AmReading #BookSky

Gus Ryer@gusryer.bsky.social · last mo.

Love how, in order to simply sign into my Microsoft account, I need to download a special Authenticator app. And to set up the Authenticator app I need to authenticate via the Authenticator app. And none of that is, unsurprisingly, working.