A LOCAL author has begun working on a sequel to a science fiction novel.
Neil Stevenson from Kendal, said he was excited about the prospect of writing the follow-up to The Email From God, revealing that the tone would be ‘much more sinister’ than the first book and would resolve many of the plotlines in it.
His science fiction novel, The Email From God, was published in June 2022 and has already sold more than 3,300 copies.
“I had the idea for The Email From God for at least ten years,” said Neil.
“It was originally borne out of the fact that, as a human race, we are absolutely destroying the world and devouring its resources. It really is a serious situation that we are in and we are not doing nearly enough about it.”
The idea behind the book is that everyone on the planet receives an email from God - a universal consciousness – in January 2023.
The book is set in 2046, when the world has become a much fairer, peaceful and greener place. A group of five scientists working at CERN on a project called Hindsight are preparing to send information back in time on a tiny NanoChip to help people take action to avoid natural disasters and human tragedies such as air crashes.
However, when the planet’s ruling elite manage to hijack Hindsight to send back artificial intelligence programmes to seek out and destroy God’s email for their own monetary gain, the five try to ensure that the content of the email can still be read by those in the past, by hiding documents on the NanoChip, along with an artificial intelligence programme of their own, with instructions to publish them as a book.
About half of the novel is written as a record of conversations between them using an app called Talk2Text. Neil’s name does not even appear on the cover – instead Fahim Graham, a character in the book, is credited as the author.
The book includes several references to Kendal and South Lakeland, including Sleddale Forest between Kentmere and Longsleddale, as two of the characters grew up in the area.
He said: “The reaction to the book has been very positive. It ends on a cliff-hanger and I have had messages from people asking when the sequel is coming out.”
He said he has already started writing the second book, with a view to it being published in 2024.
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