I am an author of Science Fiction and Fantasy. My current story, Systema Delenda Est, may be found at Royal Road, along with my previous stories. You can support me on Patreon or Subscribestar or buy my books.
Systema Delenda Est
Book Two: Undermining The System
Spreading into the wider System, Cato is confronted with the full scope of his crusade. Tens of thousands of worlds or more, beings capable of destroying planets, and even stricter limitations on technology if he doesn’t want to show is hand early.
All he has are his two agents and a few dubious allies. If he were a being of flesh and blood, forced to go planet by planet in a slow march from one end of the System to the other, it would be the work of thousands or millions of years. But Cato is of Sol, a postbiological citizen with no such restrictions, and he can move in ways that no conventional human could.
The System may be immense, and the people within it have powers impossible to a technological civilization, but Cato has exponential growth.
Systema Delenda Est
Book One: Invading The System
When the System came to Earth, technology failed, monsters appeared, and billions died as humans were inducted into the game-like physics the System enforced.
Unfortunately for the System, not all humans were on Earth. Some scattered postbiological individuals decided to push it back, and embarked on a decade-long crusade to eliminate the System from Earth.
Cato is just an ordinary postbiological citizen, disgusted enough by the System’s excesses to go through one of the portals on Earth and spread himself to the broader System just as Earth is completely freed. He has no magic, for the System can’t be destroyed from within, but he does have the technology and knowledge of a civilization that is reaching toward the second rank of the Kardashev scale. Cato may have to operate under the System’s limitations, but he certainly doesn’t have to play by its rules, and fully intends to remove the threat it offers.
“…furthermore, I maintain that the System must be destroyed.”
***
Systema Delenda Est is sort of an anti-System Apocalypse novel, pitting hard scifi against an anti-technology litRPG reality.
Chasing Sunlight
In a world of lightless skies and endless secrets, humanity is a vigil of light against the eternal darkness. Under the imprimatur of the Illuminated King and the nefarious endorsement of the Reflected Council, a veteran explorer assembles an expedition to the far east. A place that no sane and god-fearing man would ever go.
Jonathan Heights will, and must, for he claims to have seen sunlight. A laughable myth and fairy tale, but he will not be stopped on his journey to find it again.
Wonders and horrors both lie between the human lands and his ultimate goal; things long-forgotten and long-dead, that which could not be recorded on any map. They are temptation and terror to the wise and foolish alike, but not to Jonathan. His purpose is clear, and he has but one goal, yet the truth is shrouded and motives remain uncertain among the agents of both crown and underworld as they join Jonathan aboard the airship Endeavor to sail the strange and exotic lands out there in the darkness.
Chasing Sunlight is an airship adventure inspired by Sunless Sea, HP Lovecraft, and a little bit of Moby Dick and The Odyssey.
The Final Book of Paranoid Mage: Sovereign Mage
The portal to the Night Lands is closed, and vampires are barred from Earth, but at a high cost. Not only does Callum have to deal with the fallout of the vampire race’s final spasms, but the political consequences of demonstrating his ability and willingness to attack portal worlds directly. The forces that were moving to control a weakened GAR have come out into the open, and Callum has to deal with stakes much higher than his personal freedom.
It's time to join with his allies and move to open conflict. Even the secret of supernatural presence on Earth is at play, and the Archmage’s Council and the Seven Lesser Courts threaten the very concept of human sovereignty. Everything comes down to removing the would-be tyrants, and so preserving the Earth as it should be.
Paranoid Mage Book Four: Reclusive Mage
The Guild of Arcane Regulation has fractured, and new forces move on the board. Callum cannot quite declare victory, for even a weakened GAR still forces him to hide from the world at large, yet he is no longer prepared to run. Instead he builds his own strengths to stand against those who wish to do him harm.
Change, once started, is hard to stop. Callum’s actions have brought change to the world of the supernatural, but that can bring chaos and destruction even as he eliminates tyranny and corruption. He has to move beyond being one man against the world, and stand in the world he’s made.
Paranoid Mage Licensed By Webtoon!
I'd like to announce that Paranoid Mage has been licensed by Webtoon for a, well, Webtoon adaptation!
WEBTOON Expands its IP & Creator Ecosystem With Webcomic Adaptations of Hit Web Novels
WEBTOON will grow its slate of series in 2023 with adaptations of fantasy, LitRPG, and romance content from renowned web novel publishers and platforms
Erratic Errata’s “A Practical Guide to Evil,” Zogarth’s “The Primal Hunter,” and “Paranoid Mage” by InadvisablyCompelled are among the hit web novels getting webcomic adaptations on WEBTOON
Los Angeles, Calif. (Jan. 18, 2023) — Some of the biggest names in web novels and web fiction are coming to WEBTOON, the world’s largest digital comics platform. The company today announced a series of deals and a slate of content that will see popular web novels adapted as webcomics on WEBTOON, giving fans a new way to enjoy their favorite web novels in a serialized webcomic format.
As part of the new webcomic slate, WEBTOON has partnered with some of the most exciting publishers in web novels and web fiction. WEBTOON will adapt popular titles from Aethon Books and Moonquill, as well as WEBTOON’s Wattpad and YONDER platforms.
The new slate of web novel adaptations expands WEBTOON’s global IP & creator ecosystem, which now includes webcomics, web novels, serialized fiction, TV, film, podcasts, audiobooks, and print publishing. WEBTOON’s family of brands include WEBTOON, Wattpad, Yonder, and Wattpad WEBTOON Studios. Together, this IP & creator ecosystem allows WEBTOON to adapt IP across a variety of formats, turning fan-favorite stories from each brand into multi-format franchises, reaching new fans around the world and helping creators monetize their work in new ways.
“Web novels are one of the most exciting new categories in fiction, with new voices bypassing traditional publishing to share their stories and build global fandoms online,” said David Lee, VP of Content at WEBTOON. “With richly-built worlds that take genre fiction in creative new directions, web fiction is uniquely positioned for web comic adaptations. We know WEBTOON readers and web fiction fans will fall in love with these stories in their new visual format as webcomics.”
Among the first group of titles that will receive webcomic adaptations in 2023, are Zogarth’s “The Primal Hunter” series, which has sold more than 100,000 eBooks and 50,000 audiobooks across nine volumes; InadvisablyCompelled’s “Paranoid Mage” series, which has over 3.5 million views online and has sold more than 25,000 ebooks, reaching Amazon’s top ten bestseller list for Urban Fantasy; and Erratic Errata’s “A Practical Guide to Evil,” which has over 30 million views online for the completed series.
Paranoid Mage Book 3: Heretic Mage
Callum is at war with the Guild of Arcane Regulation, the organization that governs mages on Earth. He’s spent most of his time lying low and hiding out, trying to understand what he can do and how he can remain free from their meddling. What he’s learned is that he can’t.
It’s time to move from reaction to action, and take on GAR and its evils directly.
Paranoid Mage Book 2: Renegade Mage
After escaping from the Guild of Arcane Regulation and the Bureau of Secret Enforcement, Callum has lost his greatest protection: his obscurity. Now the powers that be know who he is, and hiding is harder than ever. Nor is hiding a plan, just a reaction.
Now Callum is forced to decide how he wants to approach the supernatural world, and how he’s going to keep himself secure when the apparatus of government is arrayed against him. Even if he wanted to live as a mage, that bridge has been thoroughly burned, and even if he wanted to live as a normal person, he is far too deep to close his eyes to what he’s seen.
He has to make his own terms.
Paranoid Mage
Book One now available on Amazon!
Callum had seen things all his life. There are monsters and beasts living among people, but he learned very early not to admit such things, not if he didn’t want people to think him crazy.
It turns out that the supernatural is real, but at thirty Callum has no desire to be part of that secret. Not that he has a choice when it turns out he is a mage, albeit one that hasn’t cast any spells in all his life. There are requirements, duties, and education that the powers that be insist he be subject to.
To hell with that.
Weekly release schedule, Fridays at 5PM EST.
Blue Core
Dungeon: A place full of monsters, traps, treasure, and death. Those are the Great Dungeons, with unplumbed depths below the roots of the mountains.
That's not for me.
Dungeon: A place of rape, torture, and death, to control and corral enemies and slaves. These are the Red Cores, from which the mage-kings draw their power.
That's also not for me.
I don't like monsters. I don't want adventurers. I want to stay well away from enemies and slaves.
Fortunately, there are alternatives...
(Includes explicit and consensual sexual content. Chapters containing such will be marked.)