CharlesSmith9

Humanity has built for itself a near-utopia with no more use for violence. Someone has to protect it.Sam Decker is a man without purpose. The perfect, strife-less techno-utopia into which he was born has left him feeling directionless and nihilistic. Without risk or conflict his life has no meaning.Until one day, after a little creative rule breaking, Decker brings himself to the attention of a high-tech, stateless, semi-clandestine military outfit. Now he will have all the risk and conflict he can handle.…

CharlesSmith9

Humanity emerges from the aftermath of the technological singularity having conquered scarcity, disease, poverty, aging, death, and, or so they thought, even war. With the aid of artificial intelligence and uplifted animals they have founded a virtual Utopia among the stars where people work only for personal development, satisfaction, or selflessly for the benefit of others.An attempt to help another space-faring species has unexpected consequences that threatens to engulf a whole region of space, and the Human Consensus is forced to intervene. When the small conflict grows into an existential threat to their entire civilization, humanity is forced for the first time to ask the question: can Utopia survive total war?I will be posting this story on RoyalRoad.com and this is one of many ridiculous hoops they want me to jump through.…

CharlesSmith9

It's actually getting too big for most people to navigate so I'm putting all the information about what the various stories on my profile are and which ones are connected to one another here.If you like this... is a list of recommendations for what to read next based on what brought you here in the first place.Shared Universes explains which stories are set in the same universe.Collections identifies all my short story collections and explains what kind of stories are found in each one.…

CharlesSmith9

Humanity emerges from the aftermath of the technological singularity having conquered scarcity, disease, poverty, aging, death, and war. Enter: Opaline Rose and her faithful companion Cujo the talking dog, troubleshooters and problem solvers of a distinctly clandestine variety.Naturally, there's no such thing as Exigency. It's just that when exigent circumstances present themselves, certain unusual individuals respond.…

CharlesSmith9

An ancient evil from a lost age of immortals has been awakened, threatening to plunge the galaxy into tyranny. Only a small band of space pirates (treasure hunters? acquisitionists? they'll get back to you) have the key to unlocking the secrets of the lost golden age of martial arts and saving the galaxy.…

CharlesSmith9

Humanity has built for itself a near-utopia with no more use for violence. Someone has to protect it.The rogue head of the Old One intelligence service seeks to provoke humanity to war by any means necessary. If newly-minted ranger Sam Decker and his allies can't stop him in time he might succeed in his plan to revive a centuries-dead conflict and plunge the galaxy into chaos.…

CharlesSmith9

The continuing journeys of the FSS Armstrong as it explores the periphery of the galaxy on a mission of peace in search of lost human civilizations.This is the third Season of an ongoing series. It is recommended to begin with Season 1.…

CharlesSmith9

After discovering a spacial anomaly around a dying star, the Starship Odyssey is pulled into an unfamiliar galaxy. The unprecedented arrival of humanity into this region of space sparks a chain reaction that with the potential to change everything for both this new galaxy and the Milky Way. "In the shadow of a dying star a new civilization rises, a new civilization that has the potential to change everything."My entry for the 2021 Open Novella Contest.…

CharlesSmith9

A bus full of high-school kids finds themselves transported to a suspiciously familiar fantasy world. Now, using nothing more than their wits and knowledge of modern science and technology, they are going to have to find a way to survive and, just maybe, find a way home.…

CharlesSmith9

The city cries out for heroes. Hilarity ensues.…

CharlesSmith9

These are the tales of decadence, cronyism and long knives from Thule, the city of sinister angles. A dark city-state that ate the island that houses it and now gnaws at the rest of the world. It's gibbous towers and jutting spires grow ever taller as it reaches out to escape the creeping miasma of its own filth. A corrupt priesthood and unchecked merchant lords rule over this black marble wound on the landscape with sneering indifference. Hilarity ensues.…

CharlesSmith9

An extraordinarily lucky man is blasted into space and killed in a freak accident, only to be revived nine apocalypses later to find himself one half of the last remnants of humanity. Now he and a woman from this strange future must travel through time in order to escape from an intergalactic zoo run by shapeshifting bugs, passing through all the really good ends-of-the-world along the way.Now a featured story!…

CharlesSmith9

It's the dawn of a new era for humankind, and the Huxley Foundation has sent out a fleet of exploratory vessels on a mission of peace. The FSS Armstrong, one of the most advanced ships in the Foundation fleet, rides on the forefront of this age of exploration. A series of episodic short stories that build on one another to form a single narrative, structurally similar to a TV show season. Other stories set in the same universe include:A Toast To The Magellan ClassRamses Meets His Maker…

CharlesSmith9

It's the dawn of a new era for humankind, and the Huxley Foundation has sent out a fleet of exploratory vessels on a mission of peace. The FSS Armstrong, one of the most advanced ships in the Foundation fleet, rides on the forefront of this age of exploration. A series of episodic short stories that build on one another to form a single narrative, structurally similar to a TV show season. It is recommended that this collection be read after completing Starship Armstrong - Season 1. Other stories set in the same universe include: Starship Armstrong - Season 2A Toast To The Magellan Class Ramses Meets His Maker…

CharlesSmith9

A mysterious figure from the past just got his memories back - everything that was important to him and everything that should have stayed forgotten. Now he's tearing through the magical underworld like a storm in the pursuit of a singular goal: revenge.My entry for the Open Novella Contest II.…

CharlesSmith9

A collection of short stories exalting the magnificent and terrible potential of the hairless apes from Terra. Basically all the stand-alone stories I've written for that particular subreddit that didn't already fit into another collection.…

CharlesSmith9

Felix is shunted through time, and learns the secret history of the world: aliens begrudgingly created humanity to clean up after an accident, there were at least 5 World Wars and one of them involved magic, Elvis built the pyramids, and other completely historically accurate events. Open your eyes and see through the swamp gas.…

CharlesSmith9

Life in a post-scarcity techno-utopia.A series of shorts set in the Utopia War universe after the events of that book. You can read this collection without reading Utopia War first, I'm just not sure if you can want to.…