Tanner ParkI have spent over a decade in deep study of futuristic sci-fi, deciphering its X-factor. I'm 99.9% of the way there. The last 0.1% hinges on completing this journey.Diamond Dust is a heavy rework of Halo and Mass Effect, with a Fifth Element-like sperhead for the narrative. It contains a wealth of futuristic sci-fi components many of you are familiar with, but have never seen brought together under the same roof. And as the sum of its parts, you've never witnessed any work of fiction done quite like this.Fantasy as a genre has come into its own and reached its full potential within the mainstream. Futuristic sci-fi has not yet had this renaissance. I believe it can and it will. I've decided to become the vanguard of this revolution. And I'm hoping others will follow. I know full and well that courting the mainstream comes with significant risks. I understand them.I am a devout partisan of future sci-fi, ever since I was a six year-old kid playing Descent and Mechwarrior 2 on my dad's computer. Halo, Mass Effect, Battletech/Mechwarrior, Mobile Suit Gundam, Armored Core, Stargate/SG1, The Fifth Element (my all-time favorite movie), Terminator, a dash of Star Wars, and many, many more. Hell, if I ever meet any of you at a con, I'd be wise to put together a pie chart in Excel that gives a detailed breakdown of Diamond Dust's DNA.Ever since I got my hands on the novels that accompany the original Halo for Xbox, I became jealous, thinking; I wanna do that. What sets Diamond Dust apart from the rest? Many things. But foremost; restrictions. No faster-than-light-travel, no aliens. It's a human story, through and through, limited to our local neighborhood of the cosmos as we begin colonizing worlds of our own Solar System. If I'm to be perfectly candid, problems within Halo and Mass Effect arise when the narrative tends to get ahead of itself, mostly due to scope-creep. I've found that imposing restrictions actually sets you free, whereas free reign over the Milky Way tends to have the opposite effect. Our Solar System is a little galaxy of its own.My goal is to throw the same wacky futuristic stuff at you that Halo and Mass Effect does, only 200% more chaotic, while balancing a tight narrative, one that is digestible, neither too dense nor too shallow. As for that narrative, I am confident I've balanced its weight. As for the action, I might've taken that ten steps too far. I guarantee you this; no work of literary fiction in human history has ever gone as heavy into the action as I have. If you wish to be the judge of that, you'll just have to dive into: Diamond Dust. Read More Read Less