In the Paris of the 23rd century where everything is for sale, pure emotions are of great value to those who cannot live them. Ariel de Santos is a creator of Vivid Dreams, one of the few artists capable of shaping emotions to seduce and inspire a world that has forgotten to dream.
This is the story of Ariel de Santos, one of the most renowned living artists of the Southern European States, a man tormented by his pacts with the devil and addicted to Trank, the universal drug. Through his eyes, we will witness an escape from the past in the most ambitious human endeavor in history, a journey without return to a destination in the stars.
More than fifty million people live in the megalopolis that Paris has become in the 23rd century. The former city of light has been transformed into a corrupt and inhuman city. Most of its inhabitants live in a gray area where sunlight does not reach: the floor zero. Meanwhile, the elites, oblivious to everything, never leave the gigantic towers, forgetting the miserable existence of the filthy ones, those who live on the floor.
After the failed colonization of Mars, it seemed that there was no hope left in the world, but a group of philanthropists funded the Veluss project. A very ambitious plan: to take man beyond the solar system: thirty thousand men and women -the best ones-, they and their grandchildren, will have a new opportunity, in the Procyon system, 11.4 light years away aboard the m2210 spacecraft.
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Reviews
“11.4 Sueños Luz is science fiction in its purest form. It’s adrenaline coursing through the veins. It grabs you from the first words to the last point.“on Momoko.es.
“The pace is increasing. From the first pages it grabs you but it is as you get to know more details and events that you become addicted to the novel”, Ana M, in Devoradora de letras.
“A work with a large dose of fantasy and realism at the same time, with very striking small details and loaded with social connotations. A NOVEL worthy of our masthead and that we recommend without any doubt to all those lovers of CCFF, cyberpunk or apocalyptic novels. Easy and quick to read, very addictive. “, Ciudad de Tinta.
“Nicholas Avedon is a more than competent storyteller, clear and direct, and conveniently resolves this apparent jumble of intertwined stories, all of which are properly interwoven and lead to a common outcome, with the end result of a more than recommendable science fiction novel“, Francisco José Súñer Iglesias, from ciencia-ficcion.com.
“The characters suffer and love, forgive and forget, want to start from scratch and all, absolutely all, have secrets that we discover little by little, something that I think is masterful… I’m sure you will not be disappointed”, Meykilmister, from Inkties
“Part of the magic of “11.4 light dreams” is the creation of a richly decorated universe. The book changes plot and scenarios with sufficient frequency and astonishing skill to make you never get bored of the story at any time. You get impatient as soon as you start reading it, but you don’t know if it’s because of how well written it is, or because of the intrigue that permeates every sentence written. The author thus creates a savage criticism of everything that turns us into machines, objectifies us and, above all, feeds individuality, making us forget the problems of the world.” Susana Rossignoli, from Universo la maga.
“Laugh at the Gronholm…. Method. an interesting first novel” Dreams of Elvex.
“11.4 light dreams is a novel not to be missed. If you like science fiction with touches of fantasy and cyberpunk this is your novel. It is a very agile read that grabs you from the beginning to the end. You won’t be able to put it down, especially after that incredible ending that leaves the doors open to a second part (a second part that I won’t miss). A novel that will not leave you indifferent and will captivate you.“, Sueños entre letras.
“Following Ariel on her way to the stars to leave behind a murky and fateful world becomes a thrilling adventure that will keep us on edge until the end. Lovers of cyberpunk will undoubtedly enjoy this novel, and for those who are not, it is an unbeatable way to get started in the genre. I liked it very much, highly recommended” The owl’s desk
“Very few times have I come across characters as well developed as in this story …. I highly recommend it, I know you will enjoy it as much as I did”, in Vísperas de un nuevo mundo.
“The pace of the novel is agile and fluid, that is, it hooks you from the first moment… I was fascinated by the world the author has created. Highly recommended if you want something different from what you are used to.“in I read a book
“11.4 Dreams of Light is a novel that maintains the structure of a traditional thriller, but adds a very interesting technological cyberpunk touch. The main story is not the most original that we can read today, but its secondary plots do manage to attract our attention, even taking over the novel if you like science fiction. Besides that, I would highlight that it is well written, the pace of the narration is very regular and the setting stands out for the way it is cared for and detailed.“, in Fantasy, scifi and much more.
“Perhaps where we find the biggest surprise in 11.4 Dreams of Light is in Nicholas Avedon’s storytelling ability. This skill is not negligible if we take into account that we are talking about a work, I repeat, highly atmospheric, where giving more importance to the background in which the action takes place than to the action itself for 300 pages without having to resort to straw/filler is praiseworthy.“in Dr. Motosierra’s literary autopsies.
11.4 Dreams of Light, in short, is a futuristic cyberpunk dystopia on the one hand and a thriller with an unexpected ending on the other. The story shows us, at the hands of tormented characters who yearn for the freedom they have never had, a world where the need to escape from reality leads its inhabitants to experiment with drugs, to play virtual reality video games, to try to feel their dreams while awake, and even to embark on a journey of dozens of years to reach another planet. A novel that is waiting for you, friend of science fiction, to explore it in search of adventure, complex characters and much more. Do you dare to embark on this journey?on the edge of the letters.
“A great futuristic dystopia with a great unexpected ending,” Alba, from Treasurer of Books.
“11,4 Light Dreams has two traits that interest me in any read: a good pace that is able to grab the reader and a mix of genres that works very well in this case (cyberpunk science fiction, fantasy, erotic novel and crime novel)…. Is this a saga? The author will have to say/decide, but 11.4 light years has an ending that leaves you both satisfied and wanting more.”, in Books in vein.
“11,4 light dreams is a different novel. Not for better, not for worse. It is simply different. It does not have a unique label to assign to it because although it is science fiction, it flirts with other genres… it is the product of someone who wanted to dump many of his literary concerns in a single volume. A novel that mixes cyberpunk, noir, fantasy and space opera”, Carlos Perez Casas.
“You’ve totally hooked me. And not only for this first book but also for the following ones.“, Sihaya, fremen paradise
“…the placid reading in which we are immersed is thanks to a rather elegant, firm and disciplined style on the part of the author… a very good first novel“, Eloi Puig of Kraken Library.
“Although science fiction is not your genre, this book does not stay only in the relationship with technology or that everything revolves around this; but goes beyond with interpersonal relationships, suspense, love …. In short, a work that I really enjoyed, more with each page I was reading. I want the second part! “, in LectoraDreams
“It keeps the intrigue all the time, it puts masks on its characters so that you never end up knowing them and they fool you over and over again, and it makes you reach an ending that you didn’t expect and that honestly leaves you with your mouth open….. 8.5/10”, in‘Naya’s World‘.
“…designer drugs, individuals willing to prey on the weaknesses of others, novel forms of leisure, unwanted but passionate romance, sex, snuff, misery, promises of a different and surely better future…”, in
Sagacomic
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“much more than a science fiction novel, it is a story full of well-developed plots, characters that never cease to surprise and plot twists that take your breath away. It is proof that quality does not have to go hand in hand with fame or popularity.” Secrets of ink
“…sometimes you find great writers who are very worthwhile and it makes me very angry that no one, with enough “power” to bring them to light does not notice them, the “talent scouts” do not know where they get to when publishing one or another work, because if there were a prominent book in bookstores that would be “11.4 dreams light”, Lorena Gil in Flight of crows.
“11, 4 Sueños Luz is an opera prima that reads quickly, that captures the interest of its audience and that evidences its creator’s command of the literary genre that those of us who read these lines love so much”, Elwin Álvarez in El cubil del cíclope.
“…of books that tell stories calmly, despite having action and some mystery and stories that start one way and end another way you couldn’t imagine.“, Maria, from Knitting in Klingon.
“I wish all works with an indie label were like this“, Miriam Beizana of alibreria.com.
“Nicholas Avedon has emerged as a superb storyteller capable of handling the tempo of his work with almost Swiss precision.” Javier Miró, of Libros-Prohibidos.com
“…past the first third of the book, you realize that your teeth are clenched, your neck is tense and you have a compelling need to look at the next pages.” Aesteria project.
“Something that gives a different feel to this book is the story of the character’s origins, his evolution and the reason for his actions. I really enjoyed such a real, sensible and nuanced character.”, The Book Reader.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve read something I liked so much,” Daniel Hinojosa.
“The main character is someone who gets to you, and you manage to empathize with him because he is not perfect, he doesn’t get everything right. A very interesting novel that, as I said, I liked and I recommend it to those who like science fiction.”, Jayro de exlibris
“…majestic description of the characters, who are endowed with great inner life, dreams and aspirations, so I can only say that they are built to the smallest detail“, The Fire of Reading
“11.4 Dreams of Light is the ambitious and remarkable cyberpunk novel with which indie author Nicholas Avedon has made a name for himself in the domestic literary science fiction scene”, Carlos Sibid, from Despuesdelciberpunk.com.
“Ariel, a character with a past that I would not have expected at all, and that has been a delight to discover“, in Cafeína y letras.
“…it is precisely the characters that work best in the novel. Nicholas Avedon has made a clear effort to focus on them, and the protagonist, Ariel de Santos, is the king.“, on Janmi.com
“It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a read so much, so don’t pass up the opportunity to read Nicholas Avedon,” in Libroselfo.
Ratings on amazon.es
“IMPECCABLE, IT HAS EVERYTHING IT NEEDS TO HAVE. A MASTERFULLY TOLD STORY ABOUT A PROBABLE FUTURE.” – REVIEW ON AMAZON
Ratings on Goodreads.com
EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK
Science fiction and cyberpunk in “11.4 light dreams”.
In the more than 380 pages of 11.4 light dreams you will find a thriller of high technology, social changes, new professions, a megacity (Paris) and a world transformed into a very different place from the one you have seen or read about before. In addition to the relationships between the four main characters, I address issues such as virtual worlds, artificial intelligence and the challenge of space exploration. Here are some text excerpts so that you can open your mouth.
“I needed something, but I didn’t know what. Yes, to shout, and for the sound of my voice to bounce back, silently. Echo in the silence, mountains in the dark, air smelling of damp pine. Nothing in the world could buy me that now. The nearest lonely pine tree would be hundreds of miles away and owned by someone richer than me. There weren’t even stones without an owner anymore. Everything had an owner, including me.”
“When I arrived in Paris I was fascinated by its ugliness, its abandonment and its repulsive smell of degradation, rusted metal, rotten wood and stagnant water. The squalor was so old that it was attached to everything. That was where the illegals lived. People so miserable that it was not even profitable to deport them across any southern border. Letting them die, in a few months or a couple of years, was cheaper and less trouble. There were still people who cared about them, but not even they were brave enough to go down there, that part of ground zero where the filth could afford to feel powerful. There, where women sold their bodies for crumbs. In Paris it was impossible to starve. There were free food and drink dispensers everywhere, the problem was not like in Africa. The problem was that there was no way out, there was nothing, just an eternal gray, on the floor, walls and sky. There were no birds, only cars full of red, blue and yellow lights. Cars that came and went, but never stopped.”
“… we were in our late twenties to early thirties. There were people from the four powers of the planet: the Confederation of North American States (EUAN), CEAL, Transrussia, and Europe (including EcoNorth and EcoSouth). Listening to those stories, those men who had been educated in the best universities in the world: Buenos Aires, Kyoto, Moscow, New York, Stockholm or Montreal. It was like naming plates of food to a starving man who has spent his life staring at a shop window, hungry. “
“On May 4, 2195, the spacecraft lifted off and began its journey to the stars. But it was only the beginning of the next expedition, Veluss- M2200, bound for Gliese 674, fifteen light years from our system, which took off only five years later. After that, there was another, M2205 to Epsilon Indi, twelve light years from Earth. There were plans for a new expedition every five years, the next expedition would be launched at the end of 2209. There were just over nine months left and the selection process was in full swing. Joanne would get her chance, there might not be another. The fourth expedition, Veluss M2210, was bound for the fourth planet in the Procyon system. “
“…. despite the fact that I had left the car parked in a guarded parking lot, a guard armed with an assault rifle, indicated me not to leave the road protected by the electrified wire fence and the glass-steel wall. It was a transparent tunnel, full of scratches and yellowish stains that went through an uninhabited area to the car depot. Below, protected by the wall, I could watch the hundreds of poor wretches crawling among cardboard, garbage and half-naked bodies in a trance. The artificial light of the highways above them, only served to see how the ash, dust and dirt fell almost imperceptibly, but unstoppable. Only the artificial rain prevented those miserable people from drowning buried in it. One of them jumped towards me, and bounced against the thick wall. His animal gaze did not frighten me. I had seen it before. It didn’t matter where, madness always looks alike. He hit the wall with his bare hands, until he left traces of red blood on the wall.”
“It had been seven years, but it felt like it had happened in another lifetime. It was also the last time I fell in love with a model. I vowed never to do it again, never to destroy anything beautiful. Around me there were dozens of girls like her. Beautiful, under those lost looks and their rags, under those sunken shoulders and arms full of scars and burns. I could buy their company, their bodies, and even make them laugh. I could make their eyes sparkle, with stories, with wonders. But sooner or later, they would see that what seemed like reality was just another dream.”
“The fragrance of the pines and the wet earth was as real as the infectious pollution outside the buildings in Paris where our semi-conscious bodies lay. Joanne, or rather, Atiaran, her new name in that world, could not help but marvel at the fantastic nature that surrounded her. It was not for less, the animals of the Earth coexisted with other small creatures such as purple squirrels with double crests or small dragons that sang with a tenor voice while flying over the treetops. “
“The ceilings were low and artificial light dominated all the rooms despite the windows, which showed the starry, deep black space. The only tourist facility on the space base was a large cafeteria that served as a bar and restaurant. I had breathtaking views of the Earth, which hung over our heads, fixed in the same position. We were still connected to her through the cable, like an umbilical cord disappearing into the distance.
Space was at a premium on that base and everything had a certain military feel to it. There were no independent rooms or private bathrooms. We shared a bunk, each in a tiny bed inside a common room with hundreds of bunk beds.”
“The Veluss M2210 spacecraft was not docked to the space station, it was at one of the Trojan points of the Earth-Moon system, L4, near the Kordylewski cloud waiting for its final payload. It had been built at the Malais Rellian shipyard, at the L2 Earth-Moon Lagrange point, using material from the Moon, sent into space via an electromagnetic catapult. The first transport would leave with the first thousand passengers for the Moon in a week. We had seen graphic documents, but I had to see it with my own eyes to assimilate all that information. It was the most ambitious space engineering project of the human race. The third ship of the Veluss project was the largest. It consisted of two concentric toroids and a central cylinder, with an outer radius of almost two and a half kilometers, rotated on its axis twice a minute, to generate artificial gravity to the inner face of the toroid, where the habitat where we would live the rest of our lives, just ten square kilometers in total, was located. Inside, a strip just over four hundred meters wide, it would be like a narrow, long, straight glacial valley, its edges curving skyward and fading into an artificial sky, with a controlled weather system that would include rain, wind, and cloudy days. The inner ring, with somewhat less gravity, would be devoted to agriculture. The central section, the core, with almost no gravity, would be devoted to production and manufacturing, and where most heavy industrial processes would take place.”
“As we approached Veluss M2210, we all fell silent. The entire crew floated in microgravity to the row of windows where we could see the approach to the gigantic spacecraft that would take us to the stars. It was a gigantic six-spoke wheel with a long, thin needle. As we approached we realized its immense size. I shot as much footage as I could, although I knew I could get better footage on the rest of the flights, with the cameras on the outside of the spacecraft. But I wanted to capture that moment, the intensity of a thousand people holding their breath helplessly. Of the first whispers of excitement and the uncontainable murmurs of jubilation from the first inhabitants of that space colony.”
“…he began to mutter an incantation. Soon a mist enveloped us and we appeared at the top of some cliffs. Less than a hundred meters away a dense forest hid everything as far as the eye could see, on the other side the sea. At the foot of an abysmal black stone cliff, the ocean was breaking with titanic force. The music produced by the wind and water were not sounds of this world. The place was impossibly beautiful. The ghostly light of two moons, one orange and the other blue, illuminated that place, where only she and I were.
-Welcome to Dun’zdor,” he said.”
“For many years the art of digital image manipulation had been so perfected that it was impossible to discriminate fiction from reality, but true feelings were still difficult to fake. In a world where everything could be bought and sold, pure emotions and feelings were of great value to those who could not have them or wanted more: the love of a woman, the embrace of a loved one or conversations with a deceased parent. They were experiences that could be reconstructed with a knowledge that was half art and half science: vivid dreams.”
11.4 dreams light is registered in the intellectual property registry as well as in SafeCreative.
