BINARY STORM by will be published by Angry Robot November 1 (US/Can) / November 3 (UK/RoW). A streetwise computer wiz, his politically savvy girlfriend and a tormented supersoldier form an uneasy alliance to stop assassins existing simultaneously in two bodies from threatening the world with apocalypse. The standalone novel serves as a prequel to the more distant future of “Liege-Killer” and the Paratwa Saga.
The original three-book Saga tells the story of Nick and Gillian, two men from Earth’s ultra-violent past. Awakened from stasis into peaceful space colonies orbiting our desolate home world, they alone possess the long-lost skills to hunt down the deadliest of the binaries, the Paratwa assassins. Genetically engineered creatures with a single consciousness simultaneously inhabiting two human bodies, these assassins, led by a sinister alpha breed – the Royal Caste – have dire plans for the domination of humanity.
That violent past hinted at throughout the Saga is the setting for this new journey. In the prequel, the assassins are on the loose throughout the world and are considered humanity’s most formidable enemy. The action takes place about 80 years from now in the waning years of the 21st century, an era when the Earth is in a precarious state. Environmental degradation, nuclear and biological holocausts, all amplified by a brutal undeclared war between humans and binaries, threaten to bring down civilization. A minority of the population possessing great wealth and superior technology sequester themselves from a growing majority who struggle just to survive.
A commotion outside the limo caught her eye. Two cops were pinning a man to the pavement. His grungy clothes suggested he was an unsec beggar. He’d probably been caught beyond the confines of one of the authorized mendicant zones. If so, he’d likely be stripped of his panhandling permit and deported back to the zoo.
She acknowledged a moment of sympathy for the man. The bifurcated world they lived in, with a functional high-tech civilization walled off from billions of unsec citizens like the beggar, was a grotesque mockery of her core beliefs. Bel saw an egalitarian society as the ideal. People shouldn’t have to live in such radically different worlds. (from Binary Storm)
But in the realm of the late 21st century, rich and poor alike are in the same boat. And it’s a boat that’s taking on water and sinking fast.
The overall levels of atmospheric lethality, whether through biological, chemical or radiological toxins – or some combination of the three – were growing worse, not just in Philly but in every city across the globe. Several of the respirazones were even struggling to maintain clean air.
Once last week, the thick haze beyond Bel’s condo window had briefly cleared, just enough for her to glimpse the apartment skyscraper down the block, the one with the greenhouse balcony. But either the owner had moved or had surrendered his or her horticultural passion. The beautiful roses and tulips were gone. Only withered stalks and vines remained, a ghostly residue of former glory.
Yet the darkness that encroaches upon the world through ecological mayhem and ruthless dual-bodied assassins will not spread unopposed. Powerful forces for good remain in the world, including E-Tech, an organization dedicated to putting sane limits on the spread of the many lethal technologies that are crippling rather than helping humanity. E-Tech’s Annabel (“Bel”) Bakana has no intention of going down without a fight. And neither does her lover and co-conspirator, the brilliant assassin hunter, Nicholas (“Nick”) Guerra.
Before Nick could continue, Slag discerned the nature of his pitch and beat him to the punch.
“A small squad, special training, complex teamwork. You want us to go up against Paratwa assassins.”
Lesser men would have been heading for the door about now. Nick was pleased that the threesome stayed put.
“I like how you guys think,” he said.
Slag and Basher traded skeptical looks.
“Look, pal, this kind of shit’s been tried before,” Basher said. “It’s the wet dream of Delta-A and every spec ops unit in the world.”
“Nobody’s come close,” Slag added. “Best anyone’s ever done going full-frontal against a hardcore twofer is fifty, sixty casualties. And three-quarters of the time the assassin got away.”
“We’ve fought these fuckers, seen what they can do. They’re as nasty as it comes. Two-headed super-predators, trained from birth to hunt and kill.”
I first came up with the idea of the deadly assassins decades ago. I was in my twenties living in Los Angeles, and in the midst of a period of introspection and self-examination, I became attuned to the notion that our emotions and our intellects – what we feel and what we think – all too often are at odds. This essential human dichotomy, that from a certain perspective we’re really two people, was filtered through a lifelong passion for science fiction. Ultimately what emerged was the idea of two separate bodies sharing the same consciousness, which became the basis for the Paratwa Saga.
Paratwa were usually composed of dissimilar tways. Other than the necessity of being roughly the same age, the halves of a binary could be wholly unlike. Short and tall, skinny and plump, sable-skinned and pale as mountain snow. In rare cases the tways could even be mélanges – male and female.
Ektor Fang was an exception to the dissimilarity rule. His tways were twenty-five year-old identical twins, genetically engineered products of a Korean breeding lab owned by the Seoul-based Bhang Che conglomerate. The breed’s street name was Du Pal, which to Nick’s ears always sounded like “toupee.”
The Du Pal had no need of hairpieces. The tways were buzz-cut blonds with intense blue eyes. They were garbed the same too, in knee-length gray jackets and loose trousers. Nick had never been able to tell them apart, not that it mattered.
They were, after all, the same person.
The original premise for binaries was an intriguing idea and I had fun writing the three novels. But I knew when I reached the end of book three (“The Paratwa”) that I didn’t have a great deal of interest in delving into an even more distant future, even though there were some obvious hooks for additional stories. More intriguing was the idea of going back to the beginning, to events that occurred more than two centuries before “Liege-Killer.”
Over the years as I considered how I might construct such a tale, I came to the conclusion that it would need to detail how Nick and Gillian met and how they trained the original team of soldier-hunters to go after the assassins. The prequel also would expand upon numerous events only hinted at in the Saga: the political machinations of the Royal Caste; the underlying nature of the many global forces tearing apart the world; the early days of E-Tech; and much more.
In the long years between publication of the Saga and the prequel, I wrote a number of other tales involving binaries. Although none of these excursions adhered to the continuity of the novels, they were enjoyable to write and helped keep the idea of the Paratwa at the bleeding edge of consciousness. There was a nine-issue comic book series for DC (Gemini Blood); multiple versions of an as-yet-unproduced screenplay; and a graphic novel (Binary), which included a short prose story, “Ever the Twain Shall Meet”.
The tways stride toward the pickup. And now the singularity that defines binary existence becomes vivid. They walk back to back, the Doc in the lead, Poe a pace behind but facing the rear. Their gait is synchronous, like that of some four-legged animal. But there’s no physical connection between the two of them. The effect is maddeningly unnatural. (from “Ever the Twain Shall Meet”)
When I finally slipped into the headspace where I was ready to take on a Paratwa Saga prequel, the novel coalesced relatively fast, going from a few vague chapters to a final draft in less than a year. My level of enthusiasm for plunging back into a universe first envisioned decades earlier proved surprisingly robust. There were challenges, however.
Binary Storm had to have the same feel as the earlier books. It had to adhere to a storytelling prototype based on a fusion of bold, believable characters, furious action and behind-the-scenes political intrigue. The plot had to be filled with twists, turns and surprises. Most important of all, it had to be a self-contained story in order to spread the welcome mat for readers unfamiliar with the Saga, yet simultaneously provide longtime fans with an appealing odyssey through a universe sprinkled with familiar touchstones.
Have I succeeded in these goals? Time will tell. All that I can say with certainty is that the journey, on a personal level, has been a rewarding experience.
Christopher Hinz is the author of five science fiction books. Liege-Killer won the Compton Crook Award for best first novel and was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. He has written screenplays and a graphic novel, scripted comics for DC and Marvel, and has worked as a newspaper reporter and technical administrator of a small TV station.
You can find Christopher online at his website: christopherhinz.com.
