A Spaceman

Author's Note

Something about the heavens has always intrigued us. as children, didn't we jump about with imaginary lightsabers and laser guns, pretending to be Spacemen? Interstellar travellers who could leap into a ship and travel at the speed of light to far off lands? I know I did. I don't know what is so captivating about the idea of Spacemen. But I can take a guess. The stars are the unknown, shining up there above us. the portal to other worlds and adventures. they are magic wardrobe or enchanted forest, and they are right there for us to see every night. That's what this book is for really.

So, on to the other stuff. 

I shouldn't have to say this but I probably do:

The rape of Tess is just that. It is rape. Tess's internal narrative blames herself. That is extremely natural because she is a VICTIM. Period. Titus had been gaslighting her for years, his and her narrative make it clear he was grooming her in the sense that he was brainwashing her from infancy to trust no man other than him. Nothing that occurs was in anyway Tess' fault nor is ANY of the narrative intended to imply this. Tess feels guilt (not telling Shannon) and shame associated with it and thinks she is responsible. Victims often feel responsible for their assault. I wrote it to draw light to that fact not to blame Tess. It isn't her fault.

So, a note on scientific accuracy. A lot of what Titus is actually BS. I had to make up some science stuff, but I tried to keep that to a minimum. So, let's start with what's fake----ah Isylgyns don't exist. that I know of. nor does telekinesis. That about covers most of the made up stuff. Here's what's real and where to learn more about it.

The Cygnus constellation and Keplar 52b are real. More on the Cygnus constellation can be found here:

More on Keplar 52b can be found here

Titus is quoting William Shakespeare, Macbeth in the opening chapter. The last chapter quotes Shakespeare's The Tempest

Paul Eckman (mentioned in the first chapter) is a scientist who studied facial expressions and recorded ways to determine emotion through the face. he has several books which are quite informative More information on him can be found here:

And now, for a few, logical inconsistences that astute (or just dedicated) readers may have noticed if they read the book through. If you have not and are going to go back, then you may not want to read on as the following are 'spoilers' for some of the sections.

The following are basically 'theories' that readers may have held that I want to confirm I intentionally put there, or for you to consider if you think they are true as you re-read or think about the books.

1. Quentin is actually smarter than Titus/Titus isn't that smart

Throughout the books Titus claims to be the smartest person on Kepler. And most of the other characters agree with him except:

In the first book, Titus explains that he went to BMT and not OTS, because he did not qualify for OTS because he'd never been to a university, only a trade school. He cites the reason as being that his family was too poor to afford a university even with the scholarships he could have gotten.

The reader takes this claim at face value and it seems to be true...after all Titus did ace the BMT tests which is how he got to OTS...until you consider the fact that Quentin went to a University. On scholarships.

His mother was a single parent with at least one other child in the house at the time (Quentin's older brother died right around when Quentin would have been applying), she was a former prostitute with basically no skillset that we know of, working in a factory. Quentin states that they had a one bedroom apartment. Quentin's mum can't even afford train fare to come see him. Titus, while he shared a room with his brothers, his mother and sister each had their own room, so they were in a three bedroom townhome. And his mother was working to feed four or five children. And she was probably getting some child support from his father. There is no way Quentin's mother was any better off than Titus's.