Halfway to the End
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Authors
Marino, David
Issue Date
2025-05-01
Type
thesis_closed
Language
Keywords
Science Fiction , Space Opera , Speculative Fiction , Creative Writing , Creative Writing
Alternative Title
Writing Theses
Abstract
HALFWAY TO THE END (120,000 words) is an adult space opera about an empire trying to storm the gates of Heaven. Combining the dehumanizing experience of a soldier in a futuristic war found in Kameron Hurley’s The Light Brigade with the political scheming and uniquely alien enemy of Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace, HALFWAY TO THE END explores the cost of living inside an empire, paid with our bodies, our psyches, and our connections to each other. Matricide is merely the first step in Queen Talon’s crusade. After seizing power by strangling her mother, Queen Talon of the Fifty Moons embarks on her empire’s great mission: to finally capture Heaven from the alien Seraphim and end four centuries of war. Talon will use every warship and every soldier she can muster, sacrifice anyone she has to win. Because winning means her daughter—the next heir to the throne—will be free from her monstrous responsibility. Following in the footsteps of her mother, killed in the last crusade, Sparrow Thinbranch responds to Talon’s call. Sparrow’s been told all her life that Heaven holds the power to resurrect the dead. She’s just a grunt from a backwater moon with a spacesuit and a rifle, but she’s determined to be part of the victory that will bring her mother back. But once she enters the meatgrinder of Talon’s war, Sparrow will struggle to stay alive, fighting her doubts about her empire’s mission at the same time she’s fighting the Seraphim. As the bodies—alien and human—pile up, Talon and Sparrow question how much of themselves they are willing to kill to reach Heaven.
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