From the Shadows of the Landscape

A science fiction novel by Richard H. Durisen

Coming Soon — Spring 2026

By the 37th Century, the Human Domain stretches hundreds of light years into the Milky Way Galaxy. Most occupants live long, rich, and untroubled lives—until something beckons from far beyond its edge.

Its powerful psychoactive emissions beamed toward human space are impossible to explain by known science. They bend perception, blur causality, and appear capable of reshaping past and present reality.

To confront their source, a diverse and unlikely crew of humans, clones, and engineered beings embark on an ambitious mission beyond explored space aboard a living interstellar ship. Their destination proves to be a world-sized intelligence whose nature defies normal assumptions about consciousness, time, and self.

With humanity’s fate hanging in the balance, the crew's survival depends on courageous acts of friendship, trust, and love. Are these human bonds strong enough to endure even when reality itself is unraveling? And what might survival mean?

Sneak Preview: The Genie’s Wish

The opening chapter introduces Rylk von Humboldt B’Clothum O’Connell as he arrives on Shangdu, the home world of the Genies. These merged intelligences believe fulfillment comes through bioengineered collective being. Amid singing cities, living architecture, and an encounter with the enigmatic Genie Abraham, Rylk learns that anomalies haunting human science for centuries may be, in part, a summons. Abraham proposes that Rylk undertake an interstellar adventure to answer the call.

What begins in wonder turns increasingly ominous.

On Shangdu, nothing is what it seems.
And some wishes, once granted, cannot be undone.

From the Shadows of the Landscape
Coming Spring 2026