What’s it about?

When the Academies send an inspector to investigate undocumented magic use in Benteo, family man Sen must agree to leave his utopia to go on a mysterious Assignment in exchange for his family's safety and freedom. Sen has spent his entire life hiding his magical ability (anima) and doing all he can to avoid becoming like his absent parents who chose the Academies over him. But now, Sen must convince everyone he and pregnant wife Kami are no threat, even if it means cooperating with those same people.

Orphaned as a child, Kami’s mission is to provide her children with the love and safety she never had. She may be a powerful Manifold–a rare condition granting her access to multiple anima types instead of just one–but that’s no help. In fact, it makes everything worse since it’s restricted, she’s undocumented, and there’s an Academy inspector in town intent on apprehending her.

While doing whatever it takes to secure freedom, not only for themselves, but for their children, Sen and Kami must work together, even as they’re torn apart. If they don’t, they’ll be imprisoned–or worse–when all the secrets about themselves and their world come to light.

Who is it for?

SEEN & UNSEEN is for fans of V. E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series and those who love exploring the darker sides of a future, post-apocalyptic utopia like what’s found in The Giver. If you enjoy the worldbuilding of N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, and its character-focused approach to storytelling and complicated relationship dynamics, you’ll like SEEN & UNSEEN. Think 1984 or Howley’s Silo series, but with a fully restored Earth… and magic.

It’s a story where human society and nature itself are peacefully recovered, but threats still loom just below the surface of the carefully crafted systems. This is for those of us who fantasize about a beautiful future for humanity and our world at large, while also recognizing that human beings are still human beings. If you like a blend of science fiction and fantasy, utopian dystopias, science-based magic systems, and exploring the human condition through complicated family dynamics, generational trauma, and rigid social structures, this might be for you!

• Complex Family Dynamics: How are familial relationships strained and impacted by other responsibilities? Is forgiveness possible, even after years of resentment and poor (or absent) communication? Who is responsible for healing the damage, when everyone is now an adult?

• Familial and Social Responsibility: How do we balance work with home/family? When is it acceptable, or even required, to make family sacrifices in the name of the greater good? How do we care for our communities and those we love while also caring for ourselves?

• Grief & Loss: How does death and loss impact us? What happens when things are left unresolved, either by choice or circumstance? How does it affect our other relationships?

• PTSD and Anxiety: Can a person heal, or learn to live with, PTSD and anxiety? In what ways do we make life harder or easier on the person struggling? How can human connection and robust accommodation impact outcomes?

• Power & Autonomy: Is morality attached to power? When someone possesses the power to do great good, what is their responsibility—are they required to use it, even if it costs them to do so? When should we control power? How is power used to control others, and is that ever okay?

• Individualism vs. Collectivism: How do we respond when our individual goals, wants, or needs conflict with the collective’s? What is the morality surrounding individual choice when it impacts the larger community? Is the abdication of individual freedom required (on any level) to ensure the safety, peace, and wellbeing of the whole?

While I’ll do my best not to completely spoil anything, I think it’s worth mentioning some of the content warnings for this story. If any of these topics are triggering, this one may not be for you.

• Pregnancy complications: Kami experiences discomfort throughout the story, culminating in a major complication which puts her life and the life of her baby at risk. I will spoil by saying, there is no child/infant death in this story.

• Death of a loved one: Kami has experienced a lot of death (her father and sister, and likely her mother as well). A well-known character dies during the story, and it does appear on page.

• Discrimination: Sen and Kami are both Manifolds, which is a restricted form of power. As such, they are both undocumented, which is at the heart of this story. They must hide who they are, and Sen’s journey is especially revealing of the discrimination and poor treatment toward those who possess power deemed “a threat to the peace” by the Academies.

• Some gore at the climax: The final standoff and confrontation between Sen and the Academies involves fighting, with descriptions of blood and other bodily fluids, burning, and broken bones.

• Violence/death (limited to two scenes, but worth noting): Sen has a magical combat scene at the final climax, and it does result in multiple deaths. Additionally, there is a death scene in Kami’s storyline as well.

Want a sneak peak?