One Universe
Heads up — spoilers. This post connects the dots between several series, including late-book events. If you haven't read Sidus, Disgardium, and Level Up yet, bookmark this for later.
I keep getting asked about Sidus: how it's tied to Disgardium and Level Up — and maybe to the other series too. Let me answer everyone at once, and try to keep it (mostly) spoiler-light.
When Scyth was trying to claw his way out of the Icy Gorge, the isolation zone of the Children of Kratos, little Carter Reilly was just starting nursery school, Christina hadn't been born yet, and Phil Panfilov hadn't yet "landed" in the right moment in time.
In the prologue, Carter is 27. He arrives on Sidus ten years later. Sidus itself was discovered by the First Martian Company, founded by Zoran Savic — the grandson of Phil and Jovanna.
As you may remember, Scyth met Zoran, a level-68 paladin, in the third book, The Destroying Plague. Together they crossed the Frontier and went their separate ways — but Alex didn't forget about Zoran's company, the one developing the neural interface, and told Ed to invest the Awoken's money into that startup's stock.
How the company grew, we'll see in part in the final volumes of Disgardium and — if there's interest — in a separate book about Zoran (and the making of "Snowstorm," which will absolutely feature Phil's friends, Mike Hagen, and Egor Pereverzev from The Pickaxe).
Back to Phil. At the end of The Final Trial he jumps forward in time to the Selection, run by Dro-Rag, the Council of the galaxy's Elder Races. The Selection identifies non-viable civilizations, which are then erased — the way the civilization of intelligent dinosaurs was erased from Earth.
The big question here: how are Sidus and Dro-Rag connected? For now I'll say only this: Phil's story continues after Carter's. And I'll begin "The Selection" itself once Disgardium wraps, while Carter's cycle is still being written.
This is the puzzle where the Canon from Meta, the wanderers from World 99, and the Reapers from Soul Harvest finally come together. That grand finale is the whole reason I started all these series — deliberately disguising them as separate stories. Whether that was the right call, or whether I overcomplicated everything, time will tell. Over the next three or four years, across different books and series, you'll see the full picture come together, the way I already see it.
P.S. Sharp-eyed readers have already spotted President Sheppard, the warrior Hung, Alex's childhood friend Aaron Quan, and even the kakkerlaks from The Final Trial inside Sidus. Naturally, to avoid spoiling Disgardium 12, I didn't give them more room in the first book's plot — but once Disgardium ends, the Disgardium cast's part in Carter's story will become a lot more visible.
New to the space corner of the universe? Start with Sidus. Want the whole map? Books in Order shows every series and how they connect.
→ See how it all fits together: Books in Order.
