The Zack Jackson universe was inspired by many sources, the least of which are actually Star Wars and Star Trek. When I started watching Through the Wormhole (I love shows like that, though I usually fall asleep because they come at the end of long work days near bed time), I thought about how cool a lot of the concepts were that they discussed and decided I wanted to make my sci-fi universe conform to reality as closely as possible. I made a few concessions to allow for FTL travel, but I’m doing my research to make sure all the environments and technology is as close to reality as possible. For instance, any place there is artificial gravity, it is achieved through means we know are possible today (even if we don’t quite have the technology to achieve it). There are no magical gravity generators. Fabrication units are based on the development of 3D printers, but people still have to cook their food. There’s some telepathy in the second book, but no magic space elves controlling people’s minds; it’s just a form of communication that requires touch and only one species uses it, and they generally don’t use it except amongst themselves because they’re amorphous blobs and it requires them to envelop a human’s head in order to use their telepathy on them.
Plus, it was funny to have them talk through monotone voice translators. I get to use HK-47 AND Elcor references in one character!
I do not plan on having this character recite Hamlet.
Zack Jackson & The Cult of Athos is current available at Amazon.com for Kindle and in print. Look for Zack Jackson & The Cytherean Academy next year!
