SPACE TRUCKER JESS Launches in Two Weeks
"A page-turning adventure set in an inventive universe." - Publishers Weekly
Space Trucker Jess launches in less than two weeks on July 1st!
And what is my little book about, you may ask? Well, read on…
Jessian Urania Darger is a kick-ass take-no-shit foul-mouthed too-smart-for-her-own-good sixteen-year-old girl with a chip on her shoulder. She and her daddy have been grifting their way across the verse for years. But when her daddy gets arrested for running crypto-credit scams, Jess is forced to get a job on Chadeisson Station as a roachrunner, fixing starships to survive.
She dreams of a better life, away from her corrupt daddy, so she's been saving up to buy a Spark Megahauler, a huge cargo ship, ever since she saw one in a printer catalog. She wants to run the long hauls, to sail alone into the black and never look back.
But when her daddy goes missing from prison, Jess realizes she just can't let him go, and she makes it her life's mission to find out where he's gone. In an odyssey that takes her across the galaxy, Jess encounters vanished planets, strange societies, inscrutable alien gods, and mind-bending secrets that may change humanity's path forever.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting little teasers and whatnot here.
Jessian Urania Darger, the hero of Space Trucker Jess, lives in a future centuries from now, and language has evolved. I use a lot of neologisms in the book, i.e. future slang, and so here’s a few. (Eventually I’ll be posting a full glossary for subscribers only.)
Free Trade Union (FTU): a collection of laws, customs, and people who adhere to a strict code of fairness in trade, with fierce penalties for cheating, including getting cut off forever from all future trade with any FTU member. A vast majority of trade in Terra Diaspora and beyond follows FTU standards, and it is considered essential to keeping the centuries-long peace between worlds.
Freshprint: a newly or freshly fabricated object from a printer. Often comes with facturing dust. Often used as a slang for "new." Example: “I’m going to start over, freshprint myself all shiny and new.”
FTU Bondsign (aka Sacred Knot): A two-handed gesture Free Trade Union members use to swear their allegiance to the fairness doctrine of the Free Trade Union as well as honesty in all their trades and transactions. The bondsign is so common that many people use it to swear they are telling the truth, even when the subject isn't about trade. It symbolizes the interconnection of all things, as the FTU believes that fairness, openness, and free-trade between systems are the keys to keeping the long-standing peace. The bondsign: pinky and ring fingers crossed, index and middle fingers crossed, opposite hands and thumbs touching. E.g.:
Fernal Buoy: A slang name for a warning buoy left near ships that have lost containment of their singularity and are slowly collapsing into a black hole. The "fernal" is a reference to the "Inferno," the first book of Dante's Divine Comedy, and specifically the inscription at the entrance to Hell: "Abandon hope all ye who enter here."
Jeek: slang for "person", but often used derogatorily. Some consider this word to be offensive. Example: “There’s a lot of jeeks here.”
Terra Diaspora: common name for a group of about six thousand populated star systems first settled by humans spreading out from Terra in the First Diaspora. Population: ~7 trillion people. Though humanity has spread much further in subsequent waves, many consider the core worlds of Terra Diaspora to be the "real" heart of humanity and their laws, customs, and behaviors to be the standard by which all other worlds should adhere. They are often dismissive and neglectful of the outer systems, whose populations are orders of magnitude smaller.
Some more Jess related things:
Publishers Weekly has great things to say about Space Trucker Jess.
I was interviewed about Jess and sundry in Clarkesworld Magazine.
Space Trucker Jess is listed on Can’t Miss Indie Press Speculative Fiction for May and June 2025
And coming soon!
Blog post on John Scalzi’s Big Idea
A Geeks Guide to the Galaxy podcast interview
A Functional Nerds podcast interview
and more…
Finally, here’s a brief “unboxing” video I did:
So stick around. Lots more cool things on the way! And if you want to snag a copy of Jess before it hits the shelves, pre-order here.
Matt
Be careful with that sacred knot. I’m pretty sure that’s a Naruto jutsu 😅