For the past month I’ve been pleased to be working with the novelist Alistair Young creating the cover art for his new novel “The Core War and Other Stories,” now available on Amazon.com. This is a much reduced scale image; you may view the full resolution image in my deviantART gallery here. In another universe, in a galaxy strangely similar to our own, there's a bubble of space a couple of thousand light-years across—somewhat distorted by bumping into the edges of the galactic disk to acme and nadir—filled with millions of stars, bound together by an ever-expanding spiderweb of manufactured wormholes, and bright with the EM babble of civilized life. These are the Associated Worlds, sprawling myriad species, polities, philosophies, corporations, clades, and cultures. From the hypercivilized Powers at their heart to the brawling colonies of the Periphery and Beyond, trillions of lives are lived, each with its own story to be told. Alistair Young’s first book Vignettes of the Star Empire is a collection of short fiction set in his Eldraeverse universe. Now … "War has come to the Associated Worlds! Following on from Vignettes of the Star Empire, this book again collects fiction and metafiction from the Associated Worlds, leading up to the epistolary novella "The Core War," as tensions between the Worlds and the neighboring Voniensan Republic come to a head." — Alistair Young, of eldraeverse.com A generous sample of Alistair’s fiction can be accessed from my feature article on Alistair’s universe: The Eldraeverse. You can sample more of Alistair’s writings on his blog, eldraeverse.com (highly recommended for much entertainment, wisdom, and insight). And, since I could hardly do better, here’s what Winchell Chung has to say: The Eldraeverse is a strange and futuristic place, haunted by weakly godlike entities, civilizations that have undergone a Vingian Technological Singularity, and civilizations that are just centimeters away from achieving it. Such a topic in the hands of a lesser author could degenerate into a tiresome confusing mass of disjointed images. But Alistair’s encyclopedic knowledge of math, science, Post Singularity tropes, standard science fiction hypertechnology, and writing skill makes his work a joy to read. They have a lilting satirical tone but are build on a rock-solid foundation of scientific understanding. Sort of like a cross between Greg Egan, Douglas Hofstadter, Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett. — Winchell Chung, of Atomic Rockets Acknowledgements and Credits Zeynep Dilli created the beautiful artwork for the Drake’s crest. Background is Star-Forming Region in the Carina Nebula: Detail 1. I’ve modified the image, deepening tonal hues and enhancing luminosity. Credit for Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Credit for CTIO Image: N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley) and NOAO/AURA/NSF