Refraction by Wick Welker

SPSFC

How many times does it take to destroy the world before you can save it? In 1986, physicist Timothy Straus hears voices that teach him how to create a space-warping engine that will change the world. In 2098, a fighter pilot hears voices that help him fight an authoritarian corporatist regime in the ashes of nuclear fallout. In 2155, the only self-aware robot on Mars struggles to steer humanity away from a demagogue who speaks from the shadows. Told through kaleidoscope storytelling across space and time, these three people are connected in ways they could never imagine. As they pull on the strings of the multiverse, what they can’t see is that every villain begins as a savior—every enemy starts as a friend. With the power to refract reality, will they learn that one person can’t save the people? That only the people can save the people?

Dark Theory by Wick Welker

SPSFC 2022 SPSFC 2023

A robot yearns to remember. A thief struggles to forget. A galaxy on the verge of collapse. On the fringe of a broken civilization, a robot awakens with no memories and only one directive: find his creator. But in the village of Korthe, Beetro finds only radioactive pestilence, famine, and Miree—a tormented thief with dreams of retiring after her final score. Meanwhile, the fiefdom is plunged further into chaos when a new warlord seizes control, recasting serfs as refugees and leaving derelict robot peasants in his wake. With a shared interest in survival, Beetro and Miree team up to pull off an impossible castle heist: steal a single flake of dark matter, the world’s most valuable and mysterious ore. But as they trek through the feudal wasteland in search of answers, they realize the true extent of the chaos surrounding them: the stars are disappearing from the sky and the entire galaxy is unraveling. As he uncovers his origin, Beetro discovers he may be the key to the salvation of the cosmos—or its destruction. Time, space, and loyalty become relative as he learns the real reason he was created. A mind-bending science fiction epic with the bones of a fantasy traveling quest, Dark Theory unfolds through a journey of betrayal, identity, and unlikely friendships in a world of darkness set at the edge of space and time.

Dark Prophet by Wick Welker

I am the one of the end, the world maker, and the god breaker. Time is unraveling and Earth is doomed to wander the dark of space, unmoored from the galaxy itself. Galiaro’s plan for humanity’s escape to another dimension has failed and his dark matter robot creations, Beetro and Curse, were imprisoned in a nanoscopic black hole. Now, the entire planet is blighted by drought, the oceans heave beyond their bounds, and thousands are dispossessed. The end of the cosmos was foreseen by an ancient Alchean prophet named Othel. Thousands of years ago, Othel left behind the Dark Earth prophecy for the planet to survive the calamity. Now, the fellowship of Dark Theory—the drunken astrocyst Galiaro, Arym of the underground cult, thief Miree, time traveler Hawera, and the street rat Ribcage—must pick up the breadcrumbs of the ancient prophet’s quest to save Earth. Separately, they traverse the dying world and learn alarming news—the dark matter robots, Curse and Beetro, have escaped their black hole prison. Once parallel world enemies, the two robot brothers now have an uneasy alliance, and with an advantage… Curse already knows the prophecy. He has seen it before, used it before, and destroyed his own world with its power. Now on the cusp of annihilation, whoever wields the Dark Earth prophecy will unleash the cosmic power that could save—or doom—reality itself.

Saint Elspeth by Wick Welker

SPSFC 2024

Why did they come? When they appeared across the sky, speculation wheeled around the world—the aliens were from heaven, the invaders were from hell… or they were proof that neither existed. But when they landed, curiosity gave way to suspicion and the nations reacted with nuclear force, setting off a chain reaction that left the world in ruins. Twenty years later, instead of nearing her retirement, Dr. Elspeth Darrow struggles to forget the loss of her child and husband by plunging herself into the work of operating the last remaining hospital in San Francisco. With medical supplies running out and working herself to exhaustion, Elspeth must embark on a risky salvage mission into the heart of the Neo California danger zone. Here, she discovers the disturbing truth: the aliens have returned. As the mystery of the aliens’ purpose on Earth unravels before her, Elspeth must hide what she discovers from reactionary despots, all vying to bring Neo California under their control. Aided by a band of pre-war scientists and new-world medical students, Elspeth races against astronomical odds to reveal the terrifying truth that might save the world—or finally destroy it for good.

Dark Kingdom (Dark Law Book #2) by Wick Welker

Warrior at birth. Warrior at death. Dark Theory is real. The universe is expanding without Earth, dooming it to wander the void alone. Resources are dwindling and war festers across the blighted planet. Ria, a cyborg slave, is commanded by an implanted governor chipto track down dark matter, which may hold the key to restoring Earth's place in the cosmos. Ria travels with Haldane, a hardened warrior from a parallel dimension. Together, they traverse the horrors of the wastelands, finally reaching the fabled Fifth Kingdom. There, they find a nightmarish prison state of dark matter mines ruled by an iron-fisted despot. To achieve their goal, Ria and Haldane must fight to not only win the key to the dark matter mines, but also the hearts of an enslaved people. The fate of the universe, and Ria’s freedom, rests on who wins the Fifth Kingdom—and what they do with it.