Welcome to the Kuro-Sil Virtual Tour featuring Michael Small, running from October 14th through October 21st!
Kuro-Sil is a stand-alone novel, and this book marks the debut of author Michael Small! A YA novel that blends elements of science fiction, space opera, and contemporary fantasy, Kuro-Sil is a novel with appeal to a wide range of genre readers!
Guest posts, interviews, podcast appearances, and reviews are being featured, so be sure to check all of them out and discover a great new author and novel!
About the author:
Michael Small didn’t plan on becoming an author. He initially wanted to be a video game programmer, though he couldn’t wrap his head around the subject. But he always had a story to tell, and seeing how woke messaging had started infesting modern entertainment, he dropped out of college in 2016 and taught himself how to write, spending the years since creating his own world, which became his debut novel Kuro-Sil: The Book of Humans, Reptuuls, and God.
Michael is a Christian and goes to church regularly, using his faith to inspire his stories. He is also an avid gamer, and has been playing video games since he was three. He mainly likes pop culture stuff like movies, tv, and more recently manga, but he likes to try many things, like going on walks and drives, and working out (though he’s not a pro at it).
He is currently thirty years old and lives in Washington state.Stephen is a proud Kentucky Colonel who also enjoys the realms of music, martial arts, good bourbons, and spending time with family.
Book Synopsis for Kuro-Sil: The Book of Humans, Reptuuls, and God:
I am the Chronicler, hear my story:
In the year 5027, humanity will be enslaved by an alien race called the Reptuuls.
But what if I told you a young boy befriended their oppressors?
Orren Hawkins is a boy with a dream: to make friends with the Reptuuls, no matter the cost. It won’t be easy due to the Reptuuls hatred of humanity. But by the grace of a long forgotten God, Orren has found two great and unusual friends, and they must learn to work together to rescue enslaved humans, as part of their destiny to unite man and Reptuul under God.
There’s just one problem: Orren is himself a drulak, a slave of Reptuuls. Can he still accomplish his dream?
Will you dare read the true story of a forbidden friendship no government wants exposed? Then welcome, one and all, to the legend of the Kuro-Sil!
Guest Post
"How do you combine being a Christian into your stories?"
Combining being a Christian into my stories was an interesting process. When I first thought of my story, I didn't think of having any Christian element in them. However, as I was thinking of ideas to flesh out my world, I wondered how two species with such different beliefs can truly unite together. I thought to incorporate my Christian beliefs into it to be the bridge that brings my people together. As I did this, I saw many sci-fi stories that have no spiritual elements in them, and also had very bleak outlooks on humanity.
For example, in the movie “AI: Artificial Intelligence,” by Steven Spielberg, toward the end of the movie, humanity goes extinct. In “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the character Bowman inadvertently enters a wormhole, is transported across space and time, and ends up in some weird limbo where he rapidly ages, transforms into some seemingly omnipotent being resembling a fetus, and is left to observe Earth. In one ending of the Mass Effect series, the player character Shepard can become the new central intelligence of the beings called the Reapers, and his being is linked to them forever.
My point in this is, for me, having been raised in the church since I was born, I think of those scenarios and think, "Would God let humanity die out?" "Would he leave us to be lost in space, somehow letting us evolve into immortal beings, forever separated from our loved ones or even God?"
Or, in some series like Star Trek, where humanity has moved past our petty squabbles and violent tendencies, and can explore space having overcome our past transgressions, it sounds good on paper, but could we do it in real life, and without God?
I fear living in those worlds because it seems like we will have abandoned God, and though many of those stories have humanity living in some Utopian societies, I know in real life, it would devolve into chaos, as it is now.
Some stories, like Star Wars, are clearly set in another universe, with its own histories completely separate from our own, so I don't mind that. What I do mind, however, are stories that are set in humanity's future, like Star Trek, Dune, or Mass Effect that imply we will abandon our faith. There are even some stories where the main goal of our protagonists is to kill God, or at least some type of deity that resides in their world. Examples include video games like Final Fantasy X and Xenogears, the manga Undead Unluck, and I'm pretty sure His Dark Materials has that too (I've never read that, but I've heard a lot of controversy from Christians over that series, so I'm inclined to believe it), and those really upset me as a Christian.
I wanted to create a future in my setting where, though we abandoned Christ for a time, eventually humanity will be led back to him, as will many aliens that exist in that time, which, in my story, were also created in the image of the Christian God in a way, and are equally deserving of God's mercy as humans were, and it will be used to bridge the divide between species.
It was a difficult line to tread, as many Christian stories tend to be too preachy, or too schmaltzy, so I did my best to balance it out to have a statement without trying to force people to conform to my ideals, while also being full of adventure, excitement, and compelling world-building to entertain non-Christians. I also wanted to think of my own power system. Many fantasy and sci-fi stories these days have a unique power system, so in my story, since in the future most species are aware of the spiritual side of reality, can tap into that realm, bond with spirits, and can use their own kinds of powers.
I also want my heroes to be imperfect. They won't be perfect saints. They have many problems and traumas they need to overcome, and my protagonist will even abandon his faith, but will come out stronger and more powerful than before.
I sometimes fear other Christians will consider my stories heretical, whether it be about the aliens or turning Christianity into a power system. To be frank, while I would love for this fantasy to be real, regardless of what it would mean for us humans, I don't believe it is real. I'm not trying to blaspheme God or create a new religion. All of what I write is made up to serve a greater narrative.
This is all fiction at the end of the day, and I hope people from all backgrounds, whether Christian or not, can enjoy the story I've written, and many more I plan to tell.
Guest Post
Author Links:
Website: https://thekuro-silchronicles.com/
X App (Formerly Twitter): @officialkurosil
Tour Schedule and Activities:
10/14 Tami Wylie https://www.instagram.com/bookaddict.twylie68 Review
10/14 Holly Brinsford (BooksCoveredHB) https://www.bookscoveredhb.wordpress.com Review
10/14 The Fantasy Princess https://thefantasyprincess.blogspot.com/ Guest Post
10/15 The Seventh Star Blog https://www.theseventhstarblog.com Author Interview
10/16 Julian Finholm Podcast interview
10/17 Jeanette Jensen https://www.instagram.com/lady_j_reads/ Review
10/18 Sapphyria's Books https://saphsbooks.blogspot.com/ Guest Post
10/19 David Brockway https://www.instagram.com/fatguyreading Review
10/20 Yvette Garcia https://www.instagram.com/yvettes_book_shelf Review
Purchase links for Kuro-Sil: The Book of Humans, Reptuuls, and God:
Print Link: https://www.amazon.com/Kuro-Sil-Book-Humans-Reptuuls-God/dp/B0D8GF49FS/
eBook Link: https://www.amazon.com/Kuro-Sil-Book-Humans-Reptuuls-God-ebook/dp/B0D8MDGZN8/
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