RPGs in our Gaming Future

The Game Awards were last week, a gaming event that, not surprisingly, hands out a bunch of awards (Clair Obscur cleaned up, deservedly so), but is more anticipated for its upcoming game trailer reveals. And boy, it did not disappoint for us sci-fi fans.

First up, a total surprise that came out of nowhere: Fate of the Old Republic, a "spiritual successor" to (but not direct sequel of) Knights of the Old Republic, one of the best stories in video gaming history (and definitely the best Star Wars story in video gaming history). It's being made by Casey Hudson's new studio; Casey was the Executive Producer of KOTOR and, of course, the Mass Effect Trilogy.

The trailer tells us almost nothing about the story, but eagle-eyed viewers quickly identified that the crashed ship in the trailer is the Leviathan, Revan's capital ship before the events of KOTOR - so that's a huge tie-in to the story. See the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAmkl1jL0fo

I am officially SO excited. Hopefully an in-progress remake of KOTOR (and 2, I believe) will release before FOTOR (we love our acronyms). As an older game, the mechanics of KOTOR are really, really clunky, which prevents a lot of newer players from experiencing what is an incredible story.

SECOND, we got a new, extensive trailer for Exodus, and a release window. (See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c80LMt_Uxs) That release window is, unfortunately, "early 2027," so still a ways to go. I honestly wasn't too surprised by this, though I'd hoped for holiday 2026. The trailer reveals more of the story and how it centers on your protagonist. (By the way, the player character in the trailers is the default, but they can be either male or female and will be completely customizable, yay).

With these games plus the upcoming Expanse game, the future is bright for sci-fi RPG gaming. But maybe not in 2026....

Warp-Drive Nacelles?

New paper just dropped! Dr. Sonny White, the physicist who took the energy requirements of Miguel Alcubierre's warp drive concept from "theoretically plausible but practically impossible" to "hmm...potentially doable," is continuing to pick away at the science and design concepts of such a drive.

Now he's refined the design of a theoretical warp drive, shifting from a single bubble to multi-nacelle channels, allowing for greater efficiency, stability and controllability.

Next, we just need to find the dollop of exotic matter required to create the field (and a few engineering breakthroughs, but we'll get those), and off to the stars we go!

Read more about the new design: https://thedebrief.org/new-warp-drive-propulsion-concept-moves-fictional-starships-closer-to-engineering-reality/

The Archimedes Engine

I finally finished this behemoth! The fact it took me so long should not be taken as a diss on the book - it's actually quite, quite good.

It felt like a return to form for Hamilton (I didn't overly love the Salvation trilogy, though I own the hardbacks for their drop-dead stunning covers....) He dialed the worldbuilding up to 11 (the worldbuilding in the Night's Dawn trilogy being pegged at about 17 ), while also crafting a final third packed with fast-paced action and edge-of-your-seat suspense. Reminded me of Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained, which is my favorite PDF tale.

Perhaps most importantly, it brought the game world of EXODUS (website: https://www.exodusgame.com) to vivid life by letting the reader live in it for a thousand pages. This made me even more excited to play the game, which is the highest purpose of every game tie-in novel.

Local Author Celebration

I had a fantastic time at the Local Author Celebration at the Hayden library last weekend! I talked all things writing SciFi and Fantasy on a panel. I sold some books, hung out with several author friends I’ve made since moving to Coeur d’Alene, and most importantly (my secret, true goal), got to meet a bunch more local authors - of which there are so many. I'm stoked to learn that the CDA/Spokane area has such a vibrant writing scene.

Thanks so much to the Community Library Network (the network of suburban CDA libraries) for hosting this inaugural event, and for all the hard work the librarians and volunteers put in to make it a success. Here's to many more!

The Genesis Mission

(No, not the Star Trek one, though that was the first place my brain went when I saw the announcement….)

How groundbreaking is the Genesis Mission going to be?

"Priority areas of focus include the greatest scientific challenges of our time that can dramatically improve our Nation’s national, economic, and health security, including biotechnology, critical materials, nuclear fission and fusion energy, space exploration, quantum information science, and semiconductors and microelectronics."

On the one hand, it's being spearheaded by the federal government, so it might be bloated, bureaucratic, and spend billions of dollars while never actually accomplishing anything.

On the other hand, the major AI players are all in. And the govt is handing over the entire federal database of historical science data to fuel it.

You probably know that I generally favor private enterprise and competition as the best path forward for the most progress for everyone. But "the Manhattan Project" is so well-known for a reason; sometimes, every now and then, a goal is so big that only the full force and weight of the U.S. government can hope to accomplish it.

Genesis is promising a revolution in biotech, space exploration, quantum computing and energy - everything us futurists dream of. It makes me extremely twitchy that "the catch" might be government control of its fruits, but I also can't help but be excited by the possibilities. What about you? How do you all feel about it?

As an aside, I saw a theory offered on X: that the government really does have crashed UFOs and a host of alien technology, and with Genesis they're planning to credit AI with coming up with all this technology they actually already have, so they can finally deploy it. In the past, I would've rolled my eyes and kept going, but all the recent, genuine reveals in the UFO space are now causing me to go, "Eh...it's not outside the realm of possiblity!"

Learn more here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/11/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-unveils-the-genesis-missionto-accelerate-ai-for-scientific-discovery/

Stargate Is Returning

Exciting news: Amazon has ordered a new Stargate TV series! Not a reboot, but instead a continuation - and all the major writers and producers from SG-1 and Atlantis are in charge, which gives me a tremendous amount of hope.

You can read the official schpiel from Amazon here: https://deadline.com/2025/11/stargate-tv-series-order-amazon-martin-gero-1236623431/

But even better, get the inside scoop from Joseph Mallozzi, one of the primary producers and creative minds behind SG-1 and Atlantis:

“Yes, it’s true.  14 years after the franchise aired its last episode (SGU’s “Gauntlet”), a new Stargate series has been greenlit by Amazon.  And it’s not a reboot or a wholesale reimagining that will wipe the slate clean on 17 seasons and some 350 hours of Stargate history.  It’s a new series that will be the perfect jumping-on point for first-time viewers while, at the same time, honoring the existing past.  And the reason for that is because this new series was created by longtime franchise veteran Martin Gero who worked on SG-1, Atlantis and Universe, writing such notable fan favorites as The Storm, The Eye, Duet, First Strike, Be All My Sins Remember’d and many more.

Joining the production of the new series is Brad Wright, co-creator and co-showrunner of all that came before – Stargate SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe.  Martin has kindly offered yours truly a role on the project as well and I have happily accepted.

Martin has been developing this show for a while now.  A little over a year ago, he reached out and asked “Want to read something cool?”.  That something, it turned out, was his pilot script for the new Stargate series.  Now I obviously can’t say too much about the content at this point – but I can assure you that it embraces everything that made the original Stargates so great: heart, humor, rich mythology, exploration, action, adventure, compelling/endearing characters, and that overall sense of optimism and fun that made you fall in love with Stargate.

You are all in for a treat.

Eventually.

Now putting this production together is going to take some time even though Martin has already done a lot of the preliminary heavy lifting, writing the pilot script and series overview that details the show, its world and characters, as well as his plans for the first season and beyond.  Between now and the series premiere somewhere down the line, the writers room must be assembled, stories need to be spun, scripts written, prep started, crew hired, actors cast and, eventually, a new Stargate series produced.

It will take a while but Martin shares my philosophy when it comes to dialing in the fandom, so expect to receive updates throughout the prep, production, and post process.  Concept art, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and insights, breaking news and much much more!

Get ready.  We’re heading through the gate one more time. Chevron Eight is locked!” (Original tweet)

New Project Hail Mary Trailer

Guys, if you haven't read Project Hail Mary and don't want to be spoiled before you go see the movie (or get around to reading the book), DO NOT WATCH THIS TRAILER. The spoilers, they flow like wine.

If you have read the book, though? OMG, this trailer looks absolutely amazing! I'm so excited now.

It's a cliche to observe that book-to-movie adaptations are almost always terrible, but they are. I've said before that PHM is one of my Top 5 books of the last decade...and they just might have gotten this one right.

TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VYsnngkS_U

New Glenn & ESCAPADE

Fantastic launch (and landing) today by Blue Origin - there's another reusable rocket on the table.

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, in its second official launch, sent NASA's ESCAPADE mission on its way to Mars. The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (NASA makes such great acronyms) mission will use two small satellites (built by another private space company, Rocket Lab) to study space weather conditions at Mars.

In only its second try, Blue Origin executed a perfect landing of New Glenn's booster on their drone ship, "Never Tell Me The Odds."

As awesome as SpaceX's achievements are, we need MORE private space companies doing amazing things, so Blue Origin's success today is great news. Like SpaceX, Blue Origin will be headed to the moon as part of Artemis, and they have grand plans for orbital stations and beyond.

Learn more about the launch today here.

Image Credit: Dave Limp (link) and Blue Origin.

Dune Part 3

‘DUNE: PART THREE’ has wrapped production. It stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, Robert Pattinson and Rebecca Ferguson, and will hit theaters December 18, 2026.

As wonderful a book as Dune is, I did not love Dune Messiah. It will be interesting to see if and how much they change the story. Is your average moviegover ready for the hero to become the villain - and not in a "The Dark Knight" way, but a mass-murdering way?

The Milky Way Shines in Radio

This is what the Milky Way would look like at night if your eyes could see radio waves. It's a new image created by the Murchison Widefield Array, which scanned the sky in 20 radio "colors" over frequencies from 72 to 231 megahertz.

What do I think when I see an image like this? Space isn't cold, dark and silent at all. It's vibrant, busy and fiercely, chaotically alive. Which makes it a fantastic place for stories.

Learn more here.

Choose the Form of Your Destruction

Is the universe doomed to suffer a Heat Death (which means cold) or a Big Crunch (or possibly Big Bounce)? Which is it, dammit? For the last 3 decades, scientists have insisted the expansion of the universe was accelerating; that one day no more galaxies would decorate our sky, then no more stars. Then the universe would grow still and cold.

Now some pretty reputable research says...oops? Maybe not? Maybe the expansion is slowing, will eventually stop, then reverse?

You don't need to read the article unless you're into astrophysics. The point is that, for a science fiction writer, all the things we DON'T understand can be very frustrating - but possibly nothing is more frustrating than when we're confident we DO understand something...until we don't.

The fact that the universe is expanding, and that the expansion is accelerating, is baked into the Amaranthe worldbuilding, and not just as background - it's actually somewhat important to the Rasu/Dzhvar shenanigans. If scientists eventually decide that, no, they're now definitely sure it's doing no such thing, that flip is going to painfully date my books for future readers.

And I'm going to be ANNOYED.

https://thedebrief.org/a-potential-paradigm-shift-in-cosmology-scientists-uncover-evidence-the-universes-expansion-is-slowing-down-not-accelerating/

P.S.: For the record, I actually prefer the Big Bounce scenario. If all life in the universe is going to end, better for it to do so in an exciting rush of colliding galaxies and stars into a dramatic singularity, then an explosion to start all over again. No one wants to die cold and alone in the dark.

P.P.S.: A reader on X pushed back a little bit on my take, pointing out that science is not frozen into a fixed, unchanging doctrine like religion; instead it bends and changes as our knowledge grows, and that’s a good thing. And it IS a good thing; in fact, it's one of the most admirable aspects of science. It's just frustrating when you're trying to make your scifi grounded in scientific plausibility & the foundations keep changing. But, that's what I get for writing out on the far edge of what we know!

Happy Halloween

Two years ago, I wrote this little flash fiction ghost story for Halloween. If you've finished Liminal Space, you know that the events underlying the story are now Official Amaranthe Canon. Because I never can leave well enough alone....

***

Proele.

The word whispered through her dream, carried along by an eerie, haunted wind. Wisps of fog obscured any details of where she was, but everywhere she turned, there was only the word.

Proele.

Nika awoke with a start. Silvery moonlight drifted into the bedroom, and she turned to see Dashiel sleeping peacefully beside her.

Taking care not to disturb him, she eased out of bed and tip-toed to the kitchen, where she poured a cup of coffee and took it over to the windows looking down upon Mirai One.

Proele. She knew the word, though not from where. It took only a fraction of a second to delve the history banks and she had her answer, though not her ‘why.’ Proele was the name they’d given to the planetoid where, near the end of their two-century-long Exodus away from the Anaden Empire, they’d first discovered kyoseil. Though the rock wasn’t fit for habitation, they’d paused there for several weeks while a team set up a camp on the surface to extract and study the mineral. After loading up sizeable samples in the holds of their generation ships, they’d continued their journey, and only after settling on Synra had the first experiments integrating kyoseil into their biosynthetic bodies began.

She wondered. Had Magnus Forchelle known as he stood on the planetoid’s surface what he had found?

Proele.

She jumped in surprise. She wasn’t dreaming any longer, was she? She pinched herself. No, she was not. Yet the ghostly voice had echoed anew in her mind nonetheless.

She sighed, sending ripples through the steaming coffee held at her lips. It appeared she was going to Proele.

Read the rest at the link: https://www.gsjennsen.com/news/2023/10/31/ghosts-of-proele

(Image Credit: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona)

Book and Character Art Banner

A new header image went up on the social media profiles this week, and I thought you all might enjoy seeing it. The theme: “The people who will save the universe - if it can be saved.”

You can see high-res versions of the character art - and some additional characters - on my concept art page: https://www.gsjennsen.com/concept-art/. Click to expand a pic, then right click to download it if you like.

Exodus Game Update

Archetype Entertainment dropped a ton of exciting updates this week for EXODUS, it’s upcoming action/RPG scifi game. If you’re a fan of Mass Effect, you want to be following this game! New key art is below. They also released a new set of screenshots, and the devs hosted a 12-minute Q&A. And you can now Wishlist the game at Steam and other retailers. See all the updates here: https://www.exodusgame.com/en-US/news/wishlist-exodus-now-watch-the-new-exodus-founders-qa-and-more