Between Two Worlds

You not know what you not know

Capricorn, the wheel, he spins day day day. He signs chores. You do as he says, else he sparks you til you scar. He sends me to academy to learn Systems, but they teaching sewers and I not want my arms up pipes til I recyc. And I not wanna farm fields like thousands, like my bestie Skylight. I want some bigger. And I wanna share my life, wanna pair, wanna happy.

Then Quasar appears in academy calling me Pod, knowing my name some way, and holding fancy markers and fancy sheets. Says he a trader from Carf, coupla sectors round the wheel. I not like him, and I like him.

And then Skylight blanks, joining wolves on a mad mission to fix a breach. No sorry, no bye, just a grey sad bunk and a void punched through me.

Some ent right, is it. Skylight, he ent a wolf. Quasar, he ent from Carf.

I gotta hunt Skylight. I gotta know the truth.

Trouble with searching, it the finding. Secrets big as the wheel. Truths gonna tumble my life. Bad dice.

Between Two Worlds (Pod of Capricorn book 1) is a queer coming-of-age sci-fi adventure — with a touch of romance — about secrets, lies, found family, and things you don’t know you don’t know. Set on the generation ship Capricorn — a colony wheel thousands of years into a journey across the stars — it’s a dystopian drama with light and shade.

Perfect for fans of All That’s Left in the World by Erik J. Brown and The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer.

Content notes

This book includes themes and activities that some might prefer not to read.

The setting is a dystopian future and the main characters have little autonomy. There is a regular threat of mild-to-severe punishment, and occasional threat of death.

There is frequent, mild swearing. Characters talk about sexual activity but only kissing is depicted on the page. Characters occasionally use alcohol, and drunkenness is depicted briefly.

There are rare, incidental references to mild drug use, and a small number of misogynistic comments by an antagonist.

The book does not include parental characters.

There is no racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, religion, or smoking.

More detailed information, revealing aspects of the plot

The story takes place in an imagined dystopian future aboard a colony wheel on a multi-generation deep-space mission. Through societal evoution over that time, the characters live in a hybrid high-tech/low-tech world with little apparent autonomy. An artificial intelligence makes decisions and controls day-to-day activities for the characters, and can punish them by low-to-medium-strength electrocution if they do not comply. Certain parts of the colony wheel are protected under threat of lethal force.

Antagonists threaten violence and death. Some fighting occurs. A knife appears. The main character is restrained for a time, is covered in a hood, and is chased in fear of his life.

Characters drink beer and spirits. On one occasion the main character becomes drunk, vomits, and suffers from a hangover.

The main characters have friends but no family. From an early age they lived in the equivalent of a boarding school, mentioned occasionally in passing.