About
Genre: Sci-Fi, Espionage
Themes: Honor, Loyalty, Truth
Pages: 342
Words: 88,244
The Halferne Perfidy was my first failed NoNoWriMo attempt. At the time, I had only ever written 45K words of The Maylyon Gambit (unfinished) and a 20K word short story version of The Halferne Incubus. This was to be a novel set in the same universe, focusing on the backstory of a character I hadn’t even introduced yet. I consider the genre to be, half-jokingly, all my favorite things crammed into one book: “secret agents vs ninjas and gangsters on a cyberpunk-ish world with a media-hacking AI that messes with society in the background for fun” or “Jack Higgins, Chang Cheh, and Yuval Noah Harari walk into a bar” …
… but also, don’t get mad at me when you read it and find out it really isn’t any of those things.
I always said the subgenre of “contemporary pulp sci-fi/espionage/wuxia” was wide open and begging to be invented. Of course, having now experienced the logistics of making it all work, I now see that many of the tropes aren’t really compatible.
Back Cover Blurb
Sean Clay has spent his career uncovering conspiracies before they become wars.
His latest assignment should have been routine: travel to the isolated, nearly-collapsed world of Notosia, locate a missing industrialist, recover a stolen project known only as Keraunos, and come home.
Instead, Clay finds a society where truth itself is engineered. Every citizen sees a different version of reality. Criminal syndicates wield more influence than governments. An omnipresent artificial intelligence quietly edits history to preserve order. And somewhere within the chaos moves a legendary assassin known as Hei Gezi, leaving behind impossible murders and no witnesses.
When Clay discovers the assassin may also be the key to a conspiracy that spans worlds, his mission changes from recovering stolen technology to saving a woman who may no longer be capable of saving herself.
As rival factions close in, every revelation overturns the last. Allies become enemies. Enemies become something far more complicated. And Clay begins to suspect that he was never sent to Notosia to solve the mystery, but to become part of it.
Halferne Perfidy is a science-fiction espionage thriller about truth, loyalty, and the dangerous difference between changing the future… and deciding who deserves it.
Read the Latest Draft
As stated elsewhere, I consider this a “working manuscript.” It’s not a raw draft, but it’s not in final form either. From time to time (maybe once a year at most), I may revise something — a chapter, a scene, or an idea that’s matured or just been misunderstood by readers. Occasionally, a larger section gets rewritten, or something is added. Nothing here is volatile, but nothing is frozen. You’ll find the latest changes and planned (one day) next steps noted below.
I offer it here for readers who are curious now, not for early access hype or formal critique. If you enjoy it, that’s enough. If you notice something worth mentioning, I’m always interested — but feedback is optional, not expected. I’m not trying to con you into being a beta-reader.
Chapter 1 … Chapter 2 … Chapter 3 … Chapter 4 … Chapter 5 … Chapter 6 … Chapter 7 … Chapter 8 … Chapter 9 … Chapter 10 … Chapter 11 … Chapter 12 … Chapter 13 … Chapter 14 … Chapter 15 … Chapter 16 … Chapter 17 … Chapter 18 … Chapter 19 … Chapter 20 … Chapter 21 … Chapter 22 … Chapter 23 … Chapter 24 … Chapter 25 … Chapter 26 … Chapter 27 … Chapter 28 … Chapter 29 … Chapter 30 … Chapter 31
Playlist I Listened to While Writing It
Revision History
| NaNo Draft | First 23K words (NaNoWriMo 2017) | November 2017 |
| Draft 0 | First Speed Draft | September 2024 |
| Draft 1 | Grammarly Draft | October 2024 |
| Draft 2 | Alpha Reader Draft – Tweak ending, minor clarifications, minor plot holes corrected | February 2025 |
| Draft 2.1 | Rewrite Klein, add Prudence, spread out Clay’s backstory, extra clarity on the reveals | August 2025 |
| Draft 2.2 | Save Klein, tweak epilogue, add Mother Eye and Hodges | November 2025 |
| Draft 3 | Tighten themes, expand Mother Eye and NotoLib, a few explanations for plot holes | July 2026 |
| Draft 3.1 | Expand Prudence and Ness’ character moments, clarify location of Macguffins at key points, show Clay’s internal logic in third act better | Fall 2026 |
| Draft 4 | Professional Line Edit | Winter 2026 |
