About The Anomaly Trilogy: A Note From The Author
Origins
I wrote The Amazon Anomaly in the latter half of 2022 and early 2023, and it was published in late December 2023. TAA, as it is affectionately known, was intended as a standalone novel.
TAA was my first sci-fi adventure novel. I wanted exotic settings, lots of action, a scientifically plausible story and touch of romance. I would like to think I managed to distil most of that into the novel. This was a fun combination of elements, and it was an absolute thrill bringing the story to life!
However, most of all, I fell in love with the characters. Within my mind they took on a life of their own. A robust lot, they started making decisions which pushed the plot in sometimes unintended directions, yet I remained faithful to their choices and in the end the story knitted together seamlessly. It felt like I was channelling people who were doing what they felt was important, rather than pulling strings from on high as a literary puppet master. Yet in due course the book was completed, and I mourned that my time as an observer in this exciting world had come to an end.
A Sequel is Conceived
I longed to return to the world of The Amazon Anomaly. I yearned to check in with the characters, to see what they were up to. How were Scarlett and Simon doing, as well as Alice and George from JPL? What about Fernanda and Ray, and Ray’s younger brother Theo, monitoring the anomaly in Brazil? What had happened to Charlie in his strange predicament?
Also, since completing TAA, something on the scientific front had been nagging at me: How deeply do radio signals, broadcast from satellites, penetrate into water?
If this sounds confusing, read the novel and all will be revealed. Suffice it to say there was a flaw in the plan to shut down the micromachines, and the waters of the Amazon Basin were about to become a lot more dangerous.
And thus a sequel was conceived, a legitimate reason to return to the world of TAA two years after the events of the novel in 2028.
The Birth of a Trilogy
Thus I started writing a sequel, but there were so many exciting stories to tell! What started out as a two-part series soon grew into a trilogy, and at 490 and 538 pages respectively, both Islands of the Anomaly and Nexus of the Anomaly are heavy hitters.
New characters joined the original cast: Eliana, a young marine scientist passionate about scuba diving, and her colleagues Arnoud and John. Adeline, a French vulcanologist who we meet briefly in Islands of the Anomaly, becomes a central character in Nexus of the Anomaly. We also meet Sandra and her daughter Marcia, residents of Barbados subjected to the nightmarish biome that takes hold there.
The sequels take place in an entirely new part of the world, the Caribbean islands. There were many new and exciting locations to describe. To boot, I had to learn an entirely new nautical vocabulary – the language of sailors and their ocean-going craft, including military vessels. These books are partly about ocean creatures after all – monsters as only the micromachines of the anomaly could create.
I had an absolute ball writing The Anomaly Trilogy, and I hope my passion for this project shines from its pages. May you find pleasure in reading my words as much as I have enjoyed crafting them for you, and may the strange, at times terrifying, but exciting world of The Anomaly Trilogy stay with you long after you look up from its final page.
Chris Cosmain, April 2025