<aside> 💡 Speculative fiction is a genre as vast and full of possibilities as the heavens themselves, covering everything from unrecognizable alternate realities to so-close-almost-true imaginings of the future.

D.M. Wozniak’s future for Earth in The Perihelion Duology is artfully, lovingly crafted: a future where the geopolitical borders that divide our world maps today don’t exist as we know them any longer. A future where genetically modified humans born with less than 1% animal DNA attempt — for better or worse — to find their places within the rest of the population.

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Award-Winning Author, D.M. Wozniak

Speculative fiction is the genre you turn to when you want to leave this world behind for a universe curated by pure imagination, unbound by concepts of “possible” and “impossible”.

If speculative fiction shows us the impossible through prose, immersive speculative fiction goes one step further: it picks you up and drops you right into the middle of all that impossibility.

With Tales, Wozniak’s prose is free to go beyond the page.

Similar to the way the establishing shot of a movie with voiceover narration might set the scene for the audience, by showing us the physical setting where our story takes place at the same time as providing expositional narration, we are not only learning about key story elements but are also being immersed into an overall vibe.

The world aesthetic in speculative fiction is monumentally important — not just what is happening in these fantastic worlds and futures, but what does it feel like to be there.

When Wozniak’s chapter marked ‘Bluecore’ comes up, it doesn’t take long to realize the narrative voice speaking about the trials and history of what was once known as the great American city of Chicago isn’t just familiar with the city… it is the city.

Bluecore, or that mighty metropolis that was once known as Chicago, unfurls its history to the reader with the lofty voice of the immortal.

Meanwhile, the background shifts: we see a familiar-looking Chicago with cloudy skies, neon theater signs, and steam rising from street vents transform before us into one with floating cars and holographic sign displays that quietly but powerfully emphasize the omniscient loneliness in the narrative voice of Bluecore.

Wozniak’s visceral prose illustrates what is being felt, while the gorgeous background on-screen shows what is being seen. Combined, the emotional effect is palpable.

Many novels that reimagine our world employ ensemble casts in order to give readers a more complete picture of the universe.

With a cast of six incredibly unique and diverse characters, from a fashion designer breaking ground with wedding dress designs in a world where marriage is seen as antiquated, to a wasp-human hybrid determined to use her immunity to the effects of radiation to wreak revenge on her abusive creators, Wozniak’s Perihelion Duology is no exception.

However, when powered by Tales, the P.O.V switches that occur between chapters are as smooth as they are captivating.

Of course, the core of Wozniak’s world and its intricacies come from the prose. Despite the seemingly fantastic circumstances of the novel, the heart of Wozniak’s tale comes from the sheer humanity that pours out of every page as his characters move between hope and despair in their efforts to navigate a world that slowly begins to feel more and more to readers as eerily familiar to their own.

Speculative fiction shows us who we are not only by removing us from our familiar world and dropping us into another but by asking us, as readers, to consider the way these fantastic scenarios of humanity make us feel.

So go ahead, create your worlds, your new Earths, your unfathomable futures and pasts, and alien planets, and toss them at Tales and ask us to fathom them. Speculative fiction will take you there and back again — but speculative fiction with Tales will open your eyes with the breathless sensation that you’ve been there all along.