Start Reading Tidelands

Where to start, how this works, and everything else you need to know

Tidelands is a weekly sci-fi & fantasy serial that publishes every Friday, emailed straight to your inbox. Part 1 is free to read, but you can keep up with the story by signing up for exclusive access, or buying ebook or paperback editions of the collected instalments as they appear.

The Story

In a flooded city, the arcology provides a high-tech haven – for those who can afford it.

Here, safe in her pampered confinement, Eva longs for escape. But each day she is made to play The Game, a curious virtual environment that seems more designed to monitor and test than to entertain.

For those outside, life is a struggle for survival, battling climate change and a society on the brink of collapse, where unregulated technology runs amok, spawning genetic monsters, robotic nightmares and digital ghosts.

Here, Squirrel is a memory thief, eking out a fraught existence in service to the criminal gangs that trade in illicit gene hacks, blackmarket augments and – her speciality – stolen secrets.

But Squirrel has strange skills she doesn’t know she possesses, and when they uncover a secret that some very bad people would do anything to keep hidden, her only chance at escape leads to the arcology itself, to Eva, and the answers no one wants them to learn.

Tidelands is an ongoing sci-fi and fantasy serial. Set some years in the future, it is a dystopian blend of cyberpunk, first contact and Lovecraftian horror.

Is It For You?

I’m also an author of philosophy books, and I’ve found sci-fi and fantasy a great way of exploring philosophical themes and ideas. I also love complex stories with rich characters, especially those with a mystery element. I’m a big fan of William Gibson, M. John Harrison, Iain M. Banks and Phillip K. Dick, but also spy fiction (John le Carré, Mick Herron), historical fiction (Hilary Mantel, Robert Harris), and experimental genre-hopping (David Mitchell, Susanna Clarke). So as well as traditional sci-fi fare (AI, robots, VR, etc), there are various fantastical things (genetic monsters, weird aliens, ghost stories and psychic phenomena), a bit of cosmic Lovecraftian horror, some mystery and detective elements, and the odd bit of satirical black humour. The story also jumps through different settings and time periods, involving various characters and interlinked storylines (though still with a central story thread that brings it all together). So if you like your sci-fi clever and mysterious, occasionally funny and weird, suspenseful and thrilling, with a bit of genre-crossing thrown in, then this is for you.

The biggest advert for it is simply to say that I’m having great fun writing it.

So How Does All This Work?

Instalments are released every Friday, links to which are posted in the index. After Part 1, instalments are exclusively available to paid subscribers, who also get free ebook copies of the collected instalments as they appear.

Instalments are grouped into chapters, and the chapters are grouped into parts. Each instalment is numbered like so:

• Tidelands: Part-Chapter (Overall Instalment Number)

For example:

• Tidleands: I-One (1) = Part I, Chapter One, Instalment 1

• Tidelands: II-Three (31) = Part II, Chapter Three, Instalment 31

• Tidelands: III-Six (59) = Part III, Chapter Six, Instalment 59

So you should know where you are at any time, but the number in brackets will always tell you which instalment comes next – or just use the index. Instalments usually contain multiple scenes, and I’ve given each of these a little nickname – e.g. “Cosmic Sphincter”, “Sentinel”, “Green Fingered”. These were mostly for my own convenience when writing the story, but I figured they’d also serve as intriguing headings.

Who is Gareth Southwell?

I’m a writer, philosopher, and illustrator, based in South Wales, UK.

I’ve a PhD in “death”, and have been studying, teaching, examining, and writing about philosophy for the last 30 years or so. I’m a traditionally published author of various books on the subject, mostly aimed at the general reader.

My fiction work is generally sci-fi and fantasy related, and draws on my interests in philosophy. You can find out more here. All titles are published by WoodPig Press.

I’ve been a professional book designer and illustrator for about 20 years, having worked for a range of top publishers. You can see examples of my work, or hire me, via Reedsy.

So Where Do I Start?

You can check out the index page here, which contains links to all currently available instalments in order.