SETH W. JAMES

New Novel Pre-release Announcement: “Ethos of Cain,” September 2023

July 7, 2023

By Seth W. James

It gives me great pleasure to announce that my twelfth book, a novel entitled Ethos of Cain, will debut this September, 2023, exclusively on Amazon in ebook, trade paperback, and hardcover formats.  Ethos of Cain is an episodic, near-future, cyberpunk science fiction novel that follows the eponymous character, Cain, through high-stakes contracts as a soldat de fortune, explores his growing romance with Francesca, the Mayor of Venice, and delves into the substance of identity as he struggles to balance the disparate aspects of his life while remaining true to the Ethos of Cain.

The back-cover copy:

“The perfection of cold fusion and CasiDrive propulsion had lifted humanity into the wider solar system—and widened the gulf between the nameless masses and the sovereign-class wealthy.  Into the grey between corporate and criminal walked Cain, a soldat de fortune, who, for the last twenty years, had taken scores and completed contracts for the elites of any world, impenetrable, abstruse, and solitary.

All of that changed one year ago when, after a triste with a former client turned into a romance, Cain’s relationship with Francesca caused him to question how he could walk in her world and survive in his own.  The boundaries of their lives then came crashing to Earth when the man whose syndicate they had destroyed returned for revenge.  The money behind the man, however, concealed a deeper, more sinister plot, one that threatened Francesca’s life and would challenge Cain to walk the razor’s edge between their two worlds while remaining true to the Ethos of Cain.

Ethos of Cain is the first novel in The Cain Series by Seth W. James.”

The inevitable question arises, after penning a story such as Ethos: is this the beginning of a series?  It gives me even greater pleasure to answer, yes, it is the first novel in The Cain Series.

I had not employed the episodic format since Shadow Over Odiome, despite really enjoying the challenges and opportunities it offers; but Ethos of Cain’s story so naturally fit the episodic format that the novel seemed to select it more so than the author.  I can’t say that I will employ it exclusively for the series—we’ll have to see where Cain and Francesca go, the sorts of trouble they get into—but it may become the default format for the Cain books.

Anyway, stay tuned!  I plan to release the cover art as soon as it is available, followed by the release announcement.

Thanks for reading!