When scientist-turned-novelist Geoffreyjen Edwards describes their 15-book science-fiction saga, The Ido Chronicles, the first thing they mention isn’t a hero or a plot, it’s a Dyson sphere. “A Dyson sphere,” they said, “is what happens when a civilization builds a shell around its star in order to capture all the light and radiation coming from the star.”
In Edwards’ version, the sphere doesn’t rotate. Gravity doesn’t exist inside. Instead, time itself slows down, a device that reshapes both physics and storytelling. “The reason people have warp drive in science fiction stories,” Edwards explained, “is because you want things to take place in other stars. So instead of using faster-than-light travel, I slowed time.”
The result is a universe that unfolds across two scales: 2,000 years in human experience, but half a million in real cosmic time. Over those eons, evolution itself becomes part of the plot. “This Dyson sphere has been in existence for almost half a million years,” Edwards said. “That’s long enough for significant evolution to take place. The creators of this sphere have been looking to create a small god.”
The series explores complex questions of humanity, morality, and perception. Edwards intentionally plays with multiple truths and contradictions. “I have these things in my books where there are intentional inconsistencies,” they said. “Because the way one person tells a story can be inconsistent with the way another person tells a story. They have different truths, a different understanding of truth.”
Edwards’ world-building is also shaped by gender, identity, and disability. The first book featured largely gender-neutral characters. In the upcoming installment, Messioph, “there are also issues around gender that emerge. One of the characters is gender-neutral, and they are the villain, although I put quotes around villain,” Edwards said. Another character has gigantism, a condition in which part of the body grows uncontrollably. “Since my story is in the future and there are technologies that can slow the growth, the person is able to survive a long time,” Edwards explained. “They become a very important person in the whole structure.”
Mythology and religion also play a key role. The saga unfolds during humanity’s Third Exodus, thousands of years after leaving Earth. Between the second and third exoduses comes a rebellion that produces a sacred text, The Third Testament, designed to unify all religions. “All of the religions in the future refer back to the Third Testament as a kind of foundational text,” Edwards said.
The upcoming Messioph expands both the narrative and the universe. A new character takes center stage, and familiar elements like the Jonahs, whale-descended spaceships, return, introducing questions of consent, power, and interspecies relations. “The issues are harder to deal with,” Edwards said. “They’re more complex and messy than in Plenum.”
For Edwards, science fiction is also a way to explore human paradoxes. “Paradox is built into the way humans function,” they said. “You have two things that are in opposition, seemingly completely closed off. But there is a possibility to create a third way through, something that has to emerge over time from the turmoil.”
The series challenges readers to consider humanity’s complexity, its moral and philosophical limits, and even the nature of time itself. “If you go far enough in the future, it becomes too big to be able to untangle any truth,” Edwards said.
With Messioph releasing this October, readers can step deeper into Edwards’ vast, meticulously imagined universe, a world where time bends, species evolve, and questions of morality, identity, and power are explored on an epic scale.
The book is featured on the home page of Untimely Books and is available for sale now.
Read more about the book here.
Read more about the author here.
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Tricia Stortz is a mental health reporter and freelance writer with a background in psychology. Through audio and print, she uses storytelling to illustrate how culture, policies, and resources affect vulnerable communities. She lives and writes in Denver, Colorado.