Chris Bucholz is a video game, humor, and third type of writer. His first novel, Severance (Apex Publications, 2014), is incredible, and his weekly column on Cracked.com contains a mix of historical curiosities, short fiction, and spectacularly bad advice. He lives in Vancouver, BC, with his wife and son.

Severance by Chris Bucholz

After 240 years of traveling toward Tau Prius and a new planet to colonize, the inhabitants of the generation ship Argos are bored and aimless. They join groups such as the Markers and the Breeders, have costumed orgies, and test the limits of drugs, alcohol, and pain just to pass the time.

To Laura Stein, they're morons and, other than a small handful of friends, she'd rather spend time with her meat plant than with any of her fellow passengers. But when one of her subordinates is murdered while out on a job, Laura takes it as her responsibility to find out what happened. She expects to find a personal grudge or a drug deal gone wrong, but instead stumbles upon a conspiracy that could tear the ship in two.

Labeled a terrorist and used as a pawn in the ultimate struggle for control, Laura, with help from her friend Bruce and clues left by a geneticist from the past, digs deep into the inner working of the ship, shimmying her way through duct work, rallying the begrudged passengers to rise up and fight, and peeking into an unsavory past to learn the truth and save their future.

 

REVIEWS

  • "Severance is a clever, witty, and entertaining romp through outer space."

    – Just a Guy Who Likes to Read

  • "In Severance, Bucholz takes us on a roller-coaster ride of spaceship technology, genetic manipulation, and politics as dirty and shameful as anything you can find in the news these days."

    – Rachel Cordasco, SFSignal
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

The strange noise was still there, growing louder. Out of a sense of professional curiosity she continued searching the room, thinking it might be a short circuit arcing behind a wall panel. She stooped to peer behind a bookshelf in the corner, nudging it slightly.

Bright blue light obliterated everything. She jumped back, falling on her ass, scrambling backwards like a crab, one hand clamped over her eyes. A piercing noise filled the air around her. Stein opened her eyes a fraction. The blue light was still there, still blinding. Blinking, she could see the negative afterimage, a bright slash of orange imprinted on her retinas. Strange black images danced in her vision. Keeping her eyes shut, she clamped her hands over them, squeezing. The images floating on the bright sea of orange coalesced into distinct shapes. They almost looked like letters.