You might find my new book, The Seastead Chronicles, of interest. Several book distributors offer it in paperback and ebook format. Before you buy, though, you should understand the meaning of the word “seastead.”
Definition
Combining the words “sea” and “homesteads,” seasteads are permanent abodes at sea. The Wikipedia article restricts the definition to structures in international waters, but I see no reason for that. People could construct them close to shore. Some imagine seasteads to comprise or be included in new oceanic nations, but I can foresee future seasteads as extensions of existing land countries, too. Most seastead concepts and historical attempts float on the ocean surface, but I could imagine underwater seasteads as well.
History
Accounts of people living on the sea go back thousands of years, and include the areas of Southeast Asia, Venice, and Aztec-era Mexico. Recent decades have seen fledgling attempts at small seasteads. Some failed after a short time, but more are starting up.
In Fiction
- In 1895, the novel Propeller Island (also The Floating Island) by Jules Verne introduced readers to a huge man-made mobile island built by American millionaires.
- China Miéville’s novel The Scar (2002) features thousands of ships connected to form a floating city.
- House of Refuge (2014) by Michael DiBaggio features seasteads, but in an alternate history world of humans with paranormal abilities.
- PJ Manney’s 2017 novel (ID)entity describes a pirate attack against a seastead.
- Atlantis Returns (2019) by Vlad ben Avorham considers whether land nations will accept seasteads or not.
- The Seastead Adventures series, Books 1, 2, 3, and 4 by Tara Maya and Mathiya Adams (2023-2025) consists of young adult romance novels that take place on a seastead.
Institute
The Seasteading Institute promotes seasteading, educates the public about the concept, supports those who build seasteads, and nourishes a seasteading community of interest.
My Book
In The Seastead Chronicles, you’ll find fifteen short stories set in the same world (ours in the near future), but spanning almost a century of time. I don’t portray seasteads as good or bad, but as new places where people live, bringing the best and worst aspects of being human with them.
As one reviewer wrote, the book “explores not only the nuts-and-bolts of how such a civilization and its technologies would function…but also how such a society would grow and evolve, how family dynamics and national identities would change; how human physiology and psychology would adapt to this harsh new environment. Even the idiosyncrasies of casual language are explored… The reader is given tales of war and peace, of murder and romance, of adventure and intrigue to propel these chronicles forward to a satisfying conclusion. But in all these stories, it is the human experience that drives the narrative.”
You may purchase The Seastead Chronicles in the following places and formats: Amazon as ebook, Amazon as paperback, Barnes & Noble as paperback or ebook, Everand as ebook, Indigo as ebook, Rakuten Kobo as ebook, and Smashwords as ebook.
The Seastead Chronicles receives the strongest possible recommendation from—
Poseidon’s Scribe
