Books – The Viridian System series

13 May, 202513 May, 2025

Early Days – Pete & Lars update #booksky

Victor Habbick Visions/Space Science Library

Since the December update, I’ve been busy with the project with various names, but mostly subtitled something like – Pete & the Swede, the Early Years.

Main edits

January saw me working solidly on it, with feedback from my beta readers creating a whole new issue – that of making sure Lars got as much say in the story as Pete. I don’t know why I thought of the project as mostly Pete’s to tell, but now it covers Lars’s working life as thoroughly as it does Pete’s.

There are still parts of their very early lives that only exist as flashbacks and obscure references. I think taking them right back to their childhood is unnecessary. But for both of them it has a bearing on their view of themselves, although Pete is not self-conscious, in stark contrast to Lars.

Lars relaxes

“Food would be great.” Pete stood up, only to sit down again as [Lars] started to change from his coverall to shirt and pants. ‘Is changing for meals obligatory?”
“Only if you’ve been doing something odorous.”
Viridian series prequel (c) J M Pett 2025

One of the subtle things I did was to make Lars even stiffer in the beginning, by having him speak in over-formal phrasing, or just more obscure words. He was brought up in a very strict and hierachical system, like the British Upper Class (or Charles Emerson Winchester IV). Pete’s upbringing was free and easy, despite the invasion of his planet by the Imperium. Lars gradually transitions during college, and talks like most people thanks to Pete’s influence. One thing I find difficult is elaborating on Pete’s background without repeating what is already out there in Curved Space to Corsair.

I enjoyed all their adventures with girls, though. Yes, they did meet girls before they encountered Maggie, Dolores and Aramintha on Pleasant Valley! But as research students who went on into mining (mainly because orichalcum had just been discovered, and was desperately needed), they did not get too many opportunities to build relationships with women. I think Pete did better overall than Lars (or so Lars thinks) but that probably won’t surprise you.

Wordcount, early copies… and a title

The book is currently sitting at just under 90,000 words, which is about the same as the rest of the trilogy. I’m nearing the time to decide on publication strategy, and I don’t at the moment think it’ll come out in paperback. Most of my Viridian series sales are ebooks, and I am picking up sales after my book fairs, so at least some people like what they see.

If you’re a fan of the series, and would like a review copy when it’s finished, email me at my name with a dot between my first name and surname at btinternet.com. It would be good to know which of the books you’ve reviewed, and where you might talk about it, if you ask!

As for a title…. I’m leaning towards The Quest for Orichalcum at present. Having already done a Z title, a Q seems like a good idea to attract reading challenge fans!

I suppose I’d better start thinking about a cover…

4 November, 20224 November, 2022

The Viridian System Series Box Set is now on sale at Smashwords

The regular price is $11.99, which is a $3 discount on the individual book costs.

It launches everywhere except Amazon on November 10th.

Why a box set?

I was thinking of Christmas presents, and the number of people who pass my stall at the craft fairs saying they only read ebooks. I have ebooks!

So making this in an attractive gift set seemed like a good thing to do.

I ended up working all night on it to get it done for the start of November! I thought I’d formatted them all the same – but no. And irritatingly, applying a style across the file did not change the fonts on the italic parts. And as you probably know, what with spaceship names and telepathic conversations, I had a lot of italic parts!

But it’s safely done, and live on Smashwords as a pre-sale. It is on pre-order at other places, and will launch on November 10th. These are the permanent links:

Smashwords ~~~ Apple ~~~ B&N ~~~ Gardners ~~~ Kobobooks ~~~ Scribd ~~~ Odilo

Gift cards and Bookmarks

I’ve now made Gift Cards to go into the stall kit. They have the Smashwords link and a coupon code inside them. The buyer pays me, and the coupon gives the recipient a free ebook. Or three, in this case.

I’ve had these for the Princelings series for years, but only sold two. Maybe their time has come. And I’ve done one for my Dad’s memoirs, White Water Landings, which is also a popular seller.

Also new for the Christmas rush at my book fairs are new bookmarks featuring the Viridian series. I’ll be in Lyndhurst, Romsey (both Hampshire) and Salisbury (Wiltshire) on several dates before Christmas, so check my blog for details. Salisbury’s Christmas market is especially good, and there’ll probably be carols in the cathedral if you time it right.

20 June, 202225 May, 2022

Zanzibar’s Rings – the Story Behind the Book

I’m continuing my series of posts from the blog tour earlier this year. Today it’s the story behind the book. This appeared at the site cleverly called The Story Behind the Book. All the posts appear to be ‘the story behind the book’ and all as far as I looked are on Pump Up Your Book blog tours.

So if you ever want to know the story behind any book, check out whether it’s on this website.

The Story Behind Zanzibar’s Rings by Jemima Pett

Zanzibar’s Rings is the third and last book in the Viridian System series.

When I started the series, I mapped out the whole system, numbers and size and characteristics of the planets and other bodies. I think I included it at the end of the first book, but it’s definitely on the series website, viridianseries.uk.

After book 2, I knew I definitely wanted to stop at a third book. I’d written another trilogy that turned into a ten book series, and I didn’t want to do that again! But what would it be? Where would my characters go?

I work better when I’ve coined a title—even a working title. And, as I love reading challenges, and particularly A to Z reading challenges, I decided to go with a starting letter that would attract new readers! And so I got the title Zanzibar, and decided to apply it to the ringed planet in the fifth orbit of the Viridian system. Hence Zanzibar’s Rings.

It took me another year (while I finished the other series) to work out the general plot for this final book.

I’m not sure how it all came together. I wrote a draft blurb in which the two main aggressors in the galaxy came to fight over the riches of this remote system. They were already fighting each other elsewhere. That made me think of people escaping from the conflict—including one of the nastiest characters from the first two books. He happens to be the hero’s father. No love lost there!

Then I got the idea of the galactic disaster, and once I’d worked that out, I had, effectively, a locked room mystery. How do they get out? How did the people trapped in this system react? How did the ones at home react to these strangers in their midst? And what I really enjoyed was discovering (once again, as it happened in the ten book series too) all sorts of throwaway lines in the previous books to inspire plot twists and side stories, that I could wrangle until they came together in the end.

But it needed a second end, as there is a codicil, to tie up the final thread. That happened to be the perfect outing for a new idea I’d been working on in the form of a short story. So I have the setting for a new novel already… but not in the Viridian System series. That line is ended, but there is plenty more of the universe to explore!

~~~

I’m not sure that I’m making much progress on that new novel idea. But maybe…

Next month: An interview with me–but it also has an excerpt

25 May, 202225 May, 2022

Ten things maybe you didn’t know about Zanzibar’s Rings

Ten things? Well, these are the ten things I sent for the Blog Tour in February and March. You may well have seen them at Shannon: the Warrior Muse website. What surprised me, was that having done three ’10 things’ posts, I only saw this one (in several places) till right at the end.

I found this article difficult to put together. I mean, how do I know who the reader is and how much they will have already picked up about my book? Assuming ‘absolutely nothing’ is a good first step. But… I suspect that many who read this post knew quite a lot of this, especially the science bit. Also, I assumed the “about” is about the book, rather than the planet. But does it matter?

Ten things you didn’t know…

1. Zanzibar’s Rings is the third book of the Viridian System series. Dolores and Maggie now have their own businesses; Pete is occupied with his family, now settled in the southern part of their world, Sunset Strip, and Lars is, well, Lars is wondering what role he has now.

2. Pete and Lars got rich by mining asteroids for a rare element called orichalcum. So rich they don’t plan on doing it, ever again.

3. The Viridian System is the richest source of orichalcum in the galaxy. The asteroid belt is considered to be the property of the two planets in the third orbital ring, Pleasant Valley and Sunset Strip.

4. Orichalcum is essential for instantaneous communication systems. Other faster-than-light communications systems allowed for inter-stellar navigation before the discovery of orichalcum, but this metal with its strange properties was a game changer.

5. Asteroid miners still use archaic radio (speed of light) to communicate with other spacers within the same planetary system.

6. The Viridian System is so named because its sun, Viridium, emits a green-tinged light. It has long been held by Earth scientists that stars cannot emit green light, because of the way we see colour. In my science, it is green because of the presence of orichalcum, which produces the green effect throughout the system. In real science, astronomers have recently found something that is pretty much green, a star called Zubeneschamali.

7. Zanzibar is a planet in the Viridian System, in the orbit beyond the asteroid belt. It is a gas giant with distinctive rings.

8. Zanzibar is modelled on the planet Saturn, of course. Much of what we know about Saturn was produced by the Cassini-Huyghens mission. Cassini orbited Saturn for 13 years, and took a total of 453,048 images. You can browse them on the Cassini mission pages.

9. Saturn is light enough to float on water, if you could find an ocean big enough.

10. I asserted somewhere that ringed planets are now thought to be common. I didn’t find the exact reference, but they are more common than water worlds like Earth (and Sunset Strip). Astronomers currently think that exoplanets classed as ‘puffy’ may in fact be ringed planets, much like Saturn—and with similar densities.

So… How many did you know?

Next time: The story behind the book!

18 April, 202218 April, 2022

Zanzibar’s Rings – the aftermath

Well, if you have read Zanzibar’s Rings already you’ll know there’s some scope for some sequels, but I don’t have any plans to write them.

Here on the website, though, it would be a shame to just let all my inventions go to waste. So I’ll continue to work on the extras that support the series here:

characters
the Viridian system itself
science news
the tome that is cited at the start of each chapter…

First though, I thought I’d give you some of the special posts I did for the tour. I hope you’ll enjoy that.

I’m going to start with the reviews though.

From Angela Thompson at Book Corner News & Reviews

Zanzibar’s Rings Concludes the Series. Once again, I found myself reading a novel without at first realizing that it was part of a more extensive series. I was drawn into the cover and the book blurb–and missed the “series” detail! Despite not reading the first two books, the author does a great job revisiting some of the critical information and relationships. This novel could certainly be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone novel. I quickly understood the characters and the flow of the actions through the scenes–but I enjoyed the author’s writing style and the world so much that I wanted to read the first two adventures.

The Author Gives Well Developed Characters and a Uniquely Built World. As the characters face their various trials and challenges through the book, readers interact with them in various places and spaces in Pett’s creative world. The scenes all felt very realistic and believable, even though the characters were dealing with a Galactic disaster. I enjoyed the characters, and I felt attached and interested from beginning to end.

Would I Recommend Zanzibar’s Rings by Jemima Pett? Readers can expect some technical, detailed text from time to time as the author moves her characters through the plot. As she shares the story from different characters’ perspectives, the scenes and tone change frequently. Despite a space disaster, science fiction basis–the characters and their stories seem natural, human, and engaging. I enjoyed the pace of the novel and the interactions between the characters. I would recommend reading this series in order as you will enjoy the author’s writing style, action-adventure scenes, and memorable characters.

Thank you, Angela. I particularly liked the characters ‘seem natural, human and engaging’ 🙂

Rating and Review from The Faerie Review

4 out of 5

This certainly grabs your attention at the start. Alien worlds, space travel, unforgettable characters, and almost insurmountable odds. This is sci-fi in every sense of the word, and Pett has a style reminiscent of most literary fiction. I really enjoyed the descriptions, and the suspense of watching as the characters tried to navigate everything thrown at them. A great read for space sci-fi lovers.

Thank you Liliyana, for your rating and review, and also for adding it to Goodreads. That means a lot to an author 🙂

Next month… ’10 things you didn’t know about Zanzibar’s Rings’ (although maybe you do)

Amazon ~~~ Apple iBooks ~~~ B&N(Nook) ~~~ Kobo ~~~ Scribd ~~~ Smashwords

24 January, 202229 January, 2022

Zanzibar’s Rings on target for February 22nd

Zanzibar’s Rings is due to for release in one month’s time.

It’s finally ready! Take a look inside the paperback by clicking the diagonal arrows (a couple of chapters).

Ebook or Paperback?

You can buy the ebook here:

Amazon ~~~ Apple iBooks ~~~ B&N(Nook) ~~~ Kobo ~~~ Scribd ~~~ Smashwords

And order the paperback from your favourite retailer using the ISBN 9798210005601

It should be available through the Ingram distribution network at most retailers (including Book Depository) within a couple of weeks.

Has it been easy to produce?

No. It seemed so, but the more I looked at the final draft, the more problems I found with it. So I got those sorted out to my editor’s and my own staisfaction, and turned to creating the paperback.

That always introduces errors, especially with the Viridian series where several aliens speak in italics. For some reason the transfer from wordprocessing file to the paperback’s system leaves whole tracts of italics after a correct one. And when I thought I’d cleaned the file up, and got the first proof back, I found a good number of places where I’d missed a non-italic inset between dialogues. Like:

Are you ready to go, Baby? He listened to the sounds of the engine. Good, we’ll go.

I’ve made that up to demonstrate. But finding those interim pieces was easy when reading a book, and almost impossible when reading the screen.

And worse – more places where the indent for the paragraph was missing. One where it was there, but in the middle of a paragraph.

The trouble was, the more times I read through the script, the more things I found in the writing I wanted to tweak. These were mainly because I’ve been working on giving you the character’s point of view more meaningfully. That can always be improved. And as I could, I did, till I cried ‘No More!’

And it was done.

Again.

Join me for the launch party – on tour from 15th February to 15th March, or on my blog and the Viridian Facebook page on 22nd February.

1 December, 202130 November, 2021

Zanzibar’s Rings (Viridian System #3) – the Cover Reveal

A galactic crisis: the entire comms system destroyed. How will spaceships in flight get home? Dolores is stuck in warp with a very dangerous passenger, Pete gets his shuttle home on manual. How come anything in close contact with orichalcum fixes itself? Just flying through Zanzibar’s Rings solves the problem, as the Federation’s fighters find, as they invade the Viridian System’s settled planets.

This is the final book in the Viridian System series.

Publication date: February 22nd 2022, ebook and paperback

Pre-order from most of these places now!

Amazon ~~~ Apple iTunes ~~~ B&N (Nook) ~~~ Kobo ~~~ Scribd ~~~ Smashwords

Check out the other books in the series: The Perihelix, and Curved Space to Corsair.

About Jemima Pett

Jemima has been writing stories since she was eight, and published The Princelings of the East in 2011. That led on to a ten-book series of the same name, written for older children (9 and up).

Jemima reckons she read all of the science fiction in her local library, and most likes alternative universes, time travel, consequences of social change and unusual ideas surrounding alien species. Her favourite authors included Anne McCaffrey, Fritz Lieber, Poul Anderson, John Brunner, Robert Heinlein and Arthur C Clarke. These days she likes Becky Chambers, Lindsay Buroker, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Clare O’Beara, M T McGuire, Jennifer Ellis… She also loves series – once involved with characters she loves to read their continuing adventures.

She has degrees or diplomas in maths, earth sciences and environmental technology and would most like everyone to use their natural resources sustainably, since we only have the one planet to support us.

Jemima’s ebooks are published by Princelings Publications through Amazon, Smashwords, iTunes, B&N, Kobo and more. Her paperbacks are distributed from Blurb by Ingrams.

Follow Jemima Pett on her blog – jemimapett.com – or on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

3 May, 20197 August, 2020

Special offer on SF&F 4-5 May 2019 – including Curved Space to Corsair!

Curved Space to Corsair, book 2 of the Viridian System series, is on sale this weekend only!

It’s part of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Promotion, with many great ebooks from all aspects of science fiction and fantasy – and ALL FOR 99c, OR LESS.

Head over to Patty Jansen’s special promotion, and take up many of these great special offers.

Curved Space to Corsair

by Jemima Pett

Dolores is training to qualify as a space pilot. Pete has had a call to his home planet, Corsair, to save them from disaster, so they set off in that direction to give Dolores more space hours, only to slight error of course which leaves them in a horrible mess. Meanwhile the Imperium declares war on the Federation, while a little personal business by one of the senators leads him off in the direction of the Viridian System to start a canny land grab.

Approx 90k words; guideline – 18+

Links for Apple, Amazon, Nook, Kobo, and Smashwords!

31 January, 201930 January, 2019

Paperback editions available from 31st January

The paperback editions of The Perihelix (second edition) and Curved Space to Corsair, are now ready for distribution.

It sometimes takes a while for the distribution system to land the books in the online shops, but they are on their way.

Take a look at the previews for each of them in the links below.

If you want to order from a physical bookstore, you’ll need the ISBNs. These are listed below.

By coincidence (more or less) each book is the same size, with 378 pages. The Perihelix has shorter end-matter than Corsair, because Corsair includes the first chapter of Perihelix, in case you missed it. Corsair also has a longer comments section because I talk about my research on Japanese and Korean things in order to come up with the whole dragonfly element. That should intrigue you enough to buy it!

The chapters in the Perihelix must be longer, since there are only 24 in that, but 32 in Curved Space to Corsair!

The UK recommended price for each is £8.99

The Perihelix…

ISBN: 978-0-36-821665-7

and Curved Space to Corsair…

ISBN: 978-0-36-821704-3

18 January, 201918 January, 2019

The Perihelix on special offer during Corsair launch

The Perihelix, book 1 in the series, will be on special offer of $1.99 or the equivalent at Smashwords, iTunes, B&N & Kobo and some other online stores from now through to the end of March.

Why not buy Curved Space to Corsair at the same time – two ebooks for under $5!

Whether Amazon chooses to price match will be up to them.

Don’t forget to visit my blog on Tuesday 22nd January onwards to take part in the book launch and giveaway – first prize a $20 gift voucher.