The Sehnsucht Series has a long history dating back to 2015 when I used to write fanfic with a group of ‘Star Trek Deep Space Nine’ fans from all over the world.
One day in October 2015, I created Eleanor, a cloned girl and an Augment. It came to me out of nowhere, and when my mentor and current cover artist, Jeffrey Kosh, read the piece I wrote, he told me I should write a book about her. He insisted so much that I surrendered to my muse. That piece became the prologue of ‘The Parallels’, book 1 of the Sehnsucht Series. Of course, when I embarked on this venture, I stripped the story from all references to ‘Star Trek’, and created my own world due to... you know, copyright. I invented new species, planets, and cultures.
‘The Parallels’ isn’t only about Eleanor, though. As a matter of fact, she isn’t the main character. The protagonist is Halazar Mevitz, an alien female tasked with finding out the truth about the death of her late commanding officer. Saddled with a secret agent with authority over the investigation, she must choose between duty and justice.
After publishing the first novel, I tried to write a sequel, but the past of some characters appearing throughout the saga wanted to be revealed, along with the history of the Manderians, the aliens featured in the saga. If you liked the Cardassians, then you will love the Manderians, and that’s all I can say on the matter.
Anyway, I spent the latter part of 2020 and the first of 2021 writing two prequels, totalling twelve short stories I published in two different anthologies in 2022 and 2023.
‘Tales From The Sehnsucht Series Part 1’ introduces the reader to the Manderian Halden, the dictatorship ruling these aliens, and shows what can happen to governments when discipline turns into punishment.
‘Tales From The Sehnsucht Part 2’ is about the evolution of a dictatorship into a utopian oligarchy. But the focus of all twelve stories is always the characters: Draken, Hertak, Rotima, and Jonti appear in a few stories, sometimes as main characters, other times as secondary ones, interweaving their destinies into a future I will be sharing in the novels.
In September 2023, I published the box set of the two anthologies, 'Tales From The Sehnsucht Series-omnibus edition’. I’m now working on the sequel, ‘The Girl From Two Worlds’, where Halazar returns but not as the main character this time.
The plan is to publish book 2 in 2024, but life may have a different plan for it. One never knows, and like Draken Kosset always says, it is what it is.
All in all, ‘The Sehnsucht Saga’ is a tribute to science fiction at large, from the aforementioned ‘Star Trek’ to ‘The Expanse’, with several Easter Eggs scattered everywhere that reference my favourite books, movies, and TV series.
The tone of the stories has been compared to ‘The Expanse’ and ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’. On a side note, ‘Tales From the Sehnsucht Series’ is a dystopian space opera, and characters tend to be mistreated, tortured, and murdered.
Keyla Damaer has been an Italian independent author since 2017. Writing in English has been her lifelong passion, which she explored by travelling, especially throughout the United States, where part of her family lives. Through these travels, she has had the unique opportunity to immerse herself in the English language and culture, which she has always cherished since childhood. Her passion for storytelling is evident in her works, which are characterised by their imaginative worlds and complex characters.
Born and raised in Rome, Keyla currently resides in the Eternal City with her husband and beloved turtle.
For more details about books by Keyla Damaer, visit keyladamaer.com or visit keyladamaer on Facebook. Subscribe to J.C. Gemmell’s newsletter to discover other independent authors of sci-fi, dystopian and cyberpunk fiction.
