Woohoo!  It’s WonderCon!

James Ninness here.  WonderCon starts today and Semantink is gonna be here, in San Francisco, covering all the gloriousness of the scene!  At the convention, we’ll be giving away some very pretty cards for all WonderCon attendees that give them not only the link to the MYTHOI Birth Series (which has, and always will be, free), but as a special treat, a secret link to a site where they can see issue #1 of MYTHOI proper — absolutely free!  To get the ball rolling, Semantink will be giving you a sneak peak at the character cards they’ve put together each day with a look into the characters themselves, written by your’s truly.  Our final card and charracter is the most deceptively abstract member of the MYTHOI crew: Touch.

Given that the FREE issue of MYTHOI Birth on Touch hasn’t dropped yet (coming out in a week or so…), I’m going to have to watch myself on this one and I promise to keep the following as spoiler-free as possible.

Mythos means “the underlying system of beliefs, esp. those dealing with supernatural forces, characteristic of a particular cultural group.”  Mythoi is the plural of Mythos.  So, it follows that this book deals with a variety of underlying beliefs with regard to supernatural forces of many cultural groups, right?  Of late, some of the greatest and most popular “supernatural forces” I’ve noticed are of the cybernetic variety.  Asimov wrote science fiction long ago and at the time it was just that: fiction.  Lately however, amongst the various robotic breakthroughs, science fiction like Asimov’s seems to have a very real effect on the direction of our non-fictional world.  Hundreds of stories foretelling the end of man at the hands of technology have been strewn about for our enjoyment and as a warning — The Matrix, I, Robot, Terminator and Minority Report to name a few.  In all of these foreboding tales, technology becomes more than natural or above explanation and rational thought, in other words, technology becomes supernatural.

Touch’s Mythos stems from an attempt to understand the system of beliefs that deal with these specific “supernatural forces.”  Touch is one of a group of five assassins known as The Senses, developed some time in the future to quell the rising force of New America’s global enemies.  Well, for one reason or another, Touch is never properly programmed and sent back in time.  Once there, he is picked up by Vito, Wiglaf, Taros and Yuki and joins them in an attempt to stop his past from ever happening.  As a genetic clone, grown from nanotechnology infused with organic cells, Touch is hardly human and as such learns to struggle with the idea that he has no “soul.”  This is the crux of Touch’s tale.  As he grows into a more “complete” person, the idea of the soul or the concept of spirit is examined, poked, prodded and ripped apart in an attempt to explain how something as mechanical as Touch could be so completely human.  To learn how his story begins, stay tuned to Semantink.com where MYTHOI Birth: Touch will be released very soon…

That’s it for the WonderCon build up y’all.  I hoped you enjoyed our time together!  If you’re at WonderCon, look for the team in Semantink garb to get your limited edition MYTHOI cards, only at WonderCon 2010!

James Ninness