Dissidents of Utopia
Dissidents of Utopia is a series of novels following Project Gagarin, and the best-case-scenario future history of mankind. Earth has achieved peace and democracy for all peoples. Now, is the time to reach out into the stars. It is written a Joseph Peters, a socialist and community safety organizer trying to bring about this very future of peace and prosperity. You can keep follow them on Bluesky. They publish a new small piece every month on Comradery.co, a collective, cooperative crowdfunding site.-
The Federation is not a Utopia
In Defense of Star Trek V: The One Where The Gang Kills God
For All Mankind: Hey Lois, Remember That Time Russia Won the Space Race
ACAB includes Gene Roddenberry
Somehow, Star Trek: Section 31 isn't the worst movie in the franchise
Book 1: Dissidents of Utopia
More links at Books2Read After a century of tumult peace and freedom has finally come to Earth and Mars. Mankind has begun the process of undoing the centuries of harm done to their home world and needs a new frontier for those still filled with wanderlust. Starship Gagarin is the first vessel set to explore out into that new frontier. Thomas Kafando was elected chairman of the mission at Gagarin's first convention. He wants an exit to the stars to escape his fame. He's credited as the hero of the battle of the Citadel and the Aphrodite Coup, but he was just the right person at the wrong place and time. He will never know a moment of peace so long as he stays on Earth. Lucy Drummond is his protege. She grew up in the squalor of the Citadel until rescued by Kafando and the International Safety Federation. She wants nothing more than to be the hero Tom won't admit he is. Emily Malex is one of the few Martians onboard and one of the crew's most adept, obsessive engineers. Conroy Hewitt is one of the ship's mixologists and is a master of managing spirits—both alcoholic and the morale of the crew. Julu Serpen is another Martian and another hero of the Aphrodite Coup. Where Lucy has undergone the best training the ISF can provide, Serpen has been in the field and in the middle of conflict since she was a child fighting in the Martian revolution. Together they are mankind's best sent out on a mission to meet and befriend intelligent aliens out in the cosmos. Two hundred years ago the Union of Sovereign Planets helped the Tuariskeagn people resettle on their home world, Kwegaigh, and ever since the conflict between them and the other intelligent life on the planet, the Santosians, has simmered and occasionally boiled over. The Tuariskeagn are more technologically advanced and they have been at work uplifting the technologically inferior Santosians, who very pointedly do not want this "help." The USP has helped maintain the uneasy peace, but the arrival of Starship Gagarin upsets the balance. Will Gagarin and her crew be dragged into a centuries old conflict? Will the USP maintain control of the situation? Or will the Dissidents of Utopia, a clandestine illegal underground aid organization finally get their wish and push Kwegaigh into civil war?
Book 2: Refugees From Utopia
More links at Books2Read Starship Gagarin was on a mission to meet and befriend the aliens of the galaxy, but that all went wrong when they found Santosia. Chairman Kafando and all the crew of Gagarin were drawn into the intractable conflict on that planet, but, with the help of Captain Kriss and the Starship Venture, they were able to bring their captured crewmates home and open the possibility of peace in the future. But this solution drew the attention of the civilization that sent the Venture--the utopia known as the Union of Sovereign Planets, and they were not happy. Gagarin is summoned to the core worlds of the USP with an offer they cannot refuse: find the Venture and bring Captain Kriss to justice and Earth will be rewarded with a peaceful and positive relationship with this powerful space civilization. Chairman Kafando, having built a strong bond of comradery with Kriss, does not want to go along with this, but his fellow department chairs think this may be an offer too good to reject. Gagarin and her crew must acclimatize to a galaxy that is not as peaceful and socially advanced as they had prepared themselves for. The crew of Gagarin is truly international (and interplanetary), with comrades from Burkina Faso, China, Aotearoa, Little America, the Aphrodite Complex and nearly every nation on Earth or hab on Mars. Now, they have even been joined by Balvis, an orphan Santosian without anything tying him to his home world any more. Lucy Drummond and Julu Serpen take him under their wing. As for the Venture, meeting Gagarin has caused the crew to seriously question the rules and regulations laid down in their strict military hierarchy. Is there a better way to organize society than through structures of power and discipline? And should they even go back to the civilization they have come to realize it is not the utopia they once believed it was. Meanwhile, the bloated corpse of the greatest threat the galaxy has ever seen has cracked it's eyes open. The Blood Legion is back, but the Union Admiralty is more concerned with the arrest of Captain Kriss. Can Gagarin calm the tensions between the Union of Sovereign Planets and their most decorated captain or will the rot at the core of their society spread and endanger the whole universe?