Paradigms Lost: Prologue

Paradigms Lost

Rewrite and Expansion of

Digital Knight (2003)

By

Ryk E. Spoor

Foreword

    Paradigms Lost is a greatly expanded edition of Digital Knight, my first published work. It is not just a polishing and slight reworking of Digital Knight — indeed, in many areas I have tried not to touch the writing overmuch, as I don’t want to damage the “flavor” that made it work in the first place.

    What I have done is to add in incidents and actions which would have happened — foreshadowing and “crossover” events that are part of Jason’s universe — but which I didn’t fully know when I first wrote Digital Knight, some portions of which were written as far back as 1987-88. I have also reconciled a few contradictions and confusing incidents to make more sense. I’ve also clarified the dating of the stories, as some readers might have found it confusing; Jason’s adventures begin in April of 1999.

    In addition to these additions — some of which are quite substantial — I have added in two more of Jason’s adventures, “Shadow of Fear” and “Trial Run”, to make this a truly worthwhile read even for those of you who may have read the original. Overall, this means that more than a short novel worth of material has been added to Paradigms Lost; the original Digital Knight was about 112,000 words, while Paradigms Lost runs to well over 160,000.

    Jason’s world is very like ours… but not precisely, and it changes as time goes on for him. His adventures also connect — sometimes in surprising ways — with other stories and events in his universe. Those who have read Phoenix Rising will perhaps not be surprised to see his encounters with a certain young man, and possibly make other connections with things that have happened… or will happen.

    Join Jason, then… on the day that everything changed.