Zack Jordan’s entry in the Inkshares/Nerdist space opera contest, The Life Interstellar, looks like one hellofa novel. His reader updates are wonderful, and the pitch is outstanding. I can’t wait to read this one.
About the book: 
The Life Interstellar is a rip-roaring, unapologetic space opera. It’s set in a crowded galaxy at some undetermined point in the future where the Humans, sadly, have been exterminated. No one seems to know what happened to them, a fact which only adds to their mystique. What kind of intelligence could wipe out four trillion beings in a single Galactic year and yet make each death look like an accident? From novas to starship crashes to an isolated escalator incident on Braka IV, what made the Humans so special–or so frightening–that they warranted such treatment?
This is how legends are born. Humans have been the boogeymen of the galaxy for hundreds of years now; these days it would be difficult to find someone who didn’t know a good Human horror story. Lately, though, a different sort of legend has arisen. Ships have returned from the less-traveled tradeways of the Rim, missing cargo and crew members but bearing tales of a new band of smugglers and pirates, headed by a captain who looks a lot like the galaxy’s worst nightmare: a real-live Human.
About Zack Jordan:
Zack is a compulsive creator, a junkie for the creator’s high if ever there was one. He admits that it’s a problem that has only gotten worse as he’s aged, to the alternating delight and chagrin of those who love and/or employ him. He’s a musician, a game designer, a programmer, a product designer, and a bunch of other stuff that hasn’t returned on investment (yet?). He’s lost more money than he wants to talk about, but he’s created many things in the process. A win? Depends on your perspective. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two baby girls, and spends every waking moment working on his first novel, The Life Interstellar.
Q: What feature of your universe really excites you?
A: There are two aspects that I am very proud of. The first is that it’s just so freaking big. I restrict the entire story to one galaxy (out of trillions) in one universe (out of gazillions), but even that galaxy has over a million sentient species. And it is not like Star Trek, where everybody we meet is at about the same level of development. No, this is a multiple-billion-year-old cosmopolitan society, ranging from godlike beings at the top (and even then, they’re only at the top of one tiny galaxy) to the very bottom rung where the Humans are. Well, the Humans were. Because that’s the other unique aspect. The entire arc takes place in a post-Human society. Not only that, but the Humans didn’t just fade away like most extinct species do. Something big took them out, something that spooked the entire Galaxy of one-point-whatever million species. So reality is huge, the Humans are gone (but remembered), and the one Human that has stepped out of nowhere a millennium later is the most terrifying thing in the galaxy.
