{"schemaVersion":"1.0","provenance":"First-party editorial reading suggestions","spoilerPolicy":"Premise-only; no endings or ranked endorsements.","paths":[{"slug":"first-contact","title":"When humanity meets the unfamiliar","intro":"Three different starting points for readers drawn to the encounter between ordinary human assumptions and unfamiliar life.","workIds":["emily-reed-and-the-humans","the-mycelial-invasion","spliced"],"paragraphs":["Emily Reed And The Humans approaches contact through an alien observer entering human society. The Mycelial Invasion starts with a disturbance reaching a recognizable Earth. Spliced turns the question toward an engineered person and the purpose he has been given.","Choose by the perspective you want to inhabit: the visitor, the people facing an arrival, or someone questioning the role assigned to him. These are thematic neighbours, not a shared series or a required sequence."],"questions":["Would you rather begin with an outsider observing people, or with people facing an outsider?","Are you more interested in social encounters, disruption, or questions of identity?"],"url":"https://paulhaedo.com/reading-paths/first-contact/","books":["https://paulhaedo.com/books/emily-reed-and-the-humans/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/the-mycelial-invasion/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/spliced/"]},{"slug":"artificial-intelligence","title":"Intelligence, belief, and created lives","intro":"A premise-first route into books that ask how people understand the systems and purposes surrounding them.","workIds":["the-designer","spliced","world-engine"],"paragraphs":["The Designer places an artificial intelligence within the history and beliefs of a settled world. Spliced begins with a person bred for an enforcement role. World Engine offers a return to naval service and an investigation whose scale reaches beyond its starting point.","The connections here concern creation, institutions, and the limits of what a character knows. They do not imply that each book uses the same technology or resolves the same question. Read the individual premises before choosing your starting point."],"questions":["Does a story about belief and origins appeal more than one about duty and identity?","Would you prefer a settled society or a shipboard investigation as your setting?"],"url":"https://paulhaedo.com/reading-paths/artificial-intelligence/","books":["https://paulhaedo.com/books/the-designer/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/spliced/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/world-engine/"]},{"slug":"space-and-survival","title":"Crews, journeys, and survival in space","intro":"Choose between a connected series and standalone journeys through uncertain space.","workIds":["peacekeeper-prequel","journey-home","world-engine"],"paragraphs":["Peacekeeper: Prequel opens the confirmed five-book Peacekeeper reading path. Journey Home begins with a displaced fleet after a lost war. World Engine starts with a former naval captain called back to service.","Pick Peacekeeper if you want to stay with a connected sequence. Pick a standalone if you want one book before deciding what to read next. A thematic resemblance is not evidence that the standalone novels occupy the Peacekeeper continuity."],"questions":["Do you want a continuing series or a single-book commitment?","Does a frontier mission, a refugee fleet, or an unexpected recall to duty sound most compelling?"],"url":"https://paulhaedo.com/reading-paths/space-and-survival/","books":["https://paulhaedo.com/books/peacekeeper-prequel/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/journey-home/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/world-engine/"]},{"slug":"work-and-freedom","title":"Working lives under pressure","intro":"Explore fiction in which earning a living is part of the story’s central pressure.","workIds":["pulses","futures-guardian","scandinavian-tequila"],"paragraphs":["Pulses makes the working shift a matter of survival. Future’s Guardian places a technician inside a corporate social order. Scandinavian Tequila begins with factory work in a fictional changing Mexico.","These books offer different distances from everyday life: speculative working systems in two cases, and a social setting shaped by an imagined legal change in the third. This route groups their premises; it does not treat fictional conditions as evidence about real economies."],"questions":["Do you prefer an unfamiliar future or a setting closer to contemporary life?","Are you interested in the individual’s routine, the surrounding institutions, or both?"],"url":"https://paulhaedo.com/reading-paths/work-and-freedom/","books":["https://paulhaedo.com/books/pulses/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/futures-guardian/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/scandinavian-tequila/"]},{"slug":"creative-lives-and-romance","title":"Creative ambitions and unexpected connections","intro":"A route for readers interested in relationships alongside the practical hopes of a creative life.","workIds":["the-director","a-chance-encounter","beauty-unexpected"],"paragraphs":["The Director brings a screenwriting opportunity and a renewed acquaintance into the same frame. A Chance Encounter begins with the wish for change beyond a small-town routine. Beauty Unexpected takes its starting point from a holiday and an unanticipated meeting.","Choose the setting that invites you in: film work, a bookshop routine, or travel away from home. These standalone romances can be read independently; the route does not disclose how their relationships develop or end."],"questions":["Would you like professional ambition to be central to the romance?","Does a reunion, a mysterious arrival, or a holiday meeting appeal most?"],"url":"https://paulhaedo.com/reading-paths/creative-lives-and-romance/","books":["https://paulhaedo.com/books/the-director/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/a-chance-encounter/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/beauty-unexpected/"]},{"slug":"shorter-reading","title":"A smaller first commitment","intro":"Explore a novella or an individual story before choosing a longer reading journey.","workIds":["peacekeeper-prequel","haedian-sci-fi-short-stories-volume-one","haedian-sci-fi-short-stories-volume-two"],"paragraphs":["Peacekeeper: Prequel offers a shorter entry to a continuing sequence. The two Haedian Sci-Fi Short Stories collections offer individual stories that can be approached through their own opening situations.","A shorter format does not mean the same tone or subject in every piece. Use the story introductions to choose an opening premise, and use Amazon’s preview where available to test the prose. The website’s brief selections are not replacements for the stories."],"questions":["Would you rather sample a continuing cast or meet a different situation in each story?","Do you want one shorter work or a collection to return to over several sittings?"],"url":"https://paulhaedo.com/reading-paths/shorter-reading/","books":["https://paulhaedo.com/books/peacekeeper-prequel/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/haedian-sci-fi-short-stories-volume-one/","https://paulhaedo.com/books/haedian-sci-fi-short-stories-volume-two/"]}]}