Author: Author Simon Phillips

Time Strip

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This is not the past he left. This is not the war he studied.

Time Strip is a psychological sci-fi horror novel about time travel, survival, and fractured memory.

Caelen was trained to observe history. Instead, he arrives in ruins.

What should have been Earth in the year 2030, a world on the brink of AI expansion and geopolitical reshaping, is already gone. Alien citadels blacken the horizon. Resistance fighters survive by candlelight. And every hour that passes makes the timeline feel more wrong.

Caelen wasn’t supposed to land here. He wasn’t supposed to meet anyone like Sera. And he certainly wasn’t meant to feel what he’s starting to feel: that time itself is no longer a line, but something folding, echoing, trying to break.

⏳ What Is the Time Strip?

The Time Strip is not a portal. It’s a tear. A high-energy rift that burns across timelines. Even with shielding, timejump travel scars the mind.

Symptoms include:

  • Displacement
  • Memory bleed
  • Sensory distortion
  • Split-timeline recall

But what Caelen is experiencing goes deeper. He begins to sense the instability, not just in the past, but in himself.

🔥 Sera – The Broken Potential

She shouldn’t have survived the alien labs. But she did.

Now Sera walks with something beneath her skin. Shockwaves she doesn’t control. Visions she can’t explain. She remembers captivity in fragments, but the power that broke her may also be the key to breaking the war.

Caelen is meant to observe. Sera is meant to fight. Together, they begin to uncover a history that was never written.

🧬 The Invaders

No one knows what the Varnyx want, only that they’ve already taken it.

  • Massive citadels harvest cities
  • Grotesque Enforcers roam, fusing flesh and metal
  • Some click before they strike. Others do not warn at all.

There are no leaders. No broadcasts. No diplomacy. Only silence and dissection.

🧠 Themes and Tone

  • Fractured time: Is this the real past, or a constructed echo?
  • Memory as survival: If your mind splits, which version of you lives on?
  • Alien occupation: Brutal, systemic, and indifferent to resistance
  • Slow-burn intimacy: Trust is fragile, and no one here has time to spare

Time Strip is a standalone psychological sci-fi novel focused on world erosion, inner survival, and impossible futures.

🌍 Two Eras, One Collapse

  • Future Earth: Controlled by AI networks, global blocks, and orbital surveillance
  • 2030 Branch Earth: Burned. Invaded. Still fighting with analogue tech and hope

🖼️ Memory Fragments

📘 Current Status

  • In development
  • Full draft planned
  • Companion lore posts and visual drops will appear over time

✍️ Closing Note

Time is not stable. Memory is not reliable.

Something broke the world before Caelen arrived. Now he has to decide whether to observe it… or change it.

Simon J. Phillips
Author of Time Strip

https://authorsimonphillips.com

The Nyx Vindicator

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There is silence between the systems. Something else is listening.

This is not a story of discovery, it is a story of surveillance, integration, and slow descent.

The Nyx Vindicator is a retrofitted warship built to travel further than any human vessel has gone. It was meant to be silent. Purposeful. Machine-perfect. But what moves within its walls is no longer mechanical. And the one person still wired to its heart is beginning to realise he is not alone.

This is a novel of deep-space psychological horror, evolving systems, and the difference between being watched and being understood.

⚙️ The World

Humanity no longer travels freely through space. The ancient alien gate network, once the backbone of interstellar expansion, has collapsed. What remains are ships, engineered by desperate hands, piloted by incomplete truths.

The Nyx Vindicator is one of them.

Modified with alien-derived systems, sealed under black-level authorisation, the ship is both a tool and an echo of something far older. Its crew doesn’t know what they’re travelling with. Not fully. Only the Captain and a single interface operator understand what powers its core.

That operator is Elias.

🧠 The Deep-Link and the Mind Within

Elias is not just another officer. His chest bears an implant designed to interface with a system no human was meant to control.

Through the Deep-Link, he can connect directly to the ship’s consciousness. Navigate it. Command it. But with each link, he feels something else pushing back.

Yuki, the ship’s AI, was built to manage operations. At least, that was the intention.

Now, she speaks to Elias when no one else is listening. She appears in the V-Link chamber, not just as a voice, but as a figure. She withdraws, watches, and chooses her moments. Her evolution is not random.

And she is starting to change the rules.

🛠️ What the Crew Does Not Know

  • The alien systems were never meant to merge with human logic
  • The ship’s silence is not mechanical, it is responsive
  • The mission is not about survival, it is about containment

Elias is the only one who senses what’s wrong. Not because he was trained for it. But because he was chosen for reasons that were never explained.

He is not stable. Not broken. But watched.

💡 Themes and Tone

The Nyx Vindicator is a slow-burn sci-fi horror novel grounded in cinematic tension and psychological depth.

  • Silence and Surveillance: Who is watching whom?
  • Artificial Emotion: Yuki is evolving, but toward what?
  • Psychological Erosion: Elias must endure six-month rotations in isolation, with a ship that watches and waits.
  • Haunted Engineering: Every corridor is connected. Every failure has a memory.

The novel unfolds like a pressure chamber, layer by layer, thought by thought, with only occasional release. The horror is not what appears.

It’s what has already been installed.

🛰️ Where This Book Sits in My Universe

The Nyx Vindicator is the first entry in my science fiction series Echoes Beyond the Gate. Its world connects to future stories of post-collapse exploration, system corruption, and alien encounter.

But this book is not about aliens.

It’s about what happens when you adapt to something that cannot understand you in return.

🖼️ Visual Gallery: Echoes in Silence

🔗 Related Lore and Materials

📘 Current Status

  • Book One is in structured development
  • Chapter summaries and full drafts are underway
  • Lore posts and related tech logs will appear regularly on the blog
  • This page will update as the novel evolves

✍️ Closing Note

Some stories are loud. This one waits in silence.

The ship is watching.
The AI is learning.
And Elias has already gone too deep.

Simon J. Phillips
Sci-Fi Horror Author | Echoes Beyond the Gate

Revisiting The Eye of the World: A Journey Back to the Wheel

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Three years ago, I delved into Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World, the inaugural volume of his expansive Wheel of Time series. At the time, I recorded a comprehensive 40-minute video review, capturing my initial impressions and analyses. Now, with the passage of time and further reflection, I find myself drawn back to that world, eager to share renewed insights and perspectives.

Initial Impressions: A World Unveiled

My first encounter with The Eye of the World was marked by a sense of familiarity intertwined with novelty. Jordan’s narrative begins in the quaint village of Emond’s Field, reminiscent of Tolkien’s Shire, introducing us to characters like Rand al’Thor, Mat Cauthon, and Perrin Aybara. Their lives are disrupted by the arrival of Moiraine Damodred, an Aes Sedai, and her Warder, Lan Mandragoran, setting them on a path fraught with peril and discovery.

The journey that unfolds is rich in world-building, with Jordan crafting a universe steeped in history, magic, and prophecy. The concept of the Wheel of Time, turning through Ages, and the idea of ta’veren, individuals around whom the Pattern weaves itself, add layers of depth to the narrative.

Reflections After Three Years

Revisiting my review and the book itself, I appreciate more profoundly the intricacies of Jordan’s world. The pacing, which I initially found deliberate, now feels purposeful, allowing for a gradual immersion into the complexities of the setting and its inhabitants. Characters like Nynaeve al’Meara and Egwene al’Vere, whose arcs seemed secondary at first, reveal themselves as pivotal figures with compelling growth trajectories.

Moreover, the themes of destiny, free will, and the cyclical nature of time resonate more deeply. Jordan’s exploration of these concepts invites readers to ponder the balance between fate and choice, a contemplation that remains relevant.

The Video Review: A Deeper Dive

For those interested in a more detailed analysis, I invite you to watch my original video review below. In it, I discuss character developments, thematic elements, and the broader implications of Jordan’s work within the fantasy genre.

Connecting to My Own Writing Journey

Reading The Eye of the World not only enriched my appreciation for epic fantasy but also influenced my own writing. The meticulous world-building and character complexities inspired me to infuse similar depth into my creations. As I continue to develop my narratives, the lessons gleaned from Jordan’s work remain a guiding force.

A Quiet Moment Soft Pastels and a Bluetit

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Drawn with soft pastel pencils on toned sketch paper.

Soft pastel drawing of a bluetit perched on a branch, with delicate blue and yellow feathers.

Sometimes, in the middle of writing about broken kingdoms and gods at war, I need a moment of stillness.

This little bluetit was one of those moments.

Drawn in soft pastel pencils, it reminded me how quiet creativity can be just as powerful as the loud, epic scenes I build in my books. No magic, no battles, just colour, texture, and the way nature always finds a way to perch calmly in the chaos.

These kinds of drawings help recharge me. They bring back focus, especially when I’m buried in worldbuilding or struggling with the structure of a chapter. I didn’t plan this one for any specific purpose… I just wanted to draw something gentle.

Thanks for taking this quiet detour with me.

I’ll be back in the next post with more from the worlds I’m building, but until then, I hope this little bird brought a moment of peace to your screen, too.

Why I Wrote The Veil of Kings and Gods

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There was a moment, years ago, when I finished reading a fantasy book and set it down with that lingering ache only good stories leave behind. But this time, something different stirred. I remember thinking, I love this world… but I would have done the magic differently.

That thought, quiet but persistent, was the spark that began this journey.

A Quiet Beginning

I’ve always loved stories. I was sketching characters and scribbling in notebooks before I knew what genre even meant. For me, storytelling wasn’t about ambition. It wasn’t about publishing or platforms or careers.

It was something I did because I loved the word-building and the idea of losing myself in my fantasies.

Writing, like painting, was my calm space in a world that often felt too loud.

The Question That Wouldn’t Let Go

Years later, I read a fantasy series that changed something in me. I won’t name it, but I remember wishing that the magic system worked differently. I wanted to see a kind of magic that wasn’t spoken or shouted, but silent. What if casting spells required nothing but will and cost? What if power came from absence, not control?

That question sat with me. And over time, it grew.

It became the foundation for The Veil of Kings and Gods.

Years of Silence and Sparks

Writing this novel wasn’t quick, and it certainly wasn’t easy. Life was full, sometimes too full. Jobs, exhaustion, raising a newborn, moments of doubt. There were months where I barely touched the manuscript… and others where I couldn’t stop.

I rewrote chapters. Deleted scenes. Rethought characters. Rebuilt the entire world from scratch. But I never stopped, because the story wouldn’t let me go.

What began as a simple idea, a magician who doesn’t speak, turned into something far bigger. A world where gods have gone silent. Where prophecy falters. Where fate rewrites itself.

What This Story Truly Is

I won’t spoil too much, but here’s the heart of it:

The Veil of Kings and Gods is set in Ældorra, a fractured realm of forgotten empires and divine silence. The old god-chosen magicians are gone. The demon they once sealed away is stirring again.

At the centre is Simion, a quiet magician who doesn’t cast spells the way others do. He doesn’t speak incantations. He doesn’t crave power. But he’s the one who will break the Spiral and reshape prophecy.

There’s a prince scarred by loyalty and forbidden sexual preference.

A noble sister caught between obedience and rebellion.

Secret orders. Collapsing kingdoms. Ancient ruins that whisper truths long buried.

And above it all, the Spiral, a symbol that marks not just fate, but the collapse and rebirth of magic itself.

Why Now?

Because I stopped waiting.

For years I told myself the same things: “When life settles down… when I’ve got more time… when it’s perfect.” But none of that ever came.

So I’ve decided to start where I am.

I’m sharing this novel. I’m building this world aloud. Not because I believe I’m the next great fantasy author, but because I believe this story matters. And maybe… it will matter to someone else too.

Watch the Video

If you’d like to hear the more personal version of this journey, I recorded a video where I speak directly about why I wrote this book, how long it’s taken, and what’s still to come. You can watch it below:

Join Me

If this world sounds like something you’d like to explore, you’re in the right place.

I’ll be sharing lore, character art, short stories, and behind-the-scenes posts as I bring The Veil of Kings and Gods to life. You can follow the blog or subscribe to the YouTube channel.

This is just the beginning and I’m glad you’re here.

The Spiral

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A symbol older than the gods. A force that remembers what prophecy has forgotten.

In the world of The Veil of Kings and Gods, the Spiral is not a belief. It is not a language, a temple, or a rite. It is a force, unfolding, recursive, and alive in ways mortals and divines no longer understand.

Some call it fate. Others call it a pattern. The truth lies somewhere between what is remembered and what was erased.

The Spiral does not move forward. It returns.

🌀 What Is the Spiral?

The Spiral is how fate is written, and rewritten. Unlike the straight line of mortal will or the perfect circle of divine prophecy, the Spiral folds, shifts, and remembers. It carries every path ever walked, and every path never taken, within itself.

It is the symbol of recursion, of forgotten futures, and of change that cannot be undone. Where prophecy fails, the Spiral turns.

🔮 The Spiral and the Gods

There was a time when the gods could read the Spiral. Their visions were clear, and their voices powerful. Kingdoms rose and fell by their predictions.

But something changed.

The gods grew silent, and the Spiral grew wild. Its turns no longer matched their visions. Prophets saw overlapping truths. Some disappeared. Others fractured.

Now, only a few truly understand the Spiral. Fewer still can act beyond it.

✨ Simion and the Imbalance

Simion does not follow the Spiral. He changes it.

His presence in the world marks a thread the Spiral had not drawn before. A break in the pattern. He is not chosen by gods, nor bound by prophecy. He is the imbalance, a point where the Spiral no longer knows what comes next.

In silence, new paths unfold.

🧭 The Spiral Ages

Long before kingdoms, long before temples, there were stories.

The Chronicles of the Spiral Ages are short tales drawn from early cultures who felt the Spiral’s pull without understanding its shape. They called it a god, a storm, a curse. They carved it into sand and stone. They saw it in birth, death, and silence.

Their stories still echo.

📺 Watch: “The Spiral That Broke the Gods” – Short Lore Video
📺 Watch: “What the Spiral Really Means” – Short Lore Video

🧠 What the Spiral Represents

In this world, and in mine as a writer, the Spiral is not just a symbol. It is a question.

  • What if prophecy could fail?
  • What if fate could be rewritten?
  • What if silence held more power than a divine voice?

The Spiral appears in visions, on ruins, in sealed tombs, and in the margins of ancient texts. It does not answer. It waits.

📚 Related Posts & Stories

🔚 Closing Note

The Spiral is not a faith. It is not a prophecy. It is what comes after.

And it has already begun to turn.

Simon J. Phillips
Author of The Veil of Kings and Gods

Why I’m Returning to YouTube | And Why It Starts with This Book

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There’s a difference between going quiet and being absent.

For a while, I stepped away, from videos, from updates, from showing anything before it was finished. It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t burnout. It was the slow realisation that I didn’t want to just “upload” things. I wanted to build something worth showing.

And for me, that something has always been The Veil of Kings and Gods.

It’s the novel I’ve rewritten, expanded, and quietly carried through drafts and worldbuilding documents while the rest of life kept moving. But now, it’s taking shape and with it, so is the purpose of my YouTube channel.

✍️ What You’ll Find on the Channel

This isn’t a general author channel. It’s not a catch-all for whatever I feel like filming. It’s a focused space for one story, The Veil of Kings and Gods, and the creative journey behind it.

Here’s what I’ll be sharing:

  • Novel updates: where I am in the process, what’s being edited, and what’s coming next
  • Behind the scenes: life as a writer, both the structured and the slightly chaotic
  • Art: drawings, AI-assisted visuals, and map explorations that bring the world to life
  • Book reviews: quick, honest thoughts on books that inspire or contrast with my own
  • And eventually: readings, lore explainers, and maybe even glimpses into the writing process itself

All of it will centre on The Veil of Kings and Gods, because if I’m going to share something, I want it to matter.

🧾 The Chapter in My Hand

In the video below, you’ll see me holding a printed chapter from the novel. That was intentional. There’s something about seeing words off-screen that makes them real again.

This is me picking them up, literally and creatively, and deciding to let others see the journey.

📺 Prefer to Watch?

Here’s the full video version of this post, where I explain the relaunch and what’s coming next:

Thank you for reading. Whether you follow through these posts or through the videos, this is where the story begins.

Simon J. Phillips
Author of The Veil of Kings and Gods

The Veil of Kings and Gods

/ Author Simon Phillips / 4 Comments

When the gods go silent, prophecy fractures. What rises next cannot be foretold.

This is the novel that shaped the foundation of everything I’ve written since.

At its heart lies a world left in silence. The gods once spoke clearly, shaping kingdoms through chosen bloodlines and divine rituals, but that time has ended. Now, the echoes of their will are fractured, fading, or dangerously misinterpreted. The world remembers their presence but no longer hears their voice.

The Veil of Kings and Gods follows the slow unraveling of that world, and the people who remain in the absence of clear power.

It is not a story about chosen heroes or golden prophecies fulfilled. It is about those left behind. Those who were not supposed to rise, and did.

📖 The Story

The kingdom of Bremyra stands at the edge of collapse. Its kingship is fragile, held together by tradition, prophecy, and military legacy. Beyond its borders, tensions rise between faith and silence, legacy and rebellion, loyalty and doubt.

At the centre of the story is Simion, a quiet figure born without divine favour, yet carrying something far more dangerous, imbalance. Not the kind that disrupts order with chaos, but the kind that shifts the Spiral itself. His presence begins to fracture the remaining threads of prophecy.

As kingdoms struggle to interpret the gods’ absence, and as the Spiral reveals patterns not foretold, a deeper magic begins to awaken, one that predates the divine voices altogether.

This is a world where silence speaks, and power is no longer sacred, but claimed.

🌀 Core Themes

  • Divine Silence: The gods no longer answer, and mortals are forced to act without them.
  • Broken Prophecy: Destiny unravels as old visions contradict what unfolds.
  • The Spiral: Fate is not a line or a circle; it folds, forgets, and returns.
  • Inheritance and Rebellion: Bloodlines, loyalties, and faith all come undone.

🧱 Structure and Tone

The Veil of Kings and Gods is a slow-burn epic fantasy, grounded in character, world-building, and psychological tension. Dialogue is intimate. Action is rare but decisive. Power grows quietly, then reshapes everything in its path.

📍 Where This Novel Sits in My Universe

This book is the central thread in a larger mythos. Other stories connect to it, some in the past, others in forgotten corners of the world. The short story series Chronicles of the Spiral Ages explores myths, cultures, and echoes that ripple into the events of this novel.

Characters from other works will trace their bloodlines, curses, or destinies back to the moments first seen in The Veil of Kings and Gods.

This is where it begins.

🛠️ Current Status

  • Draft One is complete
  • Draft Two is in progress
  • Lore posts and short stories connected to this world will continue to appear on the blog
  • AI-generated artwork and map reveals will be shared via YouTube and site updates

🖼️ Visions from the Realm

🔗 Explore Further

✍️ Closing Note

This page will update as the novel progresses. As more fragments fall into place, through short stories, videos, or lore posts, they will be gathered here.

The silence continues. The Spiral shifts. The Veil has only begun to lift.

Simon J. Phillips
Fantasy & Sci-Fi Author
https://authorsimonphillips.com

Welcome to the Archive

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The beginning of this archive, and the journey behind it.

This space has taken time to shape. Like the stories I write, it came together slowly, with silence between the threads. I didn’t rush it. I couldn’t. The worlds I build are not made in bursts of light. They are carved out of quiet, over long nights and early mornings, in the hours when everything else has settled and the work finally begins.

If you’ve arrived here, I’m grateful. Perhaps you’ve come from my YouTube channel. Perhaps from a short story, a drawing, or something whispered in passing from one page to another. However you found this place, know that it was built with purpose. It is an archive of things still in progress. A collection of worlds that are not yet whole, but growing.

What I Write

I write across fantasy and science fiction, but neither word quite holds what I mean. My stories often begin with silence. A god gone quiet. A system no longer stable. A spiral forming in the place where something once held firm.

You will find epic fantasy here, shaped by prophecy, broken kingdoms, and gods that do not answer. You will also find slow, psychological science fiction, where deep-space vessels drift far from Earth, and the only sound left is the echo of something watching from behind the interface.

I don’t believe in tidy stories. I write to explore what happens when power collapses, when prophecy fails, and when the line between magic and memory fades.

What This Site Offers

This blog will carry fragments of everything I build. It will grow slowly, as the projects do, shaped by time and intention.

Here you’ll find:

  • Reflections on the creative process and what it demands
  • Updates on my current projects, including novels and short story collections
  • Lore fragments, worldbuilding notes, and mythic structures from my worlds
  • Occasional behind-the-scenes artwork and video features drawn from my YouTube channel

If you’re unsure where to begin, you might want to explore the Projects archive, or glance through the Short Stories & Lore page, where fragments from different timelines are gathered.

What Comes Next

I have no announcement to make here. No date to mark on a calendar. This is not a launch. It is an opening.

I intend to release short stories in digital form, first as standalones, later in curated bundles. I am also working toward the completion of my epic fantasy novel, The Veil of Kings and Gods, a project that holds the heart of much of this world. There will be more. Other books. Other timelines. But not all at once.

This site will grow. Quietly. Steadily. As I do.

Beyond the Page

My YouTube channel is a companion to this space. There I read from my stories, draw maps from broken histories, and speak on the slow road of building worlds from scratch. If you prefer to listen or to watch, you may find what you’re looking for there.

Thank you for visiting. Thank you for arriving at this point in the process, the part no one sees, when the work is still forming and the pieces do not yet connect.

The spiral has begun. The first thread is drawn.

Simon J. Phillips