Closing the Circle on Whakataukī Among the Stars: Volume I

Closing the Circle on Whakataukī Among the Stars: Volume I
And a First Glimpse of Volume II
 

Over the past little while, I’ve been sharing Story Spotlights from Whakataukī Among the Stars: Volume I — each one opening a door into a different story, a different whakataukī, a different future shaped by old truths that still know how to speak.

Now that those spotlights are complete, I wanted to write one final post for the book as a whole. Because while each story stands on its own, Volume I was never only meant to be read as a collection of separate pieces. It was built as a conversation — between proverb and future, between pressure and character, between the worlds we imagine and the values we carry into them.

These stories ask what happens when human beings meet hardship, memory, technology, grief, love, duty, absurdity, and each other under strange stars.

And again and again, the answer is this: what matters most is not the machinery, nor the spectacle, nor the cleverness of the setting.

It is people.

People trying to hold onto dignity.

People trying to choose kindness when fear would be easier.

People failing, and trying again.

People carrying memory forward.

People discovering that old wisdom is not made less true by being placed in the future.

That has always been the heart of Whakataukī Among the Stars for me.

The whakataukī at the beginning of each story are not there as decoration. They are not ornamental epigraphs. They are roots. They are challenges. They are small, steady truths that test the worlds and characters built around them.

Sometimes the stories are quiet. Sometimes they are sharp-edged. Sometimes they are funny in the way human beings often are when everything is under strain and dignity is hanging on by one thread and a bit of string. But they all come back to the same question:

What kind of people will we be, when the future presses hard on us?

That is what Volume I has been exploring from beginning to end.

It has been about survival, yes — but not survival stripped down to brute endurance.

It has been about memory, responsibility, connection, and the ways people become shelter for one another.

It has been about the truths that remain true even when the world changes shape.

And that, I think, is why I wanted to write these stories in the first place.

Science fiction can do many things. It can dazzle. It can warn. It can speculate. It can entertain. But the science fiction I love most does something else as well: it takes us far enough away from ourselves that we can finally see ourselves clearly.

That is what I hoped to do with Whakataukī Among the Stars: Volume I.

If you’ve been reading the Story Spotlights, thank you for coming along with me. Truly. It’s been a pleasure to pause with each story and talk not just about plot, but about the whakataukī beneath it, the emotional core of it, and the reason it belongs in this collection.

And if you haven’t yet read the full book, this is your invitation.

Whakataukī Among the Stars: Volume I gathers all of these stories together in one place — not as fragments, but as a whole journey. If the spotlights have spoken to you, I hope the full collection will too.

You can find Whakataukī Among the Stars: Volume I on my Amazon page.

Looking Ahead: Volume II

And now, with Volume I’s circle complete, it’s time to look toward the next horizon.

Whakataukī Among the Stars: Volume II continues this journey with a new set of stories, new futures, new pressures, and new questions — all still grounded in the wisdom carried by whakataukī.

If Volume I laid the foundation, Volume II builds outward.

It moves into new corners of the universe while keeping hold of the same beating heart: stories about people, consequences, belonging, endurance, humour, memory, and the old truths that do not stop mattering simply because the stars have changed.

Some stories widen the lens. Some go more intimate. Some bite harder. Some ache more quietly.

But the thread remains the same.

Old wisdom. Hard futures. Human beings, being human beings.

I’m looking forward to sharing Volume II with you.

 

— Rebecca