(previously: Mixtape of the Found Decade)
It is an alternate 1980. A young New Wave musician and a soldier each find themselves trapped in a secret corporate-military battle against an unknown enemy.
This story takes place two years before Novas 1.
I hadn’t planned Novas 5 to be more than just a couple of side stories riffing on the Bond Theme and the images of pulp noir romance I loved from the more poppy side of the New Ave era. But the character of ‘Gloria’ from 5.1 kept nagging at me. What was her story? Was she in fact Susan, from a time before the Simulation? What was she running from? And what about Jack?
So this was the result: a full second trilogy. Two prequels, and a sequel, expanding and concluding the story of the Novas.
As always, given the weird interstitial and hypertextual nature of this whole project, I’m deeply indebted both to the bands themselves and to the wonderful people who put songs on Youtube, most especially the channel PlanetNamedDesire for highlighting tiny female-fronted New Wave and synthpop bands, without which Susan wouldn’t have found a voice.
Novas 5.3: The Wire Full Of Light
Act 1: War