Nicholas Hurzeler | Updates

Book Two Sneak Peek

Nicholas Hurzeler — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I have been working hard on Book Two: Hell or High Water

Spoiler alert: at the end of Book One, Jeronimus orders Marty and his crew to the Terminator Zone to mine ice there, and sends Corporal Hayes and his Marines to P-47 (the other asteroid) for the same purpose. Book Two opens with Zevank and Peskanov piloting a shuttle with twelve male colonists in the back. They've been told they're on their way to P-47 to help the Marines, but all is not what it seems. Zevank orders the men into the airlock to prepare for disembarkation onto the asteroid. But in fact, the shuttle is in deep space. Suddenly, Zevank opens the airlock and vents the twelve colonists into the vacuum, killing them instantly. It's all part of Jeronimus' plan: to divide and conquer, and cut down on the population so that only his chosen few will survive, given the limited resources available. He convinces his followers that murder is the only way they can survive. The ruthless Zevank eagerly follows his orders, thus setting the tone for the opening of Book Two.

Next, we visit the three groups who are now split up into their respective zones. Marty O'Rourke and the orderlies are in the Terminator Zone, mining ice and working hard, but feeling isolated and with plummeting morale. In the Graveyard, Jeronimus is consolidating his grip on the remaining population. His immediate goal is to recruit more armed men willing to follow his despicable commands, so he orders Zevank and Garcia to find some. Finally, we visit P-47. Corporal Hayes and his two dozen Marines have been dropped off on top of a flat mesa on the desolate asteroid. They settle in by setting up their habs, transformers and solar arrays with the help of their willing bots. They also construct a switchback path so they can reach the terrain under their new base. However, they find they are already running short of water. The immediate concern is to find ice. Jeronimus promised them the area around the landing zone has abundant ice, and the Marines are relying on that promise. The shuttle has left them behind, so they have no way of leaving, and no way to survive unless they can mine some ice - and quickly.

From there, the point of view rotates between these three locations as the plot moves forward. Stay tuned for more sneak peeks of what Book Two has in store!

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The Dark Side of Human Nature

Nicholas Hurzeler — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I wanted to talk about one of the major themes of the book, and how it connects to the source material that is the true story of the Batavia shipwreck: which is more dangerous, nature, or the dark side of human nature?

The Batavia saga is about, among other things, survival against impossible odds on a desert island. In the aftermath of the shipwreck, the colonists and crew battled unrelenting heat and thirst amid the harsh conditions of the Houtman Albrohos island chain off the west coast of Australia. Many did not survive. However, the bigger threat was the actually the mutineers. Eventually, the apothecary-turned-merchant, Jeronimus Cornelisz, organized a massacre of over a hundred men, women and children before help finally arrived in the form of a rescue ship from the Dutch East India Company. While nature was a serious threat, it was the dark side of the mutineers' human nature that proved far more fatal.

My novel transforms this dynamic into a science-fiction setting, and I kept the theme. In the beginning of the novel, Captain Pelzard tells a young cadet that his biggest concern "isn't the ship, it's us." In other words Pelzard recognized that space - nature - is harsh and unforgiving, and will "kill us all in a millisecond, and not care." But he also recognized the greater danger was inside the human mind. One theme of my book is that the fundamentals of human nature do not change, even across many centuries, and even when advanced technology is available. The tech is just a patina.

As the book goes on, the reader comes to understand that Pelzard was mistaken in his understanding of which flaw of human nature he was actually facing. He understood the danger as coming from the human capacity to grow complacent and lazy, thus leading to a fatal mistake in managing the technology of the ship. But he was wrong. The real danger was much darker. By treating First Mate Jacobs too harshly, Pelzard drove him into the arms of Chief Engineer Cornelis, who then manipulated Jacobs into leading the mutiny, which led directly to the shipwreck.

Pelzard was right to think that a of flaw human nature was more of a threat to the ship than nature itself. But it wasn't laziness or incompetence that was the problem - it was a combination of greed, anger, resentment, ambition, and that powerful human emotion - humiliation. Pelzard failed to anticipate how Jacobs would react to being humiliated in front of the crew for his various infractions.

Pelzard is, on balance, a good man who only wanted to do his job, complete the mission, and protect the ship and all the people inside it - just like the real-life Pelsaert. But the real man and the character were both flawed in the same way. They both failed to anticipate the dark side of the human soul that they were actually facing. Pelzard wants to do the right thing, but he is also flawed, as a good protagonist should be - nobody is perfect.

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Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

Nicholas Hurzeler — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

"Truth is stranger than fiction" is my mantra, and this week I'm giving you another example of how it informed the creative process behind my book. The first major turning point is the decision by senior officers on the Dauntless to mutiny, and seize the colony ship by force mid-voyage. Historically, mutinies were very rare in sailing vessels because of the major deterrents, mainly capital punishment if you got caught. It was a major risk, not worth it to most, even in the face of the appalling shipboard conditions that were widespread in the Age of Sail. When transferring this plot development to a sci-fi setting, I wanted the character motivations to be believable.

So I carefully examined the historical record of the Batavia mutiny that is the "source material" for my book. I wanted to know: what compelled these real-world men to risk their own lives? As I discovered there was no one single reason, but a combination of factors: their backgrounds and experience, the presence of a large treasure in the Batavia's hold, and the belief that they would never be caught. In the 17th century, much of the world was still unmapped, and a rogue sailing vessel could hide almost anywhere. But all this was not enough; the record revealed more personal tipping points as well. The mutineers loathed Commodore Pelsaert, and Cornelis was charismatic, and highly skilled at manipulating his fellow mutineers in furtherance of his own evil, and ambitious, goals.

I then transferred this dynamic into a sci-fi setting. On board the Dauntless, the characters learn of a valuable treasure hidden in the ship's hold; the vastness of space offers an endless list of places to hide; the mutineers despise Captain Pelzard; and Cornelis manipulates Jacobs' insecurities, subtly but skillfully. I also included an element of class warfare: the characters despise their corporate overlords and the rigid hierarchy that controls them. That was true of the Dutch East India Company in 1629, and it's true all over the world today, so why would it be any different six centuries from now? If I sat down and tried to dream up purely fictional character motivations, I could never think of anything more compelling than something that actually happened, however long ago in the past.

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From History to Science Fiction

Nicholas Hurzeler — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My writing technique for Wreck of the Dauntless uses “historical allegory,” in which fictional narratives, characters, and settings are inspired by actual historical figures and events. It is not new to science fiction; for example, Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” is based on the Roman Empire and "Star Trek" was inspired by the British Navy. However, my book is the first to transform the historical event that was the Batavia shipwreck of 1629 into a fictional narrative. I chose this event because I believe it to be uniquely interesting in the annals of history, and because the maritime aspect of it is transferable to an outer-space setting, basically using spaceships instead of sailing vessels.

To that end, many of the characters in my book are based on real historical figures. For example, one of the protagonists is Captain Francisco Pelzard of the Dauntless. In real life, Francisco Pelsaert was the Admiral of the Batavia expedition. The villain of my book, Jeronimus Cornelis, is a character based on the real-life historical figure of the same name, who was a senior officer and mutineer on the Batavia. Into this mix I added many fictional characters and events in order to suit the science-fiction narrative. I created a protagonist named Marty O’Rourke, who does not have a real-life counterpart in the true Batavia story. And while many pivotal events in the book have historical counterparts, others do not.

The challenge was to adapt the various plot points from a seafaring narrative into a spacefaring one. For example, in the true story, the mutineers on board the Batavia altered the ship's course in the middle of the night in order to separate the ship from her convoy, thus giving them an opportunity to seize the ship by force without interference. This was possible because the mutineers were senior officers who had access to the ship's wheel in the middle of the night. When morning came, Batavia was truly isolated on the Indian ocean. Before the mutineers could seize the ship, though, it struck a reef. Despite herculean efforts, the crew was unable to get the ship off the reef, partly because it struck during high tide.

In my book, I transformed these plot points into a science fiction setting. I did this by envisioning that the Dauntless would be connected to Earth via a communications system or "Comm." The mutineers wanted to sever this connection, so they changed the ship's course so that it entered a solar system dominated by a neutron star, whose magnetic field jammed the Comm. In the true Batavia story, the course change caused the collision with the uncharted reef, after which the passengers and crew ended up on a nearby desert island. In my story, the new course results in Dauntless being struck by an asteroid, which forces the crew to crash-land the ship on a binary asteroid system, the equivalent of a desert island in space.

I wanted to retain the narrative of the mutiny leading directly to the disaster and the shipwreck. In both cases, it was the hubris and greed of the mutineers that led them to ignore the danger of steering the ship into uncharted territory. They disregarded the risk in pursuit of personal gain, and as a result, many innocent people would suffer. In this way, I attempt to preserve a kind of historical "echo" -- the reader encounters a plot point based in reality, but in a science fiction setting. The technique aims to make the story feel more "real." The motivations of the characters feels plausible, because it is, in fact, based on something that really happened. There are many more examples of this throughout the book. For those readers who are familiar with the Batavia story, you can probably spot which is which.

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