Although I'm not quite ready for it, the new story is coming up out of the depths of my imagination.

Sci-Fi this time. In the far distant future on a planet far, far away.

People live long lives due to nanotechnology's ability to continuously keep their bodies vibrant and viable. The protagonist, Martello Conger, dreams of living long enough to become King of the Planet even though he is seventy-third in line and realistically has little hope of achieving that august title. Barring some unfortunate accident that prevents his nanos from repairing his body, like vaporization or surreptious removal of his nanos, he figures he'll have to live to at least 600, which even to him is a long, long time.

Robots do most of the dirty work. Bots are inherently nonconfrontational, but sometimes it seems they're doing a lot of things outside their programming and it's not unknown for a bot to reprogram itself for it's own purposes.

Society is structured by task. The Royals own the large estates where all of the food is grown. The Guildsmen (Artisans, Tradesmen, Merchants, and Scholars) live in the cities and towns and pledge their fielty to the local Royal, or in some cases to a more powerful Royal in another region. The Enchanters weave various magic spells, communicate with the gods, provide enticement and sexual pleasure, and are the only people on the planet with the knowledge of how nanos work. Enchanters are the only people on the planet who can legally kill another person for cause, such as a capital crime or the desire of a person who feels they have lived too long.

Martello who graduated from university three years earlier has just come out of a three year nano induced coma that replaced two legs and an arm that were severed in an accident. He is leaving his family for a rite of passage trek across his continent, a distance of over twenty thousand kilometers. In all likelihood he'll never come home again, either by finding property he can develop for his estate, being captured and sold into slavery on another planet, or being captured and killed by robbers, rogue bots, or some wild animal that's come down from the less populated polar regions.

As I seen it, there are many hazards on this long walk, but there are also many opportunities for unimagined pleasures. It sounds like a fun, light story with just enough variety to keep it going until Martello either dies or finds someone to share his future.