The Varden Saga

On Varden, gold is worthless and water is currency, because water only exists as the byproduct of the one clean-burning engine on the planet — which means whoever controls the boilers controls who drinks. When a smuggled shipment turns out to hold 42 living escaped indentured workers, it ignites open war between a coastal military aristocracy and a confederation of industrial forges, just as the fleet that colonized this planet two centuries ago returns to reclaim it as overdue private property. Four points of view — a cynical drone-patrol captain, a smuggler pilot protecting her dying sister, a rebel engineer who refuses to own slaves, and the colony's chief auditor questioning who controls its resources — carry a planned five-book saga.

A hard-SF class-war epic — scavenger politics and court intrigue on a glacial mining world, with the industrial tension of a technical-disaster drama. The five-book saga has 140 chapters listed across its current plan; editorial review across the books is in progress.

Varden isn't dressed-up space opera — its politics run on infrastructure and scarce resources: water is currency because it is a byproduct of the clean-burning engine, and the class system is a literal metal caste (gold, platinum, iron) worn on every uniform. The struggle over who controls water, labor and property gives the industrial adventure political depth. The five-book saga has audiovisual-development concepts, while editorial review across the books continues.

The glacial mining colony of Varden, two centuries after its founding by an Earth colonial fleet ("the First Wave"). A hydrogen-burning industrial economy where water is the true currency; a rigid metal-caste class system (gold, platinum, iron); and the coastal military aristocracy of Virtulia in conflict with the industrial forge confederation of Tenna'Kesh.