Brian Burt - Speculative Fiction

Aquarius Rising: Character Artwork

A very talented young woman named Irisha Cross, studying theatrical arts at the Southampton Solent University (England, UK), recently completed her final major project in which she created the main characters from my Aquarius Rising novels. I was thrilled to see how she visualized and realized the characters in her hair-and-makeup creations using real people as the basis for her magic. She did a wonderful job of capturing the essence of these characters, adding graphical dimensions I myself never would have imagined. Thank you, Irisha, for allowing me to feature your works of art on my web site!

You can find out more about Irisha and her artwork on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006587476385

Ocypode is the series protagonist, an Atavism marooned in the genetic limbo between Humans and Aquarians, desperately trying to find a way to bridge the gap between the two species warring for the fate of the planet.

Rhincodon is the pod leader of Tillamook Reef Colony, a powerful, stoic Aquarian determined to protect his people from the deadly threat posed by unseen attackers from above the waves.

Auriga is an Aquarian biosculptor - an artist who uses the reefscape as her canvas, painting vibrant works of art using living creatures as her medium. She has an artist's soul but a core of steel and is much stronger than most of her Aquarian comrades realize.

Mobula, like Ocypode, is an Atavism, treated as an outcast by most of her Aquarian kin. Like Ocypode, her only hope for prestige or acceptance among her kind stems from her role as a lorekeeper - one of the educated few who maintain the archives that preserve the history of the Aquarian race.

Tattered-Flukes is a member of the humpback tribe, a venerable whale whose wisdom and experience are much valued by his own kind and by the Aquarians who feel a deep kinship with his species. He has become one of Ocypode's most trusted confidants and most loyal friends.

Dana Sorenson and Fergus Dunn are Guardians - Human scientists who have chosen to live their lives in aquadomes below the waves, tightly allied with the Aquarian reef-cities brought to life by their founder, a brash genetic engineer named Peter Cydon, known to his Aquarian children as the Great Father.