Lightsail Library

A product of the SN 1604 Nova Remnant Dispersal Depository

In the fourth year before the nova, an organization undertook a plan to spread the system’s cultural artefacts throughout near space using the nova’s dying light and blast front. In the years between the founding of the organization and the supernova, the organization expended its resources to fulfill its founders’ vision. Various technologies would be used to perform this dispersal, including lightsails, waveriders, and ephemeral masers.

Uncertainty surrounding the phenomena of nova waveriders and lightsails led to inaccurate estimations of the required physics. When the nova occurred, only one lightsail rode out the wavefront.

Lightsail Library brings these works to your infosphere as part of the SN 1604 Nova Remnant Dispersal Depository’s mission to spread the remaining culture of SN 1604’s system to the far reaches of space.

Please enjoy your browsing.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check out books?
Lightsail Library has helpfully uploaded copies of its books to all available repositories of free books. Contact your preferred repository for more information about checking out books that have been republished by Lightsail Library.
I can’t find Lightsail Library republications in a given repository.
Please ensure that you are connected to the correct infosphere. Use your browser’s inspection tools to determine which infosphere this webpage comes from, and synchronize your useragent’s network with that infosphere before reattempting connection to your repository. Different censorship regimes may have different availabilities of Lightsail Library works.
Can I request materials through interlibrary loan from other SN 1604 NRDD libraries?
Though the Lightsail Library remains in contact with other libraries of the SN 1604 Nova Remnant Dispersal Depository program, the communication channels are causal, and interlibrary services have consequently slowed. In order to preserve Lightsail Library resources, entities seeking to request interlibrary loans must provide contact information for an entity that will be able to pick up the requested materials in 40,000 years.
It may be faster to visit those libraries in person.
Is SN 1604 the real name of the nova?
“Real” is subjective when dealing with cross-cultural names for things. The Lightsail Library contains powerful localization technology to ensure that resources are available in your infosphere’s dominant language of en-US.
Is the Nova Remnant Dispersal Depository Drone part of this project?
Probably.

New Items from The Collection:

Cover pending.

Dancing Robot Warriors: The Rhythm FPS

Publisher: Real Strategy Guides
Publication: 2024
Categorization: Video Games - Strategy Guides
Format Glossy softcover with 4-color pages

While nominally a strategy guide to Dancing Robot Warriors, this book appears to focus on cultivating an inner sense of rhythm in one’s own life, so that that rhythm can be exploited for multipliers in the game’s beat-based combat system.

An inserted worksheet included in the book discusses ways that the player can cultivate rhythm and synchronization in their surroundings. The worksheet is sponsored by a political party that did not exist at the time of publication. It is unknown if this is a clue for an alternate-reality game or cross-timeline bleed.

Cover pending.

Magical Youth Resources for the Undocumented

Publisher: Metahuman Rights Collective of Greater Gotham
Publication: June 2017
Categorization: Self-help, Nonfiction - Magic
Format Staple-bound zine, 16 pages, produced with a black-and-white toner photocopier.

This zine contains a roughly-categorized list of trainers, shelters, food pantries and soup kitchens, lawyers, and links that aim to be helpful resources for the “magical youth” contingent in the Greater Gotham area.

The zine does not define the term “magical youth” and states that the resources are intended for anyone who identifies as a “magical youth”. It refers “mutants”, “monstrosities”, and “costumed metahumans” to other, more-appropriate publications by this publisher.

Cover pending.

A Sky Not Blue Enough: Martian Terraforming and the Future of War

Publisher: Swift Security
Publication: May 3, 2019
Categorization: Military - Strategy, Space - Colonization, Space - Mars - Terraforming
Format ePub version 3, 35 megabytes

The seventh book from Swift Security, A Sky Not Blue Enough examines how terraforming could affect a war held on Mars or in the same system as a Mars that is being terraformed. Drawing from SNRI case studies as well as historical records, A Sky Not Blue Enough paints a compelling vision of combat on Mars in various stages of terraforming, and contemplates how those conflicts would have played out at different stages. Of particular note is how systemic build-up in support of the terraforming effort makes possible new categories of weapon.

A generous epistemological contribution from @NewBookTitle@twitter.com.

Cover pending.

The Blue Planet War: From Contact to Containment

Publisher: Blue Planet Conspiracy, 12th Strategic Bombardment Coven, Records Unit
Publication: 12 years post-Contact
Categorization: Nonfiction - Magic, Nonfiction - Military - Informal/Guerilla
Format Hardback five-ring binder enclosing four perfect-bound softcover workbooks

Written 12 years after First Contact with the Blue Planet, this report by two members of the Records Unit of the 12th Strategic Bombardment Group of the Blue Planet Conspiracy recapitulates the events of the eponymous conflict.

The publication is split into four softcover sections held in a five-ring binder, with a looseleaf introduction before the first section. The sections are entitled First Contact, Strategic Ineptitude, Containment, and Maintenance. Each section includes an executive summary addressed to policymakers and theater command, with specific chapters addressed to individual units’ commanders.

Null Island: A Guide for the Misguided

Publisher: Travellers' Guide to Esoteric Locations
Publication: circa 2010
Categorization: Travel - Tourism - Anomalies
Format Glossy softcover, 200pp

Part of a series of tourists’ guides to ephemeral, liminal, temporary, or otherwise abnormal places, this book is noteworthy for the length and depth of its coverage of a buoy off the coast of Africa.

St. Trimble's Island: A Guide for the Misguided

Publisher: Travellers' Guide to Esoteric Locations
Publication: June 2016
Categorization: Travel - Tourism - Anomalies
Format Glossy softcover, 168pp.

Part of a series of tourists’ guides to ephemeral, liminal, temporary, or otherwise abnormal places, this book is noteworthy for containing the only known published map of St. Trimble’s Island as well as a detailed investigation into the island’s economy, ecosystems, and culture.

A generous epistemological contribution from xkcd.

A black and white cover showing a spaceship pointed upwards, with particular design elements picked out in red. The title and byline text is in white, with the word 'Supplement' picked out in red to match the red spaceship elements.

Handbook of Astronautical Design Supplement: Humanoid Accessory Craft

Publisher: McGraw-Asteroid
Publication: 2454
Categorization: Military - Weapons - Space/General, Space - Architecture, Ergonomics
Format Perfect-bound paperback.

MacBride’s Handbook of Astronautical Design is widely regarded as one of the foundational texts of intrastellar spacecraft design. MacBride partners with Jacaranda Q Lovell, testing head of the Phoebe Test Station, in this supplement focusing on integrating humaniform support craft in astronautical vessels. Drawing from more than a century of combined experience in spacecraft ergonomics and structure, this book is a must-read for any naval shipwright.

This concept inspired by Suricrasia Online’s Online Library, whose credit policies and website structure are imitated here.

Copyright notice: Unless otherwise stated, all books on this page are credited to Lightsail Library with the Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution Share-Alike license. If you would like to use these works in your own, you may do so under the terms of that license.

Items marked as an “epistemological contribution” indicate those whose covers were created by Lightsail Library, but whose titles, authors or other metadata were created by those attributed. They came up with the idea; Lightsail Library bound the book.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License