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Free Ebook! Demons That Do Not Rest
Sharr Khan founder of the Falcanians at long last has all that he ever dreamed made real, but there are yet demons which continue to haunt the Shotar as he ascends to new-found power and glory.
This is actually a reissue of a very short story I had out long ago. I’ve reedited it a bit to bring it in-line with the current Neo-human canon and included my glossary to make it be an easy entryway into the Neo-human ‘verse.
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FREE Poetry Book
Star-Fire Poetic Collection.
Dark fire cast,
Flame of burning blast-furnace of my hearts core.
Where there should be light shadows reign!
I feel rage, in that moment I am alive.
Flames fueled, not by hate – no love sets this pyre aflame.
What can I do to still it? Do I wish to extinguish this blaze?
No the conflagration drives me on!!!
Dark fire cast on my soul,
A shadow reigns over its light!
On Smashwords, download it here.
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Smashwords: Read An Ebook Week 3-9th
Image via CrunchBase
The Smashwords, Read AnEbook Week is on.
All books are now listed as half-off with this code: REW50.
And my books can be found Here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/284822
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Among Bright Stars… (Neo-human #2)
Humanity’s future, isn’t human…
Nadia Korelia, Falcanian queen, has spent the last three years assembling together her sibling Morningstars. Artificial people, who are in every way stronger, smarter and more beautiful. Among these Morningstars are Temujin Sardur, a Mongolian buccaneer, who raided pleasure boats in the Andaman Sea, Guillaume LaSalle, a Gascony spaceship Commander, who participated in bringing alien life to Earth, and Darius Noorani, the 12th Imam foretold by Islamic religion. Can Nadia unite her fellow Morningstars, even as the Falcanians use war, to broker for peace?
It’s finally here, Neo-human book 2!
A few thoughts. The book here is very different from the draft I began with, though the plot is largely the same, how it gets to where its going is somewhat different. Many of the changes came about because these first three Neo-human books were written as a single unit, not unlike LoTR, and the second book behaved too much like “the middle” of the novel than a story on its own. To be sure, the larger story arc needed to be, and is served here, though I made a point to connect the grander arc to the micro focus on Mornngstars and what they are. In fact doing so added another layer of meaning which I didn’t intend to touch on until further down the road in the series.
If “Starblade” was the story of Frederika learning about who, and what she is, then “Among Bright Stars…” is Nadia‘s story exploring she and Frederika‘s common Morningstar origins.
I’m going to forewarn you, there’s a little something for everyone to HATE in this book. It could be the whole Muslim messiah presented as both a Robot and a fierce Westernizer/reformer. After Benghazi, I made a special effort to tick up that plot a bit… Or, it could end up being Princess Sitara‘s life choice – Which will only seem radical depending upon your point of view on the matter – Though its sure to annoy some contingent who think science fiction‘s job is to support one particular party line. On that same note, I’m sure the whole Annunaki riff will grate a few people the wrong way as well. But, I don’t try to please everyone, or anyone but myself first and foremost when I write.
*A sharp eye will note, the Table of Contents (TOC) is different in the Amazon version compared to the Smashwords (aka all other retailers) TOC. That couldn’t be avoided. Kindle was being a pain and wouldn’t read the Table of Contents as it was formatted for Smashwords (which was odd as it had every other time) so I needed to build it a different way. Which is why the epigraph is displayed as it is on the Amazon book.
The Crisis of Empire Series – David Drake
The War Machine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Crisis of Empire Series:
David Drake‘s The Crisis of Empire Series is pretty awesome!
An Honorable Defense. With Thomas T. Thomas, 1988, Baen.
Cluster Command. With W. C. Dietz. 1989, Baen.
The War Machine. With Roger MacBride Allen. 1989, Baen.
Crown of Empire. With Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. 1994, Baen. 
These four books overlap and occur somewhat, but not totally concurrently. It actually wasn’t until the third book I realized they were concurrent with one another.
Now one of the things which might annoy people is that there is not one single hero to follow throughout the four books, rather each book has its own star.
Oh and they’re kind of formulaic, though that sort of is part of the charm.
The formula is that each novels hero is plucked out of his comfort zone, more often than not the would be hero is down on his luck or a virtual nobody the grander scheme of “The Pact” and its bureaucracy. In fact, the first book centers on a minor commutations bureaucrat, who sort of made me think of a young John Rhys-Davis…
Also part of the formula, the hero is hooked up with a woman, who he thinks he belongs with but along the way ends up finding the one true love his life.
These are good reads from a golden age of Sci-Fi, the 80s and 90s when the genre was in my opinion not so concerned with political correctness.
Don’t get me wrong, there is defiantly a theme of tolerance built into these books, but it’s not sickeningly preachy about it. The Pact is presented at teetering on the edge of its own implosion for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that aliens outnumber the human rulers of the Pact by a huge number, yet these aliens are considered second class citizens.
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Are Tolkien’s Fans As Crazed As Trekkies?
Tolkien’s monogram, and Tolkien Estate trademark (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I think they might be, and I think their chief is Christopher Tolkien himself…
My Father’s “Eviscerated” Work – Son Of Hobbit Scribe J.R.R. Tolkien Finally Speaks Out
That’s a really long article, yet its not so much Christopher Tolkien which interests me here, its more the comments that follow the Le Monde article, where, were you to go by just by them, you’d have to wonder how The Lord of The Rings movies ever made any money, given how many disgruntled JRR Tolkien fans there seem to be out there.
They do realize that no adaption would ever be perfect no matter who directed or wrote it. Right? That also goes for straight up screenplays, you never get on screen what was actually written down on paper. The screen and a book are two different mediums demanding different things when it comes to storytelling. And I have a hard time seeing Peter Jackson as a “hack” in this matter. Quite the contrary, its very clear when Peter Jackson speaks about JRR Tolkien, the Lord of The Rings, and The Hobbit that he holds them dear.
Are the movies perfect? No — But I have a blasphemous thing to say, the books, though beautifully written at times plod along and scatter without focus. The language is gorgeous, the plotting leaves something to be desired. The only one of the books I am able to reread is The Hobbit, though I’ve attempted to begin The Fellowship of The Ring again — Mind you, I can reread Frank Herbert’s DUNE at a pin drop and even James Clevell’s Shogun, and I know some people have trouble with those books as well.
Was there this sort of fury when the Rankin Bass and Saul Zaentz/Ralph Bakshi animated adaptions came out?
Now see, the crux here is, like every other reader of a book, just like all these Tokien-Ites (including JRR Tolkien‘s own son… ) Peter Jackson has his own internalized understanding of the material. To put it plainer — What he got out of the books is probably different from what you (the collective you) got out of them. That doesn’t make it wrong, it just means he sees the material in a different manner than y0u, yourself might understand it. Genre fans have a hard time understanding that idea.
Oddly when I watched the movies I felt many of the same things when I read the books. Jackson can’t be doing everything wrong…
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