I’m about a third of the way done with Volume Two and I hope to have it available for purchase by springtime 2012.
Thank you to all who have purchased my book! The success of this book has been very encouraging. So encouraging, in fact, that I’ve begun my first science fiction novel. It will be short, approximately 40,000 words, but will chronicle the adventures of one particular man. I do not intend for this to be a sequential series where each book depends on the one written before. Rather it will be a collection of stories that can be read in or out of sequence. There will be a total of ten in this series, perhaps more.
I don’t have a title yet, but here is a bit of information about the setting. In the future much of the solar system has been colonized, but no successful extra-solar travel has occurred. This is due to the fact that space travel has been limited to speeds that barely reach 1/4 the speed of light and the vastness of space.
Numerous colonies exist and transforming of Mars, the Moon, even giant asteroids in the Asteroid Belt have been successful. A “gold rush” for the ore and mineral deposit rights in the Asteroid Belt and on dwarf planets like Ceres, led to a boom in the mining industry, the creation of remote space stations large enough to house millions of people, and the colonization of the Inner Solar System.
But, the remoteness and vast distances even within our system, and old the remnants of very treaties which forbade terrestrial nations claiming dominion over places like the Moon, led to a lawlessness akin to the Old West of the United States in the late 19th Century and 20th Centuries AD. (That’s right, I said “AD”, sue me for insensitivity!!!) Organized criminal organizations, mafias, pirates, and gangs, control large territories. Their vicious tactics, extortion, and pillaging are threatening to devastate economies.
Out of necessity, an alliance was formed by some of the space-faring nations of Earth. This alliance brought some order to the chaos of the Inner Solar System with a fleet of powerful spacecraft. But beyond the Asteroid Belt, the lawlessness continues.
The protagonist, Heck Thomas, is a member of the Marshal’s Service, an organization famous for bringing fugitives, gang members, pirates, and mafioso to justice. While hunting the notorious Yulia Kharkov, a key leader of the Kiev Mafia, things begin to go astray for the lauded Marshal. A friendly ship destroyed by missiles from his own spacecraft, the Sixkiller; a key informant against Kharkov who happened to be a Russian Minister of Parliament, killed by Heck’s own rifle; and the kidnapping of a local police detective.
This confluence of events leads Thomas down a road of betrayal and treason where he is forced to make the worst decision of his life: save Laylara’s life at the cost of his own and allow Kharkov to proceed with her devastating plans, or stopping Kharkov only to lose the woman he loves. Or will something completely unexpected happen?
Look for “The Centaurus Legacy” on Amazon.com before Christmas!
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