Been working alongside Amazon this last fortnight as my magnum opus "Shiko" has grown too large for their franchise publishers in Poland to print it in one volume. In addition, the Kindle version takes too long to download. As it now weighs in at just short of 300,000 words (a ...
Been working alongside Amazon this last fortnight as my magnum opus "Shiko" has grown too large for their franchise publishers in Poland to print it in one volume. In addition, the Kindle version takes too long to download. As it now weighs in at just short of 300,000 words (a normal novel is roughly 80,000), I have been instructed to unpublish the old one-volume version and rework it as a two-parter, with new ISBNs. I have further created a website blog to house online (with links from the book) the extensive End Papers which will not be included in Part One, plus it means a reader won't have to lose their place if they ever need to consult the glossary. Once done, the novel will out there until the world's end – and long after I have passed on.
>Hornblende: a relative young (second century) planet allegedly of little mineral worth, colonised only as a stepping-stone for future expansion, despite its lethal fauna and flora. Out on the Empire's rim, its previous claim to fame was the first bona fide alien artifact which led to it being added to the 1%'s extensive and expensive Grand Tour … until the Empire actually met other space-faring beings on its diametrically opposite border.
Plunged into the Alien War, Hornblende is isolated from the distant battles, its jump point destroyed and comms slowed (five years each way now), now intentionally ring-fenced as the last chance for humanity to survive somewhere should the war end badly.
Back on Hornblende, Deet Waldstein inadvertently uncovers an insidious alien presence as he thwarts the kidnap of an important figure. Much later, he is coerced into heading a task force that can be seen to be removed from various worried governments, under the aegis of the OAE – the Empire's law givers and final arbiters – ostensibly to fight a new wave of terrorists making good use of the Isolation, but really to probe and counter the alien threat he himself uncovered. He recruits his new force well, but unwisely, and soon members of his team are getting killed. He is attacked and left terminally ill from a high dose of radioactive material, and it seems even his own paymasters are turning against him.