There are now three different titles on Amazon (Kindle) to choose from. They are all very different stories with a fourth, ‘Three’s Company’, soon to appear.
Do not worry if you have no ‘Kindle’—I also do not have one but I am able to download ‘Kindle Editions’ by having ‘Kindle for Mac’ on my computer. There are several variants of ‘Kindle’ to choose from—for PC’s, for ‘phones, for sundry pads, pods and so on.
The stories are:
‘Crater’:
This is the story, spread over many centuries, of a war of attrition between an alien race and us humans.
These aliens have wandered through the galaxy for billions of years harvesting biological matter from various planets to fuel their ships. They have no thought of reseeding these planets because, in their view, there is always another planet to go and scrape clean.
Then one of their raider crashes on Earth.
We do not want to be harvested. We fight back.
We soon learn that the one thing in our favour is that they do not breed. Once they die they cannot be replaced. We, on the other hand, can breed rapidly to replace our losses in battle.
The thing we do not know is—how many of them are there? Can we breed fast enough?
They may have technology but we have experience of fighting. We have been doing it for thousands of years. We are good at it.
‘Meevo’:
A chilling story about a mutant who is very bad. This mutant is a killer. Other mutants, who fear it, capture it and hand it over to the Authorities. They imprison it in a special quarantine unit for very bad criminals in Molepolole.
This world of the future is a very different place. It is wracked with toxins and suffers from acutely altered weather patterns. Few countries have escaped the ravages of war and, even at this time, the war, although long over, still creeps across continents killing and destroying in its path.
The mutant, Meevo, escapes. It will make you see what it wants you to see. The Army sends in its best squad of fighting men to go and put it back in prison or kill it. These men have seen action throughout space where they have enforced our law and put down rebellions with ease.
One small mutant should be no problem. Should it?
‘The Hags of Teeb’:
Major Jassington Farquar DeTovington-Beauville, Duke of Scafell Pike and the fifth Baron Livesey, with his faithful family retainer, Gaspard, are hot on the heels of a fabled treasure.
The Major is an aristocratic prig who considers that bringing the family mule might have afforded not only better company but improved quality of conversation compared to Gaspard who is French.
Gaspard is thus the bag carrier and general dogsbody to Jassington’s autocratic snobbery. The Major actually believes he is a kind and thoughtful person, he also believes that his intellectual prowess and wit is unequalled anywhere.
Ultimately, in order to gain the treasure, he must enter into a battle of wits with the ‘Herds of Dollib’. He has no doubts about the outcome and is convinced that in gaining the treasure he will also, as a by-product, by the source of rescue for his King.
This story is a wry look at the British class system and a tweak at the xenophobia of an island race. Start reading it with a smile on your face and feel it get wider and wider as you progress.
‘Three’s Company’:
Coming soon.
Many years in the past there was an expedition to the Northernmost reaches of the land. A team of dedicated men went into the steamy jungles to study and report back. Few made it out.
Iffan Beute was rescued by a strange human with a vaguely cat-like features and a long tail. This feline human became known to him as ‘Three’.
They lived together in Babir, a Southern town, for many years until there was a call from one of the Northern towns—Manat.
Iffan and Three head up to the North to find out what could be done.
That’s when they learn about the ‘Ghosts’.
‘Three’s Company’ is a short story of just under 5,000 words. That makes it just nice for a lunchtime read. Romantic Sci-Fi but not a romance.
I hope you enjoy my efforts to entertain you.
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