Well here we are in 2020 and the first book of my sci-fi/alternate history series is still not published. Res republicae – On the Rocks is the title now. The good news is I have downloaded the Amazon Kindle Create software and am getting my manuscript ready to publish. Knowing me this will either happen after a several hours of feverish work or take several days to come to grips with….
I have have however done up a blurb for the story – you know that bot that is supposed to wet a reader’s appetite and cause them to rush their mouse to the buy now button and voila I’m a dollar or two richer. Well in theory. For those that are interested here it is. Feedback (no swearing please) is very welcome.
Captain Arturo Sanders was having a bad day. First the routine destruction of some ancient automatic defence batteries became a disaster when his ship’s screens failed and he had no choice to abandon ship.
Then he had to rescue two left behind crew people which meant he missed the main shuttle evacuation leaving him and his two companions in a shuttle on their own at the rear.
Then the shuttle was hit by enemy fire just as they traversed the jump point, of course! This sent the shuttle through something to somewhere but not the safe system the rest of the crew had jumped to!
The damage to the shuttle meant they would need a dockyard or failing that they would have to land on a planet to affect repairs which seemed likely as the system had no electronic signature, so space docks looked unlikely.
The third planet was in fact inhabited, but by primitives armed with swords and spears, probably an old Imperial colony that had been cut off and regressed tech-wise. They should be able to land and repair their shuttle somewhere out of the way except of course the engines decided to fail halfway down!
This led to a close encounter with the side of a mountain, followed by a crash landing into a lake.
And then his day got really bad!
rhodanblog 
Entertaining opening book, the setup for the future history was done well, looking forward to the next instalment.
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I was certainty hooked by the the end. I need more.
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It would have been a better book from mt standpoint if all 3 had survived, but i suppose i shall have to await further books in the series to pass final judgment.
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Perhaps. On the other hand I was definitely not going to follow a lot of Alternate History books and have the token traitor who disagrees with the main character and tries for his/her own advancement, kingdom, whatever at the expense of everybody else (and is often a-moral or even immoral).
Examples include the Sea of Time series and the Emperor’s Men series, to name two off the top of my head. I will be honest and say i never got past book 1 with the Emperors Men….
I don’t like books (or TV series) that constantly throw up contrived problems for the main protagonists in order to stretch the story out artificially.. (Lost springs to mind immediately!) or which have things come out of left field (both good and bad) with no warning and which often make no sense, sometimes making things too easy for the main protagonist or too hard and requiring some further out of left field event-person- weapon to appear to get the protagonist out of the hole.
in the end though I wanted him to be alone…. at least at the beginning of his journey.
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Loved the blurb! Loved the book! Very much looking forward to the next installment. And also very much agree about the contrived bad guy. Thank you so much for leaving that out.
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Hi Peter. I have read books 1 and 2 and this is a pretty good story, I like the plot and the way it is developing. My only complaint is all the typos, missing words, etc. I think you need to recruit a few more people to proof read for you.
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looking for a non-paid job?
My last proof reader did three chapters of book 2 and left a whole bunch of problems anyway.
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