The Arbiter Logs #1: Mutiny Springs Eternal

MutinyA century ago, the Faraday disappeared. The great ship dropped into the mysterious region known as L-space, never to be seen again. There are only legends left, legends of mutiny, of murder, and of the discovery of forbidden secrets. Today, the young midshipmen of the patrol ship Arbiter have found Faraday, a ghost ship orbiting a remote planet. And, somehow, someone… or something… has survived.

Mutiny Springs Eternal is the first adventure of the crew of the CNV Arbiter, adapted from the Mark Time and Parsec Award-winning audio drama series, The Arbiter Chronicles. Library Journal calls the Arbiters “a cast of compelling characters,” and Analog calls the Chronicles “a fun romp… like a cross between the funniest episodes of the original Star Trek and Monty Python.”

Buy it for: Kindle | Nook | Other formats at Smashwords

 

The Arbiter Logs #3: Man of Letters

ManofLettersOnly 99 cents! 

In all of the history of the planet Phaeton, since it was settled hundreds of years ago, only a handful of its telepathic citizens have ventured into outer space. Professor Mors, a legendary intellectual, and his young protégé Cernaq are two of those. Now that Cernaq is serving on border patrol aboard the CNV Arbiter, his mentor has tasked him with chronicling the extraordinary events he is a part of. Cernaq’s letters provide a glimpse of a very seedy corner of Naval service through very innocent, foreign eyes, as he learns that much of humanity is not governed by reason or science.

Man of Letters is the third adventure of the crew of the CNV Arbiter, adapted from the Mark Time and Parsec Award-winning audio drama series, The Arbiter Chronicles. Library Journal calls the Arbiters “a cast of compelling characters,” and Analog calls the Chronicles “a fun romp… like a cross between the funniest episodes of the original Star Trek and Monty Python.”

Buy it for:
All formats at Smashwords | Kindle | Nook  | iBooks

Review – Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

shipbreakerShip Breaker is a dystopian novel of a future America, ravaged by the storms which climatologists suggest are worsening as a result of global warming. It focuses on Nailer, a young teen who works as “light crew” on a ship-breaking operation.

In Nailer’s world you don’t go to school, there is no guarantee of three meals a day, and “home” is, if you’re lucky, a shack assembled out of spare parts. The “health care system” is on middle-aged woman who knows some herbal cures. There’s no suggestion of anything like property ownership. Nailer and his people live on a beach on the Gulf Coast, where no one who had the money to escape would want to stay. Continue reading

The Arbiter Logs #2: A Man Walks Into a Bar

ManWalksIn“Isn’t it obvious? I’ve just killed a man.”

My second Arbiter Logs novella is now in release! Only 99 cents for the eBook for your Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iPad, Droid… you name it, we got it. This adventure is based on a script Prometheus Radio Theatre first performed at Balticon 35. It turned out to be one of our most popular shows, and, as noted in the jacket copy, it took the 2004 Mark Time Silver Award. We were all kinda proud of that. Here it’s committed to prose and expanded, with some extra glimpses into the private lives of Captain Atal, Doc Faulkner, Kaya and Aer’La that weren’t in the radio play. And, of course, we all know the characters better now, myself included, so we get a better look inside some of their heads this time around. I hope you’ll pick up a copy. Purchase links below. (Some retailers pick up the books faster than others. Amazon should be out in a couple more hours. The others will trail along. I’ll update as they show up. Smashwords is always the fastest!)

Buy it for:
All formats at Smashwords | Kindle | Nook  | iBooks

The Jacket Copy:

Cernaq is a telepath from the planet Phaeton, the gentlest, most unassuming of the crew of the CNV Arbiter. After he must take a man’s life in the line of duty, his behavior begins to take a turn for the worse. Another presence is slowly gaining control of his mind, and one of the most powerful telepathic intellects in the galaxy is now a threat to himself and his shipmates.

A Man Walks Into a Bar is the second adventure of the crew of the CNV Arbiter, adapted from Parsec Award-winning audio drama series, The Arbiter Chronicles. This story also received the Mark Time Silver Award for excellence in science fiction audio drama in 2004. Library Journal calls the Arbiters “a cast of compelling characters,” and Analog calls the Chronicles “a fun romp… like a cross between the funniest episodes of the original Star Trek and Monty Python.”

Review: Star Trek – Into Darkness by Alan Dean Foster

Star-Trek-Into-Darkness-Alice-Eve

Not the book cover, but Alice Eve reads the audio, and she’s prettier than the book cover!

This is only peripherally a review of Star Trek: Into Darkness the film. I’m going to talk about the film, yes, but more immediately I’m going to talk about the novelization of it, written by Alan Dean Foster, and the reading of it by Alice Eve. I saw the film first, and then listened to this reading via Audible, so it’s my more recent experience of the story.

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Review – “Serpents’ Teeth” from Time Travelers Strictly Cash by Spider Robinson

TTSCCoverI’ve been listening (a few stories at a time) to The Callahan Chronicals, read by Barrett Whitener. I listened through all of the stories from Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon a while back, and just listened through the stories from Time Travelers Strictly Cash. A couple of things worth noting for the collector or bibliographer:

1) This is a 1997 re-issue of Callahan and Company, published 1988. It contains stories from Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon, Time Travelers Strictly Cash and Callahan’s Secret.

2) It does not contain all the stories from Time Travelers Strictly Cash. It contains only the stories which take place at Callahan’s Place, a fictional (some readers would disagree) bar somewhere in the wilds of Long Island.

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On June 5th, buy Mutiny Springs Eternal and get a free eBook!

MutinyCome Aboard for the First Adventures of the Arbiters!

The Arbiter Logs novelize the adventures heard on the award-winning Arbiter Chronicles audio series.  These stories are prequels to the novels Taken Liberty and Unfriendly Persuasion, already available wherever books are sold.

How to get a free eBook:

On June 5th, buy a copy of Episode One, Mutiny Springs Eternal, for just 99 cents from Amazon.com. (I’m happy any day you buy my books, but I’d like to see a June 5th spike on the Amazon charts. If we raise that number high enough, the series will get even more recognition in the retail market.)

Forward your receipt for the purchase to editor@firebringerpress.com, and I’ll send you your free copy of the next novella, A Man Walks Into a Bar, absolutely free! (It should be ready for release by June 30th.)

I respect your privacy! When you contact me, your email address will never be shared, sold or used for mass email purposes.

From the jacket copy for The Arbiter Logs: Mutiny Springs Eternal:

A century ago, the Faraday disappeared. The great ship dropped into the mysterious region known as L-space, never to be seen again. There are only legends left, legends of mutiny, of murder, and of the discovery of forbidden secrets. Today, the young midshipmen of the patrol ship Arbiter have found Faraday, a ghost ship orbiting a remote planet. And, somehow, someone… or something… has survived.

Mutiny Springs Eternal is the first adventure of the crew of the CNV Arbiter, adapted from the Mark Time and Parsec Award-winning audio drama series, The Arbiter Chronicles. Library Journal calls the Arbiters “a cast of compelling characters,” and Analog calls the Chronicles “a fun romp… like a cross between the funniest episodes of the original Star Trek and Monty Python.”

Helen Noel Kicks Ass! (And other reflections upon reading the first volume of James Blish’s Star Trek series.)

Helen Noel from Star Trek

Star Trek “Dagger of the Mind’s” Dr. Helen Noel

Well first off, she’s a redhead, isn’t she? Redheads are special in science fiction. Nix that. Redheads are special, period. Science Fiction authors just get this basic, universal truth, carved as it was by God on the same stone tablets He used when he gave us the Declaration of Independence and the script for It Happened One Night. Ask Robert Heinlein or Alan Dean Foster. Redheads. Yeah.

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Review: The Child Thief by Brom

The-Child-ThiefI said in my brief Goodreads entry on this book that it is “beautiful and disturbing,” and I think that’s the best tagline I can give it.

Fantasy artist Brom has created a dark version of Peter Pan, or, perhaps more accurately, he has re-imagined Peter Pan, highlighting some pieces which are vaguely referenced in J.M. Barrie’s original: the fact that there’s a lot of killing in Neverland, that Peter is a barbarian, a savage, and that there’s a strong possibility that when his Lost Boys become too old, Peter kills them or has them killed. All of this Brom details in his afterward. He also describes how he returned to Barrie’s original source material (or at least material that influenced him strongly), that being the legends and folktales of the British Isles.

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Announcing the Arbiter Logs

ArbiterLogoOldThis morning I put the last 2300 words to the third novella I’ve written in 2013. And now at 75% of the way to the home stretch on this leg of my project, here’s what I’m up to: With eBooks taking off and moving, outstripping my paper book sales, I’ve decided that the sixteen or so Arbiters adventures that exist only as audio dramas should be available to readers as well. I’d always intended to novelize these scripts and print them, three of four to a book, as the adventures of young Horatio Hornblower are presented in Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, and as Alan Dean Foster did in the wonderful Star Trek Logs.

My eBook sales reports say the time is right to build up my inventory, so, by Summer, my plan is to release the first four Arbiter Chronicles adventures as novellas, for sale in eBook form at the reasonable price of 99 cents each. “Mutiny Springs Eternal,” the Mark-Time-Award-wining “A Man Walks Into a Bar,” and “Man of Letters” are drafted and ready for me to polish and send to the editor. I’ll embark on “The White Lady” next, and expect to have it finished in two to three weeks, in time to craft an outline for the third volume of ReDeus before Balticon. I’m really excited about this. It’s a chance to revisit my favorite characters in stories I told a dozen years ago. Along the way, I’m adding new insights and texture. I’m hoping this will bring the Arbiters to a whole new audience, and I hope all of you who’ve made this journey with me so far will come along for the ride.