Another Military SF Novella: "Discovery and Flight"

Back in April, I blogged about my military scifi novella "Ten Davids, Two Goliaths," set in Lindsay Buroker's Fallen Empire universe. I've been really busy with real-life work stuff, so outside of my newsletter I haven't had the chance until now to reveal the sequel, "Discovery and Flight."

Here's the Amazon blurb:

A month has passed since Lieutenants Geun Choi and Tamara Watson and the other pilots of the Alliance's Dragon and Raptor squadrons destroyed the Imperial cruisers Achilles and Sarpedon. Now the Empire is brutally striking back, dispatching a fleet of warships to destroy the Alliance's outpost in the Kir Asteroid Belt.

Choi and Watson now have to face an enemy far more skilled and dangerous than two cruisers with trainee crews, one bent on their total annihilation. Fighting alongside them are expert Alliance pilots Alisa Marchenko and Bradford Tomich, but even their help might not be enough. Who will live and who will die when the Imperial battle-group comes knocking?

Taking place before and during the events of Lindsay Buroker's short story "Remnants" and after Quinn's previous novella "Ten Davids, Two Goliaths," this tale set in Lindsay Buroker's FALLEN EMPIRE universe will thrill fans of STAR WARS, FIREFLY, WING COMMANDER, and the adventures of Honor Harrington.

I'd planned since the publication of "Ten Davids" that the buddy-pilot duo of Geun Choi and Tammy Watson could be a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern way to depict the early days of the rebellion against the Sarellian Dynasty. After all, the play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" tells the story of Hamlet from the point of view of two minor characters, and other than a couple short stories, Buroker generally doesn't discuss what happened before. Although "Ten Davids" depicts an incident that is never described in the main series, "Discovery and Flight" showcases the battle immediately before the events of Buroker's story "Remnants," which you can find in the You Are Here anthology.

"Discovery and Flight" is the tale that also changed the most in the telling. I'd made the characters in "Ten Davids" purely original because nobody would think characters who appear in the canonical series would be in any real danger, a common problem with prequels. However, I'd noticed sales for "Ten Davids" declining relatively rapidly after the first two months and suspected one cause was the complete non-appearance of any canonical characters. Given how series regular Bradford Tomich is depicted as sexually promiscuous, having him after female lead Watson made a lot of sense, while "Remnants" explicitly describes series protagonist Alisa Marchenko flying for the Alliance in that battle.

(Also, Tomich in the main series is a more complicated character than just a Casanova wannabe and the events told but not shown in "Remnants" would give him plenty of chances to show his legitimately heroic side. I wanted to avoid Flanderizing him into a mere lecher.)

I also changed some of the mechanics of the battle based on discussion in a guest post I wrote for "Ten Davids" on the blog of notable indie science fiction writer Chris Nuttall. Some of his readers took issue in the comments section with my idea that Billy Mitchell's theories on air power vs. ships could be transferred seamlessly into space combat, and some of what they said rang true to discussions on the Battlestar Galactica forums about how formidable a capital ship's flak batteries would be and how American ship-based antiaircraft guns became more effective against Japanese aerial attacks as World War II went on. When I posted about "Discovery and Flight" on Chris's blog, it got the discussion going again.

So if you liked "Ten Davids, Two Goliaths," I'd encourage you to read "Discovery and Flight." The more of these I sell, the more likely I'll write the planned third Choi and Watson novella, "Torpedo Protocol" and the Imperial-centric companion novella "Fallen Titan."

The Arab Spring and the FALLEN EMPIRE Series, Or What Happens When the Empire Falls

I'm sure most of us have seen Star Wars, that saga of the heroic space rebels who first destroy the evil Empire's dreaded Death Star superweapon, narrowly escape the revenge of the Imperial military, and, finally, redeem the Empire's greatest warrior and defeat the Emperor once and for all. All across the galaxy, the people rejoice, with the Emperor's statues pulled down like those of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been after the 2003 fall of Baghdad. And, according to the new canon at least, the remnant of the Empire is soon defeated and defanged. All is well, at least for awhile.

However, Lindsay Buroker's Fallen Empire series is much less cheerful, bearing a much greater resemblance to the Middle East after the Arab Spring rather than the optimistic ending of Star Wars. Here's how...

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS describes how the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria was shaken by initially peaceful protests in 2011. Rather than respond in a conciliatory manner as the king of Jordan did, Assad lashed out in a series of one-sided orgies of slaughter. Volunteer brigades formed to defend the protesters from the regime's armies and gangs of thugs, volunteer brigades that swelled with defecting soldiers who'd refused to fire on protesters all the way to defecting generals. In the Fallen Empire universe, an anti-Imperial underground had existed for years prior to the beginning of the rebellion, but it's a massacre of protesting students by Imperial troops who, years later, even Imperial loyalists admit overreacted, that really kicks things off. Buroker's story "Remnants," which takes place early in the rebellion, depicts the Alliance possessing a military base commanded by an admiral and with an officer training program already in place. That implies a substantial chunk of the Imperial military went over intact to the Alliance, much like in Syria.

Thing is, like in Syria, the Empire still possesses an overpowering advantage in capital-intensive weapons--massive warships, fleets of fighters, armed space stations, etc. much like how Assad retained control of the Air Force and the majority of the tanks. The rebels in Libya had the Western Powers to break the back of Gadhafi's aircraft and armor, but the Syrian rebels had virtually nothing that flew and as far as I can tell a lot fewer tanks. Attempts to seize major cities failed, leaving the only alternative a long, grinding war of attrition that began in March 2011 and last until this day (late 2017) and not likely to end soon. The rebellion against the Empire in Fallen Empire takes around four years and leaves the Tribus Solis System in ruins, with "billions of casualties." My Kindle Worlds stories (later released independently when KW was closed down) "Ten Davids, Two Goliaths" and "Discovery and Flight" take place during this period, with the rebels waging hit-and-run war from hidden bases and then having to flee them when the wrath comes down.

And there's no happy ending for most people. The Alliance thins out the defenses of the Imperial capital with a series of simultaneous attacks all over the system and manages to kill the ruling Emperor in a lightning raid, causing the whole system to collapse. The rebels take control of three core planets and establishes a stable, democratic government there, much like how Tunisia has remained a free country after the fall of its tyrant. The Empire retains control of its capital and life is somewhat normal there, albeit still authoritarian, much like how life went on in Damascus during the war. The rest of the system has fallen into anarchy much like Yemen or Libya after the flight or killing of their despots. Series opener Star Nomad for example, features an ex-Imperial cyborg warrior with master-race pretensions seeking to establish an empire of his own amid the ruins, while as the series progresses the machinations of a powerful and very evil psychic--with a surprising connection to series protagonist Alisa Marchenko--threaten to bring about a tyranny more absolute and horrifying than the Empire's. According to Black Flags, what would become ISIS had been defeated in Iraq before gaining a new lease on life in Syria, while the Egyptian "deep state" was able to reclaim control from the democratically-elected Islamist president when he went too far.

But at the end of the day, Fallen Empire is not just about the rise and fall of governments, of armies and fleets. It's a very human story of a mother trying to find her lost daughter amid the collapse of civilization, of a widow finding new love amid grief, and much more besides. And although the primary series is space opera with more than a little romance, there's plenty of room for other tales to be told. "A Stand for Honor" is a prison escape, "Spice Crimes" looks like a heist story, and "Rogue Derelict" kind of reminds of me of Event Horizon. And my stories, "Ten Davids, Two Goliaths" and "Discovery and Flight," are military sci-fi.

So check the series out. Buroker has since released the series wide, so you can find the books on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, etc. For the non-Amazon people, you can find "wide" links to the main series here and my novellas can be found here and here. You won't regret it.

My New Military SF Novella Is Here!

This past Wednesday evening, my first original Kindle project in years (if you don't count the audio version of my horror story "I am the Wendigo," since that was a different edition of an older work) went live. Behold my science fiction novella Ten Davids, Two Goliaths, set in Lindsay Buroker's FALLEN EMPIRE universe.

Here's my Amazon blurb, which I wrote myself...

The Tri-Sun Alliance has been nibbling at the edges of the Sarellian Empire, attacking isolated patrols, supply convoys, and even civilian supporters of the regime. But now Alliance intelligence has learned of something worth gambling their limited combat power--a pair of Imperial escort cruisers on a training mission near an isolated world.

Helping command the attack is Lt. Geun Choi, a former Imperial fighter pilot disgraced by an act of mercy. Serving under him is Tamara Watson, another ex-Imperial with demons of her own. But whatever their pasts, the two must improvise or die when it turns out the intelligence that sent them on the mission wasn't complete and the carefully-planned ambush develops complications.

Taking place before pilot Alisa Marchenko met her future engineer Mica Coppervein and well before the Empire fell, this tale set in Lindsay Buroker's FALLEN EMPIRE universe explores the early days of the Great Rebellion. Fans of STAR WARS, FIREFLY, WING COMMANDER, and the tales of Honor Harrington will enjoy this adventure.

If you're into military sci-fi or space opera, or just want to see Billy Mitchell's theories on air-power vs. ships tested out IIIN SPAAACE, then you might like this. It's around 10,000 words long, so it won't take very long for you to read and enjoy. There's one small problem in that Kindle Worlds is for some reason limited to American (USA) readers only, but there is a way around that. Visit this link here for more.

This story (and some consulting work I did for Ms. Buroker) would not have happened if I weren't a regular listener to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast. So if you're looking for some advice on how to sell and market your work, check it out.