The Shadows of the Multiverse is Officially live today as a Free Ebook on Amazon through KDP select. The promotion worked very well for The Deep Dark Well, not as well for The Hunger, but as this is a science fiction novel I am hopeful it will do as well as TDDW and will get out into the hands of many readers, who will generously go back to the Amazon page and write a review (hint, hint). The promotion will run through Tuesday, 10/30/2012, after which the book will be offered for the ridiculously low price of $2.99. So far I have gotten three reviews of this novel, all five star, with another promised from someone who told me it was better than TDDW. Don’t know about that, but I think it is a very good novel, one which fans of both hard science fiction and science fantasy should enjoy.
Set nine hundred years in the future, when the solar system is the home of several governments and almost a trillion citizens, many of them in the mass of space habitations in the Dyson Swarm around the sun, the human race has spread to other stars by use of the many faceted gates that orbit a half dozen planets in each of the Galaxies throughout our Cosmos. There are lots of ruins across this space, both eroded on planetary surfaces and in pristine condition in the vacuum of space, showing that a lot of sentient races have appeared and disappeared throughout the last ten billion years. The real mystery is that many seem to have fallen at the same time, in cycles, and that there are no signs of a great war or natural catastrophe to explain where they went. And then we meet the catastrophe come to life, in the form of creatures from another dimension that fear our quantum minds. The mystery is solved, but unlike some mysteries finding out the truth does not in any way lessen the threat posed by the nightmare personified that is the Weavers (so called because they can weave reality into the form they want).
Three unlikely heroes are called to fight the Weavers, who are pretty much immune to the weapons deployed by the space faring races. Lucille Yamamoto is the captain of a Terran Federation battle cruiser. Known as Lucky Lucille throughout her career for her uncanny streak of fortunate circumstances, Lucille is a more than competent captain who is hated for her luck by many over her. Howard Turner was once a physicist who gave up his research into weapons of mass destruction based on the Zero Point Energy of Space. Known as Howard the Luck in scientific circles, Howard is also an extremely fortunate man for whom the ball always seems to bounce in his direction. Siobahn Hunsicker is the child of missionaries, and the third member of the trio who are the only hope of the Universe. The three must learn to use their abilities to fight creatures of equal ability, and must do so before it is too late. I hope my readers will find this one as imaginative and enjoyable as The Deep Dark Well. Get it now while it is free, and remember, reviews are much appreciated. And now for an excerpt.
“What in the name of the ten hells are they doing?” exclaimed Admiral G’Narjanasan.
“It would seem to serve no purpose,” agreed the tactical officer.
“How far are they from us?” asked the admiral through his com link, wishing he were not so constrained by his acceleration tube.
“Over seven light minutes,” said the tactical officer.
“Over six hours travel time at their current velocity,” said the nav officer.
“Their ship would reach us before those projectiles,” said the tactical officer.
“So the projectiles serve no offensive purpose,” said the admiral, his eyestalks straining to see the view of the enemy ship. Purely a reflex action as the image was actually projected directly into his visual cortex. “Do they serve a defensive purpose? Or a diversion?”
“I assume they were intended for one of those purposes,” said the tactical officer. “Which one I am unsure of. And what good it will do them I am also unsure.”
“They must feel it serves a useful purpose,” said the nav officer.
“We will just have to wait and see,” said the admiral. “But they are of no immediate concern to us. What of the convoy?”
“They are heading away from us at maximum acceleration,” stated the nav officer. “But they can at best make twelve gees with their slower freighters. We should be within effective main weapon’s range in approximately ten hours.”
“And the battle-cruiser will be within range of our weapons,” said the tactical officer, “and we within range of hers in about seven hours.”
“One capital ship against our entire force,” said the admiral. “What can they do without any support?”
What do they expect to do, thought the admiral. It depended on the ship’s commander. Was he a fool or a genius? Or would chance decide the fate of the human ship? Only time would tell. Seven hours’ time.
The admiral turned his attention to other matters. Like the disposition of the enemy ships they were vectoring toward. The escorts were falling back from the merchant vessels even farther, obviously hoping to sacrifice themselves that their charges might escape. A false hope, thought G’Narjanasan. The escorts would cause minimal damage to his own ships while he destroyed them utterly. And then went on to sweep up the defenseless cargo vessels.
“Detonation,” called one of the bridge officers, catching the attention of the admiral who brought up the view toward the battle-cruiser. One of the warheads had flared, causing sensory nodes to switch to heavy filter mode to dampen the deluge of radiation. Seconds later another of the warheads flared, followed by yet another and then a fourth. Seconds passed as the other forty-six warheads continued to fall toward the fleet.
The admiral noticed it just as the tactical officer brought it to his attention.
“The battle-cruiser is gone.”
Yes, the capital ship had seemed to disappear from his sensors, shielded by the flood of radiation that interposed their view of the human ship.
“The human captain set that spread of warheads on a path that would cloud their approach,” said the admiral. “Keep a close watch in case we catch some hint of movement out there. But they obviously intend to detonate those other warheads at points that will maximize their ability to hide the ship.”
“Or make us think that they maximize it,” said the navigation officer. “If I was the captain I would make sure the pattern of detonations gave us multiple possibilities to think of.”
“Contact the other captains,” ordered the admiral. “Calculate all possible paths that the enemy ship might take and keep running the calculations to update probabilities. Assign a ship to sweep the path of each possibility with a portion of their sensory systems.”
“Aye sir,” replied the flag captain, as communications officers worked diligently to send the messages on secured tight beams to the other ships of the fleet.
That devil might cause more damage than I find acceptable, thought the admiral. But they would not stop the fleet from reaching its target. Nor would they escape destruction themselves. The admiral relaxed, sure in his decisions and confident in the ability of his squadron to handle anything the inferior enemy force could throw at him.
Find it here. The Shadows of the Mutliverse