Tag Archives: ruins

Pre-order “Ruins: A Space Opera Anthology” Today

ruins

Promotional image for the anthology “Ruins.”

Ruins: A Space Opera Anthology is on pre-order now through the end of May. The anthology was created by Matt Herron and along with twelve other tales, includes my 12,000 word story “Sunrise.”

A large sleeper ship on a mission to colonize a far-distant planet is pulled off course awakening the command crew. The vessel is in the gravitational field of a highly unusual solar system, one where the star has been modified to be a thruster pulling the entire system with it toward the edge of the galaxy. What’s worse, for months, the ship’s AI has been in contact with an alien intelligence from that system which is surrounded by thousands of asteroids, shepherd objects guiding the system’s course.

Captain Art Cuevas and his crew use a shuttle to travel to one of the shepherd objects trying to get some answers, especially now that they’re too far away from their original destination to get to it before the ship’s fuel supply is exhausted.

What they find is startling and will either spell their doom or perhaps a new and unanticipated life.

Here’s a sample:

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The Kickstarter for “Ruins: A Space Opera Anthology” Officially Launches Today!

ruins

Promotional image of “Ruins: A Space Opera Anthology”

Across the vast expanse of space and time lie the remnants of civilizations that reached for the stars—and vanished. Silent cities carved into asteroids. Derelict megastructures drifting between galaxies. Temples buried beneath the red sands of dead worlds.

This book contains 13 bold tales of humanity’s encounters with these cosmic ruins.

Today is the official launch date for the Kickstarter for Ruins: A Space Opera Anthology edited by M.G. Herron and featuring my 10,000 word story “Sunrise.”

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Kickstarter for “Ruins: A Space Opera Anthology”

ruins

Promotional image for the anthology “Ruins.”

Across the vast expanse of space and time lie the remnants of civilizations that reached for the stars—and vanished. Silent cities carved into asteroids. Derelict megastructures drifting between galaxies. Temples buried beneath the red sands of dead worlds.

This book contains 13 bold tales of humanity’s encounters with these cosmic ruins.

That’s how the narrative for the Kickstarter for “Ruins: A Space Opera Anthology” begins.

Just to be clear:

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The Kepler Tomb

ruins

Fantasy wallpaper

Note: This story is over 6600 words long not including the afterword. You might want to get yourself a cup of coffee or tea and sit down in a comfortable chair before proceeding. Alternately, bookmark the page and read the story in stages. I hope you’ll find the effort worthwhile.

I found myself in the ruins again. I never imagined that I would wake up walking in the footsteps of an exo-archaeologist on a planet orbiting the red dwarf star Kepler 438b. No matter what I do, I wake up again in the ruins. On Earth almost a century ago, people thought the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun came with a curse. The curse turned out to be a myth, but it spawned any number of horror films, television shows, and novels. On Kepler, it turns out to be real, or real enough to keep me trapped here in a recurring nightmare.

How did I get into this mess?

As far as I know, my name is Jonathan Cypher but I only know that much because it’s what Raven told me. She also said I’m sometimes known as the Never Man, but so far that means even less to me than being Cypher.

All I know for sure is that I woke up one day in what looked like the bombed out ruins of Los Angeles. Then I kept waking up into a different world and a different life, including a particularly hideous nightmare. My most recent set of dreams had to do with saving someone who would otherwise have died in the London Blitz in 1940, but depending on who I saved or which other option I chose, subsequent history changed, usually meaning thousands or tens of thousands of people died who would otherwise have lived.

I finally managed to figure that one out, but now I’m in this mess and again it’s thanks to Raven.

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