Saturday, March 27, 2010

Cosmos Quest


Starship Human Dawn is only the second deep space starship to evacuate the last residents from a dying Earth in search of a new world in which to live. The first, Human Sunset, went missing  generations earlier. 5000 humans are in suspended animation while the vessel travels through post-light speed infinity drive under control of computers. Commander Sophie Copland wakes up in deep space because of an emergency drop to sub-light speed.

A human woman, Kyla Adair has caused this. She is escaping from an alien world of human type beings called benefactors who, it is later found out, cloned her from a long dead member of a Human Sunset. After no senior officers are found to be alive, two other junior crewmembers, Penny who has the ability to 'feel' the truth, and Jack, an electronics expert are awoken.  The three find the starship is occupied by of human terrorists who have killed the senior officers and are torturing two benefactors, Daz and Foxin. They rescue the pair and attempt to gain control of the vessel. They are only partially successful but manage to blast the three self-life-supporting drones containing the suspended animation humans away from the Human Dawn before it is destroyed.  They also escape in the Dawn Rescue 'lifeboat' and Kyla's damaged Zarel 29 benefactor spaceship.

Daz and Foxin prove loyal but will other benefactors help the humans, which they regard as inferior to themselves?
Sophie finds the computers have the ability to mutate into advanced forms! Are they really the new life species that supersede the 'inferior' humans and benefactors?
Are any planets that support intelligent life safe?
Only Sophie and her four friends can keep humans and benefactors from becoming extinct in a hostile cosmos. 

Friday, March 19, 2010

Affinity & Trust now available as Paperback

Affinity And Trust
Ross Richdale
Zuzana Milenkova, rescued from her fate as a sex slave of a rebel militia group in war-torn Bosnia, finds herself alone in a strange new country. She has emigrated to New Zealand and has Anglicised her name to  Susan but is that sufficent? There are many obstacles to overcome, a new language to learn, different customs, and a new career, but she also has to come to terms with the horror of the past before she can move on and create a new future.

She befriends Frazer Winton who breaks through her reserve and fear of men. Their friendliness becomes more intense as she begins to trust humanity again. Her composure is, however, ruptured when, on a back country walking trip she has to walk through a disused railway tunnel.

When the darkness inside envelops her, terrible memories of another tunnel back in her homeland seize her in a panic attack.

What are these terrible memories and will they haunt her new life in a new land? And can Frazer help or is the hurdle too deep and soul destroying for her to conquer?