Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "space-travel"

Announcing:

First Contact book 2 of The Secret King scifi series - coming 20/12/2016
By Dawn Chapman

With their journey from planet Letháo fraught with peril, the Aonise finally arrive at what they hope will be a new home. Earth offers a new start for the displaced race, and Kendro, King of the Aonise, desperately seeks a peaceful end to their voyage. However, once they make first contact, not all is as expected. Some humans are not as welcoming to the alien species, and their resettlement onto Earth is faced with resistance from splinter groups determined to drive the Aonise away from their planet. Coupled with internal strife, can Kendro appease all, or will greater misfortunes come to pass?

Excerpt

A loud ringing echoed through the house. Prime Minister Robert Walker bolted upright. His wife, Christine, still slept, her chest rising and falling in even breaths. Is that… the...
His heart pounded in his chest, as the ringing stopped. Silence. No…
Glancing at Christine, he let out a breath seeing she hadn’t stirred. The chemo from yesterday had wiped her out. They were trying to rest, and now, he was terrified what little rest they’d had at their country holiday home would be ruined. As the phone rang again, Walker threw the covers off, and reached out for it. Damn, this will wake her.
Monday, 23rd Sept 2041 – 1:14 AM flashed on his clock.
Picking up his phone. Walker hit answer, and slid out of the warm bed into the cooler air of their hallway.
“Hello.”
Christine murmured, turning over, and searching blindly in the bed for him.
“Robert?” The Chief of Defence’s adrenaline-pumped voice almost screamed across the line. Walker listened to words he never thought he’d hear. “We’re at Threat Level Critical. A copter is on its way. Suffok will meet you at the nearest hotel conference room.”
What? Critical? The UK hadn’t issued critical status ever. What on Earth is going on?
“I’ll be right there.” Then, Walker thought of Christine. He couldn’t leave her alone. Not tonight. Phoning his sister-in-law, he asked her to come over and stay with Christine.
There were highly trained nurses stationed in the house, but they weren’t family. Guilt clutched at his conscience, as he headed back to the bedroom and dressed.
Christine had settled back, and he perched on the end of the bed, stroking the back of her head. “I’ve got to go out. Ani is on her way. She’ll stay with you tonight.”
His wife turned to face him. “At this hour, seriously?” The annoyance on her pale face and bloodshot eyes spooked him.
Walker sighed. Christine knew his job came before lots of things. “I’ll see you for dinner.” He kissed his wife gently on the forehead.
Christine didn’t respond. She turned her head away from him. Concern filled him, as he gave her one last look before hurrying to the door. He had no way of knowing if he would be home for dinner today, or next week.



About the Author

Dawn Chapman has been creating sci fi and fantasy stories for thirty years. Until 2005 when her life and attention turned to scripts, and she started work on The Secret King, a 13-episode Sci Fi TV series, with great passion for this medium.

In 2010, Dawn returned to her first love of prose. She’s been working with coach EJ Runyon who's encouraged her away from fast paced script writing, to revel in the world of TSK and Letháo as an epic prose space journey.
Dawn has also had success with a web series, co-written with 'Melvin Johnson', produced by Nandar Entertainment.
This year her experience of working with Producers/Directors from the US and AUS has expanded. From Drama, Sci Fi to Action, Dawn's built a portfolio of writing, consulting and publishing.

Books by Dawn Chapman

The Secret King, Lethao
The Secret King Lethao – audio book
The Truth Hurts – novella audio book
Bree’s results – novella audio book
https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Chapman/e...


Coming soon

First Contact book 2 of The Secret King scifi series - Release 20/12/2016

The Secret King – anthology TBA

How to find Dawn Chapman

Face book fan page - https://www.facebook.com/TheSecretKing
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Chapman/e...
Twitter TSK - https://twitter.com/
Twitter Dawn Chapman - https://twitter.com/kanundra
Website – https://www.thesecretking.com

The Secret King: First Contact
Dawn Chapman
Jaime Bengzon (Illustrator)
Publisher: TSK Productions LTD; 1 edition (December 20, 2016)
Publication Date: December 20, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B01NBCKEWX
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-King-Fi...


“Kendro, king of the Aonise, watched as his nemesis, Dalamaar, and his second, Trax, stormed away down the ship's corridor. The encounter
left the breath thin in his lungs, and a sour taste rose in his mouth. This had been much more than a personal attack. If only he'd not been left
alone, but circumstances with Chace and Taliri had not allowed his usual guard to be there.

“Dalamaar's words echoed in his mind, I thought it was time you met the next King. And what really injured the most—if your wife weren't pregnant, I
would crush you now. But, Dalamaar needed Kendro to do all the negotiating work on Earth.”

The above first paragraphs from Dawn Chapman’s First Contact, volume two of her Secret King series, drops readers immediately into the action with no preliminaries and economically tells us about a central conflict to follow. From that point on, we’re on a roller-coaster ride that doesn’t let up until the appendices.

For roughly two-thirds of the book, we’re given two main parallel story lines. One deals with the Aonise, an alien race on a spaceship carrying 2 million survivors from their doomed home world. Kendro, King of the Aonise, hopes our earth will offer his people a peaceful place to settle. At the same time, earth’s leaders worry about what a race of aliens will bring us. So we witness a spaceship full of aliens divided over what to do on earth and humans divided over what sort of reception to give them.

The parallel plots are shown in character interactions mirrored in both settings. For example, we see aliens and humans in hospital rooms in dire circumstances both in the spaceship and in England, the main earth setting where the Prime Minister is eager to find a way for peaceful co-existence. In both settings, romances are sparked, blossom, and face bumpy roads. Aliens and humans clearly have much in common.

Chapman is especially good at crafting a large cast of sympathetic, three-dimensional characters resulting in a number of plots and subplots. It’s often pointless trying to determine just who is a main and who is a supporting player as so many storylines are woven together in an epic going back-and-forth between people and aliens. Chapman is vividly descriptive with her aliens who look very human except for their colorful “birthmarks” that illustrate their bodies. Each of them has a “Croex” with varying degrees of energy and power. These “croexes” bind the aliens together spiritually and provide metaphysical threads that can cure or protect.

First Contact can’t be considered “hard science fiction” as the emphasis is on the characters and situations, not plausible scientific explanations for anything. There’s considerable metaphysical use of the “Croexes” as well as prophetic dreams that can reach over time and space. These powers worry Kendro who wants these abilities used as little as possible so not to enflame the passions of earthers already fearful of sharing their land with all these strange new immigrants.

Chapman has been dwelling in the realm of The Secret King at least since 2005 when she wrote scripts for a proposed 13 episode series on British TV. In September 2015, volume one, The Secret King, Lethao, was published. In July 2016, two novellas appeared as audiobooks, The Truth Hurts and Bree’s Results. At the end of First Contact, Chapman makes it clear a sequel is in the pipeline as well as a Secret King anthology.

So if you’re captivated by the tapestry of Chapman’s characters, there are previous works to enjoy and delights to anticipate. I can’t remember aliens I’ve liked as much as the Aonise. I’d welcome many of them as neighbors.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com at:
goo.gl/j3pkDu

For years, I’ve known of Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer’s When Worlds Collide (1933) and After When Worlds Collide (1934). But, somehow, these novels just didn’t get on my reading list. Until now.

It’s perhaps redundant to talk about the influence of these books, especially as so many important sci fi tropes were introduced in these novels. (note 1) I was astonished to see just how modern the stories remain with a vitality that hasn’t dimmed in over 80 years. I admit I had expected books that would remind me of pulp magazine stories with Flash Gordon trappings and outlandish gimmickry that might serve well in a B-movie. How wrong I was.

When Worlds Collide did have magazine origins. It was first published as a six-part monthly serial from September 1932-February 1933 in Blue Book magazine, illustrated by Joseph Franké.

The story opens when Sven Bronson, a South African astronomer, discovers that a pair of rogue planets from another galaxy, Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta, are coming closer and closer to earth. In eight months, they would pass close enough to cause the end of our world. On a second pass, Bronson Alpha would crash into our planet—hopefully, Bronson Beta would be habitable if any humans can get there as the planet begins its new orbit around our sun.

In very short order, scientist Cole Hendron leads the effort to create first one, then two atomic powered spaceships, essentially new “arcs”, to carry survivors to Beta. As both planetary bodies will make one pass before coming around a second time, the moon is destroyed as tidal waves sweep inland at a height of 750 feet along with volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that reduce earth’s population in giant numbers. Angry mobs begin to ravage the United States, many refusing to accept what the scientific community is telling everyone.

Hedron sets up a large camp where the spaceships are being built, a prospect that only works when a team finds material tough enough to make rocket tubes capable of withstanding the heat of the atomic exhaust. The camp loses roughly half of its 1,000 inhabitants when a mob army attacks, killing many before being defeated by a blast from the rocket engines.

The American ships carrying around 600 people make a successful landing on Bronson Beta after a 90 day journey, although they lose contact with each other. Happily, Beta is indeed habitable by humans.

The sequel, After Worlds Collide, was published quickly on the heels of its predecessor. It too first appeared as a six-part monthly serial from November 1933–April 1934 in Blue Book magazine. In it, the Americans learn about fantastic if empty domed cities full of very advanced technology and livable structures left behind by the people who had once lived on Bronson Beta before they disappeared when the planet was sent on its space voyage far from their home star. In addition, the survivors learn other ships made successful landings, but several of them from Japan, Germany, and Russia attack first the British and then the Americans in order to impose their rule over all humans. Hedron dubs them the Midianites before he dies, like Moses, in view of the domed city his people will live in.

Because of the planet’s elliptical orbit, Beta gets colder and colder and one night, the Midianites disconnect the power supply to the city of Hendron's people. In a very rushed conclusion, four Americans and one British female who escaped from the slavery of the Midianites infiltrate the dome of the “Dominion” colony and take out its leadership. The book ends on a very positive note, clearly leaving open possibilities for a third volume, but no sequel was ever published or apparently written.

There is much to praise for both these novels. A decade before actual atomic power was created and Three decades before Mercury space capsules were launched, the authors present seemingly plausible scientific discussions, at least for the general reader, of how the rocket ships were engineered, constructed and powered. (note 2) From beginning to end, the Worlds Collide books had considerable believability and continue to be just as realistic now as much as back in the early 1930s, despite obvious issues like Bronson Alpha being so large it would have done much more than allowed in the book.

The fantastic adventures were grounded by the well-drawn characters. There’s Tony Drake, who accepts the leadership mantle from Hedron even as he competes with Dave Ransdell for that position as well as the affections of Eve Hedron, the alluring daughter of the scientist. There’s also writer Eliot James who becomes the survivors’ historian.

All these characters deal with moral and philosophical issues in the wake of earth’s destruction, such as how marriage between one man and one woman will no longer be workable as females now outnumber men and everyone has a responsibility to rebuild humanity from the comparatively few survivors.

In 1951, Paramount Pictures released a film adaptation of When Worlds Collide produced by George Pal with a script written by Sydney Boehm. Not surprisingly, the book’s plot is streamlined with character names changed and some story points emphasized but not others. (note 3) While there was talk of filming After When Worlds Collide, box office returns for WWC didn’t suggest much success would result. Reportedly, a remake is being discussed now with possible involvement of Steven Spielberg. Stay tuned.


Notes

1. A list of tropes is available at:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php...

2. According to Wikipedia, Philip Wylie was at one time an adviser to the chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee for Atomic Energy which led to the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission.
During World War II, writing The Paradise Crater (1945) resulted in Wylie’s house arrest by the federal government; in the novel, he described a post-WWII 1965 Nazi conspiracy to develop and use uranium-237 bombs, written months before the first successful atomic test at Alamagordo – the most highly classified secret of the war.
His 1954 novel Tomorrow! dealt graphically with the civilian impact of thermonuclear war to make a case for a strong Civil Defense network in the United States, as he told the story of two neighboring cities (one prepared, one unprepared) before and after an attack by missile-armed Soviet bombers. This was adapted in 1956 by ABC Radio, as a one-hour drama narrated by Orson Welles.

3. According to Wikipedia, Edwin Balmer helped create (with artist Marvin Bradley) the syndicated comic strip Speed Spaulding, partially based on the Worlds Collide series, which ran from 1938 through 1941.

For more on Speed Spaulding, check out:
http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/20...

and

http://strippersguide.blogspot.com.br...