Note as of New Years Day, 2013: Volume I of Nightfall is available for sale at
www.leanpub.com/nightfall
This consists of the first eleven Chapters, Prologue through Chapter 10.
Volume II will be released in April. Volume III by July, when the entire book Nightfall
will be available via Amazon, B&N Store, and iBook Store as well as Leanpub.
Welcome to Alaria, and the Solara Nebulae, the world of Nightsong
Nightsong is my space-opera, based on the three primary characters detailed below. Nightfall is Book One of Nightsong, "Nightfall" refers to an attack by Terran invaders which plunges Alaria -the Planet of Light- into darkness for the first time in human history.
Combat log: Kyrie “Blaize” Saturi.
Date: Fifteen days after Nightfall.
Location: Bedlam Boys mercenary camp inside the burning ruin that days ago was the city Atlantia.
Situation: As I sped back to Alaria in my racing corvette, disqualified for being damaged, I ran into an impossible sight: A Terran invasion fleet. It came out of nowhere, six-hundred ships, blasting Alaria from orbit. I engaged, though ordered not to. It cost me the lives of all my crew – my friends. I should have died too... but there's something... wrong... with me. I've been shot, drowned, burned alive, hit by a tank, and I don't die.
Well, my Uncle Xycor -of Phoenix- helped the Terrans take over this world, and I have been fighting Terran and Phoenix soldiers here on the ground, but I must do more.
Come morning light, I am taking a small team of Bedlam Boys into the Phoenix compound, there to steal a working spaceship. I will join Admiral Orionis' Resistance Fleet out in the nebulae. Word is he and Prince Morgan Valori -that bastard- are collecting a fleet to fight back with. Maybe throw off the Terrans invaders, free our world.
Maybe I'll find out what the Hell I am, while I'm at it.
Royal Annals; Prince Morgan “Blackskull” Valori, fourty-five days after Nightfall...when the Planet of Light was plunged into the darkness of fascism and terror.
Location: Godforsaken nebulae, on the run from six-hundred some invading cruisers and one big-ass dreadnought.
Is Blaize a traitor?
Three months ago I almost ran a sword through that girl at a ball at my family estate. I've hated Blaize and her House Phoenix family most of my life. And this Black Dragon Clan space pirate, Crio Andronicus! Weeks ago I would have been hunting his head for preying on my people's space-lanes. Now I need him for his ship – and his mind, dammit!
I am learning to laugh at Fate, which threw us three together as the last hope the Alarian people have to free them from the Earth Empire marauders who smashed her cities and enslaved those who couldn’t flee as we did.
So, what, we three are what's left for them to hope for? A prince who's lost his planet -and may be going crazy? A sex-adicted super-soldier robot woman? And a murderous telepathic space-pirate?
Oh, I can't wait to see what happens next!
Ship’s log: Pirate King Ciro Andronicus, Battleship Cantus Nocti, 5 years after Nightfall.
Murderous Terran Bastards! You took from me the one thing -the only thing- that gave my life purpose, that ever gave me true peace. Now you have woken the Dragon, and you shall reap its fire!
I can only hope that I have time to relate my side of these epic events; I do not so much command this ancient battleship -with the heart of a black-hole- as much as I simply ride her to my doom.
Soon she shall plunge into the eleven thousand degree kelvin fire of the white dwarf which forms the burnt-out core of the Alarian solar system. And when her shell of mono-crystalline titanium is melted away, her magneto-field containment systems fail, that black heart of destruction which powers her will no longer be contained. The entire solar-system will die, this time by fire.
At least my hated enemies -those murderous fascist Earthlings- will die with me!
Calm. I must calm myself. This has almost come to an end, so there is no need for anger now.
But I leap ahead like a Titan class Battleship jumping through a fold in space-time, as the Terrans did when they attacked us. When Earth Empire’s Legio Primani Fleet appeared above our theretofore peaceful home, dripping blood.
Nightfall is the first book of the Nightsong series. Nightsong is an overall title of the "Plethora" of my sci-fi universe; the "Umbrella" beneath which all the series will fall. There will be at least three series in the Nightsong "Plethora," each series will have a number of books.
The first series is called the Free Alaria series, and its premier work is Nightfall. The sequels to Nightfall will be Letters of Marke, Blood Red Roses, and finally Cantus Nocti. This first series -Free Alaria- will focus on three main characters and a good dozen or so secondary characters, as they struggle to free their homeworld from the iron grip of an invading empire.
Sound familiar? I admit, I was greatly affected by Lucas' Star Wars. No apologies there, but this universe is vastly different, the themes darker and more grown-up, and the science actually founded on physics.
Professor Michio Kaku (who has made more of a career out of self-promotion than he ever had in physics) began his media fame by coming up with the idea that Humanity was a Type Zero Civilization, and that if we were to survive as a species we would have to become what he called a Type One Civilization. One of the features of a Type One Civilization (T1C) would be a new and united type of humanity. One which has overcome its base instincts for conflict, sex, struggling for food, wealth, land, and power.
I could not disagree with this theory more. Two million years ago we came down from the trees, a million years ago we were struggling over food, land, wealth, sex, and power, and today we are struggling over food, land, sex, wealth and power. A million years from now we will be struggling over food, land, wealth, sex, and power. That is my belief.
What makes Humanity spectacular is our ability to overcome our own natures, and to persevere through any hardships our species has ever had to endure through strength of the Human spirit. This is my theory. I believe that four-thousand years from now humanity will be fighting over food, land, wealth, sex,and power. In that, I agree with George Lucas' vision of the future. I think it will hold wars, criminals, empires, rebels, bounty-hunters, and honorable knightly orders.
I was ten years-old when the original Star Wars was released. I am one of those geeks whose life was forever changed the moment Darth Vader strode through the laser fire and smoke in that hull-breach to enter my young life. I knew I had to be in the movies; either as an effects editor, writer, or director. By elimination I am left with writer (having tried all the other angles possible), and it turns out I had something to say.
In truth, I actually began writing science fiction at age thirteen, three years after the opening salvos of the Star Wars.
Once I was in my thirties, Star Wars books (this was prior to the "prequels" fiascoes), all the Star Trek series, and a few other sci-fi shows later (the Stargates, Farscape, SAAB, B5, etc.) I decided what I really missed was a grown-up version of the Star Wars universe.
I started with some of those things I had already created: There was this guy named Ariton Andromeda I created in '86, he had a effervescent female space-pirate he both had to fight and love-named Phoenix- who became my current main character Kyrie "Blaize" Saturai,. Ariton aged to Mentor status and became the secondary character Ariton Orionis (Tho I am considering writing prequels of my own showing Ariton's earlier adventures as a younger man).
I later created Ciro Andronicus for a novella in someone else's universe. This was in '96. Friends convinced me to write a book in a universe of my own creation instead. The character survived, the book concept didn't. (Re-worked, that concept will form the third series of Nightsong.)
Finally, in 2001 I created a superhero character for a supers-based RPG I ran for friends. My character Morgan Blackskull was an NPC meant to drive the characters forward through the plot I had established. But, Morgan jumped off the screen to become arguably the most interesting character in the game. I adapted him into the brash young Prince Morgan "Blackskull" Valori, a "Dark Prince" with no real place in the royal order who pursues a life of fast ships and fast women in the public eye.
Together, Blaize, Morgan, and Ciro will take on an empire to vast to imagine in the struggle to free their people from tyranny. They will have to fight a military always superior in size and might, often superior in technology, and completely unafraid of acts of heinous atrocity. They will also have to contend with an entirely separate Resistance movement who thinks that their actions endanger the real rebel cause, and they will do plenty of fighting amongst themselves.
But these three do not represent-strictly speaking- normal humanity. Ciro has been invested with a blossoming ability to manipulate the minds of others. Morgan has an unexplained ability to change the odds in any situation. And Blaize reveals that she recently died during reentry, merely to awaken whole and well on the beach.
Combat log: Kyrie “Blaize” Saturi.
Date: Fifteen days after Nightfall.
Location: Bedlam Boys mercenary camp inside the burning ruin that days ago was the city Atlantia.
Situation: As I sped back to Alaria in my racing corvette, disqualified for being damaged, I ran into an impossible sight: A Terran invasion fleet. It came out of nowhere, six-hundred ships, blasting Alaria from orbit. I engaged, though ordered not to. It cost me the lives of all my crew – my friends. I should have died too... but there's something... wrong... with me. I've been shot, drowned, burned alive, hit by a tank, and I don't die.
Well, my Uncle Xycor -of Phoenix- helped the Terrans take over this world, and I have been fighting Terran and Phoenix soldiers here on the ground, but I must do more.
Come morning light, I am taking a small team of Bedlam Boys into the Phoenix compound, there to steal a working spaceship. I will join Admiral Orionis' Resistance Fleet out in the nebulae. Word is he and Prince Morgan Valori -that bastard- are collecting a fleet to fight back with. Maybe throw off the Terrans invaders, free our world.
Maybe I'll find out what the Hell I am, while I'm at it.
Royal Annals; Prince Morgan “Blackskull” Valori, fourty-five days after Nightfall...when the Planet of Light was plunged into the darkness of fascism and terror.
Location: Godforsaken nebulae, on the run from six-hundred some invading cruisers and one big-ass dreadnought.
Is Blaize a traitor?
Three months ago I almost ran a sword through that girl at a ball at my family estate. I've hated Blaize and her House Phoenix family most of my life. And this Black Dragon Clan space pirate, Crio Andronicus! Weeks ago I would have been hunting his head for preying on my people's space-lanes. Now I need him for his ship – and his mind, dammit!
I am learning to laugh at Fate, which threw us three together as the last hope the Alarian people have to free them from the Earth Empire marauders who smashed her cities and enslaved those who couldn’t flee as we did.
So, what, we three are what's left for them to hope for? A prince who's lost his planet -and may be going crazy? A sex-adicted super-soldier robot woman? And a murderous telepathic space-pirate?
Oh, I can't wait to see what happens next!
Ship’s log: Pirate King Ciro Andronicus, Battleship Cantus Nocti, 5 years after Nightfall.
Murderous Terran Bastards! You took from me the one thing -the only thing- that gave my life purpose, that ever gave me true peace. Now you have woken the Dragon, and you shall reap its fire!
I can only hope that I have time to relate my side of these epic events; I do not so much command this ancient battleship -with the heart of a black-hole- as much as I simply ride her to my doom.
Soon she shall plunge into the eleven thousand degree kelvin fire of the white dwarf which forms the burnt-out core of the Alarian solar system. And when her shell of mono-crystalline titanium is melted away, her magneto-field containment systems fail, that black heart of destruction which powers her will no longer be contained. The entire solar-system will die, this time by fire.
At least my hated enemies -those murderous fascist Earthlings- will die with me!
Calm. I must calm myself. This has almost come to an end, so there is no need for anger now.
But I leap ahead like a Titan class Battleship jumping through a fold in space-time, as the Terrans did when they attacked us. When Earth Empire’s Legio Primani Fleet appeared above our theretofore peaceful home, dripping blood.
Nightfall is the first book of the Nightsong series. Nightsong is an overall title of the "Plethora" of my sci-fi universe; the "Umbrella" beneath which all the series will fall. There will be at least three series in the Nightsong "Plethora," each series will have a number of books.
The first series is called the Free Alaria series, and its premier work is Nightfall. The sequels to Nightfall will be Letters of Marke, Blood Red Roses, and finally Cantus Nocti. This first series -Free Alaria- will focus on three main characters and a good dozen or so secondary characters, as they struggle to free their homeworld from the iron grip of an invading empire.
Sound familiar? I admit, I was greatly affected by Lucas' Star Wars. No apologies there, but this universe is vastly different, the themes darker and more grown-up, and the science actually founded on physics.
Professor Michio Kaku (who has made more of a career out of self-promotion than he ever had in physics) began his media fame by coming up with the idea that Humanity was a Type Zero Civilization, and that if we were to survive as a species we would have to become what he called a Type One Civilization. One of the features of a Type One Civilization (T1C) would be a new and united type of humanity. One which has overcome its base instincts for conflict, sex, struggling for food, wealth, land, and power.
I could not disagree with this theory more. Two million years ago we came down from the trees, a million years ago we were struggling over food, land, wealth, sex, and power, and today we are struggling over food, land, sex, wealth and power. A million years from now we will be struggling over food, land, wealth, sex, and power. That is my belief.
What makes Humanity spectacular is our ability to overcome our own natures, and to persevere through any hardships our species has ever had to endure through strength of the Human spirit. This is my theory. I believe that four-thousand years from now humanity will be fighting over food, land, wealth, sex,and power. In that, I agree with George Lucas' vision of the future. I think it will hold wars, criminals, empires, rebels, bounty-hunters, and honorable knightly orders.
I was ten years-old when the original Star Wars was released. I am one of those geeks whose life was forever changed the moment Darth Vader strode through the laser fire and smoke in that hull-breach to enter my young life. I knew I had to be in the movies; either as an effects editor, writer, or director. By elimination I am left with writer (having tried all the other angles possible), and it turns out I had something to say.
In truth, I actually began writing science fiction at age thirteen, three years after the opening salvos of the Star Wars.
Once I was in my thirties, Star Wars books (this was prior to the "prequels" fiascoes), all the Star Trek series, and a few other sci-fi shows later (the Stargates, Farscape, SAAB, B5, etc.) I decided what I really missed was a grown-up version of the Star Wars universe.
I started with some of those things I had already created: There was this guy named Ariton Andromeda I created in '86, he had a effervescent female space-pirate he both had to fight and love-named Phoenix- who became my current main character Kyrie "Blaize" Saturai,. Ariton aged to Mentor status and became the secondary character Ariton Orionis (Tho I am considering writing prequels of my own showing Ariton's earlier adventures as a younger man).
I later created Ciro Andronicus for a novella in someone else's universe. This was in '96. Friends convinced me to write a book in a universe of my own creation instead. The character survived, the book concept didn't. (Re-worked, that concept will form the third series of Nightsong.)
Finally, in 2001 I created a superhero character for a supers-based RPG I ran for friends. My character Morgan Blackskull was an NPC meant to drive the characters forward through the plot I had established. But, Morgan jumped off the screen to become arguably the most interesting character in the game. I adapted him into the brash young Prince Morgan "Blackskull" Valori, a "Dark Prince" with no real place in the royal order who pursues a life of fast ships and fast women in the public eye.
Together, Blaize, Morgan, and Ciro will take on an empire to vast to imagine in the struggle to free their people from tyranny. They will have to fight a military always superior in size and might, often superior in technology, and completely unafraid of acts of heinous atrocity. They will also have to contend with an entirely separate Resistance movement who thinks that their actions endanger the real rebel cause, and they will do plenty of fighting amongst themselves.
But these three do not represent-strictly speaking- normal humanity. Ciro has been invested with a blossoming ability to manipulate the minds of others. Morgan has an unexplained ability to change the odds in any situation. And Blaize reveals that she recently died during reentry, merely to awaken whole and well on the beach.
