What we see of infinity….

'Tempest Roams in the Pathless Sky' a Sci-Fi novel by Graeme S. Houston, due October.

COMING OCTOBER 2009

‘Tempest Roams in the Pathless Sky’ is a science-fiction novel by Graeme S. Houston, due for publication in October by Eternal Press.

Set thousands of years in the future, it is an explosive mix of action, environmental science, speculation, and intrigue.

In the midst of environmental catastrophy, human civilisation continues, but is a shadow of its former self. All humanity has left are stories of the past and a myriad of strange relics that linger on from the age of technology. Long ago, they say, global warming led to thousands of tons of fresh water being pumped into the oceans, (glacial melting and fresh water off continents) disturbing the salinity and as a result disrupting their natural currents (which exchange heat from the equator to the north and south). This led to increased cooling of the north and south hemispheres. By a subtle twist of irony, global warming led not to death by fire, but by ice. As more ice gathered at the poles, huge glaciers advanced forward, crusshing the great cities beneath them. All humanity could do was retreat. Billions of souls died in the displacement wars.

Follow the story of Aadesh, an orphan who is sent by the priests of Old Kuala Lum, on a journey to deliver a message to New London. Captain Philip Daemidrien, is chartered to take the boy by airship, but everything goes wrong right from the onset. Attacked by mechanical creatures from a long dead past, the captain must use every ounce of cunning he has to outmaneuver the terrors. But not only does the captain harbor secrets of his own, Aadesh will find that he is in far more trouble than he ever could have imagined. His only hope may be Philip and a genetically enhanced assassin called Elizabeth. They find that even Earth is at stake, and ice is the least of their worries….

EXCERPT

With a flash of sunlight upon steel, a monster swooped upon her. The branch shuddered as its steel claws folded around the bark, and the branch bowed under the weight of it. She threw herself onto her feet, ready to defend herself, and found herself at a complete loss for any action that might be effective against it. Against such a thing as stood before her… something that drew a blank from the encyclopedic chambers of her mind, a silver monster dredged up from someone’s personal hell, maybe even from her own version of it.

She let out a painful short gasp at the massive steel swords it unfolded into its hands and stood almost frozen to the spot, contemplating it as it contemplated her. The scales upon its chest reflected in its many facets, the fear she betrayed on her face and in her eyes.

Lithe and quick, a single pull of her calves sprung her by her toes into the air as the blades swung to meet. She heard the thud as they embedded themselves into the trunk of the tree and in desperation she grasped at the branch above her. Deftly she pulled herself up and around, onto the branch and sprung along its length. She heard the grinding of metal as it pulled the blades out and turned to follow. She glanced back at it, and it was the pure, shining metal of the blades, caught in the light of the morning, that wrenched at her heart causing it to beat painfully against her chest.

The metal thing behind her was unscratched, not battered like the rest of the junk the ancients had left. Not worn out like the dwindling weaponry kings fought for. This shone as if it had had just been built, or as if someone had lovingly restored to what it once was.

New.

So damn new…

The wind flicked her night-black hair as she bounded across from branch to branch, through the canopy, and she could hear it pursuing, the metallic grinding of its joints, the rasping of its breath.

E-BOOK ISBN: 978-1-926704- 66-1
POD ISBN: 978-1-926704- 74-6

PUBLISHER: Eternal Press
DUE: October, 2009