Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts

Thursday, 22 September 2016

Release Day: Gethyon (A Travellers Universe Novel) #scifi #adventure #timetravel #excerpt

Abandoned. Hunted. Out of control. 
Gethyon is back! And with additional new and bonus content.

Gethyon Rees had always felt at odds with the universe, and hoped for an escape among the stars. But discovering he has the ability to cross time and space with just a thought brings more problems than it solves: a deadly bounty hunter who can follow him anywhere, the unwelcome return of Tarquin Secker--the mother who abandoned him--and an ancient darkness that seeks him and all those with his talents. 

When an unforgivable act sets him on the run, it'll take more than his unearthly powers to save his skin and the lives of those he cares about. It'll take a sacrifice he never expected to have to make.

A science fiction adventure novel previously published by BURST (Champagne Books), and part of the Travellers Universe. A 2014 SFR Galaxy Award Winner for Most Awesome Psychic Talent and a 2015 EPIC eBook Awards finalist in the Science Fiction category. Also now includes the SF short story The Bones of the Sea.

Gethyon
A Scifi Adventure Novel
B&N | Kobo | iBooks
Excerpt:

They reached the wide archway that led from the vast tower foyer into one of the main thoroughfares of Penrith complex. Gethyon leaned against the wall and passed Kauri to Sky, both of whom protested. “Just for a moment,” he assured them, sucking in deep breaths. He stared down at his scarred palm, trying to dredge up some power. “I don’t think I can open a gateway here.”
Sky’s white skin meant he was incapable of turning any paler, but the crystalline eyes widened. “Then where?”
Gethyon ran through their options. There was no psi-energy source here that he could use, not like on Lyagnius. The only alternative would be to reopen one of his old gateways, where the barrier was already broken. It was the method Quin used: her talent didn’t extend to opening new gateways as he could.
“We need to go back to Lyagnius.”
Sky shifted Kauri as she squealed in his ear, overriding even the endless sirens and the scream of the approaching storm. “Then we’ll have to run.”
The walls shook as they ran, the ground trembling underfoot. Kauri screamed louder, and the sound ripped through his head until they ducked into the sub-city. Here, the shrieking of the Siah-dhu was muted, an eerie howl on the edge of hearing. They scurried through the tunnel until they reached the last gateway Gethyon had made.
“Here,” he announced weakly as Sky made to run onward. The haemovore stopped and waited. Gethyon lifted his hand, reached for gateway…and felt nothing.
Panic rose in black, chilling waves. Kauri wailed, her voice a blade through his skull.
Focus! He closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and tried to seal his mind against her cries, against the banshee call of the Siah-dhu as the darkness of it seeped into him, into every corner of his mind. It smothered all light, every thread of power within him. He dug his nails into his palms, used the pain to fuel his anger, to spark the flames deep in his soul.
Silver and blue flickers answered, small and fleeting. He plowed his grief and fury into them, the sharpness of his loss and the blind rage of his hatred for Jinx. The energy flared into life, so furiously that his knees buckled at the wildness of it. Gethyon gasped. It wasn’t the same as before. This was the raw power that had been part of his awakening talent as a child, but summoned by force, not a frenzied release spurred by panic. It roared through his veins, fire and ice, splinters and flame that melded and scorched along his nerves. He felt as though his skin would peel back and char at the ferocity of it, his blood vaporize, his bones melt. With a scream, he opened his eyes, and blue fire flared across his vision as he raised his palm and sent the full force of it outward. Azure lightning surged into the gateway, shattered the seal, and blew it open.
“Go,” he commanded, and Sky dived through with Kauri screeching in his arms.
A cold wind blasted his back, and Gethyon turned his head, glancing over his left shoulder. Darkness seethed into the tunnel behind, a billowing, writhing mass of shadow tinged with sullen red and lurid purple in his heightened vision.
He couldn’t move. His feet seemed pinned to the floor, his muscles locked into rigid immobility. The Siah-dhu howled at him, their voice leaching all will and power from him. Despite the sparks of energy within him, the darkness writhed through his gut, gnawing with jagged teeth as it twisted though his mind. It was hunger magnified a thousand times, as if the vacuum of space had opened inside him. He fell to his knees.
Gethyon. Not quite a voice, not quite any sound he’d ever heard, the Siah-dhu called his name. The roiling mass drew closer. Ice blasted over him and stole all the breath and warmth from him, sucking the life out of him.
“No.” The single word snatched him back from the edge. He hadn’t come so far or lost so much to surrender.
As the Siah-dhu pulsed toward him, intent on his consumption, he forced himself up again and turned his back on the shadows. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done, to resist that pull into oblivion. The edges of the black cloud twined around him, incorporeal fingers striving to grasp him, seething forward to swallow him…
The world disappeared.

Thursday, 8 September 2016

Cover Reveal - Gethyon: A Travellers Universe Novel #scifi #adventure #SFRGalaxyAward

It's been a long time coming, but Gethyon is finally returning to the virtual book shelves! It's been updated, extended with all new material and a bonus short story added to the end. And it has a shiny new cover courtesy of RavenFire Media. Enjoy!


Blurb:

Abandoned. Hunted. Out of control.

Gethyon Rees had always felt at odds with the universe, and hoped for an escape among the stars. But discovering he has the ability to cross time and space with just a thought brings more problems than it solves: a deadly bounty hunter who can follow him anywhere, the unwelcome return of Tarquin Secker—the mother who abandoned him—and an ancient darkness that seeks him and all those with his talents.

When an unforgivable act sets him on the run, it’ll take more than his unearthly powers to save his skin and the lives of those he cares about. It’ll take a sacrifice he never expected to have to make.

A science fiction adventure novel previously published by BURST (Champagne Books), and part of the Travellers Universe. A 2014 SFR Galaxy Award Winner for Most Awesome Psychic Talent and a 2015 EPIC eBook Awards finalist in the Science Fiction category. Also now includes the SF short story The Bones of the Sea

“With colorful worlds full of nuance and dimension, characters that walk off the page, and themes that anyone who has been either parent or child can relate to.” J.C. Cassels, author of The Black Wing Chronicles series

“This fast-paced, gripping ride zips through time and space, love and loss, rebellion and acceptance.” Anna McLain, SFR Galaxy Award judge

Sign up to my no-spam newsletter or click Follow on my Amazon author page to get notified when it releases.

Pre-order Links:

Print coming soon!

Thursday, 1 September 2016

The Return of Gethyon #scifi #adventure

Gethyon
A Scifi Adventure Novel
Goodreads | Webpage
Amazon | Omnilit
B&N | Kobo | iBooks
Smashwords
So while I was on my seven week social media break (well, mostly), I finally finished the edits on Gethyon--my last book with a publisher that was returned to me in June. It's been a long haul! I'm hoping to do the cover reveal next week (I've not long had the drafts from the cover artist--RavenFire Media), but the ebook is already up at digital retailers via the links above, and print will be coming in the very near future. Planned release date for the ebook is the 22nd of September. Woot!
Gethyon has a new cover, new content (an extra 12.5K words plus the short story The Bones of the Sea), and a whole new blurb!

Abandoned. Hunted. Out of control.

Gethyon Rees had always felt at odds with the universe, and hoped for an escape among the stars. But discovering he has the ability to cross time and space with just a thought brings more problems than it solves: a deadly bounty hunter who can follow him anywhere, the unwelcome return of Tarquin Secker—the mother who abandoned him—and an ancient darkness that seeks him and all those with his talents.

When an unforgivable act sets him on the run, it’ll take more than his unearthly powers to save his skin and the lives of those he cares about. It’ll take a sacrifice he never expected to have to make.

A science fiction adventure novel previously published by BURST (Champagne Books), and part of the Travellers Universe. A 2014 SFR Galaxy Award Winner for Most Awesome Psychic Talent and a 2015 EPIC eBook Awards finalist in the Science Fiction category. Also now includes the SF short story The Bones of the Sea.

Friday, 22 July 2016

Book Blitz: Vavaun: The Shadow of the Revenaunt #fantasy #adventure #giveaway via @PaulEHorsman



Vavaun: The Shadow of the Revenaunt
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Release Date: June 12th 2016
Red Rune Books


CHAPTER 1 – CALLED HOME (Excerpt)

‘Wella! Help, Adalien... Come quickly!’
A faint voice echoed in Uwella’s mind, killing her sleep. She lifted her sleek silvery head and stared at her mate.
‘What’s that?’ Damion said sleepily.
Uwella shook off the cover of dry leaves and rose to her forepaws. Her whole, supple mountain lion’s body was tense, on high alert. ‘The kerran Adalien called me. There must be something wrong.’
Damion yawned, showing two rows of razor-sharp incisors. ‘Your home? Who was it?’
‘I don’t know.’ Uwella felt a wave of angry frustration. ‘It was a woman’s voice, but I didn’t recognize her. She called me Wella. Only my siblings and a few of my oldest friends still use that darned pet name.’
‘Strange,’ Damion said. ‘Someone who has known you from the cradle calls you home, even though we’re six hundred miles away?’ He rose, his massive black-and-white tiger bulk brushing aside the bushes as he padded into the open. ‘You’re sure you didn’t dream it?’
‘Of course I’m sure,’ Uwella snarled. ‘You caught it too, didn’t you? We’re going home.’
Damion’s whiskers twitched. ‘I caught the echo from your mind, love,’ he said calmly. ‘But I agree it was far too vivid for a dream. Only, what could threaten a whole settlement full of powerful wikken and their high priestess?’
Uwella thought of her home, the kerran Adalien, main center of the Gray Order of Arikal she’d been part of for six years, and a vague fear came over her. She didn’t answer, but listened to the forest around them; the talking birds, the smell of the earth, and the great oak rising over them. Here, no danger threatened. Not here.
‘They need me,’ she said. ‘We were going to see Archodea anyhow. We’ll go to the kerran and if anything is wrong, she’ll tell us.’ Perhaps, she added mentally. As the high priestess, Archodea doesn’t confide readily. We’ll probably have to twist her arm a bit.
Damion growled; a deep, soul-shattering sound that always delighted her with its strength.
‘All right,’ he said. ‘If we hurry we’ll make the temple portal in Jenetrazt before dawn. A teleport to Din-Werdzom and from there you can guide me to Adalien.’
For a moment she thought of the buck they’d killed yesterday. A pity to let all that fresh meat go to waste. Ah well, they could always have a snack rabbit along the way.

‘Let’s go,’ she said.

Summary from Goodreads:

After helping King Ghyll to his victory in Zihaen, the beastmasters Uwella and Damion turn their attention to their own country of Vavaun.

High time, too, for the rumors have been persistent. There is something wildly amiss in the Gray Order, the temple protecting Vavaun from the Dar’khamorth’s machinations.

When Uwella DeGry, herself a wikke of the Grays and the heir to the throne of Vavaun, returns home with Damion DeAsharte, her mate and main competitor, they find their country in dire straits. Vile sorcerers and their beastmen roam the land, killing and ravaging at will and the Gray Order has almost been wiped out.

With only two very young fire warriors to help them, the ducal beastmasters vow to liberate their country, defeat the Dar’khamorth and bring peace between their competing Houses of Gry and Asharte.

Will even their mighty feline alter egos be strong enough to survive against the dark magic of the Revenaunt’s minions?

Vavaun is a tale of struggle, friendship and bravery against an enemy who plans total annihilation.
It is a stand-alone ‘Shadow of the Revenaunt’-adventure, running parallel to book 3, Ordelanden, and it starts after the final battle at the Owan Abai in Zihaen.


Buy Links:


About the Author

Paul E. Horsman (1952) is a Dutch and International Fantasy Author. Born in the sleepy garden village of Bussum, The Netherlands, he now lives in Roosendaal, a town on the Dutch border with Belgium.

He has been a soldier, salesman, scoutmaster and from 1995 teacher of Dutch as a Second Language to refugees from all over the globe.


Since 2012, he is a full-time writer of epic light fantasy adventures for Y.A. and older. His works have been both trade published in The Netherlands, and self-published internationally.

Author Links:

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Book Blitz Organized by:

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Gethyon - available to pre-order! #YA #NA #scifi #adventure



Last night I got a surprise. An email from All Romance eBooks saying that Gethyon was available to buy. I was stunned! Firstly I wasn't expecting a sales link so early - Gethyon doesn't officially release until the 3rd of June - but also because it isn't a romance. So I clicked the link to check it out...and got a 'page not found' error. Horrors! A search gave me nada. After much panicking, a friend finally found it on Omnilit. Phew!

So, you can now pre-order Gethyon via Omnilit here. Yay!And to cap it all, it's already an Omnilit best seller!


Thursday, 16 February 2012

The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of The Unicorn



With the half-term holiday upon us in the UK (and, for the first time, no writing deadlines during school hols) and three children off for the week, entertaining them comes first as writing takes a very definite backseat. First up on the list of events was a Saturday morning trip to the cinema to see the Tintin film. The Odeon cinemas run a Kids Club, usually at weekends but also during the week in school holidays, which means reruns of films for the price of £2.50 a child and accompanying adults free.

Now, my seven year old son is a bit of an enigma. He isn't really 'into' anything, not since he grew out of his Thomas the Tank Engine obsession. So when he saw a trailer for Tintin and announced he'd like to see it, I was surprised. He's never really been that interested in films. As soon as I found out it was the half-term film for the Kids Club, I grabbed the chance to go. I watched Tintin cartoons as a youngster, but wasn't a fan as such, so I was interested to see how the film would go myself. We went with friends - another 7yo boy and his mum - and my nine year old daughter who strangely insisted she wanted to go.

The start of the film does drag a little for the younger ones. Son's best friend announced loudly at one point "Oh, come on, hurry up!" but once the major action scenes kicked off, they loved it. There quite a bit of humour in it which had the whole theatre laughing. There's also a fair bit of violence (including one man shot by machine gun, although this is done behind a closed door so nothing much is seen) but it was carefully done and I certainly had no qualms about my children seeing it. At times you could almost forget it was animation, although in this day and age we do expect any CGI to be brilliant. The story is generally fast-paced - none of it dragged for me - and there's some great touches, like a fight between cranes (the mechanical kind, not the birds) and an Indiana Jones-style chase involving a tank, hotel, motorbike with sidecar, an eagle, a dog and a car - the best bit in my opinion. I was a little worried that Snowy, Tintin's dog, would be portrayed as an almost Scooby Doo-like character, but his 'performance' in the film was believable of a dog without venturing into making him some kind of canine caricature of a human.

All in all, for the fact that both adults and children enjoyed this, I have to give it an A. And at least now I have something to put on seven year old son's present list. :)