Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Two New Sci-Fi Novels by Jeffrey Caminsky

I've written a series of four sci-fi novels, set 500 years in the future, called The Guardians of Peace. The first two books in the series have just been released.They are currently available on Amazon...and should be available soon in bookstores (at least in the Great Lakes area; but, such are the problems of new and unknown writers).

The entire series follows the adventures of Roscoe Cook and the Cosmic Guard (the interstellar navy of the 26th Century) shortly after Terra (ie, the humans) encounter alien cultures and civilizations for the first time. Unfortunately, humans in the 26th Century are little different from those we see around us today: while some are quite cultured and refined, many are as boorish and self-centered as ever. And since Outer Space in the year 2550 is not the exclusive province of philosophers and scientists, Terran riff-raff has spread throughout the Frontier...and is pressing their government to take a harder line against the aliens.

The first book---The Sirens of Space---lays out the background for the rest of the series. Commander Cook (a gifted officer, with little patience for those he deems fools and an unfortunate talent for rubbing powerful people the wrong way) is promoted to captain and given command of his starship. But, military contractors having changed little over the years, he finds his ship causing him nothing but grief, and it's all he can do to keep everyone's mind focused on getting their ship ready to sail. Meanwhile, conniving politicians are scheming to bring about a change in the Terran government...one more amenable to the commercial interests who see riches beyond compare in the star clouds and planets of the Cosmic East, where the aliens are resisting Terran encroachment. As the book ends, the principals are taking to the skies...toward whatever fate awaits them among the stars.

The second book---The Star Dancers---is where the adventure begins. The reader learns about alien culture, which suffers its own schisms and divisions. There, a reform movement is gaining influence, renewing hopes of bringing some level of modernization to their old and decaying (if technically advanced) culture, a culture which has left them stagnating for the past several millenia. At the same time, pirates are infesting Terran skies---as they have for hundreds of years---leading Terra to develop ever-better machines of destruction to protect their lanes of commerce. Meanwhile, a band of ne'er-do-wells, eager to recover a treasure hidden away deep inside alien skies, confronts an alien scientific outpost just as a peace conference is concluding on an alien regional capital...setting the stage for conflict and tragedy, unless both sides are able to control the hotheads on either side of the border. The book ends with Captain Cook struggling to find his way back to Terra through uncharted skies, as the galaxy is descending into chaos.

The next volume---called Clouds of Darkness---will be published next fall.And the concluding volume---entitled, unsurprisingly, The Guardians of Peace---should follow the year after that. (Actually, the entire series was finished in 1994...but being an unknown author with a time-consuming day job, it's been tough to get anyone in the mainstream press to read anything I've written. So, what the hell...I decided to use a small press to bring the series to print).

I hope this sounds interesting enough to generate some interest...or, at the least, to keep the hoots and cat-calls to a minimum. In the meantime, I'll be plugging away at my computer, working on my next project and waiting for inspiration to strike....

Posted by Jeffrey Caminsky 2008-10-21 13:40:42