The Human Legion

April 17, 2015

A sad day for science fiction

I’ve been quiet these past few weeks. I have half-written several short stories, Infopedia entries aplenty, all sorts to say and discuss, but I’ve had my head down getting the last few scenes written for the third Human Legion book. I’m aiming to hit that milestone next Tuesday: 95,000 words of action, surprises, tragedy, and maybe a little romance. And plenty of dead fish. I will then give it another round of consistency checks and editing before offering it out to any beta readers who are generous enough to offer to help take a look and tell me all the things I’ve got wrong :-). More on beta reading very soon. But not today because today I’m too angry. It’s […]

March 20, 2015

Trial of a Traitor

Trial of a Traitor —A short story from the worlds of the Human Legion — SPOILER ALERT! THIS STORY IS SET BETWEEN THE EVENTS OF BOOK2: INDIGO SQUAD AND BOOK3: RENEGADE LEGION. DON’T READ UNLESS YOU’VE FINISHED INDIGO SQUAD. His reflection in the mirror held a noble countenance with aquiline nose, and thick white eyebrows that hinted at the deep wisdom behind a grizzled brow – the kind of wisdom that can only be accumulated over years of experience. A sharp contrast to his accusers. Yes, Ensign Dock decided, he would be tolerably presentable for what he expected to be his final public appearance. He stepped away from the bulkhead mirror and rummaged in his locker for his wardrobe’s pièce […]

March 20, 2015

Book 3 progress update and an interim story…

Coming soon… Thanks for your patience while I write the third book in the series. Here’s a quick progress update: so far I’ve written 75,000 words out of an estimated 95,000. Now, that probably sounds like I’m 78% through, but writing novels doesn’t work that way. (Not for me, in any case). Those 75,000 words still need a lot of knocking into shape. On the other hand, other than a few remaining questions about the penultimate chapter, I know exactly what happens in detail throughout the book. It’s just (!) a question of crafting the scenes in the best way. So the remainder of the book will be relatively quick to write. I mentioned a while back that I’ll be […]

February 15, 2015

Why would aliens be interested in Earth anyway?

In a galaxy without the convenience of faster-than-light travel, why bother contacting less technologically advanced species at all? Part of the reason in the Human Legion universe is revealed in a new series of articles in the Classified Military Data section, which I’ve reproduced for your convenience here… Category: Politics & History ==Pre-Contact Earth ==ATTENTION! This article was last updated 2572 A.D. and needs to be rewritten in light of recent events.== Earth before contact with aliens: a serene jewel blissfully unaware it was about to be plucked. Well, hardly! It’s easy for us today to believe that Earth was a pastoral idyll before humanity’s first contact with intelligent alien species. We still know little of certainty about that Contact […]

February 4, 2015

My Extended Death : Part 6

Welcome to the first humanlegion.com exclusive story. You can go straight to the first post here. My Extended Death —A serialized novelette from the worlds of the Human Legion— Part 6 In ser last moments outside the Nest, Sentwali activated the throat mike slaved to the battlesuit’s comms unit. Via the transmitter miles above at Betoto Parc, sie sent ser final words to ser pup and, if it was inclined to listen, civilization at large. ——— Dearest Keligomo. My pup. I never told you I joined the crowd watching you board your transport. Never told you how proud I feel that you became a soldier. You are the reason I am here now and I thank you for that. Somewhere, […]

February 3, 2015

My Extended Death : Part 5

Welcome to the first humanlegion.com exclusive story. My Extended Death is told from the perspective of an alien narrator. I’m going to serialize this story over 6 days (at around 17:00 GMT/ UTC) , and then post the lot as a sequence of linked pages. So you can tune in each day or wait until the end and read the lot in one go. (Or neither, of course 🙂 ) You can go straight to the first post here. My Extended Death —A serialized novelette from the worlds of the Human Legion— Part 5 Metamorphosis rebuilds brain and body – as well as creating two fresh pups, of course – but, even before the Dreamtime, the first onset of pregnancy […]

February 2, 2015

My Extended Death : Part 4

Welcome to the first humanlegion.com exclusive story. My Extended Death is told from the perspective of an alien narrator. I’m going to serialize this story over 6 days (at around 17:00 GMT/ UTC) , and then post the lot as a sequence of linked pages. So you can tune in each day or wait until the end and read the lot in one go. (Or neither, of course 🙂 ) You can go straight to the first post here. My Extended Death —A serialized novelette from the worlds of the Human Legion— Part 4 For two centuries I have lived well off the celebrity my story brought. Why tell it again? Because now I recognize my extended death for what […]

February 1, 2015

My Extended Death : Part 3

Welcome to the first humanlegion.com exclusive story. My Extended Death is told from the perspective of an alien narrator. I’m going to serialize this story over 6 days (at around 17:00 GMT/ UTC) , and then post the lot as a sequence of linked pages. So you can tune in each day or wait until the end and read the lot in one go. (Or neither, of course 🙂 ) For those who like the idea of serialized fiction, this site has a follow button and an RSS feed to make it easier. You can go straight to the first post here. My Extended Death —A serialized novelette from the worlds of the Human Legion— Part 3 Sentwali had not […]

January 31, 2015

My Extended Death : Part 2

Welcome to the first humanlegion.com exclusive story. My Extended Death is told from the perspective of an alien narrator. I’m going to serialize this story over 6 days (at around 17:00 GMT/ UTC) , and then post the lot as a sequence of linked pages. So you can tune in each day or wait until the end and read the lot in one go. (Or neither, of course 🙂 ) For those who like the idea of serialized fiction, this site has a follow button and an RSS feed to make it easier. You can go straight to the first post here. My Extended Death —A serialized novelette from the worlds of the Human Legion— Part 2 Ferocious stratospheric winds […]

January 30, 2015

My Extended Death : Part 1

Welcome to the first humanlegion.com exclusive story. My Extended Death is told from the perspective of an alien narrator. It’s set in a different world and a different time, but the lead character, Sentwali, is a Trog, the hive species we see in Marine Cadet (and perhaps with more parts yet to play in the Human Legion’s story). In Marine Cadet, the Trog character Pedro is fascinated by Arun’s gender because, to a Trog, gender is an utterly alien concept. Arun, in turn, struggles with Pedro’s lack of gender and decides to refer to the alien as a male. But in this new story, we see things from the point of view of the aliens, and so the story is told using […]

January 23, 2015

Purple leaves, English Dropship Infantry at war with the Chinese, and the history of the Human Legion universe.

My favorite military sf discovery of 2014 was Phillip Richards and his excellent Union Series. I was scanning the military sf charts on Amazon to see how one of my books was faring and spotted that the fourth Union book was released earlier this week. Naturally, I bought it straight away and have started reading Recce on my Kindle. Very good so far. In the first book in the series, Andy Moralee has to survive first the brutal hazing from his fellow English Dropship Infantry troopers, and then survive the chaos of war against the Chinese. In the second and third books, Andy takes on more responsibility and has to face some big moral dilemmas as a result. Each book […]

January 16, 2015

Star Crusades by Michael G. Thomas is on special offer

I posted earlier today that I’d share if I came across a new release or special offer that I thought might be of interest. I don’t intend to do this regularly, but here’s the second of today, so what do I know? Michael G. Thomas has written plenty of space opera and military science fiction novels and seems very popular. I’ve never read him, but when I noticed today that he’s offering a bundle of the first three Star Crusades novels for 99 cents, I bought them. This isn’t a recommendation as such (but only because I’ve yet to read any of his books) but you might want to try him out if he’s new to you too. If you […]