The Human Legion

June 23, 2021

Legion Bulletin #124

Octo Racing! Greetings from the sunny depths of England, where the Covid restrictions will soon be relaxed and I’m starting to plan some Octo Racing for August. Please don’t confuse this with the traditional races featuring elite sports octopi. I’m referring, of course, to racing octogenarians. As far as I can make out, my family’s enjoyed the beach at Walton-on-the-Naze every year since the 1930s, interrupted only by Adolf Hitler and Covid. My parents’ legs aren’t too clever these days, so their loving grandson has decided we’ll mark a racetrack out on the beach and push them in their wheelchairs. If I receive a concerned phone call tomorrow, I’ll know they’ve read this edition of the bulletin. Don’t worry, Dad! You’ll be strapped […]

June 14, 2021

I Go Full Tolkien

I’ve just typed ‘The End’ and sent off a couple of novelettes for anthologies. One’s a space opera adventure with plenty of exotic aliens. The other is unusual for me in that the story of hired assassins has no fantastical elements. Well, it’s set in an alternate version of contemporary America, so it’s technically a fantasy, I guess, but there are no ray guns or interstellar squids, so I’m keeping it real for this one. Fingers crossed they get accepted. I have some tidying up and admin things crying out for attention before I start on my next novel. One of those things is the website at humanlegion.com, which I think needs trimming back and then tuning up. If there’s […]

May 19, 2021

Meet the Smuggler Queen

Theogony Books has just launched the latest Chimera Company novel. If evil terraforming operations, the exotic court of a sector crime boss, and an alien goat with attitude are your thing, the fourth Chimera Company novel is for you. Prior to this, the Theogony novels have been a mix of new material and old. Smuggler Queen is all new. I sent the the fifth novel, Hold the Line, off to the publisher yesterday today. Hopefully they’ll like it, because it’s due to be published next month! I also was fortunate enough to have my second Covid vaccine yesterday, and my brain is currently mush being massaged by a pneumatic drill. Hopefully these words make some kind of sense! If they […]

April 16, 2021

Be careful what you say… or don’t say.

The latest Chimera Company novel is published today. As a writer, getting books out and into the hands readers (or their ears) is what it’s all about. Department 9 is my nineteenth novel. I have decided that novelists come of age after 21 novels, because that’s a milestone I expect to meet in the summer. Since I’ve not yet come of age, Department 9 is filled with writerly teenage vigor, and I use it to go dystopian in a world where failure to report an illegal act wins you the same punishment as if you were the perpetrator. And anything is illegal if those in authority choose it to be. Also goats. And ancient temples buried beneath desert sands. Thank […]

March 13, 2021

The spy who came in from the void…

Operation Redeal is out now for Kindle and paperback. If cool space ships, ancient space stations, even more Dyson rings, and interstellar shenanigans are your thing, then I think you’ll enjoy it. While not strictly necessary, it’s even more fun if you’ve read The Fall of Rho-Torkis first. For anyone who read the 2019 serials, Operation Redeal is made up partially of material from the old season 2 and partially brand new adventure. Here are some links for the new book. amazon.com | amazon.co.uk | amazon.com.au | amazon.ca | amazon.de I’m happy to report that I’m a further ahead in my writing than this new release. I expect to finish the first draft of book 5 next week, a novel […]

February 13, 2021

On Second Chances

[This article first appeared in the Legion Bulletin, the essential Legionary journal.] I hit 51 years of age earlier this week. I’ve learned a few things over those years. Not many, admittedly, but a few. One of them is that life rarely gives you second chances. And on those rare occasions when it does, your best response is to seize this precious opportunity with all six limbs (as the Jotuns are wont to say). The scarcity of second chances is particularly true in the world of creative arts and entertainment. We’ve all seen TV shows cancelled just as they’re getting interesting, the book trilogies that never made it past Book 1 because the publisher pulled the plug, the game that […]

February 6, 2021

February 6, 2021

New release: The Fall of Rho-Torkis

And we’re off! The first book in the re-launch of Chimera Company is now available. I’m very proud of it. The pithy summary: I used the following as my touchstones when dreaming up Chimera Company. The sense of adventure and the lived-in aesthetics of the first three Star Wars movies. The sense of a galaxy split into factions of Warhammer 40,000. Plus some of the sense of the weird. And the excitement I felt as a kid when 2000AD comic dropped through my letterbox. (I know most of you don’t know much about 2000AD, so just take it from me that it was a mind-blowing thrill ride) I blended those together and was off to the races. I still am. […]

February 3, 2021

Chimera Company relaunches. Taylor speaks out!

Take the sense of adventure from Star Wars, add the I’m-not-sure-I’d-actually-want-to-live-there dystopia of Warhammer 40k, and stir in a lot of fun. That’s how I see Chimera Company. It launched as a serial in 2019, which seemed to put a lot of people off. Theogony Books from Chris Kennedy Publishing is relaunching the series as novels starting Feb 5th. That’s this Friday. That’s super grand news for me because I’m so in love with this series that I don’t want it to die young. There will be five novels being released by the summer. If you’ve read Season 1 of Chimera Company already, then you need to be aware that The Fall of Rho-Torkis is the same as the old […]

September 30, 2020

I’ve taken most of Chimera Company off sale

The switch to Theogony Books is underway. Currently the only Chimera Company books on sale are the paperback editions of the omnibuses and the Season 2 eBook boxed set. They will be removed presently. Hopefully every has had plenty of notice in advance. If you’re actively enjoying Chimera Company and are stuck because the the next read isn’t available, do get in touch. It’s a temporary thing until the Theogony releases come out. I don’t have dates yet, but expect some very soon. I plan to finish the first draft of book4 next week. Expect to see inside Nyluga-Ree’s palace, go boating on a methane lake, see Phantom put through her paces in some desperate space combat, and learn the […]

August 25, 2020

It’s One Minute to Midnight

One Minute to Midnight is out now. This is the conclusion to the trio of 2020 Four Horsemen Universe (4HU) novels that kicked off with Endless Night and carried through The Dark Before the Light. When I say conclusion, it’s certainly that. Everything I’ve written in 4HU leads to this point. After three years, six stories, and about half a million words, I hope you’ll forgive me if I choke back a tear as I say goodbye… (… and then immediately start thinking about what happens next. Can’t help it. Maybe some of my ‘Midnight Sun’ characters will carry over to whatever follows? I hope to write more in this universe before too long.) Here are the links for anyone […]