Virtual Tour + #Giveaway: New Siqdor by Stephen J. Carter @StephenSCIFI @GoddessFish

New Siqdor

by Stephen J. Carter

GENRE:  Sci-fi

BLURB:

The environmental stilling on the planet of Nebura escalates, threatening to advance even beyond the world-girding storm ring. Meanwhile, Levrok's plan to arm a resurgent Siqdori Empire with a tulvar arsenal nears completion, and his departure off-world is imminent. Two survivors' groups join forces as events spiral out of control.

"NEW SIQDOR" is the 2nd book in the “Zero Point Light” SF series, and delivers a thrill ride of untold mayhem, hair-raising escapes, space colonization gone awry, and a descent to the ocean floor and beyond!

Goodreads ~ Amazon

EXCERPT:

Wahid turned to Levrok. “My men will correct this minor irritation, sir.  Would you care to see the reports on the advance of the stilling?”

“No, I would not. I suggest you correct this irritation.”

“Sir, the line maintenance bots will be on hand within minutes. I swear it.”

Levrok again regarded his lieutenant as he had in the vehicle, with that unsettling mixture of detachment and clinical curiosity.

“Don’t use the bots, Wahid.”

Wahid nodded, his face a mask. He turned to the man at the controls and ordered him into the pool. The man’s face drained of color. Wahid took three steps towards the man and spoke softly. The man nodded once, removed the holo-array and set it on the console. He stepped back, saluted crisply, turned and moved to the side of the pool. In one smooth movement he lowered himself in, the black liquid reaching to his waist. Rippling spasms could be seen moving up his back and out his arms. His face remained impassive, showing none of the pain that must be galloping through his body. He had turned away and was walking across the pool, stepping carefully between immersed cubes. He moved with a calm deliberation along a clear channel, like a farmer in his furrow among well-tended crops. He had reached the end of the tracking line and was removing a cube that had fallen sideways and jammed the line. He lifted it out and placed it, almost tenderly, into its immersion slot.

The man began moving back to the deck. When he reached the side he could not lift himself out – he could barely stand. Wahid nodded at two men nearby. They stepped forward and hauled him out. He lay on the parapet, his legs and lower body contorted, twisting before their eyes into a shrunken, gnarled gnome-like caricature of limbs. The man still had not uttered a whisper of complaint. The contorting spasms reached up into his chest, his back arched, and his body lapsed into a violent last-ditch struggle. In the seizure that followed his rigid arms and legs spasmed up and down.

Levrok stepped back, calmly returning his attention to the tracking line, as it resumed depositing cubes in their slots. The man’s body finally stopped its staccato tattoo.

His voice husky with suppressed excitement, Levrok turned to his lieutenant.

“Let’s see those stilling reports,” he said pleasantly.

Wahid turned to his master. “Of course, sir.”

As they walked back along the deck, Levrok idly wondered what Wahid had said to the man before he entered the pool.

AUTHOR BIO:

Stephen J Carter is a Canadian writer living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He completed a PhD in Social and Political Thought at York University in Toronto in 1997. This led to an 8-year period of teaching at universities in South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. In 2006 he settled in northern Thailand, and began writing fiction full-time in 2007.

In his early years he made several short-term forays into film and video production while involved full-time in academia. Along the way he tried his hand at writing non-fiction in and out of academia, and 8 years ago finally committed full-time to writing fiction. 

For Stephen there is something about this northern Thai city that makes it a perfect place to write. His preferred genres to date have been horror and science fiction. On the one hand, he sets his horror novels in Thailand because Thais have such vivid customs that touch the supernatural. On the other hand, disheartened by the cultural Marxism that dominates social discourse now in the West, he feels drawn to writing science fiction for the rational optimism over possible futures it affords. Approaching SF formerly as pure escapism, he finds in it now a source of hope and forward thinking that can be very inspiring. 

Stephen looks forward to writing several more novels in his two current series, Zero Point Light and Z Inferno.

LINKS:

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Giveaway:

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