Monday, October 20, 2008

Two New Sci-Fi Novels by Jeff Caminsky

The first in my series of four sci-fi novels, set 500 years in the future, called The Guardians of Peace 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 unknown writers).

The entire series follows the adventures of Roscoe Cook and the Cosmic Guard (the Interstellar Navy of the day) 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 many 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, his ship causes 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, suffering its own schisms and divisions. There, a reform movement is gaining influence, renewing hopes of bringing modernization to the old and decaying culture that has left them stagnating for the last several millenia. 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 book in the series—entitled, unsuprisingly, The Guardians of Peace—should follow the year after that. (The entire series was finished in1994...but being an unknown author, it’s been tough to get anyone in Mainstream Publishing to read anything I’ve written. So, what the hell...I decided to use a small press to bring it all out).

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....




JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.

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