fair warning, this might get pretty long
So get yourself a snack or something while I indulge my self promotion powers. The Tl;DR version is, Gallaetha is a fantasy novel series set in an almost modern world. There's magic, there's monsters, there's a bit of intrigue and a good amount of cool swords. The main characters are a snarky mercenary who likes tattoos and bourbon; a timid former soldier fresh out of a military insane asylum; and a billionaire war profiteer dying of an incurable illness. It's a bit of a genre blend and it's a tonne of fun to write. Seriously, I love writing about this world and these characters and I hope that comes across on the page (or e-reader screen, you know what I mean).
If that tempts you into reading it, you can download the first part here. (UK: http://amzn.to/Tg8Kiw US: http://amzn.to/TYeWKl) The second part is out too (UK: amzn.to/UVV7rC US: amzn.to/YKl67J), but don't read that one until you read the first one otherwise it'll be more confusing than it is already.
Still not tempted? Fine. You have that snack? Good. Eat it up while you read the much, much, much longer version. Enjoy!
If that tempts you into reading it, you can download the first part here. (UK: http://amzn.to/Tg8Kiw US: http://amzn.to/TYeWKl) The second part is out too (UK: amzn.to/UVV7rC US: amzn.to/YKl67J), but don't read that one until you read the first one otherwise it'll be more confusing than it is already.
Still not tempted? Fine. You have that snack? Good. Eat it up while you read the much, much, much longer version. Enjoy!
"Gallaetha has been at peace for twenty five years...
... a quarter decade hangover of dwindling profits. But new conflicts are opening up and the military compete with the private sector for a chance to exploit them."
The world
I came up with the idea for Gallaetha early in 2003. I was reading a lot of Tolkien and Salvatore at the time, as well as playing more than my share of D&D. Basically I just being a big, fat nerd face and it was awesome. Tony Blair was committing hundreds of thousands of British troops to a sketchy war in Iraq while George W Bush took another vacation from his part time presidency gig. You couldn't escape news about the war. That stuff was less awesome, it was pretty damn scary, although the lies were nearly as big and fat as I was.
I sound like I'm doing the set up for a documentary...
Anyway, those two things; the dice rolling and orc slaying combined with the death and horror of the Iraq war in the percolator of my brain, they blended and brewed up a fantasy novel set in the vaguely modern day. I wanted to write a world where there were cars, guns, mass media and the internet combined with all the swordplay and sorcery of the books I loved reading. Gallaetha was the result.
I sound like I'm doing the set up for a documentary...
Anyway, those two things; the dice rolling and orc slaying combined with the death and horror of the Iraq war in the percolator of my brain, they blended and brewed up a fantasy novel set in the vaguely modern day. I wanted to write a world where there were cars, guns, mass media and the internet combined with all the swordplay and sorcery of the books I loved reading. Gallaetha was the result.
the war
Gallaetha is set twenty five years after 'The War' the colloquial term for the Issolarian/Nymese war almost obliterated the entire world of Gallaetha. Think WW2, only with more magic and less Hitler. Issolar was the valiant nation of courageous warriors wielding magical weapons and spells against Nymia, the villainous, hyper industrialised nation of slave traders and sexual deviants. Or at least that's the story the history books tell, since Issolar won and all.As the blurb hints, this war, in addition to costing billions of lives and desecrating great chunks of land, also made a lot of money for the right people. Politicians, arms dealers and private military contractors all took home a bundle. The cash pump was drying up. The economy was built on warfare, and with no enemy to fight anymore there was no need for Issolarian magicians or Nymese cybernetics.
So the two major governments of the world, Issolar and Nymia, now seemingly at peace -- started manufacturing small scale conflicts between themselves. Instead of soldiers, they employed mercenary bands to help spread the cash around. It wasn't quite the glorious days of the White Lion and the Blue Star, but it staunched the cash hemorrhage and let the right people keep their money in their pockets. Plenty of people die in the farce, of course. Can't have a war, even a flaky one without a few casualties here and there.
Not all mercenary bands and private contractors are in it just for the cash though. Some act as private armies for drug lords or corporations; others massacre each other in religious crusades; a few act as assassination guilds, bumping off one choice target at a time for enormous profit. There might even be one or two mercenary groups that forego the profits for the sake of helping people, using their resources to ease some of the suffering in the world. But these groups don't tend to last very long.
Layla Redford, probably the closest thing Gallaetha has to a main protagonist at this point, works for one of these doomed organisations.
So the two major governments of the world, Issolar and Nymia, now seemingly at peace -- started manufacturing small scale conflicts between themselves. Instead of soldiers, they employed mercenary bands to help spread the cash around. It wasn't quite the glorious days of the White Lion and the Blue Star, but it staunched the cash hemorrhage and let the right people keep their money in their pockets. Plenty of people die in the farce, of course. Can't have a war, even a flaky one without a few casualties here and there.
Not all mercenary bands and private contractors are in it just for the cash though. Some act as private armies for drug lords or corporations; others massacre each other in religious crusades; a few act as assassination guilds, bumping off one choice target at a time for enormous profit. There might even be one or two mercenary groups that forego the profits for the sake of helping people, using their resources to ease some of the suffering in the world. But these groups don't tend to last very long.
Layla Redford, probably the closest thing Gallaetha has to a main protagonist at this point, works for one of these doomed organisations.
The whom
Layla Redford
“I work better with a buzz on.”
Layla Redford is a twenty four year old mercenary contractor from Levinia. That's about as much as anyone can get out of her before she tosses out an ink screen of quips and bad jokes. You might find out what the frog said when he was double parked (toad!) what the green grape said to the purple grape (breathe, damnit! Breathe!) or which nut always seems to have a cold (cashews!) but you might never know who she's worked for, or why she was in a Levinian prison cell when she was recruited by Gregory Campbell and his Flemings Falls Crew. With her skill set, Layla could write her own pay scale with any mercenary crew in the world but she chooses to eke out subsistence contracts for an insignificant rabble of criminals and broken down veterans. Whatever gripes she might have about her wages are immediately offset by how much she loves the work. Adrenaline is great, traveling the world is even better. So long as nobody orders her about, and she doesn't get spat on, Layla can put up with nearly anything the world of Gallaetha can throw at her.
So long as she doesn't have wait around too long. Boredom is the worst.
Dominic Asruan
“Yeah I do. You’re that lad… the crazy one… the one that tried to stab his captain with a whiskey bottle.”
“Actually, it was a rum bottle.”
Dominic Asruan is a twenty five year old ex-soldier from Issolar. Dominic volunteered into the army at fifteen, expecting a glamorous life full of adventure and heroism. Instead he was shot at, stabbed, beaten and set on fire so that the wealthy and powerful can keep their million pound homes. Dominic is disillusioned with his country and the army he serve, but he would be long dead without the Issolarian military's advanced magical healing techniques. He was sent to the Faulkton House psychiatric hospital after attacking his superior officer with a broken bottle, a capital crime in hyper nationalist Issolar. The newspaper industry, and their backers in the arms industry, feel that Dominic got off lightly -- now that he's out of the institution, so does everybody else. It's hard for him to walk down the street without someone making a comment about how lucky he has it. Every day Dominic feels the relapse coming. Dominic wouldn't be able to hold it together if it wasn't for Rieko, his girlfriend and Julian, his younger brother.
Brent Campbell
“In future, full disclosure, okay old boy?... it really pisses me off when people lie to me.”
At just 27 years old, Brent is the youngest billionaire in Issolar, probably the world. A self-made man from the impoverished desert town of Yorrick, Brent owns brokerage houses, casinos, military and magical R&D companies, drug distributors -- both legal and illegal and majority shares in virtually every profitable corporation on Gallaetha. He has the unnerving talent of predicting what's going to make money even before it's sold, which has made him a formidable stock market trader. Most importantly of all, he owns Windblade Solutions -- Gallaetha's most well known and reliable mercenary firm and Brent's own private army. He has the connections, the money and the power to get anything in the world. The only thing he can't get is the cure for thaumatised cancerosis, the rare magical disease that is gradually consuming him from the inside.
Tim Gail
“This ain’t personal, you know.”
No matter what trouble he gets himself in, Tim 'The Viper' Gail always manages to find a way to work his way in deeper. Due to overcrowding in Knighthall prison, Tim was forced to share a cell with three other prisoners. All three were bigger, meaner and angrier than he was. Tim still carries the weight of those nightmarish years with him, and if that wasn't enough, he's managed to rack up over a hundred grand's worth of debt with the wrong people. Just when Tim's life seems it's bleakest, billionaire Brent Campbell tosses him a lifeline; a job that will not only end his problems, but also set him up for life. Tim is forced to kill not just for profit but to steal a little bit of power back from the world that spent so long kicking him around.
“I work better with a buzz on.”
Layla Redford is a twenty four year old mercenary contractor from Levinia. That's about as much as anyone can get out of her before she tosses out an ink screen of quips and bad jokes. You might find out what the frog said when he was double parked (toad!) what the green grape said to the purple grape (breathe, damnit! Breathe!) or which nut always seems to have a cold (cashews!) but you might never know who she's worked for, or why she was in a Levinian prison cell when she was recruited by Gregory Campbell and his Flemings Falls Crew. With her skill set, Layla could write her own pay scale with any mercenary crew in the world but she chooses to eke out subsistence contracts for an insignificant rabble of criminals and broken down veterans. Whatever gripes she might have about her wages are immediately offset by how much she loves the work. Adrenaline is great, traveling the world is even better. So long as nobody orders her about, and she doesn't get spat on, Layla can put up with nearly anything the world of Gallaetha can throw at her.
So long as she doesn't have wait around too long. Boredom is the worst.
Dominic Asruan
“Yeah I do. You’re that lad… the crazy one… the one that tried to stab his captain with a whiskey bottle.”
“Actually, it was a rum bottle.”
Dominic Asruan is a twenty five year old ex-soldier from Issolar. Dominic volunteered into the army at fifteen, expecting a glamorous life full of adventure and heroism. Instead he was shot at, stabbed, beaten and set on fire so that the wealthy and powerful can keep their million pound homes. Dominic is disillusioned with his country and the army he serve, but he would be long dead without the Issolarian military's advanced magical healing techniques. He was sent to the Faulkton House psychiatric hospital after attacking his superior officer with a broken bottle, a capital crime in hyper nationalist Issolar. The newspaper industry, and their backers in the arms industry, feel that Dominic got off lightly -- now that he's out of the institution, so does everybody else. It's hard for him to walk down the street without someone making a comment about how lucky he has it. Every day Dominic feels the relapse coming. Dominic wouldn't be able to hold it together if it wasn't for Rieko, his girlfriend and Julian, his younger brother.
Brent Campbell
“In future, full disclosure, okay old boy?... it really pisses me off when people lie to me.”
At just 27 years old, Brent is the youngest billionaire in Issolar, probably the world. A self-made man from the impoverished desert town of Yorrick, Brent owns brokerage houses, casinos, military and magical R&D companies, drug distributors -- both legal and illegal and majority shares in virtually every profitable corporation on Gallaetha. He has the unnerving talent of predicting what's going to make money even before it's sold, which has made him a formidable stock market trader. Most importantly of all, he owns Windblade Solutions -- Gallaetha's most well known and reliable mercenary firm and Brent's own private army. He has the connections, the money and the power to get anything in the world. The only thing he can't get is the cure for thaumatised cancerosis, the rare magical disease that is gradually consuming him from the inside.
Tim Gail
“This ain’t personal, you know.”
No matter what trouble he gets himself in, Tim 'The Viper' Gail always manages to find a way to work his way in deeper. Due to overcrowding in Knighthall prison, Tim was forced to share a cell with three other prisoners. All three were bigger, meaner and angrier than he was. Tim still carries the weight of those nightmarish years with him, and if that wasn't enough, he's managed to rack up over a hundred grand's worth of debt with the wrong people. Just when Tim's life seems it's bleakest, billionaire Brent Campbell tosses him a lifeline; a job that will not only end his problems, but also set him up for life. Tim is forced to kill not just for profit but to steal a little bit of power back from the world that spent so long kicking him around.
the what
Mercenaries, military forces and criminals aren't the only dangers to safety in Gallaetha. Like I mentioned before, there be monsters here as well. The Issolarian government calls them MCOs, short for Magically Corrupted Organisms, and they keep their existence a secret. Understandable since it was Issolar's research into magical evolution and thaumatic bio-enhancement that created most of them. MCOs come in a myriad of types, from the bloodthirsty verdulaks to the reclusive lrocks, all of them are much stronger, much faster than human beings. If they aren't completely insane then they're violently opposed to the humans that created them, which makes them dangerous to anybody that blunders onto them.
During the war, MCO attacks got so severe that the Issolarian government created the Skirmisher Knight division. On the surface they were just a reconnaissance force charged with scouting ahead and reporting enemy positions. In actuality, they are highly skilled MCO hunters, clearing monsters out the road ahead so that Issolarian soldiers don't have to face the mistakes that their government has made. Seeing the king and his country as fallible, or even malicious, might inspire revolutionary ideas in even the most ardent crown loyalist. This might be why those who express anti-Issolarian sentiments often find themselves assigned the Skirmisher Knights as a punishment.
Levinia, Nymia and the other major nations all have their own MCO hunters, but the Skirmisher Knights are by far the most well known, mostly due to their distinctive grey coats and magical weapons.
In the Akim desert, where the first novel is set, the most common MCO is the verdulak. A swift and nigh indestructible hunter that lives only to consume its favourite food -- human. They can regenerate any damage they receive almost instantly, which makes them nearly impossible to put down. Known as Grinners in Levinia because of their oversized teeth and gaping mouths, verdulaks always look like they're smiling at something. They use a form of low key telepathy to communicate with one another and to hide themselves from sight. If you're unlucky enough to bump into one then you won't know they're coming until they're already on you, then that revolting smile is often the last thing you see -- assuming you see anything at all.
Verdulaks belong to a single hive mind, presided over by their hivequeen or king. They don't like to be compete with each other for food, so most verdulaks will attack members of another hive on sight. Often the only way to avoid a verdulak hive is to set them on another, but since only the verdulaks themselves know how to distinguish between hives, this is next to impossible to pull off even for veteran hunters.
No matter what you do, don't run. A verdulak can hit speeds of up to fifty miles per hour and they love a good chase.
During the war, MCO attacks got so severe that the Issolarian government created the Skirmisher Knight division. On the surface they were just a reconnaissance force charged with scouting ahead and reporting enemy positions. In actuality, they are highly skilled MCO hunters, clearing monsters out the road ahead so that Issolarian soldiers don't have to face the mistakes that their government has made. Seeing the king and his country as fallible, or even malicious, might inspire revolutionary ideas in even the most ardent crown loyalist. This might be why those who express anti-Issolarian sentiments often find themselves assigned the Skirmisher Knights as a punishment.
Levinia, Nymia and the other major nations all have their own MCO hunters, but the Skirmisher Knights are by far the most well known, mostly due to their distinctive grey coats and magical weapons.
In the Akim desert, where the first novel is set, the most common MCO is the verdulak. A swift and nigh indestructible hunter that lives only to consume its favourite food -- human. They can regenerate any damage they receive almost instantly, which makes them nearly impossible to put down. Known as Grinners in Levinia because of their oversized teeth and gaping mouths, verdulaks always look like they're smiling at something. They use a form of low key telepathy to communicate with one another and to hide themselves from sight. If you're unlucky enough to bump into one then you won't know they're coming until they're already on you, then that revolting smile is often the last thing you see -- assuming you see anything at all.
Verdulaks belong to a single hive mind, presided over by their hivequeen or king. They don't like to be compete with each other for food, so most verdulaks will attack members of another hive on sight. Often the only way to avoid a verdulak hive is to set them on another, but since only the verdulaks themselves know how to distinguish between hives, this is next to impossible to pull off even for veteran hunters.
No matter what you do, don't run. A verdulak can hit speeds of up to fifty miles per hour and they love a good chase.
the why
I don't want to get too deep into the plot here, so here's the blurb from amazon itself."People are disappearing from Issolar City; unprofitable loners and outsiders that the system has forgotten. Layla Redford is getting double her usual rate to find out why. Her only lead is a name and some coordinates out in the Akim desert. It's a difficult job, her patience and snack supplies are dwindling. Her bonus will make it worthwhile.
When a victim manages to escape, Layla sees an opportunity to hand in the job and cash her paycheque. But the escaped prisoner is Dominic Asruan, former mental patient and currently wanted for murder. His trail leads her through a hail of rival mercenaries, bounty hunters, psychics, slavers and cannibals. Not to mention the world’s most powerful war profiteer.
The only thing Layla knows for sure is that she’s not getting paid nearly enough for this."
Looking back over it, the blurb isn't my best work, or even anything close to the middle. But I'll be the first to admit that I suck at condensing ideas. Look at all the waffle you've just turfed through, for example.
It's a fairly long story. The first part, sort of the first act is 224 pages, the second 228. The third is looking like it'll be somewhere between that. All in all it's close to 700 pages of monsters, magic and terrible jokes. I don't write the way I do here, by the way. All I'm doing on this page is explaining. The story itself kicks off right away. If you've managed to read through all this then you'll have a better understanding of the world than those who just go in blind. But it isn't necessary at all, I do explain stuff as I go. I just like to start where the action is.
Here are those links again by the way, if my mighty words have convinced you to give the first one a go. It's 77p on Amazon.co.uk and a dollar or so on Amazon.com. Worth a punt, as they say.
Does anybody say that? Anyway, here's those links I was talking about.
Hair of the Dog
Part One: (UK: http://amzn.to/Tg8Kiw US: http://amzn.to/TYeWKl)
Part Two: (UK: amzn.to/UVV7rC US: amzn.to/YKl67J)
Part Three: (About half way through the edit, honest!)
When a victim manages to escape, Layla sees an opportunity to hand in the job and cash her paycheque. But the escaped prisoner is Dominic Asruan, former mental patient and currently wanted for murder. His trail leads her through a hail of rival mercenaries, bounty hunters, psychics, slavers and cannibals. Not to mention the world’s most powerful war profiteer.
The only thing Layla knows for sure is that she’s not getting paid nearly enough for this."
Looking back over it, the blurb isn't my best work, or even anything close to the middle. But I'll be the first to admit that I suck at condensing ideas. Look at all the waffle you've just turfed through, for example.
It's a fairly long story. The first part, sort of the first act is 224 pages, the second 228. The third is looking like it'll be somewhere between that. All in all it's close to 700 pages of monsters, magic and terrible jokes. I don't write the way I do here, by the way. All I'm doing on this page is explaining. The story itself kicks off right away. If you've managed to read through all this then you'll have a better understanding of the world than those who just go in blind. But it isn't necessary at all, I do explain stuff as I go. I just like to start where the action is.
Here are those links again by the way, if my mighty words have convinced you to give the first one a go. It's 77p on Amazon.co.uk and a dollar or so on Amazon.com. Worth a punt, as they say.
Does anybody say that? Anyway, here's those links I was talking about.
Hair of the Dog
Part One: (UK: http://amzn.to/Tg8Kiw US: http://amzn.to/TYeWKl)
Part Two: (UK: amzn.to/UVV7rC US: amzn.to/YKl67J)
Part Three: (About half way through the edit, honest!)
faq
Coming as soon as I get any Q's.