Showing results by author "C. Litka" in All Categories

Please note – A version of this novel was previously published as part of an omnibus edition – The Lost Star Stories Volume One, The Bright Black Sea. If you have read that book – thank you – you have already read this story. When Wil Litang was named acting captain of the space freighter Lost Star, he could never have imagined that one day the Lost Star would take him and his shipmates to its namesake – the mythical Tenth Star of the Nine Star Nebula. And what they would find there. The Captain of the Lost Star opens with the dying long-time captain of the space freighter Lost ...

The past is the future. A young physicist, Sandy Say, is dispatched to a Scottish highland estate to secretly decipher a decrepit manuscript that may hold the key to reinventing the 21st century, devastated by a series of solar storms. There he finds whispers of a reincarnated wizard, a hidden laboratory that is said to be the gate to the Otherworld, and a girl. A Summer in Amber is set in Scotland and England in the not too distant future, after a series of extremely powerful solar storms has laid to waste the modern world of cell phones, computers satellites, and even the power grids. ...

"The red 8:25 tram crossed Crane House Lane and disappeared behind Villiers House, sealing my fate. I’d be late for work. I slowed to a walk and took another bite of toast. I found I didn’t care. It was that kind of day." – Henri Hardy, The Girl on the Kerb It took several months for Henri Hardy to discover just what type of day it really was. It was more than a day when his alarm clock failed to ring. It was more than an unusually mild day in early spring. It was a prelude to undreamed of changes in his life as an analytical engineer in the Ministry of Innovation. It was a prelude to...

Are you weary of long, dark, and grim fantasy epics? Tired of evil priests, ruthless kings, sinister queens, knaves, and scoundrels—intricate palace intrigues and endless wars? Are you jaded by blood-soaked tomes of battle after battle, death after death? Need a break from accounts of disembowelment, torture, rape, and murder? In short, are you looking for a different sort of fantasy? Look no further. Chateau Clare is a leisurely paced, mundane slice-of-life fantasy novel set in a post-magic, Edwardian-era sort of world. The stakes are low, and the company pleasant. In it, Lan Teya ...

Be good. Or one dark night the sorcerers of the Vente Islands may come for you. On the islands of the Tropic Sea, parents caution naughty children to behave or risk that some dark night the sinister sorcerers of the Vente Islands might come to carry them off. The reputed fate of these naughty children varies from island to island, but it is often whispered that they end up in a stew. Navy lieutenant Taef Lang must have been a very naughty boy, for one soft, tropical night the Vente came and carried him off. And he certainly ended up, if not in a stew, at least in some very hot water. ...

“I signed aboard the Tzaritsa Moon as her second engineer. I ended up a toaster repairman. I was very lucky.” – Rafe d’Mere, from The Secret of the Tzaritsa Moon. The Secret of the Tzaritsa Moon marks the long awaited return to the Nine Star Nebula of the Bright Black Sea. This story takes place in the Alantzia star system, the most remote of the eight solar systems. The Alantzia system is known for its many little worlds, moons, and rocks that are reputed to be more like the “lawless” drift worlds than the staid worlds of the Unity. Old spaceers convinced Rafe d’Mere that to ...

Please note – A version of this novel was previously published as part of an omnibus edition – The Lost Star Stories Volume Two, The Lost Star’s Sea. If you have read that book – thank you – you have already read this story. The fates of friends and the secrets of the Pela are revealed. But are all of them revealed in the concluding volume of the Lost Star Stories? In the concluding volume of the Lost Star Stories, The Secrets of the Lost Star, we find Wil and Hissi meeting a dear old friend and once again returning to Blade Island for the Assembly of the Temtres. There they meet ...

Please note – A version of this novel was previously published as a stand alone novel in 2016, and as part of an omnibus edition – The Lost Star Stories Volume Two, The Lost Star’s Sea. If you have read that book – thank you – you have already read this story. The fate of Captain Wil Litang is revealed. In The Castaways of the Lost Star, Wil Litang finds himself shipwrecked with Naylea Cin, the St Bleyth assassin, who has vowed to kill him as well as Tallith Min, her original target. He, however, has his uses – to repair a battered ship’s boat – so that Cin can catch up with...

Please note – A version of this novel was previously published as part of an omnibus edition – The Lost Star Stories Volume One, The Bright Black Sea. If you have read that book – thank you – you have already read this story. With an assassin of the mercenary order of St Bleyth vowing to kill both Tallith Min and Wil Litang, they didn’t need more enemies. But they found them, nonetheless – the Navy of Despar and its sentient berserker, the Order of Despar bent on revenge, and even the mercenary branch of St Bleyth. Escape seemed most unlikely. The Enemies of the Lost Star opens ...

Please note – A version of this novel was previously published as part of an omnibus edition – The Lost Star Stories Volume One, The Bright Black Sea. If you have read that book – thank you – you have already read this story. The Lost Star has its share of ghosts, from its drunken former engineer to the eerie dragons of deep space, where reality is stretched thin. But there is yet another ghost to come who will lead the Lost Star and its crew to its namesake, the Tenth Star. In The Ghosts of the Lost Star, Litang and his crew, barely escaping from Despar, decide, for their safety, ...

Please note – A version of this novel was previously published as part of an omnibus edition – The Lost Star Stories Volume Two, The Lost Star’s Sea. If you have read that book – thank you – you have already read this story. In The Islands of the Lost Star we find Wil Litang and his young dragon Hissi setting out to explore the Pela. But as usual things don’t go as planned, and they are quickly captured by natives who hope to sell Wil as an indentured worker to a slave ship. Little Hissi saves Wil from that fate, but danger is never far away in the Pela. Wil and Hissi must ...

Keiree is a 34,000 word novella set on Mars. Yet another Mars story. It almost seems as if every writer of speculative fiction pens at least one Mars story. I suspect that one of the reasons Mars stories are so popular with authors is that to be even considered for membership in the Fraternal Order of the Aether, a writer must submit a Mars story to the committee. It’s in their bylaws. So… Keiree is my Mars story. Keiree is the story of the brilliant and wealthy engineer, Keiree Tulla, her chauffeur and love, Gy Mons… (Ssh! I’m getting to you.) ...and the silka cat, Molly. Deciding ...

The best laid plans “gang aft agley” as Robert Burns noted. As did the hopes of Sella, Lessie, the Meys, and Taef Lang. The Prisoner of Cimlye, a novel of some 54,000 words, is the sequel to Sailing to Redoubt. It takes up the story of Sella, Lessie, and Taef six months after the end of that first Tropic Sea novel, and ties up many of the loose ends left dangling at the close of that story. For instance, was Lieutenant Taef Lang able to convince his commanding officer that duty required him to spend several months sailing the Tropic Sea in a 12 meter yacht with two beautiful girls – ...

Be careful what you wish for. Wishes sometimes come true. University student Hugh Gallagher discovers this when the girl of his dreams, the “incomparable” Selina Beri shows up at his door seeking his geeky expertise for her last final exam. Can Hugh, the classic shy geek, avoid making a fool of himself with the girl he has loved from afar? Some Day Days is a rather experimental memoir of the first few months of a long romance. It is set in Oxford, London, and Cambridge and explores, in a set of twelve pieces; short stories, novelettes, and an essay, the joys and sorrows of a dream come ...

It was supposed to be a quiet night. It was anything but. Riel Dunbar grew up and, for many years, sailed out of the little moon of Isvalar – the interstellar port of Aeroday. But the restless life of a starfarer eventually carried him away for decades. Chance had now brought him home again with a promised long leave ashore. But, it turned out, that was not to be. Instead, he ended up with only a few free hours to spend on Isvalar. His plan was simple. He’d dine at an old haunt of his youth, and then, after a brief nap, he’d visit the starfarer dives of Isvalar for a real spree before...

No good deed goes unpunished. When the son of the ruler of the Empire of Azere, Lefe Sol, is told, to his dismay, that he is to marry the eccentric fourth daughter of the Empress of Jasmyne, his friend, Kel Cam, offers to stand by and help him meet this challenge. Kel, however, soon finds himself entangled in the affairs of two great empires, and discovers, to his own dismay, that no good deed goes unpunished. Beneath the Lanterns is set in an imaginary world of colorful cities, wide steppes, and valleys littered with the ruins of a long lost civilization. It’s a world with 16 days of ...

“I’d like to believe that I can take the rough with the smooth. I didn’t complain about the hundred petty inconveniences of the Iron Kingdom. Not too much. It was the werewolves, super-humans, and mad scientists who haunted its black forests and ruined castles that got to me. Still, what did I expect in the company of Vaun Di Ai?” – Rafe d’Mere from Shadows of an Iron Kingdom. Rafe d’Mere and Vaun Di Ai return in this sequel to The Secrets of Valsummer House. Rafe d’Mere, after turning the Fix-it-all Shop back over to its owner, follows his heart instead of his head. ...

It is always the captain’s fault. So when a shipping container is offloaded to the wrong lighter – hijacked by the local crime syndicate – Captain Sing of the Rendezvous Moon knew she’s be blamed, even though they had followed all the proper procedures. She had no intention of being blamed. She intended to track down the hijacked container. Red Tew, her chief engineer, volunteered to accompany her as “muscle” and invited Rafe d’Mere to tag along as well, since he was an old hand at dealing with the pirate princes of the Alatzian System. Because he was an old hand in dealing ...

The small resort town of Pine Cove has its little secrets. And one very dangerous one. It takes Patrol Lieutenant JG Intelligence Analyst Vaun Di Ai to discover the dangerous one. It would. In The Secrets of Valsummer House, sequel to The Secret of the Tzarista Moon, we once more return to the Nine Star Nebula of The Bright Black Sea in a new mystery adventure featuring Patrol Lieutenant Vaun Di Ai and the spaceer, Rafe d’Mere. Rafe d’Mere is still repairing Pine Cove’s toasters, bots, and appliances, when a possibly illegal robot arrives in a bugged crate, to be collected by an ...

Taef Lang must set out on his grand quest… … To find a job. Now a married man, the time has come for Taef to begin his long-delayed career as a professor of Island archaeology and/or Island history. To do so, he and Lessie, along with Sella and Carz, set sail for the Island and the University of Jarpara. Passage to Jarpara is a travelogue of that journey. It’s an account of islands called on, old friends and acquaintances met, new ones made, as well as potential pirates, curse-beasts, haunted Tiki palaces, fire islands, and a hidden race of immortals. In short, it’s an episodic ...