YEAR OF THE RAM
Della Van Hise
Year of the Ram was described by one reviewer as... "A space-faring gay romance full of love, angst, and longing."
Only after Star Commander Morgan Diego becomes an exile as a result of a Galaxy Corps political blunder does he begin to realize how much he valued the companionship of his second in command - the mysterious Lucien, an Alfarian who is more elven than human, with peculiar powers & abilities which begin to unfold as he, too, realizes what he has lost.
Separated by circumstance from his former life, Morgan is thrust into a world where he must survive by his wits. When he meets a peculiar little old man calling himself Kim Le, Morgan finds himself in a situation where he is required to master The Art - not only a form of human & extraterrestrial martial arts, but a way of living and being that will alter his life forever.
At the temple, he is introduced to his new teacher, another Alfarian who begins to steal his heart - a heart which is already promised to Lucien. Torn and conflicted, Morgan struggles with the world he left behind and the world he now inhabits.
Beginning to believe he may never again return to his ship and to the friends and loved ones he left behind, he is all the more frustrated and heartbroken when a new Master arrives at the temple: a man to whom Morgan is immediately drawn both mentally and physically, a man who is strikingly familiar... yet utterly alien.
Year of the Ram is a fully-fleshed novel, approximately 97000 words, with a focus on the love story and romance angle. Set against a science fiction milieu, it explores the infinite possibilities of the human and alien heart. Sexual content is explicit, though is not the primary focus of the novel.
For those who like a romance that forces its characters to contemplate the ecstasies AND the agonies of love... you will enjoy Year of the Ram immensely.
LETTERS TO AN ANDROID
Wendy Rathbone
Cobalt is a created human, vat grown and born adult, with no human rights and indentured to serve others for the duration of his life. Liyan is a young man with wanderlust in his eyes, embarking on a career that takes him to the furthest regions of space. The two become unlikely friends and create a memorable long-distance correspondence. Through Liyan, Cobalt gets to explore the universe, living vicariously through his friend’s wave transmissions. A strong bond develops between them that not even the stars can put asunder.
_________________
Now you know an android who writes poetry.
This is all your fault. Did you not read my last wave telling you extracurricular activities for my kind are discouraged? Of course this is harmless and strangely enjoyable and does not necessarily require me to leave the hotel. Pel would not care if I wrote lines of equations or nonsensical juxtaposed words. As long as the act does not bring my mental state into question.
However, in history, poetry is often written by the rebels.
So we can keep this to ourselves.
Let me know about your lieutenant’s test.
And to give you peace of mind, I never believed you observed me as anything other than human.
Some people are and always will be hateful bigots. Most people are simply uncomfortable in speaking to “property.” And anyway, friendship, like poetry, is also discouraged.
Your friend,
Cobalt
PALE ZENITH
Wendy Rathbone
A Science Fiction Novel
On a far-flung “Earth” in a parallel universe, two factions are fighting a decades-long psychic war. Young talented psychics are being temporarily kidnapped from present day Earth, seemingly at random, to serve as part of one side’s psychic army. They are put under the control of spychiatrists, mysterious machines with many limbs that have a programmed ability to travel time and space and universes to kidnap and control carefully selected humans. The humans never know they are being used; when their missions are completed they are brought back to their universe through time and placed back in their beds, their memories wiped.
______________
The shadows wound the tall corridor in muted gold, varnished brown. It seemed as though they were in the bowels of a giant serpent coiled outside time, outside space.
When they left the palace, a familiar sun flourished in a clear, blue sky. But this wasn’t their sun. Not Zack’s sun. It was an alien star burning within a different galaxy in an all too distant universe. Zack looked up squinting, trying to see if he could peer beyond the sky, beyond the pale of midday and into his own timespace, but there was nothing. Only sunlight. Only the thin atmosphere of an Earth not his own.
His back knotted again. Leo’s presence was a gelid space inside his chest, empty. Always before he’d felt a warmth there, a sort of pressure like someone’s hand pressed gently to his heart. He’d taken Leo for granted knowing, the way a shadow falls when you block the sun, that he was there around him, inside him: blood, air, salt, brain, soul. They were genetic duplicates, twins, spiritual halves. Without him, Zack knew the first icy tugs of panic.
Eye Scry Publications
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