by Ian J Miller
Everything else is fictional, and the people and the dinosaurs are from my imagination and have no intended resemblance to any person. In this series I have tried to explore various forms of governance, including some I have made up myself, and this was my rational theocracy.
I also run a blog, which discusses some of these issues, and is at http://ianmillerblog.wordpress.com.
My novels form what I call a future history. Each are intended to stand alone, although books in the First Contact trilogy are probably better read in sequence. Each of these books also features a different form of governance, although the First Contact trilogy is essentially one form, because it was conceived as one book. Thus the Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy shows how Scaevola got into the position he finds himself in Miranda's Demons. The First Contact trilogy shows how the form of government in Miranda's Demons, and its inherent problems, came to be, as well as how the Jonathon Munros came to be. Troubles and Red Gold are set during the formation of the Federation and the giant corporations. This could not happen now, but Puppeteer proposes a situation that cannot be discounted, and what other outcomes would you expect? These fictional books are:
1. Puppeteer Set in 2030, thanks to excessive government debt and an energy shortage, terrorism and corruption are rife. Governments are failing because they do not have the money to do what has to be done, thanks to debt servicing. It should not be allowed to happen, yet look at Greece. The Puppeteer attempts to shock society into reform, but things do not go according to plan.
2. Troubles Set in 2050, an anarchic society is coming out of the energy crisis, thanks to the invention of fusion power. As civilization rises from the ashes, those who move fast and ruthlessly will accumulate great wealth. The aged and decaying infrastructure is gold, life is cheap, and winners take all.
3. Red Gold Set in 2070, it covers the colonization of Mars, fraud, and when a scientific discovery is made that makes Mars viable, the fraud is exposed. However, the fraudster also has the only guns on Mars, and men to use them.
4. A Face on Cydonia The first of the First Contact trilogy. When the rock winks, the question is, how, and eventually a disparate party set out to prove this rock has nothing to do with aliens, but instead each discovers exactly what they do not want to find. One young man has nothing to offer but ambition, and that ambition has no positive outlet.
5. Dreams Defiled Each of the party has a task that will stretch their talents, but the man without talent is given nothing demanding. His ambition is such that he will make something, even if only to undermine the others. The constructed political system will only work if the people want it to, and only too many merely want to make it work for their personal benefit.
6. Jonathon Munros The conclusion of the trilogy, where machines begin self-reproduction and threaten the world, and where Jonathon Munro achieves immortality.
7. Athene's Prophecy is the first book in the Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy, in which Scaevola is sent on a quest to save civilization far into the future. Besides discovering some science and learning military strategy, he must survive the erratic rule of Caligulae and prevent a Jewish Roman war.
8. Legionis Legatus is the second book in the Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy in which Scaevola becomes a Legatus and has a critical role in the Scribonianus attempted coup and in the invasion of Britain, and also works out how to prove the Earth goes around the sun.
9. Scaevola's Triumph. Scaevola is abducted by aliens, and we see why he had to do much of what was in the prophecy. All he has to do is to save an advanced civilization from being exterminated.
10. Miranda's Demons. This brings together the strands of the First Contact trilogy and the Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy, in which Scaevola returns to Earth in pursuit of the part of the defeated M'starn fleet, and meets the ugliest woman in the world.
I hope I have been entertaining, but I also hope that I have given readers something to think about.
Further details about me and about further books, including those yet to be written, and my scientific books can be found at my website, http://www.ianmiller.co.nz and links therein.