One of the great things about self-publishing is that there’s no completely final release. In traditional publishing, once the print run is done, that’s it. It’s too late to fix the error you noticed just after the press started running. The long editing process in traditional publishing is designed to avoid just that problem, and errors still creep through.
Here at Spaceaxe Press, I’m in control of the entire editing chain, and I can upload a corrected version whenever I notice an error. Going back over the earlier books in the Master Blasters series, I’ve noticed some errors and some things that could have been done better. I’ve been working at correcting those errors and improving the “customer experience”, as Amazon calls it.
All four of the Master Blasters series of hard science fiction novels have now been re-released in upgraded editions with improved covers.
The Fimbulwinter Contract
First Contact. The aliens mean business.
The Portal is the key to the wealth and knowledge of the thousands of races scattered amid the stars of the Orion Arm, Earth’s hope of survival against the infinite blind malice of the Universe.
Keeping it will cost money, blood, toil and lives. Humanity is the new kid on an unforgiving shop floor with one iron law. Contracts are fulfilled, at any cost.
On the fair blue world humans call Fimbulwinter, a super-volcano has rumbled to life, and when it erupts that world will die. Catherine Ulam, ace nuclear weapons designer, has a plan to use nukes to save it.
Maverick tech billionaire Elroy Risk stakes his fortune to do business in a greater arena, legendary astronaut Bronco Anderson takes on the mission of a lifetime, Conrad Hanson negotiates the Contract for all of humanity. Ordinary people rise to the challenge, toiling and bleeding to get it done.
Master Blasters is born. The toughest of the tough, paid to blow shit up with nukes to save worlds. When one falls, others step up. A plumber’s son from South Boston who owes a debt of honour to a ruthless powerful man will step up when a legendary leader falls.
If the Master Blasters are too late, Earth will lose its Portal and they will be marooned among the stars.
Schedules can slip. They don’t know that powerful foes on Earth and Fimbulwinter want them to fail …
The Sanctuary Contract
There’s business to be done out among the far stars of the Orion Arm so Earth can keep the Portal, key to the wealth and knowledge of the thousands of races scattered amid the stars of the Orion Arm and Earth’s hope of survival against the infinite blind malice of the Universe.
Master Blasters has taken another iron-bound Contract to blow shit up with nukes, this time to save a world whose star deals death to all who have no cave to shelter in when the storms rage across its face.
“The locals have a problem. Not enough caves. Twenty percent of their population is the floor figure for the war that’s brewing. Their Responsible Entity put up an RFP for enough caves, fast enough and cheap enough, to put the pin back in the grenade.”
There are the laws of the universe to contend with, as always. Murphy’s Law. Desperate people do desperate things to survive. If you think you have enough time, you’re wrong. The universe will kill you if you let it. Contracts are fulfilled, at any cost.
The toughest of the tough head out through the Portal to do the business of the human race. New technologies are invented and new science is discovered, but the sweat and blood of hard hats with their boots on the ground will determine whether the Contract is fulfilled.
Enemies old and new await them, out among the stars and back on Earth …
The von Neumann Contract
Sometimes things you’ve left behind you come back to haunt you.
Jonas Stone owes a debt of honour, and being Captain of the Galactic Surveys Starship James Cook is a down payment. Taking nuclear submarines into harm’s way is behind him.
Ashley Hanson won the name of Gunslinger, the one who could make it happen when a Contract was in play and the clock was running on a planetary disaster. Gunslinger used people, and sometimes she used them up. Gunslinger is behind her. She’s just an astronomer, and loving it.
When they stumble on a mysterious asteroid drifting in from interstellar space, they get a Contract they can’t refuse from the powerful enigmatic Portal Aliens. The remnant of a ancient war which raged across the Orion Arm has come back to haunt the present.
When is a von Neumann machine a Berserker? And if it is, how can a few people in an unarmed fragile ship destroy it?
Portal Contracts must be fulfilled, and they have taken The von Neumann Contract.
The Snowball Contract
A Contract that’s not a race against disaster? Nice change of pace. Almost too good to be true. Of course, there are some things to worry about, but aren’t there always?
They call it Snowball. It would be a nice planet, if it wasn’t an iceball. The Ishnageri want it thawed out before they take possession. They’re willing to pay.
The negotiations are contentious and the stakes are high, but that’s a day at the office. The new generation of young Turks are up for the challenge. Carl Volcker is accustomed to negotiating with terrorists and cornered desperate criminals for the lives of hostages.
Business as usual. Until, of course, it isn’t. Then they find out that the Ishnageri are lying to them, and a Contract negotiation becomes a hostage negotiation.
The whole series is available on Amazon, in ebook and paperback.
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