A kidnapped prince, a school band competition and an electric cat that eats everything in sight!
What is the secret of the hollow moon? Join intrepid young heroine Ravana O'Brien in a fast-paced and witty science-fiction mystery of interstellar intrigue. Having fled civil war sixteen light years away, Ravana and her father now live in the sleepy commune of the hollow moon, a forgotten colony ship drifting around Barnard's Star. Yet the evil priest Taranis, the dark architect of destiny, has returned from the dead.
What began as a minor escapade to rescue her erratic electric pet soon leads Ravana and friends on an incredible planet-hopping voyage into the shady dystopian world of politics, terrible music and rebellion! Hollow Moon is an adventure for all who relish a dose of humour and practical astrophysics with their fantasy, for young adults and adults young at heart.
"Spunky kids, political intrigue, a kidnapping, spaceships, surprises, a twisted villain, clever AI, mysterious aliens... What more could you want?" - (Author D L Morrese, 9 October 2013)
"An exciting sci-fi adventure with a strong element of humour." - (The Wishing Shelf Book Awards, 19 May 2015)
Follow the electric cat into the strange worlds of HOLLOW MOON!
Ravana stared at him."I'm almost lost for words," she said. "Is that why you call my cat Jones? After some moggy in a horror film?"
"It's more science-fiction than horror," Zotz protested weakly. "In the original movie, Jones is the only crew member to survive other than Ripley. In Alien and the Terrorclones, the cat mutates into tiger cyborg and saves Ripley from the Mechanoraptor."
"I'm obviously missing some class entertainment," muttered Ravana.
A space opera adventure with a serious political message!
"I have not come to this gathering to kill the thunderworm that lays the golden egg," Jaggarneth was saying. "We all know the fear of bad government can seem like too many molecularisors frying the dessert. The Que Qiao Corporation will of course consider all proposals for a preliminary cooperative arrangement to examine the options for the strategic delivery of a democratic extra-dimensional flight path to peace."
Kartikeya blinked. "Does that mean you are open to negotiations?"
Not to mention interstellar school band competitions!
"That was a bad rehearsal," Philyra said gloomily.
"Truly terrible," Endymion agreed. "The only way it could have been worse was if we'd had monkeys on bongos flinging turds at the audience."
"Or dropped our trousers and waved our bottoms in the air," suggested Philyra.
"Or taken a hammer to a cage full of budgies," added Endymion, smiling wickedly at Philyra's horrified expression. "Though your flute solo sounded much the same."
And much, much more!
CHAPTER TITLES: Prologue: The Runaway Star / Falling down the end of the world / The Eden Ravines / Newbrum spaceport / The return of the prince / Strangers in a strange land / The Flying Fox / Voyage to Epsilon Eridani / High and low in Hemakuta / The dark side of Yuanshi / Countdown to the conference / The Palace of Sumitra / Final curtain call / Ghost ship / The secret of the hollow moon.
* * *
WHAT IS THE SECRET OF THE HOLLOW MOON?
Drifting around Barnard's Star was a monument to both the imagination and the folly of humanity. Like the first tools of prehistoric ancestors, the lonely crater-pocked asteroid had been shaped by human hands, an inventiveness betrayed by the caldera-like cones of silenced engines, the concrete carbuncles and single vast airlock shutting out the unforgiving vacuum of space. Beyond this door was carved yet another niche for survival, an incredible land of homes, farms, families and friends where there should be none. This was the forgotten ark of a planet few cared about, circling a sun too dim to see.
Yet for all humankind’s wondrous endeavours, the old squabbles and struggles remained. For every traveller who came to explore, another came to exploit. The strange hollow moon had become a place to hide, a refuge for the runaways fleeing the rank and file of someone else’s great game. Unbeknown to them all, their tiny world now turned upon the fate of a girl barely sixteen, one whose quiet exile was about to be shattered by a story driven by those who saw destiny as just another human invention, a tool harder than stone.
Barnard's Star offered the only light in the black. It was after all the Runaway Star.
[Hollow Moon, Prologue: The Runaway Star.]
STAR SYSTEM CHARTS
"Smells funny to me," Inari observed, wrinkling his nose. "If you ask me, living on all these different worlds is making people loopy." [Hollow Moon, Chapter One: Falling down the end of the world.]
"Could it be possible that after thousands of years of struggling in the darkness we are about to discover, in the light of the new dawn, our purpose and destiny?" - Dandridge M. Cole, Beyond Tomorrow (1965).
PUBLICATION HISTORY
Do you have the latest version? Ebooks are periodically revised to update endpapers following new releases and to correct any errors...
MAY 2012 - First ebook edition (approx. 300 pages).
DECEMBER 2012 - Revised: Text corrections; endpaper update.
MAY 2013 - Second ebook edition: Full editorial refresh. Smashwords edition gains "It's A Blunderful Life" in 'Ebook Extras'.
OCTOBER 2013 - Revised: Text corrections; endpaper update.
MAY 2014 - Revised: Text corrections; endpaper update with new star system graphics.
JUNE 2014 - First trade paperback edition (127mm x 198mm, 424 pages); text is that of May 2014 ebook edition.
JANUARY 2018 - Revised: Minor text corrections; "It's A Blunderful Life" removed from Smashwords edition; "Smell My Gas!" (deleted scene) and short item on Dandridge MacFarlan Cole added to 'Ebook Extras'.
NOTE: If you obtained this ebook from Smashwords, you can download subsequent updates at no extra cost.
Ebook stores and Digital Rights Management (DRM) - Ebooks distributed from Smashwords are DRM-free, which means that once you have purchased a title, you can download it as many times as you like (and in whatever format you like) and make back-up copies if necessary (for personal use only!). WyrdStar's preferred sales outlet is Smashwords, not least because the author gets a larger slice of the list price there than anywhere else! WyrdStar ebooks downloaded from third-party partners (Amazon, Apple Books, etc.) are subject to the vendor's terms and conditions.
(Author D L Morrese, 9 October 2013)
(The Wishing Shelf Book Awards, 19 May 2015)
