Ten Minutes On Mars

Welcome to a place beyond the borders of the imagination. The signpost up ahead reads Blackest Hole in the Universe. This is Hallowe'en Town, a singularity in Hell.
This is a town stuck in time and located on a fault line where the magical, mystical, and supernatural intersect with the dreary and the mundane, creating a confluence of otherworldliness.

Enter, if you will, to a collection of eighteen breathtaking short stories by the author, Jonathan Fisher. He will regale you with tales of blood-curdling terror that will chill you to bone marrow. He will take you to the utmost reaches of the future, and then suddenly, without warning, thrust you back in time to fantasy realm. Witness blazing amazing classic science fiction action.

The first volume of short stories include Ten Minutes to Mars.

“An eclectic collection of thoughtful and imaginative stories. Jonathan’s writing is thoroughly researched and he creates a rich experience for the reader. The cover looks amazing, very professional and has a great science fiction traditional feel.”

— Pat Mills, creator of 2000 AD, the galaxy’s greatest comic.

Soot

The nation of Abradia is now prosperous and at peace. The Jaana, a hostile gang of warlords, have long been vanquished by The Republic, and all seems right in the world. That is, until a mysterious stranger comes to the small town of Gourdston looking for someone to carry his bags. He settles for a volunteer, a young chimney sweep called Soot. Soot is quickly swept away into the adventure of a lifetime, where he soon discovers that The Republic isn’t as wonderful as he was taught to believe, and the Jaana are far from gone…

Soot

Soot is a powerful and secretive substance.

Little is known of the crystal’s origins, but its multiple uses make it the most expensive commodity in the country. A commodity on which New Chimera was built.

New Chimera is a steampunk metropolis separated by wealth into two ringed districts, with the only consistent links between them being the secrets and corruption that flow like water, fuelled by its dictatorial ruling family, the Flintlocks.

The only people able to travel freely (although illegally) through the districts are the varied street gangs who battle for truth, liberty and survival on a daily basis.

Red is the newest resident of New Chimera, after spending his formative years in one of the city’s many orbiting orphanages, where the unexplained death of his brother alienated him entirely.

After falling in debt to a gang of underground freedom fighters, Red must fight, steal and possibly kill his way to not only uncover the answer to his brother’s death but also the true origins of New Chimera’s wealth and the terrifying link between the two.

Smar

Something strange has again landed on Topside of the Planet Smar. The Great Council has hurriedly put a small team of “volunteers” together to seek out what it is and discover what it’s doing. Sergeant Ha’an, the reluctant leader and soul survivor of a previous expedition to encounter an object from the sky, leads his equally reluctant band of misfits on their perilous journey across Topside. On the way, they meet up with Nerak, a fearless explorer and scientist, and she joins them on their quest. They meet up with Tega, an old scout, who leads them to the landing site and their epic encounter with the strange machines and what lies within them. They battle with their own personal demons whilst forming a lasting friendship. Meanwhile, in the city of Below, an unscrupulous journalist tries her best to get her story no matter who gets hurt in the process whilst the equally unethical Information Bureau does its best to stop her. What does the Great Council really know about the objects from the sky, the ancient civilisation and where the answers are to be found?

Rorkk’s Captive

Rorkk is a Rotari Admiral who has defended his planet against Krylan invasion for most of his adult life. Shattered by his former fiancé’s betrayal and tired of defending a planet under siege, his spirit is almost broken until intelligence is received that the Krylans are targeting an Earth woman for her unique genome to enhance their Nzumbe troops.

Seizing the opportunity to thwart the Krylans and obtain important intelligence information, Rorkk embarks on a risky mission to ensure the Earthling does not fall into the wrong hands.

Instead of finding her dream job on Aero Space Nine with the Galactic Trading Academy, Aurora discovers her role as Chief Engineer, Spacecraft Maintenance embroils living and working on a rust bucket plagued by mechanical problems, ageing maintenance droids and a crew of oddball geeks just out of school.

After surviving a micro meteor storm which compromises the space station’s hull and the environmental systems bringing the crew to the brink of disaster, Aurora visits Robodome, an off-world pleasure centre to unwind.

Aurora’s life changes overnight when she visits the centre and is kidnapped. One minute she’s about to enjoy the delights of her assigned pleasure bot, the next, she finds herself locked in a cabin on an alien spacecraft.

With a journey that threatens everything they believed about themselves and enemies at every turn, Rorkk and Aurora must join forces to defeat the enemy. Can they learn to trust each other, their growing attraction and stop the Krylans in their tracks?

Revelation

In our world of increasing cyber-attack, threatened nuclear war and climate change, mankind seems locked into ancient hard-wired tribal patterns of suspicion and aggression.

Popularist nationalism, fuelled by fake news via social media and vested mega-industry interests, is an overwhelming scientific reality. The evolutionary jump 200,000 years ago, which enabled an insignificant ape in Africa to develop the critical social skills to dominate the planet, is now threatening its existence. Homo sapiens sapiens needs another evolutionary jump – but will it come in time?

In a laboratory in Cambridge University, a distinguished neurologist is close to developing a revolutionary brain stem cell therapy which may restore lost functions. Unexpectedly, he is forced to use it secretly when a close friend and colleague develops rapidly progressive dementia. The results are far, far more than ever dreamed of. Could this be the beginning of a new era of hope for humanity, and can it survive the hostile agents committed to eliminate it?

Read The Small Print

If you are wondering what happens after you die, or think there is life after death, or think we are here by accident, then think again!
We are only at the beginning of a long journey. If you think we are special or here by accident, we are not.
Thank GOD there is life outside our solar system.
This is the story of Capella Smith… after she dies. On earth, she was a politician, but now she can be whatever she wants to be – as long as she reads the small print!

Poetic Retribution From Mars

The leadership of a country under an immense pressure from the world community to reform its atrocious political system, decided to send a spaceship loaded with world-renowned scientists to undertake a make believe research programme on the moon for a period of one year. This decoy did not go as planned and the spaceship, which was largely controlled by computers from Earth, could not land on the moon. Unfortunately, an attempt to bring it back to Earth failed when it bounced off the Earth’s atmosphere and proceeded to fly away at an ever-increasing speed. The marooned scientists developed various means of passing the time while they awaited the inevitable death. However, after nearly a year of wandering through the universe the spaceship landed on a planet, which turned out to be Mars but with conditions completely at variance with what is known on Earth about this planet. What the Martians learnt about the socio-political conditions on Earth displeased them enormously. They therefore sent the scientists back with an ultimatum for the world’s leadership, asking Earth to change its ways so that an acceptable interplanetary discourse could be established. The leadership of the world threw down the gauntlet and embarked upon a secret mission to bomb Mars out of existence. This was detected by the Martians and set the two planets on a collision course, with the winner of the encounter not much in doubt.

Pilgrim's Ark

“It was flared out as if it were a cosmic parachute.
In this firmament, where Earth was just another pinprick, an object chilled with veins of superfluid and superconductive memories traversed the final remnants of the Oort cloud.”

When software specialist Mike Brazier from SETI detects the arrival of an enigmatic visitor, it triggers an evolutionary chain of events. But, with humanity on the cusp of becoming a hive mind, their linked futures need a guiding hand.

As agitators exploit tensions between the augmented and the disillusioned, the path to survival must unfold covertly or awaken revolt. Can it be navigated without the help of Earth’s emergent conscious AI?

Parvon Zin Koban Hunter

Thought you knew about history? Think again. The dinosaurs were not killed off by an asteroid strike, the Koban in their thousands did that. They are still here, and have been throughout history, killing and eating millions.

But now there is only one shapeshifting Koban hunter left, and only he and his acid-tongued AI stand in the way of the Koban turning humans into nothing more than cattle. 

Alterative history with a science fiction twist.

Paper Snow

Noah wakes up with no conscious memory of who he is or where he came from. He discovers a pattern, others who share the exact same problem. Noah and the others discover that they are more than just people who’ve lost their memories – they are empaths. Each of them is a specific type of empath and must join forces to uncover the truth of their reality. Noah is an intuitive empath who can manifest his dreams into reality, but the more he taps into his dreams, the darker the truth becomes.

Our Man On Mars

Will they end up killing one another? That’s what concerns the authorities as much as the scientific and technical hurdles of sending folk to Mars. So they address the human issues, as they would in an army, by appointing a chaplain.

The Church of Scotland considers this post just right for Steve McKay, one of their more wayward recruits. Steve finds he is off to a parish more remote and barren than he had ever imagined. However, he discovers that the remoteness creates a heightened awareness of the meaning of life and they share some Earth-shattering revelations.

Deep thinker he may be, but Steve is no saint. He muddles through offering his brand of care and support, both in the chaplaincy and increasingly in the Mars Bar. A misdemeanour on his part finally leads to Life on Mars in a way unforeseen by the authorities.