Where the Stars Be Still As Bright

Come to the stellar, paranormal, majestic, thrilling science fiction and fantasy worlds created by the author, Jonathan Fisher. The writer of August Always and Ten Minutes on Mars brings you his latest spellbinding collection of stories.

A universe of incredible characters. Mythical beings. A clashing of ancient and future civilisations and undreamt-of technologies. All within Where the Stars Be Still As Bright.

This second volume includes the stories Vincent’s Room and The Battle of Gilgamesh. Halloween Town was just the outskirts of Fisher's imagination.

“A fascinating and impressive collection of science fiction short stories…there’s a remarkable symmetry between the (cover) art and science fiction in the prose and helped transport us into an adventure we will surely cherish – the (stories are) beautifully written, heartfelt, well-paced and I’m in awe of its ambience.”

– Pat Mills,
creator of 2000AD, the Galaxy’s greatest comic
and Spacewarp on Where The Stars Be Still As Bright

The Spaceman

Older than all the known stars, June watched the universe turn. He watched too as the old gods failed. Now he is tired and beset with doubt, his effort wasted, his strength to hold back the tide of indifference diminished. But with allies and enemies gathering and those with loyalties beyond his understanding he commits to change.

Against the old order change will be hard. There will be pain before the fruit of his sacrifice is known. But into the ash and darkness and into fear he places hope. It is a hope that will, given its time, bring enlightenment, a hope that will bring relief and a hope that will bring an enduring, steadfast kindness.

Maybe in time then, the curtain will fall.

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.

Master Builders

Chris finds himself in a foreign environment and form, ten light years from Earth after his untimely death. His mentor, Brian, explains the new order of things. He discovers that he is now in a mechanical shell and bemoans his loss of some body parts. Chris joins three other junior builders, that have been tasked to seed the universe with newly tailored and tested sentient beings. Chris gets into trouble with the Sentient Species Test and Evaluation Facility management but is then instrumental in saving Earth from an Orion reptilian attack. He interacts constructively with the galactic federation based in the Pleiades, leading to the resurrection of an old treaty between Earth’s United Nations and the federation.

Get Real

Justin lives in a future when Earth’s humanity has become largely desensitized to violence and regard for others. He is a Delivery Real superstar whose daily cargo is the soon-to-be exploited, and the already-voided synthetic life forms that look human but are not. He – like the world around him – views artificially created intelligent beings as either property or slaves designed to be used and used up by their human masters without remorse of conscience.

In Justin’s world, everything is up for grabs if you have what it takes, and if you are fit enough to take it. Such is the state of affairs on an increasingly sterile planet with increasingly sterile people who no longer know how to appreciate the gift of life. It isn’t until Justin is introduced to the wise stillness of silence under the tutelage of Mother Entity that he begins to discover what lies just beneath the barren violence of his home planet.