Fresh off their costly yet crucial victory over Napoleon, the French have been driven off of British soil. While Temeraire and Laurence helped to secure this ever so crucial a victory, those who witnessed the devastation caused by Lien have no desire for Temeraire to remain so close to their borders since Laurence is still to be punished for his treason. Though they no longer wish to risk Temeraire’s outrage so instead of returning him to a wait for the gallows, they decide to lessen the punishment to Transportation, sending him across the world to Australia to live out his remaining days as far away from England as possible...

Ever since the charges that had been brought against Rylan were dismissed, he had been waiting for the meeting that would decide what the planet did regarding Laria. It had been a month since the dismissal, and the various leaders had been unable to contact anyone off world. The population of the planet was divided on what they should do, some wanted to ignore what had happened and just carry on as usual. While the other group wanted to build a ship so they could return to Laria and discover what had happened there, a desire that Rylan shared.

The technician knew that the only way he would be able to find out what happened would be to participate in the meeting. Unfortunately for him that required him to be present, his voice would not be heard if he didn’t show up. The rest of the population was not expected to be there, they had other options to be able to cast their vote...

Jemma and Charles weaved through the heart of Comic-Con, their senses alive with the buzz of neon lights, distant cheers, and the scent of fried food hanging in the air. Cosplayers brushed past them in elaborate armor and silk capes, laughter echoed from panel rooms, and the murmur of thousands of fans filled the space like a living machine.

For the twins, the event held significance beyond simple escapism. They’d gathered enough footage, interviews, and exclusives to propel their YouTube channel to new heights. Though they both knew they needed something more...

If I were to ask who the father of modern fantasy is, who would you name? People will have their choice, but I think most people will reach back to the man who penned The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien. While I certainly believe him to be the father of modern fantasy, there are some who have a decenting position, such as Ed Power of the Boston Globe.

Now Mr. Power makes some points. However, they are based purely upon the content of the fantasies that are prevalent in the world today. Unfortunately, I have to argue with his premise, it is far too simplistic of a view. To merely make this determination based solely upon the content inside of the covers of various books...

A scouting squadron, responsible for finding safety, found it moored to the coast like a forgotten legend, scarred and silent, yet still afloat. A seemingly operable battleship, untouched by conflict or the passage of time. They hoped the vessel would be their chance to escape the dying world. Although it appeared safe, the fear of humanity’s bane terrorized the remnants of civilization. After key sections of the craft were cleared, the leaders dispatched the remaining engineers to determine if their last hope could be their salvation. While other teams cleared non-essential chambers, the engineers determined the vessel was not only seaworthy, but capable of surviving the ocean’s capricious nature...

The other day I received a message from Raymond Mullikin, via Kickstarter. After reading his message, I decided to check out his Kickstarter page to see what kind of projects he did. When I landed on his page, I immediately saw his current project Jonathin Quackup: Issue #3 - The Deadly Journey!. And the cover image of that project blew me away. That image with the skeleton in the background and an apparently sorry character is so captivating that I was pulled to delve into the details of the project.

Once I delved into the details, I was greeted with a movie that made me excited about the third book in a series that I had never read before...

One day, a father and his daughter were out eating at their favorite restaurant, The Noodle Shop. The father savored his meal as well as getting the night off from cooking. Meanwhile, his daughter enjoyed the establishment’s macaroni and cheese. As was their custom once they got their meal, they wandered through the restaurant until they reached their regular booth. While they ate their meal, the bell hanging from the entrance announced a change to their ritual.

A small man, walking stiffly, trying not to spill his food, approached their booth. Without asking, he sat down next to the father saying, “I hate to interrupt, but I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation and unfortunately for you sir, she is correct...

As the crew of the Aurora finishes their work establishing the newest planet of the Federation, the tech in charge of the platform discovers a fault and alerts his commander…..

Rylan sat in the judge’s office head in his hands as he listened to the each of the counselors explain their arguments. The judge who would ultimately decide his fate was an impressive figure sitting tall behind his desk, an unmoving mountain. Sweat began to form along Rylan’s brow as the heat in the room finally started to get to the technician. As each of the counselors was finishing their arguments, Rylan began to think about what had happened to him under the emotionless scrutiny of the judge sitting across from him.

As the platform room began to flood with people, Rylan was trying to get in touch with any of the Larian planets. He was trying to adjust the communications device to contact another world when he was immediately placed under arrest...

I remember hearing one time that out of every ten superhero action figures nine of them are Spider-Man. Think about that for a minute the most popular superhero of all time is our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. And his most iconic villain is Venom, that combination of Eddie Broc and a spurned alien symbiote. The villain certainly challenges the web crawler whenever the two meet, and I remember the last time they tried to bring the hero’s greatest villain to the big screen, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3.

From what I heard after the fact Sam Rami did not want to do the movie with Venom and after hearing that it makes total sense. That rendition of Venom was terrible, and I remember being so disappointed with how he was treated...

At the conclusion of Empire of Ivory Temeraire and Laurence stood at a moral crossroads, unbeknownst to them the Admiralty of the British Empire had deliberately caused the sickness that had plagued their Arieal Corps to spread to France, and were holding the cure in an effort to decimate the dragons under Napoleon’s control. When Temeraire heard this, he immediately decided to gather some of the medicine from the British stores and take them to France to prevent the potential destruction of the draconic race from Eurasia. With knowledge of his dragon’s desire Laurence needed only a little longer to knowingly commit treason to try and undo a truly horrific act. However after successfully delivering the cure to the French Laurence willingly returns to England to face the consequences of his actions...

Tarian is resting upon a tree thinking about how the colonization ship has overcome. First, there was the crash landing. Fortunately, no one had died, but there had been some minor injuries and even a couple of major ones. Though the livestock they had brought with them on the trip did not fair as well, they should be able to breed replacements for the ones that had died, while the dead ones were taken for provisions while they settled around the crashed ship.

Of course, as a result of the crash, some of the more delicate equipment had not survived the landing like the communications array as well as some of the medical equipment. And to make matters worse the parts that had broken would take time to replace of course they would have to find the raw materials first, and to date, they had not seen any of the needed materials...

Felicia was holding onto Gerard with skilled hands, as they gracefully moved around her dancing studio. She was amazed that a man with his skill would put his name into a drawing for a free dancing lesson, he did not need it. His motions were as graceful as a swan gliding across the top of a crystal clear lake. With each step across the smooth floor, Felica was amazed at how gently he was able to hold here, without sacrificing his grip upon her.

“You know I’m a little surprised at your skill level, Gerard.”

“I’m sure its just beginners luck,” Gerrard said with a warm smile. After a moment he ever so slightly tightened his grip upon Felicia as he whispered into her ear, “It also helps that I have the best teacher in the world...

I was introduced to NYC Midnight by John Dutton one of the leaders of the Spilled Ink group on Facebook. I was talking with him about some of the flash fiction stories I had written, and he suggested this particular competition if I was into that format. As soon as he told me about these competitions, I was intrigued. So I put it on my list of things to investigate, and when I finally got to delve into NYC Midnight and their competition, I began to soak up everything I could in earnest to learn as much as I could.

After I finished looking into NYC Midnight, I found that they did a lot of different types of contest other than flash fiction...

Empire of Ivory starts with the end of the journey back to England, and Laurence is shocked that no one is there to meet him, they find that the entire population of the dragons of England is decimated by disease. So Temeraire and the feral dragons that sided in the escape are now being pressed into service so that they can protect the coastline of England from Napoleon, though he is mostly still focused upon the continent. We see yet another side to Temeraire as the story progresses, in normal conditions, dragons can live for a couple hundred years or so and so naturally he had never thought about the possibility that his friends, Maximus and Lily to name a pair, might die and be lost to him. this along with the patroling bring him down into depression but he keeps going, and he is eventually coaxed into helping commission England’s first pavilion for the sick dragons though this does not help bring him out of his depression entirely...