A tear dropped from my eye. “What kind of life is that? Death would have been preferable.”
He put his arm around my shoulders, pulled me close. “Don’t give up hope yet. You’re not dead, and I have a feeling we’ll figure something out. Who knows? If we can, maybe God and Lono can too.”
I smiled. I hoped he was a typical Earther.
###
If you wish to read additional science fiction by Shawn B. Thompson, he has written a series of stories entitled The Tales of The Encircling Belts of Tirano.
Planet Tirano creates a unique milieu for The Tales of The Encircling Belts of Tirano. Tirano’s aristocracy consists only of pureblooded descendants of the leaders of the mother ship that landed two millennia ago, and its royal family (the Arvors) has reigned since the landing. An order of genetically engineered women (the Sibyls), all of whom were conceived in vitro, control Tirano’s computer network. The Vhirko, clones of women who died valiantly in battle, guard Tirano’s monarch at all times. Tirano has been at war for decades with a savage alien species that becomes sentient only if mentally linked in groups of four or more.
The Tales of The Encircling Belts of Tirano chronicle the uncontrollable changes that occur to this milieu when King Mhikhel Arvor acknowledges as his child an illegitimate son of a courtesan of common blood and raises the child (Tarnlot) as a prince. Despite the aristocracy’s antagonism, Mhikhel grooms Tarnlot to serve as the Lord Chancellor (the highest governmental post, which is normally held by a member of the aristocracy) when Mhikhel’s heir (Prince Zhun’Mar) assumes the throne.
In A BASTARD’S OATH, Mhikhel is mysteriously assassinated and Tarnlot must rescue Zhun’Mar’s kingship by foiling both an aristocrat’s usurpation of power and the aliens’ attempt to invade Tirano.
In A DREAM IS A PINHOLE IN TIME, Tarnlot and Zhun’Mar escape an ambush in deep space by entering a hyperspace fissure that strands them on a planet in an unknown galaxy: present day Earth.
OUTLIERS OF TIRANO tells the story of Siniastra, the daughter of King Zhun’Mar and the Vhirko Mirae, and Kuinsi, the son of a High Sibyl Caykondra and Hobie Burrows of Earth. Together Siniastra and Kuinsi must overcome the prejudices and intrigues of the aristocracy while fighting alien attacks.
Even though the novels occur in chronological order, each is an independent novel. Accordingly, you can read the novels in any order.
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