SELLENRIA: The Starship and the Citadel by Chuck Bowheim and Daniel Elswit ***Spotlight -- Excerpt***

Science Fiction

Date Published: June 20, 2018

Publisher: Lampworks Publishing

An archaeologist from a star-faring society faces a world of legends and impossible creatures... 

Stenn Gremm set out to solve the mystery of his ancestor’s disappearance but instead found himself stranded on a forgotten planet. A creature made of clay has just ground his vital technology into dust and is about to do the same to Stenn when he isrescued by the deadly and enigmatic swordswoman Gilwyr.Instead of studying the life of a medieval society, Stenn must now learn to survive it.However, his training in swordsmanship and court intrigue is cut short by the chaos that follows the murder of the heir to the throne.All the archaeological digs that he had led via telepresence had not prepared him to get dirt under his fingernails and blood on his hands!

Fleeing with Gilwyr and their mentor, Ox, Stenn begins a journey of discovery, both of this world and of himself. Who are the reclusive Kir Leth who raised Gilwyr? What is the truth behind the legend of the Grimmerroth, the sorcerer who once laid waste to this land? Perhaps the answers may be found in the mysterious citadel that is said to be hidden in the desert far to the south. Stenn must combine his scientific insights with newfound skills and something that might be called magic to try to uncover the truth behind the legends before time runs out.

A fantasy adventure wrapped in a hard SF environment, Sellenria is a world where technology is myth, but myths are real. As the War of the Grimmerroth appears destined to replay itself, Stenn and Gilwyr must struggle to transcend their roles. The last war devastated the planet; this time it could extinguish all life on this unique world.

Excerpt

Gilwyr was telling me the tale of the conflict of good and evil in her world.

“At first this was splendid. Glimmer took up the tools of the smith and hammered fine instruments of iron and copper. He took up the brush of the artist and made creations to elicit joy and love and fear, and any other emotion he cared to essay in any who viewed them. He took up the pen and wrote stories and poems to move the mind and soul of any who read them. He was handsome, and admired, and influential. Polnedra was pleased and manifested in his garden to spend an afternoon in conversation. In this, she made a grave error.

“After the conversation, Glimmer saw what he could have been. Polnedra was young, eternal, beautiful, and could create with the touch of a finger. Flowers dropped from her fingertips as she walked around his garden. For an age after her visit, that garden had flowers found nowhere else in the worlds.

“Glimmer threw himself into creation with a fever, trying to equal his creator. He became stern and uncompromising, striving for ever greater perfection. Yet everything he made he saw only as a shadow of Polnedra’s originals. His art became darker, his work at the forge became twisted. His words drove others away. He released demons on the world that killed many. It was then that he became known as Grimmer, first in jest and then in fear.

“His words inspired those who leaned to the darkness themselves. He took delight in whispering in their ears, first in one ear and then another, so that Polnedra’s children would first argue, then fight. He made weapons for them to use and invented reasons for them to be used.

“Finally, Polnedra could stand the strife in her creation no longer. She lured Grimmer to a cave in the deepest mountains. She could not reverse Time, but she could stop it in a small area. She touched Grimmer and froze Time in that cavern, turning him into a twisted statue. After he became frozen in his twisted form, he was known thereafter as the Grimmerroth. But Grimmer had suspected her motives and had fashioned a blade that he plunged into her breast and held. As she touched him and froze Time, she froze herself in Time as well.

“To this day, they stand in the darkness, frozen in Time. A few have found this cavern upon occasion. If someone touches them and warms them with a little of their own Time, they are released on the world for a while. The Grimmerroth creates twisted things and twisted people to sow war and destruction on the world. Polnedra tries to rally people to defeat him. Because she is locked in Time and without her powers, each time she faces him she must choose a hero to fight for her against the Grimmerroth.”

About the Authors

Chuck Boeheim is a life-long denizen of physics laboratories, where he worked on the computing for major high-energy physics experiments. Daniel Elswit studied Archaeology in college and has worked in University IT ever since. Dan had ideas for a story about an archaeologist in a middle-earth-like setting, which Chuck hijacked to turn into a science fiction story set on an alien planet.

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