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A mystery story featuring Edgar Allan Poe during his brief time as a cadet at West Point.

“Alas! The grim legion of sepulchral terrors cannot be regarded as altogether fanciful ... they must sleep or they will devour us — they must be suffered to slumber, or we perish.” — Edgar Allan Poe

It’s a little-known fact that Edgar Allan Poe was expelled from the military academy at West Point in 1831 after only six months as a cadet. To this day, the reasons for the 21-year old’s court-martial are sketchy. This historical suspense novel fills in the missing pieces.

Bernard Gilboy undertakes a monumental solo voyage across the Pacific.

“Alone on the raging ocean, alone in my craft I ride,
Alone on the foaming billows, in all their crested pride,
No man before hath ventured, alone, so far to sail;
Nor mind hath ever yet conceived a ship so small, so frail.”

Sydney Punch - February 17, 1883, Sydney, Australia

Europe, March 2003: In an unseen sphere, a Radimote is born and glides to land, invisible still, but watching and listening and ready to roll. Its undetectable Handlers have travelled far from “Dome” to study this newly-identified world.

They soon endow their virtual missionary with an elegant human form. Her first target is music student Toni Murano, who haplessly follows the siren’s call, gets entangled in the resultant security alert, but manages to slip through its dragnet. “Carla” can at last use Toni’s favourite music to hook him securely, and her senior officer Quo then press-gangs him into service as the Illuminator for their early observations.

Forced to take on a crisp new identity, Toni is led on a hurdle-strewn chase round the cities of ever-expanding Europe, as the Domans build their initial model of the Earth and search in vain for a political leader with flawless integrity.

And then they receive their orders for Observation Two ...

Take a ride on the rails of fantasy as you journey to Titan inside the bowels of the Iron Horse. Witness a terrifying and deadly new game and meet a monster who will love you to death. Spend a little time with alien tourists, visit a real cardboard character, and dine in a restaurant where the food is expensive, but life is cheap.

Inventive and original, heartfelt and just plain funny, you will find nineteen fresh and surprising stories (including three new, never-before published) awaiting you in the first collection of short fiction from Colin P. Davies.

Dispossessed at an early age, Aezubah has wandered the world in search of vengeance. On arid mountaintops, remote glaciers and burning deserts he has conquered demons from the edge of creation, wicked sorcerers, and evil kings. As a General, he is beloved of all the warriors who follow him.

But his victories are never final; he goes forth again and again with nothing but his horse, spear and sword, in loneliness and solitude, seeking the treasure that always eludes him: peace.

The Legend of Aezubah: The Crimson General is a sword and sorcery epic of human aspirations and tragedy. It shows how anyone can be both a villain and a hero and how even the smallest actions can change the world

April-May 2003

The Doman visitors on the orbiting star-craft Mater have made their first assessment of the integrity of Earth’s public figures and published data. And they are not impressed.

Under revised orders to establish a complete picture of the planet’s natural resources, they recruit a new, specialised illuminator to help them scout out the true lay of the land.

Salvatore Pirone then leads them from Europe to the rich promise of the USA. But he proves a mixed blessing, and the Domans need to call upon the services of their earlier, more reliable assistant Toni Murano, and a talented young woman who soon crosses their path.

As the three conscripts struggle with their own relationship challenges, on top of the demands of the Mater and the increasing interest of Homeland Security, the visitors make faltering progress in building trade proposals to address the greatest resource shortfalls of both Earth and Dome.

And they have also discovered an unattractive little racket blossoming secretly in California, involving a very special commodity which they are particularly keen to lay their hands on ...

May 2003

Congresswoman Kristy Toresito must somehow take the Domans’ astonishing trade proposals discreetly forward to the U.S. Government, while her financiers tear their sorry Brighter Vale enterprise to pieces and Raymond Graves tries to keep everybody on their toes. But the State Department is none too happy with any of it.

Toni and Maelene press on with their fine ad hoc support to the Mater, and also have plenty of time to see America and get to know each other for better or worse. But Maelene is far from carefree, and Homeland Security still can’t seem to leave Toni alone.

A string of ill-conceived Earth-Dome summits, permeated with mistrust and denial, is making very little progress. Quo amuses herself, in her spare moments, by gaining new insights into both American political truth and what ordinary human beings really think about their modern world. And the Mater, meanwhile, continues to receive further challenging orders from Dome, mixed in with news both bad and good.

Many hearts will need to change, or be changed, if this is not to end in a sea of tears ...

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Works in Progress

In the far future, Man has mysteriously departed, leaving Earth to three Sentient Peoples of his creation: Katts, Dawgs and Mysse. The Sentient Peoples have developed separate civilizations of their own, which flourish but have weaknesses: the Dawgs languish under theocratic militarism; the Katts’ society is patriarchal and stagnant; and the Mysse, though clever and well organized, are superstitious barbarians.

Caught between cultures, two non-conformists — a Dawg, Phydo, and a Katt, Thomm — form an alliance that is uneasy at first, but in their adventures they soon become fast friends. They discover Kitti at the gate to the Stairway to Heaven and, at the top, Adam, the last of a Sentient People older than their own. The little band of outcasts joins forces with the wise Dawg Rover Quicknose and even the unlikely Mysse to battle the warrior priests of Kannis. Lucius, an evil simulacrum of Man left over from Man’s last days on Earth, captures the four friends, who have penetrated his mountain lair just as Lucius unleashes on all the Sentient Peoples a monstrous army of mutant insects. In the battle, Dawgs, Katts and Mysse form an alliance that is uneasy at first...

Nearing the end of his life, Adam leads his friends beyond the Andes to an ancient Archive, where one of them must, once and for all and for all the Sentient Peoples, come to terms with their creator.

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