Here it is ladies and germs! Finally the finished version. Some of you may recall this book was issued as an advance reader copy on kindle and as a paper book too. This was a bit of an experiment on my part to see how many people are interested in a book that has had no professional editing. As it turns out, it’s quite a bit more than I thought, however, I certainly hope that now that it’s been all fixed up and has a new, less scary cover, that it will literally fly into your homes straight from Amazon, whether in beautiful dead tree format or in digital/kindle/iPad/retinal scan projection, or whatever they will think of next. See below to read a bit about the amazing cover image.
If you are wondering what the book is about let me share with you one of my favourite reviews from some stranger on Amazon.com
This writer has the craziest love scene I’ve read since my Penthouse Letters days…
Still…moon Nazis, anti-grav spaceships, a secret antartica-submarine base & evil Grey aliens take your mind off the best sci-fi sex this year!
It’s not all porn though, in fact it has a quite complex plot, which is going to become more obvious as you get deeper into the series. That’s right friends –Series!– This will be the first of at least 4 books. The second one is now near completion and should be out in a matter of a couple of months or so, and the third one is already begun (I’m at chapter four so far). The plotline though…oh the plotline…it is a complex web indeed and most of it has been seeded right in this first book.
I was also spectacularly lucky in being allowed to use the image of Mars rendered by Kees Veenenbos, whose work has been featured in newspapers, magazines and National Geographic, and you can see some of it at his site here. Kees takes the real data about Mars, provided by the NASA MOLA Science Team, then renders it and adds some clouds and sun glare. In other words, that picture on the cover, is pretty much what Mars looks like if you were about to land on it with a nice little antigravity craft.
The blending in of the model’s eyes with the planet image was done by Graeme Paterson whom you can reach by email at: glengrae@mweb.co.za
Graeme also stunned the living crap out of me because I have worked with designers before and he literally did the work in minutes. Not hours, not days, not weeks (and then screwed it up) but minutes, and got it all perfect the first time.
So far I have already had a few fan mails and it seems the book will be well-received. I certainly hope so anyway, because writing sure beats most other jobs I have done, sadly though, the pay is abysmal unless you are one of the top 0.5% of writers. So go on… order a few pallet-loads of my books, it’s the surest way of being able to come visit me on the private island once I become filthy rich one day!
From the back cover, here is a teaser:
Giona Esago is unexpectedly and suddenly introduced to a reality he has so far only suspected. What is more, he is now tasked to become one of the elite who have knowledge of the realities concerning off-planet bases, though the exact reasons why he has been selected are not immediately clear.
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All of what follows below is not fiction. Is what follows from these historical facts in the present going to be any less incredible?
***
On 10 October, 1944 —eight months before the USA— Nazi Germany tested the first Atom Bomb. The pressure wave had a diameter of 9 km and the resulting EMP pulse knocked out all the phones in Berlin for more than two days. Testimony of this event by pilot Hans Zinsser was recorded in August 1945. It was declassified only in 1992.
In 1946-47 the mysterious mission to Antarctica led by Admiral Richard E. Byrd: Operation Highjump, included more than 4,700 US soldiers with mechanised and air support vehicles. It ended catastrophically after only a few weeks and was cut short of several months. En route back to the USA in March 1947, Admiral Byrd, told a journalist from El Mercurio that America should prepare itself to be attacked by aircraft of Polar origin that could fly at unheard of speeds. Three months later, in June 1947, eyewitness Kenneth Arnold is credited as the man who coined the words “flying saucers”, when describing the first UFO ‘flap’ in Washington DC; a clear message to the White House. The Roswell crash in July 1947 was originally first reported not as being “extraterrestrial” in origin, but rather as having technology from Germany. After debriefing in March 1947, Admiral Byrd never discussed Antarctica again. His diaries are currently still classified.
In 1958 project Argus in utmost secrecy, detonates at least three atomic bombs in Antartica. No real explanation as to why was ever divulged. From the 1950s onwards, astronomers have noted many anomalies on the Moon. Including what appears to be large machinery involved in major earthworks.
***
Overlords of Mars: Inception mixes real history, cutting edge science and brilliant speculative fiction to create the first book where truth and fiction may be a lot closer than any of us would like.
‘He writes like a mix of Philip K. Dick and the Strugatsky brothers. Giuseppe Filotto is the 21st Century version of H.G.Wells with psychotronic enhancement.’ —Henry Marten
Well, I hope you all rush out and buy multiple copies for all your friends. Also…I still have about 30 Advanced Reader Copies (with all the pre-edit mistakes and the scary swastika all over Mars cover instead of the sexy eyes and Mars seen from orbit) so any enthusiasts among you who want a signed copy of the ARC copy, you can let me know and we’ll try and arrange a paypal payment which includes the shipping. Would-be writers sometimes buy these as research, but, of course, if you are serious about that you need to also get one of the finished and official copies to see and compare the improvements.
Here’s a small image of the older scary version that is now no longer printed; the only copies with this cover are the ones sitting in my home or the few bought by early adopters of my work.
The second book in the seris is coming out soon, and the cover of that one will be pretty amazing too as it’s being made by a guy who has probably worked on just about every special effect you have seen in blockbusters films over the last decade.
That’s it for now, please go on and buy your copy right from Amazon US, Amazon UK, or Amazon EU, or really any other Amazon you may have in your country (France, Germany, Italy, India, Brazil, Japan and many others I am sure), and don’t forget to write in and let me know if you enjoyed it.
PS: There may be follow up posts about some of the concepts in the book, but for now, if you are one of the weird ones that cares about the grammar and punctuation troubles of writers, and more specifically, some of the things I have adopted in this series, you might want to read the (very long) post HERE.
