Category: a-book

Pride and Prejudice and Superheroes – Opening Chapters

Pride and Prejudice and Superheroes – Opening Chapters

  1 PROMETHEUS; OR, THE MODERN SUPERHERO IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of a free mind, must be in want of a superhero. However little known the feelings or views of such a woman on a superhero first entering her neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the superhero’s mind that the...

The Last Robot

The Last Robot

by   Read the incredibly wondrous new science fiction novel by T. J. P. Campbell.   “A highly imaginative fully fleshed out sci-fi novel examining the human condition through the non-human. This tour de force of sci-fi adventurism presents many seamless layers of intelligence and depth of understanding to give a wide mass of readers an entertaining read. There is...

Skylar Holmes: The Last Hope – Opening Chapters

Skylar Holmes: The Last Hope – Opening Chapters

1 TIME FOR CRIME SKYLAR HOLMES AND her bonded shapeshifter scampered through the darkened dimly lit starship Faraway’s Main Cargo Bay, taking care to keep to one side out of sight of the Main Cargo Bay door window. They were heading for the eight huge alien property trunks lined neatly along a slightly raised rectangular platform in the dark recesses...

Starship Wuthering Heights – Opening Chapters

Starship Wuthering Heights – Opening Chapters

1 THE INVISIBLE APOCALYPTIC KILLER Highcliffe, Dorset, England, Earth, Sunday, July 4th, 4230 OF THE EIGHT chairs in the conical command module resting atop of the descending, roaring, humongous 124-yard-high MER-2 liquid-hydrogen fuelled rocket, only one was occupied. A twenty-eight-year-old Tony Koster looked down at an extremely primitive low-battery powered controls display. The MER-2, in full, the Moon-to-Earth-and-Return-2, was fortunately...

The Owner of the Crown: 1. The Eccentric Crosser – Opening Chapters

The Owner of the Crown: 1. The Eccentric Crosser – Opening Chapters

1 DR TEMPEST PEARSON MONDAY, JANUARY 12th, 2026, and it seemed like the dawn of any other bright wintry day for the small English Northumbrian port and ex-coalmining town of Blyth. There, in the slowly lifting darkness, the town, just minding its own business, was gently waking up to the constant tickling of the cold North Sea. Surely this tiny,...

The Owner of the Crown: 2. Saliman Attacks – Opening Chapters

The Owner of the Crown: 2. Saliman Attacks – Opening Chapters

1 REGAINING CONSCIOUSNESS EVENTUALLY, AFTER WHAT seemed a long time, Dr Pearson found himself dizzily starting to regain consciousness. He was lying curled up on the hard oak wooden floorboards of his classroom. That much he could tell. A clammy sickness had gripped his wretched body, and he felt as if he was going to throw up at any moment....

The Owner of the Crown: 3. The Ultimate Battle – Opening Chapters

The Owner of the Crown: 3. The Ultimate Battle – Opening Chapters

1 OLIVIA DR PEARSON’S PARTY were excited to start boarding Captain Palmer’s Global Space Control shuttle craft. They found themselves spilling into a small featureless circular entrance area. Almost everything was polished metal, the ceiling, the walls and the floor. However, a more careful examination revealed, among other things, ceiling lights, wall cupboards, and a rectangular door that must have...

Britland Calling: 1. A Trip to another Earth – Opening Chapters

Britland Calling: 1. A Trip to another Earth – Opening Chapters

1 THE WRITER HELLO. I’M ABOUT to write a story. What’s it about? Not too sure yet because it’s only this morning that it started to flood into my head like water from a bath tap that someone’s turned on to the full. I can’t turn it off, so I had better get my act together. I’m not sure where...

Britland Calling: 2. Britland In Danger – Opening Chapters

Britland Calling: 2. Britland In Danger – Opening Chapters

1 MARIO’S CAFÉ BUT THE BOTTOM-OF-THE-GARDEN-SPACESHIP did not splash down. It landed in its usual way, touching down as gently as a falling feather as its positron underlay cushioned the craft onto something hard. Tommy had landed on some huge concrete flagstone paving slabs. Outside the window, he could see himself in the familiar setting of the central shopping area...

Britland Calling: 3. The Four Playing Card Suits – Opening Chapters

Britland Calling: 3. The Four Playing Card Suits – Opening Chapters

1 URGLAND ARRIVAL DOWN, DOWN, DOWN climbed Logan and Tommy. Hand under hand. Foot under foot. Tommy moved like a machine. Logan moved like an elastic monkey. After about twenty feet, Logan heard a loud metallic click sounding from above his head. When he stopped and looked up, he saw that the air-vent cover had been replaced. “Tommy, Debbie’s put...

Britland Calling: 4. Conclusion – Opening Chapters

Britland Calling: 4. Conclusion – Opening Chapters

1 THE HOW TO FOOL A FOOL LOGAN AND TOMMY’S party took on the low hedge dividing the adjacent fields like a mob of athletes competing in an Olympic steeplechase final. Even Toby hurdled the low hedge, despite carrying Justin in his backpack. Meanwhile, the drover ahead of them was at the head of his heard of a dozen Hereford...

THE LONDONERS: 1. The Secret Underground City – Opening Chapters

THE LONDONERS: 1. The Secret Underground City – Opening Chapters

1 NOTHING IS COMPLETELY SECURE LONDON, ENGLAND, MID-JUNE. An unexpected morning storm of titanic proportions pulverised the city. Gales, rain, lightning and thunder, the black storm had it all. The rain fell like a never-ending sea. Heavy flash flooding started to swamp the whole of the London area. Shallow rivers of rainwater flooded the roads along the banks of the...

THE LONDONERS: 2. Silent Running – Opening Chapters

THE LONDONERS: 2. Silent Running – Opening Chapters

1 THE ANTIGRAVITY SPACESHIP The red planet, Mars, was serenely orbiting the Sun. A number of robotic devices had touched its surface, some even spending years crawling across its skin. Six such pesky devices were crawling along its skin right now, drilling, analysing and gathering samples. And Mars had no idea that the people who created and sent all these...

THE LONDONERS: 3. The Shopping Mall World – Opening Chapters

THE LONDONERS: 3. The Shopping Mall World – Opening Chapters

1 THE ONE-MILLIONTH CUSTOMER CATHERINE (12), SEAN (11), LIBBY (9) and their cousin Kevin (11), the highly adventurous Londoners, had decided to visit Harrods in London, one of the biggest and most famous department stores in all the world. They travelled on the London Underground from Ockendon station to Slone Square station and were now strolling leisurely down Hans Road,...