AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT
NICHOLAS GAUMER
Nicholas Gaumer
An Ohio boy uprooted from his post-graduate picket-fence check-box life trajectory by a series of unfortunate events at the age of twenty-five, Nick has spent the last third of his life actively getting lost and stumbling across adventures in a wide variety of places across the globe. Now the consummate digital nomad, he has set up "bases" in Europe, S.E. Asia, and Central America and he splits his time between those regions while working on his businesses and projects. He has recently ventured into a new genre with the Prison Ship Sheol saga and plans to focus his next several novels in that universe. You can find some of his other literary work and associated art on tohmes.com, and preview new books that are on the way.
Bedlam: Book One of the Prison Ship Sheol Saga
by Nicholas Gaumer
The Bedlam Galaxy lies at the heart of the Laniakea Supercluster and is a focal point for all of the wormhole transits spanning that great expanse. Among the many races drawn to and inhabiting its 10,000+ stars, humanity is one of the most recent and longest anticipated additions. Once nearly driven to the brink of extinction by violent and irreconcilable gender divides within the dominant cultures of their homeworld, new technologies emerged to save the species from their own folly and helped propel them into a new age of interstellar exploration. Inevitably, that drive into the stars led to the discovery of their own wormhole transit at the edge of the solar system, and from there they ran straight into the waiting arms of Bedlam's great multi-species intergalactic trade and defense alliance, known colloquially as the Alliant.
Vahkis Greye was born a century after those treaties were signed, but such lofty things held little interest to the son of a poor asteroid miner and his synthetic companion. All Greye wanted out of life was to make enough coin to open his own service and repair shop somewhere in the galactic rim, where his talents were really needed and would be appreciated. No more bouncing between odd jobs on far-star space stations, outer-system asteroid mines, and deep space hauler lanes. He wanted a place he could call home, and after two decades of scrimping and saving every last coin he earned, he finally had just enough for tuition to an accredited Systems Repair Tech simulatorium and the rare and expensive Adjustable Hard Light Projection multi-tool required to complete it. Degree in one hand, A.H.L.P in the other, Greye thought he might finally have a shot at his dream.
Unfortunately, the universe had other plans.
An unexpected early-morning service call from one Captain Rita Mari of the Prison Ship Sheol arrived with an offer he literally couldn't refuse. Within hours the unlucky technician found himself alone and trapped aboard an un-crewed and mortally damaged Megalith Class Supercarrier surrounded by violent gangs of murderous female inmates, hounded by a genocidal race of alien shock troopers, demonized and hunted by his own kind, and welcome pretty much nowhere within the galactic spiral.
All he'd ever wanted was to be left alone with his reasonable little dream of repairing the space ships he'd always found so interesting. Instead, fate threw him into a situation so absurd even a life-long survivor of the worst hives of scum and villainy the Rim had to offer cannot see a way out of it.
At least not without help.
Be forewarned! In addition to bawdy action-filled adventures, criminal hijinks, and the occasional exploration of dark and heavy topics, this series contains depictions of alien morality and cultural norms, as well as relationships that could be considered non-traditional... you know, for humans.
Kindle Price: $4.99
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Artifice: Book Two of the Prison Ship Sheol Saga
by Nicholas Gaumer
The Bedlam Galaxy lies at the heart of the Laniakea Supercluster and is a focal point for all of the wormhole transits spanning that great expanse. Among the many races drawn to and inhabiting its 10,000+ stars, humanity is one of the most recent and longest anticipated additions. Once nearly driven to the brink of extinction by violent and irreconcilable gender divides within the dominant cultures of their homeworld, new technologies emerged to save the species from their own folly and helped propel them into a new age of interstellar exploration. Inevitably, that drive into the stars led to the discovery of their own wormhole transit at the edge of the solar system, and from there they ran straight into the waiting arms of Bedlam's great multi-species intergalactic trade and defense alliance, known colloquially as the Alliant.
Having been coerced to board the all female maximum-security galactic prison ship known as the Sheol in order to perform one vital repair, Vahkis Greye has so far managed to survive dozens of potentially lethal incidents. He has faced constant attempts on his life by marauding aliens, homicidal inmates, out-of-control robots, and even his own government. And if that wasn't enough, the ship itself is coming down around him. Singularity core failures, multiple hull breaches, an overloaded computer core, a mysteriously absent ship's AI, and rapidly dwindling supplies are just a few of the legion of threats that could have potentially snuffed out all life onboard the ship.
So clearly, it's been a rough couple of days.
But Greye is also no longer alone. Phyra Astarte, the lone surviving shock trooper of the ashtor fleet that attacked the Sheol now stands at his side, lending him her considerable strength as well as her optimism for the future. The mad Alexandra twins work day and night in their medical lab to ostensibly aid him in his efforts, though they clearly have machinations of their own in the works. Reverie Pixi, a thief and burglar of the notoriously soft-fingered and fox-like skipp race, who has the genetic ability to bend and manipulate light around her body, and of course, the ever-distracting Lilia Namaah, eishethi leader of the largest remaining gang on the ship. They, along with a genetically modified Alliant pilot and a nameless trace girl found within a hellish unmarked cell in the bowels of the ship, have joined him in his fight to survive all that the galaxy has to throw at them.
But perhaps the most direct threat of all has been lurking within the armored walls of the Sheol since the very first shot was fired and now, with the ship's most vital functions all but secured, it has begun to move against them. Pursued from within and without, Greye and his companions must find a way to solidify their control over the Sheol, or the end that awaits them will truly be the stuff of nightmares.
Kindle Price: $4.99
LEARN MORE NOW!Category: Science Fiction & Fantasy