Zaftan Entrepreneurs relaunch
Happy Mother’s Day!
This satiric novel hasn't been available in over 5 years. In July I’m republishing it with a new cover (this is the old one). I’m looking for a new set of reviews to help with the relaunch. If you’re interested, leave a comment and I’ll send you a pdf edition. Or you can send me an email: hanque99(at)gmail(dot)com.
The sequel, Zaftan Miscreants will be republished in the Fall.
Here is the blurb and description:
What if . . . an alien mining expedition came across a planet with exotic mineral concentrations and a technological-backward population? And what if . . . the local population where the mining took place objected to the alien presence? And what if . . . a dwarf gem miner put together a group of ex-soldiers and others to drive the aliens away? In that case, you'd have a satiric story of underdogs ignoring the insurmountable odds and fighting anyway. Oh, and the government wants to help the aliens, not the locals.
The government of Gundarland assigns a mining area to the aliens, know as zaftans. The area is mostly farmland with a single small town and a single constable, Leslie Higginbottom. Leslie and a dwarf gem miner named McDrakin have a budding romance until the aliens arrive. Leslie is ordered by the government to assist the aliens and to prevent the locals from interfering in the mining operations. The situation is under control until an explorer robot trespasses on McDrakin's gem mine land. It orders the dwarf to get out of its way. The bot and McDrakin end up in a brawl and McDrakin destroys it. Leslie is horrified when she finds out and is torn between her duty — to arrest Mcdrakin — and a need to protect him from alien retaliation.
The aliens respond by selling down a killer robot. It finds McDrakin and he scores his second bot kill. McDrakin is enraged that the bot tried to kill him. He recruits some retired troops from his old battalion and they go hunting explorer bots and aliens.
Leslie, under pressure from the government to end McDrakin's interference, realizes their romance is on the rocks. The situation careens out of control as an infuriated Yunta sends down her crew with orders to destroy the town and to kill any inhabitants that interfere. Before the patrol can reach the town, it is confronted by McDrakin's forces that have been supplemented by unlikely allies from the government.
As the two sides establish their battle lines, Leslie experiences fear for her town and for McDrakin and his soldiers. McDrakin's motivation is to destroy the aliens in order to salvage his relationship with Leslie and save the town. Can he do all this stuff?
Below are two of the reviews for the original:
I have been reading a lot of stuff recently that takes itself very seriously, and that's what I thought I was going to get here. Nope. Instead I got a book that had a good laugh on almost every page. I enjoyed it enough that as soon as I finished it I bought the next book in the series. Hope he has more
This tongue-in-cheek novel is a delight for sci-fi fans, wonderfully humorous without descending into silly. Between pms'ing ship captains, napping politicians, conniving aliens, drunken soldiers, budding romance, and unexpected results when magics from two different cultures collide, the story was masterfully woven together to keep me entertained from start to finish