I’m excited that the Captain Arlon Stoddard series has now reached book number 10. I have such a blast writing these and it’s fun setting them free into the world.
Also, this is going to be the first with an updated cover style. Still with the “A CAPTATIN ARLON STODDARD ADVENTURE” banner across the top (but now in caps), but also switching the title to the bottom, and my name to the top. In this world you gotta shout out if you want attention 🙂
Here are the old style and new style covers by way of comparison. Next part of my plan is to retrofit all the previous nine novels in the series like this.
Tramp Steamers
Planet Ulshene’s unique trading culture takes some getting used to. Steamers ply the skies, skimming over the endless prairie.
Barl Brennan rates his skills as a crewman. Without a job, he faces a tough choice. Edmond Steverin knows desperation when he sees it.
Captain Arlon Stoddard slips undercover and finda himself tipped into a world filled with intrigue.
Can they survive the complex interlinked web of easy deceit and mortal danger?
Universal book link here. ebook $5.99, print book $18.99. Preorder available now, releasing on October 20th.
I love the art of Ian McQue, most especially his junks and tugs that float through the sky. Would that I could draw images like those. At least those images were part of the inspiration for Tramp Steamers. Something that fitted right into the Captain Arlon Stoddard Adventures – antigravity is part of the stories already, and the idea of pirates and complex commercial shipping all kind of fell in together.
And another inspiration was Sherri S. Tepper‘s wonderful 1989 novel Grass. Less about the alien side of it, but certainly a planet dominated by prairie. I was much younger when I first read it and found myself plunged into her remarkable, immersive world. Sometimes it’s compared to Dune, as a book that takes a world with a singular aspect and exploits that for the story.
