Ian Miller
Fiction Books
In a future when resource shortages, crime and corruption are
crippling world economies, terrorism is becoming strangely sophisticated. When Lt
Colonel John Maxwell refuses to cover up his commanding General's failure, he is put
illegally in charge of an antiterrorist operation that is clearly designed to kill
or discredit him. After first placing her as a suspect, Maxwell forms a
dysfunctional relationship with Tamsyn Farish, and to everybody's surprise, they
seem to have success. The questions are, why was he given reason to suspect her, and
why are they successful when nobody else is? These questions are answered when they
learn the Puppeteer is playing both sides, and is also playing a very high stakes
game with three nuclear bombs. Hundreds of millions of lives and billions of dollars
of property are at stake.
Meanwhile, two young scientists who are carrying out undersea minerals
exploration at Kerguelen are suddenly put into the game, and they are critical to
the outcome, except they have no idea that they are even in it, let alone what they
have to do. Puppeteer is an action story with a touch of romance that is also
intended to illustrate what life could be like if we do nothing about finding an
alternative fuel for when oil production declines. Its resolution depends on the
answer to a puzzle that the reader is invited to solve.
Walid Hasan has one aim in life: to make as many Americans as possible
pay for the bombing of his home, and the killing of his family. James Grey, of Grey
Capital, knows how to make money, but he wants more. One way is to make a massive
short on a stock that will sustain a severe price drop. One way to make the price
drop is to blow up major assets of the company. Grey plus Hasan is a marriage made
in hell. Each need the other; Hasan to get things done, Grey to provide the means.
The means involve the acquisition of an enormous number of robotic war machines,
designed for the US Army.
John Maxwell wants a quieter life than that of providing security for
the wealthy at a time when even law and order is being privatized. However, the
experience of his company is needed to help counter the war machines, and soon he
and a small team are all that stand between order and the total collapse of society.
Following a great world-wide economic collapse, the wealthy live in
gated communities where law is based on user pays, while the masses exist on
residue-ridden food hand-outs in the remains of cities, where law is based on the
gun. In one part of a decayed city, known as the Green Zone, Lawrence Foster, an
expert sniper, enforces order, but he is dying of cancer caused by the polluted
food. He uses bounty money to send his daughter, Suzie, to college, and he teaches
Henry Adams, who had an ill-fated crush on Suzie, to be a sniper to replace himself
as an enforcer.
The development of fusion power will permit economic growth, so
fortunes are to be made. David Sheldon, with the aid of some thugs, intends to
become very rich by any means. Susan works for an emerging Corporation and with the
aid of a machine pistol she advances rapidly. Henry, remaining in the Green Zone,
has a dream in which everybody has the freedom and opportunity to flourish by
themselves, and benefit from their own endeavours. Then David Sheldon and Suzie
Foster turn their attention to the Green Zone.
David Gill has trouble selling food to the hungry, but when, in the
early summer of 2075, he arrives in Los Angeles to seal a deal with Robbie Newall,
his troubles get very worse, very quickly. He is made an offer he cannot refuse: set
up food production facilities in Hellas Planitia, supply a venture run by Robbie
Newall, and come back wealthy, or have a contract taken out on him. He needs help
from the mercurial Jacqui Tennant, a Space Corps pilot, but she wants to keep the
corporations off Mars.
Then he finds that Newall wants everything: first his wife, then his
land, then he discovers Newall is generating a massive stock fraud on Earth, and he
has to stop it. On Mars, that will be difficult, because Newall has the only guns on
Mars, and men to use them. A thriller that has a touch of romance, a little
economics and enough science to show how Mars might be colonised.
It was while writing this story that the author got the idea for his
theory of planetary formation.
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While by 2100 everybody knew the Face of Cydonia was simply a battered
butte, on a live TV program the battered butte morphed into the Viking image and
winked. A great joke, but nobody could have done it. As a consequence of this, of
two unexplained heat emanations from the butte, and of signals originating from the
nearby star Epsilon Eridani, the issue of alien life arose. Grigori Timoshenko,
Federation Commissioner for Defense and Science, is forced to form a party and
settle for once and for all whether there had been alien activity around this butte.
The expedition seems doomed, as there are at least three attempts to
murder at least one of the party, which comprises: Fiona Bolton, an expert at sonic
imaging and a well-known anti-corporate; Nathan Gill, from Theppot and who owns a
registered dome near the Face; Jonathon Munro, a corporate who has been responsible
for part-funding the expedition, and who wants to bypass the law and take his
Corporation to Mars; and Sharon Galloway, a corporate who has developed the most
advanced excavating device known. Each of these has a problem with all of the
others, each has some expectation of what they will get from the expedition, each
rises beyond their comfort zone, and each finds exactly what they do not want to
find.
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As the party that saw the first evidence of alien civilization leave
Cydonia, they each had dreams of what their future would hold. All Nathan Gill
wanted was to be left alone. Grigori Timoshenko wanted to build a defense force
capable of deterring advanced aliens, Fiona Bolton wanted to make life fair for the
independents, Sharon Galloway wanted to successfully manage the greatest engineering
feat in human history, while Jonathon Munro wanted to be important.
They should have taken more notice of the saying, be careful what you
wish for: dreams rarely correspond to reality, and in this dystopian future, murder
and sabotage make achieving dreams unusually difficult, while there is more to the
alien hologram than meets the eye. The very worst aspects of a dysfunctional society
together with the flaws in their characters ensured that nothing was to turn out as
they dreamed.
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Dreams of revenge may be sweet, but the consequences are not, and
there were plenty of desires for revenge going around. Jonathon Munro, rather
pointlessly and for no good reason, wanted revenge on his wife. Others, for very
good reasons, wanted revenge on him. Prolonged revenge required a substitute, and
what is better than an android that is indistinguishable from the original and
capable of learning everything about the original? Jonathon Munro had grown to be
one of the most evil men imaginable, which meant that so would be the replacement.
But what if the android were to self replicate? Worse still, Jonathon
Munro had access to all Federation computer messages and he knew the secret of the
Cydonian face. Once that secret was exposed, a treaty that protected Earth would
expire. The clock was running, and unless the Jonathon Munros could be stopped, all
civilization on Earth was at risk, either from the androids, the aliens, or both.
But how do you stop machines with no conscience, and which follow no rules of
society?
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In the 25th century, the classical historian Pallas Athene learns how
to send messages to the past, but when a technician somehow manages to have humanity
exterminated in the near past, Athene must get alien help. Thanks to relativity,
that request must start through a young Roman soldier, Gaius Claudius Scaevola, who
must be abducted by a passing alien ship, but to get the aliens to take interest in
him, Scaevola must do something that would change the course of human civilization
had he not been abducted. Athene gives him three tasks: prove the Earth goes around
the Sun, design a workable steam engine, and become a significant military
strategist. On Rhodes, Scaevola receives his instructions in the form of a prophecy
from Athene. While Gaius does not believe in Gods, parts of the prophecy gradually
come to pass.
All does not go well. Timothy proves to him the Earth cannot go around
the Sun, Tiberius dies and Caligulae abolishes his military appointment, then in
Alexandria, when Gaius sees the toy steam engine, he knows he cannot build it
bigger. Then, in the anti-Jewish riots, a further part of the prophecy comes to
pass, and when he does what he should, Caligulae appoints him as Tribunis
Laticlavius in the Fulminata, where he becomes involved in the emerging
Christianity, a battle against Parthians, and finally, the crisis at the Temple in
Jerusalem. Besides having three near-impossible tasks, he must also survive the
erratic Imperium of Caligulae.
A historical novel that also shows part of what science really is.
Could you prove the heliocentric theory based on what Romans could observe?
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The prophecy given to Gaius Claudius Scaevola by Pallas Athene
continued to be unerringly accurate. Caligulae reverses his decision and gives
Scaevola a legion, he meets a most beautiful woman, Valeria Vipsania, and ignores
her when he makes an important scientific discovery, thus bringing two parts of the
prophecy to fruition at once. But then it seemed to abandon him. His love for
Vipsania is poisoned by the realization that her father is plotting against, first
Caligulae, then following the assassination, against Claudius, to whom Scaevola owes
everything. Athene had given him four near impossible tasks, and now more are thrown
at him
He must restore his love while stopping the plots and help secure
Claudius as Princeps. To do this, when Claudius makes him commander of Legio XX
Valeria and he is ordered to take part in the invasion of Britain, he must find a
way to make Claudius appear to be a successful military commander, recognized by the
army as an Imperator, and be given a triumph, all while a number of plotting
senators are trying to undermine Claudius.
A historical fiction with a touch of science fiction, and including an
illustration of what real science is about pitched at a level where no background
scientific knowledge is required.
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Scaevola's Triumph is the third in the Gaius Claudius Scaevola
trilogy. Scaevola, his wife and his sister were abducted by aliens and taken to the
planet Ulse; to a civilization vastly ahead of their own, but which also seems to be
losing a war. They must first learn to live in this society, and to do this,
Scaevola's sister has to accept that, thanks to the relativistic time dilation,
seeing her husband again is impossible; Scaevola has to live with the fact that he
is outnumbered two to one by women who do not believe in the Roman habit of the man
ruling the house; and Vipsania has to work out how to keep the group from
self-destructing.
All three have to work out how to be accepted by beings who consider
them to be hopelessly primitive and barbaric, but Scaevola has a bigger problem:
from a prophecy he has received he believes that the abduction has been organized in
order for him to do something that will save the Ulsians from being exterminated.
How can a Roman find a way to save an advanced civilization from being exterminated?
Especially when his first problem is how to get out the front door of his apartment,
which is opened by thought, operated by a device embedded in Ulsian brains.
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In 2285, thirty-four exhausts are seen traveling at relativistic
velocities to end on Miranda, the innermost moon of Uranus. On Earth, GenCorp wants
to expand to Mars, where it was not supposed to be. GenCorp does a deal with the
alien battle fleet: give us Mars and we shall give you what you need, which is slave
labour. Natasha Kotchetkova, the Commissioner for Defense is faced with an alien
race that totally outclasses any Earth military technology. War is coming, but even
if Terran forces can win, who wins the following peace?
An epic with 18 major characters, four alien races, several romances,
not all of which end well, treachery, a variation on "The Prisoner's Dilemma", and
is set variously in 3 continents, the Earth-Moon L-4 space station, Mars, Iapetus,
the asteroid belt and Miranda, and, thanks to relativity, a Roman Legatus returning
from an alien planet to offer what help he could, and to meet his prophesied "only
woman remaining in his life", who was also the ugliest woman in the world.
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Ranh is a planet that was seeded with Cretaceous life from Earth and
has evolved a technologically advanced race of raptors, many of who feel the main
virtue of a mammal is its taste. Governed by a theocracy, there are always some who
wish to remove mammals from the Planet of Creation (Earth). While a treaty with
other advanced civilizations previously forbade them, that treaty has expired, and
Natasha Kotchetkova arrives at Ranh to negotiate a further treaty. The agreed plan
formulated on Earth is simple. The Kuyrills head the Space Curia, Kuyrill Kazyn
would present Natasha to the Curia and his father would ensure the treaty was
signed. That plan failed. On arrival home, Kazyn finds the Kuyrill's in disarray and
his father dead. Kazyn suspects assassination, and shortly Kazyn is accused of
murder. Somebody does not want this treaty.
While he has the perfect alibi through Seppet Methrell of the Military
Curia, Methrell, perhaps the most dangerous female on Ranh, puts Kazyn on the run.
Is she trying to sort out what is going on? Is she testing Kazyn as a possible mate?
Or are her motives more sinister? Kazyn's only ally was Baht, unacknowledged, the
lowest of the low, who was forbidden to hurt a fly or stand up for herself, yet she
must do what no other unacknowledged has ever done or there will be interplanetary
war. And will Natasha and her associates survive long enough to get to the signing?
A tale of plotting, conspiracy, religious fervour, murder, treachery, honor,
diplomacy, and tail-ball.
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A story of espionage, hacking, Russians and fraud, in which Charles
Burrowes, master hacker, is thrown by the NSA into a ‘black op’ with the curvaceous
Svetlana as an assistant, and three other 'financial wizards' as cover. Svetlana has
brought documents to the West that indicate that the Russians have developed some
sort of super stealth, and America needs to know what it is. As he goes deeper he
becomes increasingly at risk from the criminal conspiracy and fraud generated by
those around him. The NSA is following his every step, and he knows he is highly
disposable. He must unlock the trap closing in on him, but the Russian key remains
tantalisingly elusive. Meanwhile, the lives of several CIA agents will depend on how
successful he is.
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When a trial to cover up a corporate failure ends Captain Jonas
Stryker's career, he wants revenge against The Board, a ruthless, shadowy
organization with limitless funds that employ space piracy, terrorism, and even
weaponised asteroids. Posing as an asteroid miner, Stryker learns that The Board
wants him killed, while a young female SCIB police agent wants retribution against
him for having her career spoiled at his trial. As Stryker avoids attempts to kill
him, he becomes the only chance to prevent The Board from overturning the Federation
Government and imposing a Fascist-style rule.
A story of greed, corruption and honour, combining science and
visionary speculation that goes from the high frontier to outback Australia.
Since no city can survive a well-directed asteroid strike, he who
controls space has great power on Earth. One such strike had previously been
initiated by a criminal organization known on Earth as The Board, but it had been
thwarted. Now, to prevent such future possibilities, a fleet comprising all Space
Corps warships under the command of Acting Commodore Jonas Stryker was ordered to
seek and destroy the criminals’ base. In the depths of space, almost half his fleet
turned on the other half, and suddenly the Space Corps had one undamaged warship,
and four badly in need of repair. Even when his ships were repaired, Stryker would
be outnumbered two to one, and the corporations had voted for financial reasons to
prevent the Space Corps from building more ships.
While the Space Corps’ ships are being repaired, The Board members on
Earth who supply the rebels must be identified, arrested, and their base located.
The rebels had to be supplied from Earth. If such sources could be identified and
arrested, the rebels would have no supply, and their base might be identified. A
tale of investigation, greed, corruption and honour, set in the inner solar system
and on Earth, with murder, space battles, and the science of asteroids. A sequel to
Spoliation.