Ghost Fleet is live!

My ninth full novel and second in the sci-fi Home World Series

Ghost Fleet

is now live!

(Excerpt)

The vastness of empty space surrounded them. It was all-encompassing in its breadth, and in its silence. No warmth lay upon their battered hulls from even a rogue star, the givers of life throughout the known universe. Only the blackness of a featureless void touched them in their solitude. They were alone, as alone as fourteen battle-hardened ships of the line could be in the dead of space as the vessels of the Home World Third Fleet came to a halting rest within the confines of the Void.

Stuart Joseph looked out the main viewing portal of his bridge aboard the Home World starship Parras. It had been almost fourteen hours, nearly two duty cycles at light speed to come to this point, this escape from a mission that would possibly decide his fate as captain of the Parras, commander of the Third Fleet and perhaps his entire career. His ships had come to a stop hovering motionless within the wasteland. Out before his bow was the destroyer Cutter, one of the newest additions to the fleet. It was sleek, powerful, an improvement on the older designs, something sorely needed in the Home World fleets. This war had taken a heavy toll on the Confederation of Home Worlds and their resources were stretched to the limit, perhaps the breaking point. New ships coming to the fleets were a rarity. He took note as Cutter’s engines shut down and the afterglow of heat and light trapped within the confines of the black engine housings subsided. It was time to take stock of the fleet, see which ships were still functional and make emergency repairs.

I was hoping to originally have this book out in the summer but life and the trials we all face in this world sometimes get in the way of the best laid plans of mice and men.

I hope everyone who is a sci-fi fan enjoys the work and appreciates the efforts put into it. If you would like to see all my books and stories please visit my web page at...

                                       robertthomasbooks.com

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It's almost ready

Writing is mostly a lonely process, at least it is for me. And often times life gets in the way and things generally take more time than originally planned. My next book, Ghost Fleet had an original timeline to be released this past summer. Sometimes things just don't work out, but also sometimes it might be for the better. Hopefully within the next month Ghost Fleet will be available and I genuinely hope most will consider it worth the wait.

A brief excerpt from Ghost Fleet, book two of the Home World Series.

  “So, what the hell happened out there?”

   “You’re not mad at me anymore?”

   “Hardly,” Andren replied. “I just wish you would have made contact once you were back aboard the Repulse.”

   “You know that wouldn’t have been possible. Strict radio silence protocols were in force and I’m fairly certain Commander Chase wouldn’t have allowed that.”

   “I know.” She dipped her head again and pushed her hair back with her right hand. “Now, I’m just glad you’re alive.” 

    “So am I.” Frank Turner rolled across the floor letting his wheelchair bump up against her. “I’ve been in some wild fights in this war and this was just another one, like any other one.”

   “What does that mean?”

   “When you’re out there in that small ship surrounded by massive destroyers, cruisers and starships, you become the target of whatever is closest to you. If you pass by a ship, you just hope its batteries don’t target you as you’re chasing the fighter in front of you. Sometimes, I’m not sure they can tell the good guys from the bad.”

   “That’s got to be scary.”

   “It is, but you have to learn not to think about it. You have to focus on the job at hand. If you let fear creep into your thoughts you’ll die. Fear is paralysis.” Frank looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “Hell, you might die anyway.” He returned his stare to her blue eyes and let them soak him into her. “I launched from the Parras with Alert 1 wing and we circled beneath her coming out on her port side. We immediately tore into a Vista class frigate that had run up on the Parras. The frigate was outgunned from the start but there was a Studda coming up on us. We tried to divert the frigate and our squadron went straight for her bridge.”

   “Weren’t there any fighters?”

   “Lorilon fighters don’t usually protect frigates. They focus more on the cruisers and Studdas. The frigate was a sitting duck for us to harass. We nearly blinded it with the bridge runs and a couple torpedo hits directly from the Parras just about finished her off. We left it as it was venting into space, the bulkheads from the superstructure apparently wasn’t able to contain the damage.” He paused and inhaled deeply. “Then came the fighters.”