Sci-Fi Adventures

Readers, I’m going to switch gears this week for a change. As you know most of my book’s deal with the Vietnam War, The Advisor Series, or with history, mostly history of Harrison County West Virginia, but I’ve edited and written some science fiction books with my good friend Navy Captain Chuck Neighbors. This week I’d like to talk about one of Chuck’s interesting developments in the Katy Sterling series that he’s written. This three-volume series constitutes science fiction novels that Chuck had written over a number of years. I helped edit his books and get them published after his stroke.

The books are set in the 26th century, mankind has left Old Earth and has settled on a variety of planets in the galaxy. These planets were initially settled by small groups that came from specific areas of Old Earth, each bringing their own unique cultures to these new planets. The main planet in Chuck’s books is called Destiny. In fact the first book of his series is entitled “Destiny”.

Destiny is an earth-like planet initially settled by 100 families five hundred years before the novel begins. During settlement the planet was subdivided with each one of the original families receiving an enormous amount of land that they develop into their own fiefdoms. The hero of the series, Katy Sterling, resides in one of those massive fiefdoms controlled by the HomeFall family.

One afternoon Katy’s farm is attacked by a group of space pirates. These roving bands of marauders would swoop down onto small farms to rob, kill and capture residence and hauled primarily the women off into slavery. Katy’s family becomes the victim of one of these vicious attacks. Her parents and brother are killed, and the pirates abduct her two older sisters. Katy, who is hiding in the woods, is left as an orphan and is adopted by her Uncle Jock.

In the series Katy becomes a young naval officer and as a result of her many interesting and daring adventures during her time at the Destiny Naval Academy she becomes a highly decorated and competent naval officer. I don’t want to spoil the books because the adventures that she undergoes are exciting an extremely dangerous. She’s recognized for her bravery with their version of the Planet Destiny’s Medal of Honor, and rapid promotion within the military because of her experiences.

Katy receives word that her Uncle Jock, the man who raised her after she was orphaned, has been killed allegedly by pirates or marauders. When she goes home to her hometown of Cloverdale she finds that her uncle was actually the heir to a massive estate called HomeFall. Katy Sterling finds that she is the last surviving heir of the family and as a result inherits the massive HomeFall estate, with the title Lady HomeFall. She is enormously wealthy and holds a seat in the Destiny Parliament!

While surveying her domain Katy and her Lord Chamberlain enter an unused portion of the Manor.

“She shined her flashlight onto the mural.  It showed a man standing in front of the older portion of the house prior to the new addition.  He was flanked by two large animals.  She was sure she had never seen an animal like the ones pictured.  She moved closer to study them.  They appeared to be large dogs.  They were sitting on their haunches, and their heads came to the shoulder of the human.  One had very large claws extended from its paws.  Their most striking feature, however, was a head that in many ways resembled a cat with pointed ears and two large blue eyes.  It was those eyes that riveted her attention.  They captured your gaze and gleamed with an intelligence that seemed to be uncanny.

“Milton, what are these?” she asked.

She heard a distinct clearing of his throat as Milton Hammontree responded, “Ma’am that is a depiction of the cat-hounds from an old family legend.”

Other members of the staff explained to her that at one time these animals had an affection for the HomeFall family but for some reason they had had a falling out a number of centuries ago. It appeared that one of the previous heirs had tried to capture some of them and as a result the cat-hounds moved deep into the boreal forests of the estate never to be seen again.

During an assassination attempt on Katy her aircraft was forced to land in the middle of the forest far distant from the Manor house. When she came-to after the crash she observed a strange creature looking into her aircraft, it resembled the painting that she had seen in the ancient halls of the Manor house. She was staring at a cat-hound.

She realized that she was actually communicating with this beast. The communication, however, was in the form of telepathy. As a result, she’s able to connect with the cat-hound and the animal helps her escape her burning aircraft. Katy realizes that these are sensate beings, and she realizes that they are very intelligent. They communicate through mind reading. But they can’t speak.

She assisted in rescuing a cat-hound cub from a trapper’s snare. The injured cub and its mother were taken to HomeFall for treatment by the estate’s veterinarian.

Throughout the series Katy develops a very unique understanding of the abilities of these sensate creatures. Throughout the story Katy realizes that with their ability to read human minds that they can help her find the people that are attempting to assassinate her. In the final book of the series, The Planet’s Revenge, the cat-hounds play a prominent role in uncovering the assassination plots and discovering the villains’ involved.

I would encourage any reader who is interested in science fiction to take a look at Chuck’s books. All are suitable for younger readers and what I find interesting is that the plot line revolves around a young girl. This is unique in a lot of science fiction writing. Additionally, Chuck writes in a style that does not require the reader to have a deep understanding of scientific developments. In his writing he allows the reader to assume that things can just happen, without an extensive knowledge of astrophysics, or in-depth scientific knowledge. For the non-science fiction reader this makes the book easy to read and understand.

Katy Sterling is the hero of the novels. You can follow her life as a coming-of-age story as she develops from a small-town country girl, through her time and adventures at the Destiny Naval Academy as a teenager and as she develops into a young woman and the heiress of an enormous, and wealthy fiefdom, and finally a wife and mother.

You can easily find Chuck’s books listed on my website. Just go to ‘Author’s Published Works’ and scroll to the Science Fiction section. You’ll find Chuck’s books listed there. You can tap on the book title and get a short precis of each of his books. You can also order any of his books directly from that site. By pushing the order button it’ll take you directly to Amazon and you can place an order from there.

Even though I have Chuck’s books listed on my site, all proceeds from the sale of these books go to the Neighbors family.

If you’re enjoying these blogs, please drop me a comment or if you have any questions that I might answer again submit a comment on the comment pages. I’m always glad to hear from you.

Again please take a look at all of my books that I have listed. They can be purchased from Amazon.com with the click of a button directly from the website. Until next week, Have a good one.

The Advisor Series:

• “The Advisor, Kien Bing, South Vietnam, 1969-1970. A Novel” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B09L4X5NQ3)
• “The Province Senior Intelligence Advisor, Kien Song Province 1970-1971; A Novel” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B0BHL2XCX5)
• “The Hardchargers,” Vietnam 1972-1973; A Novel” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B0C7SPR1JY)
• “The Tuscarora Trail” (Available on Amazon ASIN: B0D3QY2GM6)

For more information visit Website: ptaylorvietnamadvisor.com