“HomeFall”

“HomeFall” is the title of the second book in the science fiction series written by my good friend Chuck Neighbors.

So exactly what is “HomeFall” and why is the name such a significant part of the story to actually become the book’s title?

“HomeFall” is set in the 26^th Century. “Old Earth” is exhausted and one hundred families pool their resources and set off to find an ‘Earth analog’ planet that would support human life and a potential civilization.

One of the significant achievements that makes this possible is the discovery of “Faster than Light” travel as well as the discovery of a vast number of inhabitable earth-like planets throughout the solar system. Extended space travel becomes feasible as a result of this new technology and as a result the one hundred families that fund and participate in this adventure find and settle on the seemly uninhabited earth-like planet of Destiny.

Each of the original families is given 1/100^th of the entire planet as their reward for financing the initial expedition. These ‘estates’ are vast. Many of them involve millions of hectares of land, much of it totally unexplored. The initial owners are deemed as Lords and Ladies and a strict hierarchical society is established. They form a parliamentary type of governing body and appoint a Prime Minister, a Lord from one of the original families, to serve as the ‘elected’ head of the planet.

Each family is required to donate a portion of their property, or the value of such property, to the parliament so that a capital can be established. Others are compensated for providing lands for National Parks and other national sanctuaries.

As the centuries pass many of the Lords of the planet Destiny finance flight from “Old Earth” to bring workers to the planet.

As the population grows these non-original families demand rights as citizens and ultimately a constitution is written giving them the same level of civil rights that they experienced on “Old Earth”. This included an elected representative Lower House in the parliament that held the financial ‘shoestrings’ of the planet. The Lower House had to approve all financial issues involving the expenditure of tax monies.

However the individual original landholders establish fiefdoms and name them in honor of some significance of their location or physical sites that they represent. So for example our hero’s best friend at the Naval Academy, Sandy, is from the fiefdom of RavensPeake. The current Prime Minister’s residence is in the fiefdom of ThunderMountain.

Heirship for control over these vast estates is closely protected by the government. While traditionally passed from father to the eldest son if no male heir is available the eldest daughter can inherit the estate.

Each estate is ruled based upon the ‘judgement’ of the current heir to the estate. While the rulers are require to protect their residents they have a tremendous amount of latitude in their treatment as long as the treatment is in agreement with the laws of the planet as established by the civil rights protections of the planet. However, in some cases the heirs can impose summary punishment for serious crimes against the fiefdom. Such crime would be the attempted assassination of the heir or harm to their family.

While residents of the estate are not ‘bound’ to the estate, as in the case of slavery, there are few opportunities for them outside the boundaries of their estates except to move to one of the few cities or manufacturing zones to work. Most find that their families prosper as a result of generational service to the heir of the estate. In many cases family members train to continue family services to the heirs for many generations.

At the very end of Chuck’s first book “Destiny”, we find a young girl, a planetary hero, thrust into the totally unexpected position of heiress of the HomeFall estate. Katy Sterling, an orphan adopted by her uncle Jock after the death of her parents at the hands of space pirates, discovers that she is the sole surviving heir to the HomeFall estate.

A young, orphaned farm girl, finds herself thrust into the role of Lady HomeFall, ruler of a vast estate. She has to overcome her lack of a formal introduction into the life of a ruler of her planet. At the same time she has a continuing military obligation as an officer in the Destiny Planet Navy as well as a role in her national parliament.

I highly recommend Chuck Neighbors books, “Destiny”, “HomeFall” and “The Planet’s Revenge; the Katy Sterling Saga Continues”. I had the privilege of helping Chuck edit and publish his books and helping him write “The Planet’s Revenge” after his stroke.

This is an interesting take of Sci-fi fiction. The hero is a young girl rather than the normal male hero. It is a coming-of-age story suitable for younger readers.

All three books are available directly from my website and all revenues from the sale of these books go directly to the Neighbors’ family to support Chucks continuing care.

I hope that you’ll enjoy the books!

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 my website, www.ptaylorvietnamadvisor.com.  Until next Friday, Have a good week.

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)

Check out my website for other books that I’ve written or edited.

Website: ptaylorvietnamadvisor.com