John T. Cullen has authored over 20 books, including The Generals of October (Simon & Schuster, 2004)—pulse-pounding political-military suspense fiction set in a near-future U.S. Constitutional crisis.
|
John T. Cullen also writes screenplays, including one for Nebula Express (adapted from his SF novel) and the violent, darkly glistening, utterly strange tale of a serial killer in Scorpion.
|
If you like what you read here, please send at least two other avid readers here so a growing readership can enjoy these books. That would be a great, painless, easy way to provide a huge assist. If you'd like to do more...click.
|
Pioneers
a novel
by John T. Cullen
|
|
(5) New World—Year 3301
The derelict mother ship with its priceless library burst into flames halfway across the sky. A thick trail of black smoke widened, grew longer. The air shook, and the ground shook. Buffalo herds scattered in flight, running very swiftly close together. The black contrail, twinned with a white one of condensation, roared on across the sky and down over the horizon like an ancient express train on its tracks. Just over the horizon, an explosion slammed through the air.
At least nobody had been aboard the mother ship—assuming the other two lifeboats had successfully detached. But all six pioneers had awakened from their long sleep, rubbing each other, offering comfort for sore limbs and aching backs. The life support systems had functioned beautifully—a tribute to the best minds in all the world's aeries—and the six were intact and robust. The mother ship had inserted itself into orbit—evidently, Paul now knew, too low and too slow—and the lifeboats had auto-launched. Licia had handled her well enough, until—
The alien world returned to its vibrant normal self. Buzzing insects nuzzled and droned. Big colorful flowers bobbed on long red stems. Licia took out the range finder gadget, a black radio which she mounted on Paul's backpack but whose earphones she wore herself, so that a thin cable connected them.
"Hear anything?" he asked, shifting the heavy radio from one side to the other.
She held up a hand. "Tremendous amount of static, that's about it. We'll have to climb to the highest point around. Dammit, the battery is weak."
The alien grass was thick-bladed and scoop-stemmed, and scraped against their boots as Paul and Licia sought the highest ground, a grassy hill about a mile away.
Paul and Licia descended to the plain below in long, easy strides. He was more accustomed to shuffling through snow. "Earth must have been like this once," she said.
|
If you like what you're reading, please send at least two other avid readers to this website.
—Thank you! …Your grateful author, John T. Cullen.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other gripping books by the author:
Copyright © 2005 by John T. Cullen. All Rights Reserved.
John T. Cullen has been a pioneer in digital publishing since 1996. He is listed by digital publishing historian Karen Wiesner as the sixth digital publisher in history, and the second person to publish serialized chapters on line (starting 1996). His web magazine Deep Outside SFFH was the first to be listed along with the professional pulps in Writer's Market (1999) and was at one time the oldest professional SFFH magazine in the world. John T. Cullen continues to explore new ways to adapt the primordial power of storytelling to emerging new digital opportunities as the Third Millennium springs to light.
|
|
|
A Walk in Ancient Rome John T. Cullen (Simon&Schuster May 2005) innovative, acclaimed walking & teaching tour—explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history—smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome.
|
= Summer 2008 =
A Walk in Ancient Rome, Second Edition John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books 2008)—New! Many new maps; images from the unique scale model of AndréCaron of Quebec. Read this innovative book, with its acclaimed walking & teaching tour. Explore every corner of the Imperial capital at its zenith almost 2000 years ago; learn its history. Smell and taste the very air of Classical Rome. The new edition is bigger, like an atlas. Some people have carried the 1st edition with them to Rome, and found it greatly enhanced their experience.
Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, 2nd Ed. John T. Cullen (Clocktower Books, San Diego, Summer 2008). John T. Cullen has tackled the mystery of the ghost at the Hotel del Coronado. He has assembled a dramatic new theory about how and why she violently died on the back steps of the hotel in 1892. A first-class ghost story and whodunit wrapped in one.
|
