With the release of last month's novels, Class Act Books included DRAGON: the Prisoner of Valathia by James
Austin Mccormick among its offerings.
This novel is the fourth entry in the DRAGON series, a SciFi space opera featuring Silla Low, smuggler, conman, and secret agent.
Sillow is a semi-comic character. Diminutive and pointed-eared, with a child-like appearance, he's depicted by his creator as a restless, neurotic, and somewhat cowardly elf who constantly finds himself in dangerous situations.
To add to the comedic element in the stories author McCormick initially paired him with a surly, ill-tempered barbarian goliath called Brok. They were the odd couple in space, often at loggerheads, constantly quarreling but forced to work together as their fates become increasingly entwined, first as smugglers and then as government agents.
In The Prisoner of Valathia, Sillow finds himself a new partner, Titanya, who is more than a match for the cowardly elf.
The beautiful pirate queen, and the cowardly, chain-smoking elf take on their first official mission together…investigating the hijack of a prototype military stealth craft and its connection to the mysterious owner of a small mining operation.
Although still light-hearted, action-based science fiction, the Prisoner of Valathia explores Sillow's character in a way never done before. His personal demons, self-questioning, and existential angst provide major elements in the story. Previous installments portrayed this restless misfit from a clownish, external perspective. This novel looks at the tortured character beneath.
James
Austin Mccormick is a college lecturer from Manchester, England and in his free time enjoys writing speculative fiction, mostly SciFi and sword and sorcery/fantasy. He is also a particular fan of classic Gothic and Victorian horror tales and is currently in the process of writing updated versions of these with a science fiction spin.
His novels include the DRAGON series (DRAGON, DRAGON: Smuggler Tales, DRAGON: The Tower of Tamerlane, and DRAGON: The Prisoner of Valathia); The Last Synn, a sword-and-sorcery story; a SciFi novel, Sunfall, and a horror novel, Balec. All are available from Class Act Books.
Class Act Books is a small press publisher of all genres. It came under new ownership in 2013, and its novels are released in electronic media as well as paperback.
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