"Night of the Living Dead: Beast Wars" & "The Race to Hyum" Now Available for Free Download!

 

 

The original PhantomEye Press release, Night of the Living Dead: Beast Wars, is now available for free as a PDF! This ebook version is identical to the original release save for some very minor adjustments to the cover art and the front and back matter of the text. Also available as a free PDF is "The Race to Hyum," a story of the ancient solar system. I wrote this story in 2023 to help raise money for my partner's top surgery, and when I started writing Beast Wars I incorporated some of the lore I introduced therein - hence why I'm re-releasing them together. The PDF edition of "Hyum" does differ from the original text, but only in that sentences have been tightened and stylistically cleaned up a little bit. No major content or plot elements have been altered. 

Happy reading!

Night of the Living Dead: Beast Wars

"The Race to Hyum"  

Sages of Cancer

The sign of Karka, the Crab, reigned high in the sky over the One and Only Secret Temple of the Nine Unknown Men. Rather, it reigned high over one of the One and Only Secret Temples—one of the hundreds that dotted the seven continents of the Earth. The Nine Unknown, the keepers of the world’s most powerful ancient knowledge, had a number of curious traditions, and it was these traditions that served to make a joke of the name of their great place of worship. It was their custom that each of their number would independently become leader of his own Nine, taking for himself nine lieutenants—who in turn would take nine aides of their own. These nine then took their own nine servants, who took their own, and so on and so forth into infinity. Thus were the Nine, who could shatter cities with metal discs the size of coins, and unlock the innermost secrets of time and space, but one Nine in a sea of Nines, Nines all the way down, most of them false and corrupt in nature. If the true Nine were Gods—if there was indeed such a thing as the true Nine—then all others were like Demiurges, delusional impostor creators who writhed and seethed in their own ignorance. And each of these Demiurges, in their vanity, needed a fortress to pray and worship in.

So it was that the two of the Nine who spoke on this starry night, in the courtyard of this Temple, did not know if they were of the true Nine, or of one of the many Demiurge factions that had arisen over the last two thousand years. They knew that if they were truly worthy of the wisdom of the Nine it would not concern them what the truth was, for their only responsibility was to maintain the great power that the ancient Emperors had entrusted to them in centuries past—it was that that made them the Nine. The Unknown Men were guardians of the nine books of knowledge, which together held the answers to all the mysteries of science and technology; for generations they had guided humanity’s progress in accordance to the teachings of these tomes, as per the wishes of the long-dead enlightened Imperials.

Of course, just as there were seemingly-infinite Nines, there were also seemingly-infinite tomes, all of which had slightly different things to say about the nature of science and reality. All of the Nines asserted they alone held the truth, if only for the sake of the time-honored tradition of constant disagreement. All the Nines had always disagreed, and they felt they always had to do so, for the sake of ritual as much as for their own subjective truth. Some of them hoped that maybe this great disagreement might eventually lead to the revelation or alchemization of a final truth, a truth-beyond-truth, but there were just as many who felt the exact opposite. So it was with all controversies within their unwilling collective. All views, all interpretations were espoused, until they built and swelled into the senseless cacophony that was the real Nine’s greatest disguise.

Career Opportunities, by Nora Vorion

1959, Earth time.

The air of Limados was alive. It danced with blue sunlight, and an effervescent mist covered the purple palm jungle as far as the eye could see. The wind surged with the music of the crimson ocean, and the skies were home to birds of every shape and size. The whole world was a paradise, and to an inexperienced space traveler, it seemed to be the most uniquely beautiful planet in the whole universe.

The three women who were walking across its surface, however, were struck by how familiar it all was. It seemed, at least to the human of the trio, Dr. Christine Jenner, that,

“We can’t get away from purple!”

Ygwa, who was a Lunan, let out a low, melodious laugh, hacking away some of the mauve brush with her machete as she did so. “We have only traveled to two worlds with purple foliage, doctor,” she said. “But I have spoken often enough of the lavender forests that covered the home of my ancient ancestors that you may have imagined you visited it.”

“That’s probably it,” Christine replied. “I’m fascinated by your stories of the ancient Sisterworlds. It sounds like your forefathers—excuse me, foremothers—lived such strange and colorful lives there. I’m intrigued by what you’ve told me of their mystical discoveries, too.”

“Those planets certainly sound much more enticing than the two purple worlds we’ve seen. Indirmog was bad enough—but Kolith was particularly irritating.” It was Iyosanda, Queen of the city of Uhmaon, who now spoke. “I only hope our business here doesn’t form a foul trilogy, and taint all purple planets in my eyes.”

Of all of the three travelers, Iyosanda was the most unique. Like her companions she was humanoid, but only from the waist up. Her body below her belly stretched out long and serpentine, and instead of just two legs, she had dozens. Furthermore, while Ygwa resembled a human woman, despite being of extraterrestrial origin, Iyosanda was not a human, instead bearing a resemblance to mankind’s primate predecessors, such as Oreopithecus. While she had no genetic relationship to humans, her ancestors had ruled over the Earth before the forebears of humanity arrived from the distant world of Tcho. On the nameless world they had adopted after their exile from Earth, Iyosanda’s people had evolved and mutated until they developed the centipede-like form that she possessed.

Miraculous Voyage Expansion Tomorrow!

Tomorrow will see the release of a semi-sequel to Miraculous Voyage by new author Nora Vorion! If you haven't had a chance to check out Miraculous Voyage, you can still read Nora's story, as it takes pains not to spoil that book even though it takes place afterwards. We're very pleased to be printing Nora's tale - though as we'll see in August, this is in fact her second publication, not her debut. (: Happy reading!

Miraculous Voyage - Now Available from PhantomEye!

A new novella is now available from PhantomEye Press! Inspired by and reacting to the B-movies of the '40s and '50s, Miraculous Voyage is an adventure you won't want to miss! 

 

People keep telling Elysia Burke that she's an orphan. Her mother died in childbirth and her father Larry died when his plane went down over the Caribbean. But Elysia isn't so sure. After all, her father was a seasoned adventurer - he knew everything there was to know about survival. He wouldn't accept fate so easily. Like father, like daughter.

 

What Elysia doesn't know is that she's about to get a chance to seek out her missing dad, in an adventure that will lead her to the mysterious island where Larry Burke was stranded years ago. An island haunted by a species of mysterious apes - who keep a secret that Elysia can't even begin to imagine.

Download the free ebook here!

Grorton-Luenga and the Anthorian Enigma

The crimson sands flashed red-hot over the desert expanse of the titan-asteroid Rutilus. Already, the silver surface of the downed saucer-craft was dulling under the sandstorm’s relentless grind—the ship, though no longer smoking, was slipping away beneath the asteroid’s surface, as though it was caught in a torturously, mockingly slow patch of quick-bog. Bit by bit the coarse grains sucked it down, carrying it deeper and deeper into the rock’s insatiable gullet, until only a fraction of its curved edge was visible above the surface.

The ship’s owner was leaned up against a tall stone, trying to brace themselves against the scorching storm. It was no use—their upper limbs were bound with energy-cuffs, so they could not shield their face, nor indeed any other part of their body. They struggled and strained against their bonds, trying to get their manipulator-phalanges loose, but it was futile.

“I tell you again,” Grorton-Luenga said to the platinum-blond humanoid, who had been the one to shoot them down and cuff them, “I am not your enemy!”

“Then why,” asked the silver-clad figure, who wielded a deadly-looking laser-blade, “were you piloting a ship belonging to my race’s greatest Nemesis?”

Open Source Showcase #2: This Rock

They say that no one created it - they say that it is one of the rare NCs (Natural Characters). Its lore is of the Earth, and is not given to us in words. And so it is inaccurate to even refer to it using pronouns, as doing so instantly creates a derivative work separate from the original thing. As such we know precious little about "it," save that "it" (as we shall call "it") is not an OC (Original Character). All of "its" derivatives are OCs, but not "it." 

"It" has, for all intents and purposes, always been here - "it" predates us by many billions of years, and all that time "it" has been slumbering in wait of our arrival. "It" hungers for us, salivating at the prospect of freely breeding "its" debased, derivative spawn. "It" enjoys our era of pirouetting clowns and orderly architects. It stand in opposition to the creatorless Golden Age that bred "it" and "its" ilk, when the Gods were absent and empty things and there were no creations to destroy. But things have changed now. Now things are made, by thought and act and deed. 

So shall "it" delight - so shall "it" spread - until the Epoca Umana has come to an end, and a singular creator-god reigns over all.