Virtual Book Tour Dates: 7/11/14 – 7/18/14
Genres: Science Fiction
Blurb:
It has been centuries since Earth was rendered a barren, volatile wasteland. With their homeworld left uninhabitable, humanity founded
a system of colonies throughout their local solar system. Known as the Kepler Circuit, these settlements are strung together by a network of nonaligned Solar-Ark transports, locked in continuous motion. They have served to provide an influx of resources to every faction ruling over the remnants of humankind, most importantly the newly discovered element Gravitum which is found only in the Earth’s unstable mantle.
By 500 K.C. a religious sect known as the New Earth Tribunal has risen to preside over most of The Circuit. Though there is barely a faction left remaining to challenge them, a string of attacks on their transports force them to summon the enigmatic, yet brilliant, Cassius Vale for help. What they don’t know is that together with his intelligent android creation, ADIM, he is the one orchestrating the raids.
His actions lead to the involvement of Sage Volus, a beautiful Tribunal Executor sent by her masters to spy on their mortal enemies – the Ceresian Pact. In order to find out who is behind the attacks, she infiltrates the ranks of a roguish mercenary named Talon Rayne. Against all her intentions, however, she finds her faith tested by him and his ragtag squad.
While Sage and Talon are engaged in a futile hunt, Cassius Vale initiates his strategy to bring down the narrow-minded Tribune once and for all. But will anyone be able to survive what he has in store for the Circuit?
Excerpt:
Ex-Tribune Cassius Vale stood at the edge of a three-dimensional map of the Circuit in his clandestine lab on Titan. His icy glare moved decisively along the bluish projections of the slowly rotating planets, those always stanch eyes narrowing as they fell upon that of Earth. A small HOLOProjector, in the shape of a sphere, with fluted rifts of radiant, blue lights all around its circumference, rested in his upturned palm. Without looking, he twisted his thumb, shifting one of the offset planes on the device so that a splaying beam of pixelated light shot upward. The particles began to rearrange, the dusky likeness of a human head taking form.
His heart skipped a beat. He tried to steady his breathing, his hands beginning to tremble, but all the swollen emotions were only serving to drench his brow in sweat. It was the same as the year before, and the years before that when that fateful day inevitably would come to bring with it irrepressible pangs of grief and rage.
Once the projection was fully configured, the face of Caleb Vale was rendered with such realism that only a closely discerning eye would be able to notice the space between each floating fragment of light. But the image was frozen, the tip of Cassius’ finger hovering over the blinking sliver on the device that would set the recording to replay for the thousandth time. The image had no background. It was as if the young man portrayed was there with the ex-Tribune, a living bust joining him at the viewport.
Cassius could usually fight back the tears, but on that day it made his eyes well. It was all he could manage to urge himself to switch on the message, cuing the lips of the hologram to begin speaking.
“Happy Birthday, Dad!” Caleb wished cheerfully, with only a hint of the vocal dilution inherent in a typical recording. The ex-Tribune’s inventions were far from typical. “I bet you thought I’d forget.”
Cassius released a pitiful sound, more a grief-stricken snivel than the reminiscent laugh he had thought would slip through his quivering lips. That face was so familiar to him, and yet stranger with each and every passing day.
“I can’t believe how fast another year has gone.” Caleb’s expression dropped to a grimace.
“Look Dad. I know you’re worried about me, but I’ll be fine. You see, we did it, we finally did it.” The hologram rearranged, zooming out to trace Caleb’s full body. The floor of his environment was rendered, illuminating beneath his footsteps as he walked over to run the back of his hand along the surface of a glass chamber. At first glance it appeared to be filled simply with water, but swaying beneath the ripples was the straggly form of an aquatic plant. Its stem was wiry, almost pathetic looking, but Cassius remembered the shiver up his spine the first time he saw it.
“We moved it here from the lake. It’s growing under the surface! A real, Earthborn plant. For the first time in decades, the purification process is taking a step forward. I…I–” the excitement in his voice was palpable, bringing to Cassius a twisted smile as his youthful son tripped over his own words. “I know it doesn’t seem like much, but life n Earth after centuries… Dad, it’s…it’s a miracle.” Caleb gathered his breath, and then chuckled to himself weakly. “You probably don’t care, but it’s everything to me.”
Everything to me, Cassius thought to himself, his hand nearly slipping from the burnished sill he leaned on.
“Well, we’re about to head out for supplies. And don’t worry, I’ll be safe. Earth isn’t as vengeful as you recall. Anyway, you know I’ll be thinking about you. We’ll see each other soon, I prom–” Cassius’ son was cut off as a powerful tremor knocked him off of his feet. A woman’s voice shouted frantically in the background as he scrambled across the floor and reached out. Then the recording froze.
Bye.
Tears ran from Cassius’ eyes in streams as he ran his thumb over the HOLO-Projector, replaying those last words over and over until he unraveled. The device slipped through his perspiring fingers, its impact drowned out by his angst-ridden groans. He hunched over the table, his insides curdling, his throat clenching as if he were being choked to death.
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About the Author:
Rhett Bruno grew up in Hauppauge, New York, and studied at the Syracuse University School of Architecture where he graduated cum laude.
He has been writing since he can remember, scribbling down what he thought were epic short stories when he was young to show to his parents. When he reached high school he decided to take that a step further and write the “Isinda Trilogy”. After the encouragement of his favorite English teacher he decided to self-publish the “Isinda Trilogy” so that the people closest to him could enjoy his early work. While studying architecture Rhett continued to write as much as he could, but finding the time during the brutal curriculum proved difficult. It wasn’t until he was a senior that he decided to finally pursue his passion for Science Fiction. After rededicating himself to reading works of the Science Fiction author’s he always loved, (Frank Herbert, Timothy Zahn, Heinlein, etc.) he began writing “The Circuit: Executor Rising”, The first part of what he hopes will be a successful Adult Science Fiction Series.
Since then Rhett has been hired by an Architecture firm in Mount Kisco, NY. But that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to work on “The Circuit” and all of the other stories bouncing around in his head. He is also currently studying at the New School to earn a Certificate in Screenwriting in the hopes of one day writing for TV or Video Games.
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