Blindspace

by Jeremy Szal

Genres: Alien Contact; Colonization

Synopsis

Vakov Fukasawa is a Reaper. An elite soldier injected with a dangerous drug called stormtech: the DNA of a genocidal alien race, the Shenoi. It makes him stronger, faster, more aggressive. At a price.

A price that, if the House of Suns cult isn't stopped, all of humanity will have to pay.

Vakov saved his estranged brother from the cult and killed their leader. Now they want his head on a spike, and they're hunting him and his friends down to get it, while continuing their mission to awaken the Shenoi and plunge the galaxy into mindless violence and chaos. There's a dangerous journey ahead, but Vakov and his misfit crew of eccentric aliens, troubled bounty hunters and rogue hackers will take any risk to stop the alien awakening. Only there's one risk Vakov hasn't shared: the one he himself poses. He got a terrifying glimpse of the Shenoi in the depths of interstellar space, and the violent nightmares he's suffered since suggest their DNA isn't just inside his body - he might already be fighting them for his mind . . .

Praise for Stormblood:

'Stormblood is a high stakes adrenaline filled adventure featuring two estranged brothers suddenly on opposite ends of an addict's war. And it's real damn good' Nick Martell, author of THE KINGDOM OF LIARS

'A captivating military sci-fi debut. Stormblood tells a splendid story about two brothers divided by war that is full of comradeship, actions, and conflict' Novel Notions

'A magnificent and explosive adrenaline-fest . . . Szal's debut is an absolute must read for fans of gritty, action-packed, detective and military SF' Grimdark Magazine

'This frenetic, grisly sucker-punch of a book manages to be everything you could want from sci-fi, while also carving out its own niche with a rusty slingshiv.' Fantasy Book Review

'Vakov Fukasawa is a former soldier, addicted to the biotech inside his own body that makes him constantly crave for action. And there is plenty of action in this fast moving novel, but not at the expense of ideas, or of humanity, or of vivid descriptions of Szal's carefully imagined war-torn galaxy' Chris Beckett

' This is what 21st century Sci-Fi ought to be' - Miles Cameron, author of Artifact Space

Release date: October 28, 2021

Publisher: Orion Publishing Group

Print pages: 320

Sample

My Name is Vakov Fukasawa
and This is My Story

I’m a Reaper. A bio-engineered soldier injected with a drug called stormtech – DNA harvested from an extinct alien race known as the Shenoi – making me and Reapers like me permanently addicted to adrenaline and aggression. I only survived the harrowing war against the galactic empire calling themselves Harvest because of my bond to my brothers, my family, the Reapers like me. Only, the war came to an end and we were dumped back into a world we no longer recognized. I ended up on Compass, an asteroid city and the galaxy’s grand capital. But I only swapped one war for another. Stormtech was unleashed on the market, creating a galaxy-wide drug epidemic. Harmony, the galactic governing body who shot me up with stormtech in the first place, told me my fellow Reaper squadmates were being deliberately overdosed, tortured, and killed.

And the prime suspect? My estranged little brother, Artyom.

My heart torn between the family I was born into and the one I carved out for myself, I couldn’t have walked away if I tried. Only, the deeper into danger I got, the more addicted to stormtech, and danger, I became. With my best friend Grim and the Harmony operative Katherine Kowalski, I discovered that Reapers were being murdered by a mad, transhumanist space-cult known as the House of Suns. Lead by Jae Myouk-soon, the cult was intent on spreading stormtech into as many people as possible to “uplift humanity”, while turning Compass into the centre of a drug epidemic. And my little brother was working alongside them to make this madness happen.

As things weren’t dicey enough, the militaristic, galaxy-spanning alien species known as the Kaiji informed us that the stormtech is the actual lifeforce of the Shenoi. Worse, the greedy, genocidal alien race could very well make a grand return in the near future.

On discovering me and Artyom were brothers, I became the cult’s number one target. They hunted me down like an animal, abducted, and tortured me, overdosing me with lethal quant­ities of stormtech and leaving me for dead. Only, I’m a stubborn bastard, and I came clawing back from death’s door. I learned to switch gears, to work along with my addiction instead of constantly fighting against it.

The cult soon triggered a drug epidemic on Compass, with addicts and Reapers alike going into a blood-rage, turning the asteroid into a war-torn nightmare. With the help of my new stormtech abilities, we brought it to a halt, gutting the cult leader and scattering their forces.

The cost? Watching Artyom get shot to death right in front of me.

That should have been the end of it. Only, I injected him with my own upgraded stormtech and managed to bring him back.

Now, I’m back at Harmony with a new fireteam, a new resolve, and a new working relationship with my body ­chemistry. My brother, now an addict like me, is imprisoned. But we’re gradually rebuilding our relationship, with him determined to work with me and Harmony, to right his many wrongs. Because, of course, the Suns are still out there.

And so are the Shenoi. I can feel an echo of the vicious alien race in my skull. Clawing across space, towards our asteroid, towards me