…escapism from the dull routine that sometimes seems to take over our lives – to entertain, to amuse, and to give the reader a bit of a boost… a natural ‘high’.
A Piece of Heaven … available now:
The Last Substitute – further details
Terraless Trilogy
How about a fantasy story about a new world, only recently created, with a strangely young population, living in a sort of feudal society… perhaps the strangest aspect is that, though the youngest inhabitant is only a few years old and the oldest is probably under thirty, none of them can remember their existence before their appearance in Terraless, no one has any concept of family – living only as a member of each community, under the tyrannical control of a force of soldiers – and none of them have been there for more than a couple of years.
You’ll find a world powered by magic, with existential danger – the magic seems to be fading, and there are seemingly impossible odds against finding the cause, let alone fixing it – the beginnings of unshakable friendships and perhaps a hint of romance!
Written in a young-to-adult style, without coarse language and overt sensuality, with fast-paced action and engaging personalities, this story continues the saga of a magical world hidden from humanity – except those who have been marooned there by a sadistic, power-hungry ruler that plans to maim Terraless and then plunge our own planet into anarchical darkness.
If you dare … enter the magical land of Terraless, where only the emerging supernatural skills of one bow-girl stand between death administered by swordsmen aplenty to a young, enslaved population, a world where daylight continues without interruption, never seeming to end, but continually diminishing as each new sleep and wake period passes by, and freedom is a new concept that the oppressed and young serfs have never even contemplated.
Light comes from a living creature, darkness is unknown, bread the staple diet, sourced from never-failing and never-ending wheat fields, life-sustaining water from a new well, cats big and small, both fur-covered and human. A good-versus evil, heroes and villains, tender-crisp tale with excitement, mystery, tension, and our bow-girl’s gradually unfolding understanding of her crucial mission: to travel with her new-found friends and an implacable enemy, farther and ever higher, so that she can save Terraless from death or enslavement, repression or fear… but most immediately from an impending, never-ending darkness. Some dare to risk their own lives to help, whilst the enemy sends his brutal soldiers and a fearsome assassin to wipe out the travelers and re-enslave the rebels.
The ability of Eshezy (the heroine of the story) as an archer is without par, both because she is a brilliant shot, and also because she has the first bow in the land! She rapidly becomes involved in protecting these ‘serfs’ and has to challenge the ruthless soldiers that rule over them. Something more worrying is wrong in Terraless, though, and she has to find out how to quite literally ‘save the day’
This story opens the saga of the magical, unearthly world of Terraless, hidden from humanity – except those who have been marooned there by a sadistic, power-hungry ruler that plans to maim this new world and then plunge our own planet into anarchical darkness.
After Eshezy’s last-moment triumph is discovered by Seirchaal, he is incensed at the setback the bow-girl and her followers have achieved. He brings in hundreds to create a massive army, determined to wipe out the rebellious ex-Neechaallites forever. Eshezy tries to prepare a defence, but her people are mostly children and young adults, whereas the enemy is sending hundreds of burly, ultra-hardened ex-convicts against her, freed of all their earthly memories, concerns, prejudices and plans, and focused entirely on Seirchaal’s goals of subjugation, intimidation and annihilation.
Eshezy must ask for volunteers to trek across Terraless to find Seirchaal’s other settlements so that they can help the serfs in these little towns. Anyone who goes will do so at great personal risk – if the enemy catches them, they will be killed.
And… the world has changed. Now, after the sun-creature takes his rest, night comes at the end of each day. Dangers multiply, not just from the enemy, but also from previously unknown beasts that have started to roam during this new darkness – including extremely dangerous ones: sharp-toothed, deceptively small creatures that swarm to feed, and other, much larger ones that breathe fire and prefer their food, fresh and fire-fast flambé – it is only the tiny glowing pinpoints dancing, meandering and pirouetting in the sky overhead that allow a shadowy patchwork of faint illumination to hold back the total absence of light.
Come back to Terraless and escape the sometimes-dull routines of life, and, if right now you feel like darkness is closing in on you and that bleakness fills your life, as you read Terraless Night you will be reminded that ‘in the darkness there will always be a light’.
Terraless Treasure – the third tale about the magical world of Terraless – will begile you with mysteries and magic and Eshezy’s latest challenge, in both her world and ours. Trouble in Toronto, stop-at-nothing ‘entrepreneurs’, a secret that keeps getting discovered, a gateway that leads to fabulous fortunes – the future of Terraless and Earth are torturously twinned; are they continually cursed? It would seem so, unless Eshezy and her small, young band of followers can defeat the latest villains!
Terraless… Swords and sorcery, treasures and truths. More untouched than Earth, but how long can it remain so? More than just memory-inhibited inhabitants under a feudal-like control system. In the first instalment, the novelty of the concept of choice, desperate actions to meet that ideal and behind it all, a constant fading of the one source of light for this world. In Terraless Night, the newness of night following day and the revenge of the self-proclaimed lord – sending hundreds of power-hungry, single-minded warriors to battle against predominantly youthful rebels.
The increasing interactions between Terraless and Toronto make this 3rd trip to the fantasy world a more ‘urban’ fantasy; the action involves not just archery and sword-fighting, but also (like in The Magnificent Seven) the question of whether an arrow (or a knife) can trump a bullet…
The third instalment of the Terraless series, ‘Terraless Treasure’… begs two questions:
- what constitutes treasure?
- which world would you choose for your future?
Magic, spreading from one world to another… available now!
…find things that will excite, fascinate, and sometimes inexplicably make eyes sting or lips curve.
GALACTIC HOME
A signpost to adventure: action, discovery, escape, telepathy, chases, battles, mind control, castaways and prisoners, wars and rumours of war, both planet-side, in the air and between planets – stretching across the immensities of space that surround and separate them – with aliens – some friendly and others hostile, human and inhuman. Stories full of drama, dilemma and desperation… determination, durability and dedication.
ASCENT
When Richard arrives in the coastal town of Redcliff, Maine, barely recovered from his months-long coma and still mourning the death of his family, he meets a pale enigmatic girl who assures him that her name is Karen and that he has been sent to help her. Soon he finds himself inciting arson, being introduced to but never actually meeting Karen’s tutor, planning a heist, performing multiple carjackings, running a police roadblock, directing laser strikes against vehicles, artillery units, tanks, fighter jets and finally boring a hole deep in a Quebec forest.
Meanwhile, government investigators are alarmed by a report of damage done to a nuclear-powered submarine as it observed the tail-end of an apparent extra-terrestrial abduction from a private luxury cruiser. When this hush-hush division of the FBI hears about a jet fighter brought down near a strange monument or building on the coast of Maine, conclusions are tentatively drawn, some correct, some erroneous, and Karen’s home and status both come under scrutiny.
PASSAGE
With little knowledge, no training and a host of unanswered questions, Richard and Karen go searching the galaxy for her parents’ birth planet, with the indispensable aid of her tutor. On the way, they discover why her parents had come to Earth and why no one had sought them since they failed to return home. They take a crash-course is interstellar navigation and piloting, and find out how well they have absorbed this new knowledge – being tested against an enemy that they never knew existed, in both ship-to-ship and hand-to-hand combat. Deserted and desert planets hone their teamwork, resolve and determination, posing problems beyond their combined abilities and leading them to radical, revolutionary choices.
After the abducted ones mobilise the immobile to cross hundreds of millions of miles of unforgiving vacuum, back on Earth the investigators are confronted by something suspiciously like a flying railcar, falling to Earth, apparently from space, and the frightening message declared by its occupants – a call to arms; to defend the planet from an impending invasion.
IMPACT
Richard and Karen (now Kirrina) return to Earth covertly…. and Paranak comes with them!
They renew old friendships, finding bonds stronger than life, and direct the use of the power of the Medic, exposing a conundrum regarding the morality of curing without restoration.
Federal financial support – both American and Canadian – is being used by the rescued physicist and his best friend to prepare a prototype ship for the defence of the planet, but reproducing alien technology proves very difficult.
Initially undetected, Richard, Kirrina and Paranak set up a secret factory or space-dock and seek construction crew members, pilots and crew to man them.
The aliens return – this time with a fleet of vessels – to the far side of the Moon and prepare their secret weapon for the attack against Earth. Unfortunately, their presence is not discovered until they strike.
CAVALRY
After the discoveries at the conclusion of ‘Impact’, it is only a matter of time before the hordes of Narlavs invade…. As the small group of defenders prepare for the battle, they have to deal with extreme weather, desperate survivors, and still search for lost friends and family members. Richard and Kirrina must bring disparate forces together, uniting them to maximise the hope that they still have… to survive… and more than that, to prevent the subjugation of all humanity on Earth. Just as the defenders begin their supposed pre-emptive strike to destroy the Narlav base, the Narlavs launch their invasion. The fleets meet and battle in the space between Earth and the Moon, with many ships destroyed on both sides and a Narlav troop landing near the once-secret factory just as Richard and Kirrina land at the Moon base, resulting in simultaneous hand-to-hand laser shoot-outs with devastating results. On the Narlav’s home planet, shattering revelations are made about the true character of the principal enemy of humanity.
…find things that will excite, fascinate, and sometimes inexplicably make eyes sting or lips curve.
— Thorby Rudbek
Ropes and Boats and ‘Planes
Kids Fantasy Book
A bedtime adventure story where either the people are incredibly tiny … or the bees are as big as great Danes and the chickens are as enormous as T-Rexes and paper aeroplanes are big and strong enough to hold passengers. A tale where children search for their siblingsand parents, where food is quite literally great and there’s tons of it and, most importantly, everyone is looking for a way to get back to the normal world and to home-sweet-home.
Each new challenge is illustrated in bold colours with the children and parents, animals, plants and scenery portrayed clearly and engagingly by children’s artist Gwen Searle.
Filled with lovely full-colour illustrations of the perils and challenges that beset them as the children look for their parents, mother looks for father and father looks at a drop of water and… but you’ll have to read it to find out what that innocent glance results in!
What if angels are nearer than you think? Perhaps they will show themselves, if the time is right and the reason is compelling enough.
And if they did, would you ever be the same?
The story of Lee-Anna Sheffield is just such a tale. At about fifty pages, you will soon know the incredible truth!
… history … <is> so filled with accounts of angels ministering to those on earth… Usually such beings are not seen. Sometimes they are – Jeffrey R. Holland
Mary was changed with one angelic visit, as were Moses, Joshua, Joseph, David, Elizabeth, and many more – David Herzog
Be kind to strangers, because it’s the loving thing to do. Also, you never know – they could be angels – Scott Curran
It is impossible to see the angel unless you first have a notion of it – James Hillman
Eternal Journal at Amazon Store
PUBLISHED BOOKS OF Thorby Rudbek 