Insert illustration by yours truly, of planet Hebe from the story in subject. The story release announcement post is at this link. The high resolution image (tap or click the below image) is free for personal use.
Tag: planet
"TREACHERY" short story ebook–RELEASED! (And cover art)
You, Janus Thaddeus, appear to be the only human gifted with the ability to merge into an alternate time-stream.
Here is the book cover art (front half, with titles) for my short Science Fiction story ebook, "TREACHERY."
It is available at smashwords, syndicated several places from there, and at Amazon.]
A version of this with the back cover also and without titles is published in a previous post; here is the link.
PUBLISH/JACKET INFORMATION:
===============
Title: TREACHERY
Author: Richard Alexander Hall
Publishers: Smashwords, Inc. / Amazon
Smashwords-assigned ISBN: 9781310539671
VERY SHORT DESCRIPTION
Janus Thaddeus, Squadron leader in humanity's final battle of survival, is offered a chance by his enemies to save his race, by way of his unique gift.
SHORT CONTENTS DESCRIPTION
An original science fiction short story with a new and unique take on time travel.
VERY SHORT BARELY SPOILER-EY SUMMARIES
TREACHERY: Janus learns from his enemies how he may save humanity with his unique gift. Features a unique take on time travel.
SHORT SORTA MORE SPOILER-EY SUMMARIES
In TREACHERY, Janus Thaddeus, Squadron leader in humanity's final battle of survival, falls planetside when his fleet is wiped out by orbiting atomic blasts. He is rescued by the intelligent Salamander aliens who wiped out his fleet. Salamander Commander Xenon advises him: "…you appear to be the only human gifted with the ability to merge into an alternate timestream." Salamander Assistant Commander Idan claims that Janus' human family remains alive, despite everything Janus' eyes told him. Janus is offered by these, his enemies, a chance to save his race, by way of his unique gift.
"TREACHERY" short story cover
The image linked from this thumbnail is free for personal use.
I'm very pleased with this. It incorporates maps created with the LunarCell, SolarCell, and Glitterati photoshop plugins (the latter in a "starbrite" mode to save the alpha channel of stars, kindly custom coded by the plugin author at my request!–and I think he hasn't yet released a public version with that mode), and other adapted work I've done with a ringed planet, and a 3D render of the planet derived from said textures/maps.
The cyan "shadows" on the rings were an accident–I lit the planet with red (the nebula) from one side and white from the other, and through the translucent green rings, it seems that white light canceled out red and left the rest cyan. No, that may not happen with real physics (or "real life"), so it may not be realistic. This is, um, stylized? And it's, um, a story involving antrhopomorphic extraterrestrial frogs? Yep. K thx. And yes, men, you're going to have a pink and purple book. Get over it.
I'd like to make the borealis more obvious/prominent/realistic, and strictly the planet doesn't have the moons mentioned in the story. Maybe I'll get around to updating it thus.