Angel -- a lethal synthetic drug so pervasive and deadly, it has built empires and torn down worlds.
Equinox Industries is a commercial monopoly which has spent decades mining the gas giant, Zeus. Now, the company is challenged by a growing faction for its dirty environmental record, and Tactical in the fantastic city of Elysium -- on the moon of Avalon in orbit around the green-faced giant world -- suspects Equinox of being the force behind the local manufacture of Angel. The super drug isn't being smuggled into the system -- Colonel Vic Duggan comprehensively shut down the Angel smuggling trade. Yet Avalon remains riddled with Angel, rotting from the inside out...
Enter Jarrat and Stone, commanding the carrier NARC-Athena, the premier base ship in the paramilitary NARC force, at war with the Angel syndicates. Lovers whose minds have been bonded together. Men whose lives have been changed forever by the drug, the war, and the sacrifices both have made, and must continue to make if they will pursue a job which has long been a vocation.
In this second novel, the heroes of DEATH'S HEAD need their empathic powers as well as the twenty-fourth century's technology wizardry to stay one jump ahead of their corporate enemies -- to stay alive and at liberty.
(Caveat: material in this free sample is not suitable for juniors. Consider yourself warned!)
Length: 125,000 words
Rated: adult (sex, violence, language)
Publication date: 2008
Publisher: DreamCraft
Price: $9.99 - ebook
Cover: Jade
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Mel Keegan comments on EQUINOX
Here I am back in one of my favourite universes, with a whole new world to explore. This one was massive fun -- much more so than the first book, because since the characters and background had already been establisheed the year before I was able to launch right into the plot. When this one was written the intention was for the NARC books to become a series. I had ideas for at least four more! Unfortunely, GMP's troubles were about to begin, and Jarrat and Stone went back on the shelf along with so many other projects (HELLGATE among them). I'd always hoped GMP's situation would improve over time, but in fact the reverse came to pass, and at this point (April '03), if not for my relationship with the South Aussie multimedia studio DreamCraft, I'd be looking for a publisher, like the majority of the writers who have found themselves left behind as GMP winds down. The good news is that DreamCraft came to the rescue -- and Jarrat and Stone books are once again in the offing, just as surely as the HELLGATE series! I confess, I love Jarrat and Stone unconditionally. Once or twice I've been asked, which is my favorite of the two characters. Please. Don't make me choose. I can't. EQUINOX and FORTUNES OF WAR were on simultaneous contracts, and both contracts were signed and sealed on the basis of the synposes for these two books ... this situation shows in the way I left EQUINOX at the end of the book. It's open ended, not tied off in any way. I expected to be coming back for a third waltz around this particular galaxy! However, it looks like being about eleven years "between drinks" ... which is to say, yes, there is a third NARC book and it could be a reality in 2004. Much depends on the success encountered by DreamCraft along the rocky road of promoting my work. (Hint hint: guys, pass the word along!)
So, If you have the original GMP edition, do you need this one?
Only if you're a "purist" about your literature, or a completionist regarding your collection. Both the text and the cover are different, though the text of EQUINOX has merely been updated in two ways, both fairly subtle.
First, the DreamCraft edition is much more error-free than the GMP edition. Numerous typographical errors which were missed in the old issue have been remedied here, and the result is a smoother narrative. (GMP did not have a spotless track record when it came to copy editing, this is no secret. However, DreamCraft has the resources to be more thorough).
Second (and more importantly), I reviewed the prior, published copy, and "tweaked" the text where necessary to update the technology. The NARC books were written over a decade ago and some terms are now obsolete; also, various high-tech which was borderline science fiction in 1990 is now common on the street, and the book needed a subtle revision. This has been done, rendering the DreamCraft edition of EQUINOX superior, textually, to the 1991/92 original (published in '93).
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