Mushroom eBooks Blog

The wonderful and exciting saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen continues apace with book twenty, A Sword for Kregen. This is the second book of the “Jikaida Cycle” by Kenneth Bulmer writing as Alan Burt Akers, and sees Dray taking part in Kazz-Jikaida and Death-Jikaida in Jikaida City.

The back-of-the-book blurb:

The most popular game among the many peoples of Kregen, world of Antares, is one that resembles chess, called Jikaida. Jikaida is a battle of wits and war game pieces that suited well the tension charged atmosphere that enveloped Dray Prescot. For reconquering Vallia was assuming the aspect of such a game - move versus countermove, horde against horde! Then Dray Prescot found himself no longer in control of just a game - he had become a living chessman on a real-life board at the dreaded arena of Jikaida City. There every move was accompanied by bloodshed and behind every game might hang the fate of a city, an island, or even a nation!

About Dray Prescot (from the preface by Alan Burt Akers):

Dray Prescot presents an enigmatic picture of himself; reared in the inhumanly harsh conditions of Nelson’s Navy, he has been transported by the Scorpion agencies of the Star Lords, the Everoinye, and the Savanti, the superhuman yet mortal people of Aphrasöe the Swinging City, to the demanding and fulfilling world of Kregen orbiting Antares, four hundred light years from Earth, where he has made his home.

He is a man above middle height, with brown hair and level brown eyes, brooding and dominating, with enormously broad shoulders and superbly powerful physique. There is about him an abrasive honesty and indomitable courage, he moves like a savage hunting cat, quiet and deadly. He has struggled through triumph and disaster and has acquired a number of titles and estates, and now the people of the island of Vallia, which has been ripped apart by ambitious and mercenary invaders, have called on him to lead them to freedom as their emperor.

His story, which he records on cassettes, is arranged so that each volume may be read as complete in itself. There have been many questions about the role of Prescot on Kregen and particularly about the nature and purpose of his antagonists. I am firmly convinced he does see far further ahead than perhaps he is given credit for. His words inspire our belief, particularly in what he has to say about the Star Lords. He implies they are not as malefic as at one time we might have been led to believe.

Whatever the outcome for Dray Prescot, we are aware that he is conscious that he struggles against a far darker and more profound fate than is revealed in anything he has so far told us.

Title number 19 in the epic and amazing saga of Dray Prescot is now available from all good ebookshops. A Life for Kregen by Kenneth Bulmer, writing as Alan Burt Akers, is the first volume of the Jikaida Cycle, chronicling the history of Dray Prescot on the fascinating world of Kregen four hundred light years from Earth. Reared in the inhumanly harsh conditions of Nelson’s Navy, he has been transported through the agencies of the Star Lords, the Everoinye, and the Savanti nal Aphrasöe to the terrible yet beautiful world of Kregen under Antares, where he has struggled through disaster and success to make a home.

Here be the blurb:

The world Kregen circles the twin suns of Antares, far distant from the skies of Earth. Yet Kregen is the ground on which the Earthman Dray Prescot must stand and fight for all he holds dear. For Prescot is the unwilling battle arm of the mysterious Star Lords who contend for that planet with the powerful Savanti. Yet Prescot’s ambitions are his own, for he has inherited the remnant of a shattered empire and must fight to bring hope and freedom to all its peoples. By his side stands his princess, Delia of the Blue Mountains, and a band of stalwart companions of many races and species. But arrayed against him are flying armadas, armed hordes, the wizardry of a super scientist, and, most shocking of all, the fury and steel claws of his own daughter, Dayra!

Adventures by Leaf Light and other stories is a book of short magical fantasy stories for children by Moyra Caldecott. Some of the stories were published previously in paperback, but many have never been published before in any form. It is available immediately from Mobipocket.com and Cyberread.com, and will appear on Fictionwise.com and other good ebookstores over the next few days.

The book is also available in paperback from Bladud Books (our paperback imprint), and you can get it from Adventures by Leaf Light and Other Stories”>Amazon.com or by special order from all good high street book shops anywhere in the world.
Here is the (rather short) blurb:

Eighteen beautiful, insightful, moral, magical stories for children with Imagination — and their parents. Many have never been published before, and will be a treat for all fans of Moyra Caldecott.

Multi-Dimensional Life is the autobiography of Moyra Caldecott. But it is more than an account of her life — it is about the experiences, inspiration and motivation for her writing. For each major work of fiction in her time as a prolific author of historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction, Moyra Caldecott gives an account of the development of the ideas that led to the writing of the book. Multi-Dimensional Life will be of interest to all struggling writers of fiction, as well as fans of Moyra Caldecott’s work.

Multi-Dimensional Life is available in ebook format from all the usual ebookstores, such as Fictionwise.com, and in paperback (published by Bladud Books) from Amazon and all good bricks and mortar bookshops (probably to special order — just quote the ISBN 978-1-84319-549-8).

Here is the blurb:

In more than thirty published books, some of them continuously in print for thirty years, the novelist Moyra Caldecott has transported her readers through ancient history and into other worlds. Her writing is a manifestation of her lifelong quest for meaning and wisdom. Now, for the first time, she reveals the many levels of her own life as a writer and the extraordinary events and experiences that have inspired her life and writing.