Showing results by author "John Drake" in All Categories

Young Jacob Fletcher, whilst unsure of his parentage, did know that as an apprentice he couldn't legally be seized by the press gang. But this particular gang couldn't actually read the rules. And didn't care anyway. Which was how he found himself risking life, limb and sea sickness on board His Majesty's frigate Phiandra, about to do battle with what looked like half the French fleet.

There is a problem with life. It’s ending. All of it. Everywhere. The sort of people who know about these things think, on balance, that something should be done about it. The good news is that the head of planet Arcadia’s Zooming Division, General Buck, has a plan. The bad news is he hasn’t really thought it through.

Just three bros(John, Shaan, and Austin), talking about basketball, music, and all things dude.

Sending his human resources manager on a reconnaissance mission to the great Jin city of Rhizun seemed like a good idea to Genghis Khan at the time, until a serendipitous scroll appears with revelations of a secret heir to the khanate. To save his legacy, Genghis sends his Mongol horde into Jin lands with nothing more than the fiercest army the world has ever known and several hundred of Captain Kupcayk’s famous buns. Unfortunately for Genghis, his successor is on the wrong side of the city walls.

Buried for nearly 300 years and now brought triumphantly to light by Dr. Livesey, this is, at last, the true story of what happened on the fateful Treasure Island.... The truth about Captain Flint and his fabled death. The truth about Long John Silver and his coveted wife. And the truth about Jim Hawkins, that double-dealing turncoat of the first order: the traitor of Treasure Island.

A street-side conman becomes embroiled in high politics when his scheme to relieve the doge of Genoa of a sizable portion of his wealth backfires. He is conscripted to deliver a message to The Cutler, a mysterious figure in the papal city of Avignon. Two English pilgrims are also making their way to the pope, seeking repentance for their sins. Their journey takes a debauched turn, however, and their arrival is one of a pair of wandering drunkards rather than pious pilgrims.

This is a collection of flash fiction stories and experiences revolving around the conventions that we all know and love. If you have ever attended a convention, especially a fandom convention, then you know that anything is possible.

Cobble is a Neanderthal with itchy feet and the mind of an engineer, unlike anyone else in his old-fashioned tribe. Making Man follows his journey as he leaves the village of Boardom behind, taking him through mountains, underground animal lairs, and into new landscapes. As with all good prehistoric comedies there is a mysterious pendant and a healthy dose of talking insects.

The Cutter Stream colonies were at peace. If everybody behaved reasonably, that peace could last a thousand years. Allen Allenson had known war; it had made him peaceful and reasonable. He was far too experienced to believe the same was true of all his fellow colonists, however, let alone the government of the distant homeworld across the Bight.

A young hero comes of age in the crucible of war and galactic struggle. When Allen Allenson, scion of a noble family that has fallen on hard times, gets a mission to roust the power-hungry Terrans from a "wild" star sector where they're encroaching, he jumps at the chance to show his individual worth, improve his family's fortunes - and gather enough lucre to make a good marriage. But the wily Terrans are not so easily persuaded by a young colonial they think of as a "rube".