“All who threaten me die.”
These words made Morgan Stormrider’s reputation as one of the Phoenix Society’s deadliest IRD (Individual Rights Defense) officers. He served with distinction as the Society’s avenger, hunting down anybody who dared kill an Adversary in the line of duty. After a decade spent living by the sword, Morgan seeks to bid a farewell to arms and make a new life with his friends as a musician.
Regardless of his faltering faith, the Phoenix Society has a final mission for Morgan Stormrider after a dictator’s accusations make him a liability to the organization. He must put everything aside, travel to Boston, and prove he is not the Society’s assassin. He must put down Alexander Liebenthal’s coup while taking him alive.
Despite the gravity of his task, Morgan cannot put aside his ex-girlfriend’s murder, or efforts to frame him and his closest friends for the crime. He cannot ignore a request from a trusted friend to investigate the theft of designs for a weapon before which even gods stand defenseless. He cannot disregard the corruption implied in the Phoenix Society’s willingness to make him a scapegoat should he fail to resolve the crisis in Boston without bloodshed.
The words with which Morgan Stormrider forged his reputation haunt him still.
Matthew Graybosch is the author of Without Bloodshed, a near-future science fantasy thriller set in the Starbreaker universe. Without Bloodshed is published by Curiosity Quills Press and will be available on 17 November 2013. His other works include “Steadfast”, a novelette published in five parts at curiosityquills.com; Tattoo Vampire; and “The Milgram Battery”, which was included in the Curiosity Quills Primetime charity anthology.
According to official records maintained by the state of New York, Matthew Graybosch was born on Long Island in 1978. Urban legends in New York suggest he might be Rosemary’s Baby, the result of top-secret DOD attempts to continue Nazi experiments combining human technology and black magic, or that he sprang fully grown from his father’s forehead with a sledgehammer in one hand and a copy of The C Programming Language in the other — and has given the poor man headaches ever since.
The truth is more prosaic. Matthew Graybosch is a novelist from New York who lives in central Pennsylvania. He is also an avid reader, a long-haired metalhead, and an unrepentant nerd.
I've tried to keep Imaginos' magic, and that of the other characters in Starbreaker, subtle. This isn't the appropriate setting for the sort of pyrotechnics readers who grew up on video games like Final Fantasy and anime like The Slayers have come to expect. You won't see anybody casting the Dragon Slave or summoning Bahamut here. Since I'm telling this part of the story from Imaginos' viewpoint, and he knows how his magic works, I don't bother explaining to the reader how it works, except that what he did to create the blizzard currently covering London in snow took a hell of a lot of effort, and required that he manipulate existing natural processes. He has a great deal in common with Saruman, however. His greatest power isn't in his wizardry, but in his speech. He's persuasive and manipulative, with a keen understanding of human psychology.
Book Excerpt
Without Bloodshed
He expended titanic efforts in manipulating the natural forces which shaped the planet’s weather, and the blizzard was his reward.
Comment on this Bubble
Your comment and a link to this bubble will also appear in your Facebook feed.