The Nameless Girl: A New Myth From Ancient Greece
In the kingdom of Sparta, the beautiful princess Helen is wedded to stout Menelaus. She brings with her a considerable dowry: land, gold, the kingship itself. In her service are a group of young attendants, maidens almost as sophisticated and lovely as she. Except for one—a troublesome bone-armed girl that everybody calls No-one.
During the summer festivals a stranger appears in the city, eager to perform for the queen. No-one is immediately struck by his handsome curls, his soaring voice. Rummaging through Helen’s love-potions she decides she will seduce the young bard and take him for herself. But the laws of the gods are not forgiving to women, where such violations are concerned. No-one is cursed for her crime: turned into a harbinger of misfortune, bringing disease and bad luck to whomever she meets.
Cast out from Sparta, No-one must wander the ancient world, desperate and alone. She will beggar city-to-city—from Mycenaean palaces to Egyptian temples—in search for somebody with the wisdom to cure her malady and restore her former life. But the gods’ curse is forever on No-one’s trail, hounding, hungry. And it can be outrun only so long before it will finally consume her.
Nathaniel J. Baker is an American author and attorney. He holds a law degree from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. in Classics from Trinity College, where he graduated at the top of his department.
Holbytla: A Science Fiction Retelling of The Hobbit
In a distant corner of the galaxy there was a planet. Not an icy, barren, lifeless planet, frost-bitten and frozen-over and too cold by-half; nor yet some large, bloated, gaseous planet, with whorling eddies that stormed raging in its troposphere. This planet was inhabitable, and it was called Holbytla.
Out in the planet’s remotest reaches, xenoarchaeologist Nob Nesbit receives an unexpected proposal. He is visited by a band of Tintin dwarfs, who seek his help deciphering a mysterious artefact known as "The Key": a relic of the First Ones, the mythical civilization that ruled Holbytla in ages past. Now the First Ones are extinct. But within this Key Nob uncovers a map to the Lost City of Ai’i—rumored to be their Master Vault, and filled beyond count with all manner of riches and treasures. And the dwarfs need Nob’s services finding it!
Reluctantly Nob sets off on their grand Expedition. But he will have to tread carefully. For Holbytla may be perfectly inhabitable, but it is not perfectly safe—creatures both civilized and uncivilized wait to prey upon the unsuspecting traveler, troglodytes and gholems and hydro-serpents with monster-teeth! And their mysterious map is leading Nob and his friends into the very heart of the danger: over the planetary meridian, beyond the mountains and direct into Holbytla’s Dark Side…Where even the bravest are forbidden to go!
Combining elements of both fantasy and science fiction, Holbytla is a sci-fi retelling of The Hobbit: an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic tale, set on a dangerous world of fearsome beasts and marvelous technologies.
Found and Lost: A Psychohistorical Adventure
LOST! The Imperial Dawn is the greatest battle-cruiser ever assembled: a towering behemoth of atom-engine and thermo-battery, an unstoppable dreadnought with enough fire-power to destroy entire star-fleets. The personal flagship of the last Great Emperor, legend says the Dawn was swallowed into sub-space centuries ago, disappeared to be never heard from again…
…And at last it has been FOUND!
Now the race is on—between a pair of desperate rebel-agents, an unscrupulous Spacer-captain, and a brilliant young Imperial General—to be the one to recover the Dawn first. Because whoever commands this legendary juggernaut controls not just the deadliest star-ship in galactic history: but the fate and future of the galaxy itself!
Inspired by Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and other sci-fi pulps of the 1950s, Found and Lost is a smart, fast-paced action-adventure story!