The Cold Wind II: Taniwha (preface)
#1 of The Cold Wind II: Taniwha
Preface and cover-art for the second TCW novel. Story to follow!
Edited by Dr. Richard E. Grant
© Copyright 2008 - Kane Archer/LINCARD1000, all rights reserved.
All characters, locations, scenes, story etc are completely fictional, no animals were harmed in the making of this story, printed on recycled pixels.
Cover illustration by Matthew Burkle - http://slaindragon.deviantart.com/
About the Author
Kane is a 30-something guy born and bred in various locations around New Zealand who is living with his much put-upon but loving partner of 17 years. Apart from being a much enjoyed hobby, the writing is purely a part-time escape from reality.
Preface
' Taniwha' (pronounced tah-nee-fah) is a word used by the Maori people of New Zealand to describe large, occasionally reptilian appearing creatures of myth often revered as a protectors of people or sacred places. Although revered, they were occasionally also feared... In order to make this whole novel more readable and so that you can concentrate on the story and the characters, I have endeavored to blend as much of the technobabble into the background as possible. Rather than coming up with lots of alien measurements, names, and terms and confusing the crap out of both myself and my readers, I felt it was actually better for the flow of the story to render them in their English equivalents. So, while an alien civilization would obviously measure distances, time etc. in a different way than we would, you won't find any of that in Taniwha. Any American and British readers in the audience will, no doubt, be annoyed by my use of metric measurements. But I'm sure you'll cope, and hopefully you will end up joining the rest of us in the 21st century, eventually ;-) Remember 2.54 centimeters to the inch and you'll be just fine, I promise! All alien names, object descriptions, and locations have been rendered in conventional English, including the names of the alien species themselves (Vanguard, Arbiters, etc), and for much the same reasons as the measurements. While I could come up with some complicated imaginary names for various characters, races, technology and the like, at the end of the day would it really add anything to the story? Besides, I'm kinda fond of the names I came up with for my Vanguard boys and girls; just strikes me as being practical to name someone after a trait/habit they have, or even something to do with their appearance. This one's name is Short-And-Ugly, and he is pleased to meet you ;-) I have taken a lot of liberties with both biology and physics in this story, although much of it is based on real science underneath it all. Although, if you look hard enough, you'll no doubt find lots of inconsistencies and holes in many of the concepts and ideas that I've written about. If so, ssssssh, pretend you didn't see them. It's all about suspension of disbelief, people! Any left-over tech-talk is related to the story-line, so just bear with it, it's usually there for a reason (even if that reason is just for my own amusement or self-indulgence).
However, all that stuff aside, you will find plenty of space-opera goodness here because this is a genre very close to my heart. I grew up reading this kind of material from many talented, mainstream, big-name authors, and while I may not be quite up to their standards I still hope I've done it justice in my own unique, twisted way. Here are, finally, the gay characters I always wanted to read about having adventures out there amongst the stars...
Kane (Oslo, Norge - 2008/Te Miro, New Zealand - 2012)