Two intriguing historical tales packaged together! “To Be First” follows two space voyagers from an alternate universe as they return from the moon, in 1933. In their timeline, manned rocketry began in the Ottoman Empire, which advanced and spread. When these Ottoman lunanauts end up orbiting our comparatively backward world, they have a choice to make, one that will forever change their future and ours.
In “Wheels of Heaven, ” an arrogant Roman astrologer finds a geared Grecian machine for predicting the positions of celestial bodies. On the voyage back to Rome, he meets a sailor who dismisses astrology, an astonishing notion in 86 B.C. But when the sailor’s prediction is right, and every one of the astrologer’s is wrong, he must question his most basic beliefs.
Про автора
A naval engineer who grew up reading Jules Verne and Tom Swift, Steven R. Southard is fascinated by technology and man’s relation to it. Our tools can expand the good we do, but also multiply evil. This theme is apparent in each story of his series, What Man Hath Wrought. Steve has written in the historical, fantasy, science fiction, alternate history, horror, and steampunk genres. Visit his page at the Gypsy Shadow Publishing website and his own site at www.stevenrsouthard.com to better understand his intriguing characters and their amazing machines.