The Halferne Perfidy
The Halferne Perfidy was my first failed NoNoWriMo attempt. Like The Halferne Incubus it was originally intended as a backstory for a character in a different series of novels, but has been tweaked and expanded into a separate, self-contained story with additional characters and ideas added over the years. My initial vision was, half-jokingly, to combine all my favorite literary things into one book: secret agents vs ninjas in space -- Jack Higgins meets Chang Cheh meets Elizabeth Moon. I always said the subgenre of "contemporary pulp sci-fi/espionage/wuxia" was wide open and begging to be invented. Of course, I now see why there isn't a lot of that, and I admit the concept suffers from a few unforseen obstacles that I may or may not have finally worked out in this revised draft five years later.
The planet Notosia is a failed experiment and a collapsed society; a remote world with no allies located far off the eastern arm of the interstellar travel lanes. No one in their right might would go there unless they were desperate.
Industrialist Sylvester Locke is one of the richest, most powerful men in the galaxy. For the past several months, he's been rumored to be traveling from system to system attempting to sell a significant piece of newtech.
A trail of bodies left behind in Locke's wake leads to Notosia and has caught the attention of Division 5, the Sol Directorate's intelligence agency. Their operative is tasked with uncovering the secrets of this revolutionary new technology and keeping it out of the hands of the terrorists, gangsters, and corrupt government warlords that make up most of Notosia's population.
This mission would be difficult under the best of circumstances, even before the addition of a mysterious ninja assassin and his handler, a 20-year-old girl whose exact role, loyalties, and state of mind are a complete mystery, even on a world that thrives in chaos.
As an added bonus, I invite you to enjoy the playlist that set the mood, helped me keep focus, and constantly ran in the background during the course of writing this novel.
Skype (video)