Category Archives: telepathy

The Magic Number

This morning I woke up to see Shadow Over Avalon had received review # 100, which is a big deal. Not only that, the review called for an instant happy dance. Here it is and thank you to ‘Angie’ whoever you are.

on November 11, 2017
This was captivating from page one. I’d give it more than 5* if I could!

This is a richly woven tale that is extremely visual. The world building is tremendous. Sometimes in fantasy I find myself wishing the author would just get on with it, but not with this book. The author knows how to paint a truly three dimensional world without falling foul of information dumping. They are also amazing at presenting realistic fully formed characters from page one. This is a book to get lost in. Although I am not an Arthurian legend buff, and I no doubt missed out with my lack of knowledge there, the fine weaving of the complex threads kept me entertained from start to finish. The author certainly took a bold step in se

King Arthur

I was disappointed that the new movie is not successful, although having watched the trailer, I can also see that it wasn’t my kind of thing, which is weird, as I write Arthur stories. What put me off is the movie seemed somehow camp and disrespectful to a wonderful legend. I suppose one also has to wonder if the market is now over-saturated with endless retellings of the same story? Everyone knows what happened and who did what to whom in advance, so the only different things are how it is presented. This is what got me motivated to write about King Arthur in the first place as it was not another retelling of the same story I was interested in exploring but rather the concept of what happened next?  The king is supposed to return to save his people in their time of greatest need, so I fast-forwarded.

Shadow Over Avalon opens in the far distant future and is most definitely not a retelling of the original legend. Instead, it is a chance to see what happens when the fighting spirit of the king is returned to face an enemy out of nightmares. Aliens? Nope, nothing so trite. This is something humanity has done to itself and paid an unimaginable price as a consequence. Interested? Here is a link to the first chapter of the first book.

First book? Well yes, it is a series and the fourth book, Staff of Shadows is in the final preparation stage prior to publication. The series is available via the Amazons, Kobo, Nook, iTunes and various other platforms. Of course, if you want to buy a signed paperback, then find me on Facebook right here and leave a message. The first book, Shadow Over Avalon, is currently 99c in ebook form. Probably less than a cup of coffee.

https://www.facebook.com/C.N.Lesley/

A great review for St Paddy’s day.

Shadow Over Avalon 2-page1

A great read! March 15, 2017
I love books set around old legends and myths and this book didn’t disappoint. The story is imaginative and we’ll thought out, which is also unquie compared to other books I have read about Arthur. A great read! Would definitely recommend

New Story chapter 2 second snippet.

Due to busting my ribs at the weekend and ending up in ER on Monday, I wasn’t much in the frame of mind to continue. The pain is more or less under control now and my muse has returned. Woo Hoo.

Azrael had imagined she’d be presented with the sentence of the person to be culled, detailing why they must die, but when she faced the banker assigned to her, a bald, fat, sweating man sitting behind a priceless off-world wooden desk, she learned otherwise.

Armed with a mental image of a middle-aged man, details of his usual security and precisely where he would be when she made the hit, Azrael wanted to vomit. She was no better than the gun she now collected on her way to the rooftop transport; one weapon carrying another. The Banker had also given her instructions as to where she must position her lethal shots on the body of her victim. One for the head and one for the heart so there was no possibility of saving the man. Of course, had she been equipped with a higher velocity projectile weapon, this would be a consideration as the man’s head would have exploded on impact. The choice to use what she must was necessitated by the proximity of other people to the man. Although the banker didn’t enlighten her, Azrael wondered if the extra care came because the person who ordered the hit would be standing close by to give a façade of innocence? She couldn’t think why else she needed to make shots into a crowd, for the second shot was going to confirm the identity of the victim as no accident.

Once on the roof she checked over the grav lifter left out for her, going over all the fuel lines and the ignition system. Aside from getting her in position on top of a highrise roof to make the kill, she depended on it to get her away clean afterward. A random thought crossed her mind, leaving her to wonder what happened when the banker’s angels got caught in the act? greyling-deeps

New Story, Chapter two, first snippet.

 

Still looking for a name for this story.

A weapon needed honing, for that is what Azrael was now. The tanks merely grew a clone to the state of an adult person, one who had never developed consciousness for they had never been awakened until the essence of the original individual was infused. While electrical impulses forced the muscles to move, it wasn’t enough to build strength, particularly with the titanium shields on parts of her bones increasing her weight. She spent hours at the angel’s personal gym, dealing with replenishing the deficit. Not what she wanted to do, but as the others said, there wasn’t a choice. She found this out when she didn’t move fast enough. A wrenching pain pulsed through her head, bringing her to her knees. This wasn’t something a person ever wanted repeating, so she worked harder after that.

Weapons training also figured, both on how to aim properly and how to break down and care for weapons. They ranged from tiny lazars fitting in the palm of a hand to bulkier projectile weapons for a long-range kill. Azrael found her accuracy increased along with her strength, something she didn’t like, but had no choice to alter. Hand to hand combat began once she had mastered the perfect projectile shot over a distance and could run five leagues on a treadmill. She found herself facing guards armed with dull stone knives, like the one she wielded for practice. Strange she wasn’t matched with other angels, but they were never present when she worked out. What was it about her that the bankers wanted to keep separate from the others? Maybe the killing skills? Perhaps they didn’t trust their angels and so limited their abilities?

As hard as she tried to slow the process down, there came a day when she was judged ready for her first assignment. Clothed in camouflage gear, complete with an emergency medical kit and a communicator, but no weapons as yet, she was marched to meet a banker for the first time. He’d give her details of the kill.

greyling-deeps

A Five star review for Chalice of Shadows

Woo Hoo! Does happy dance. Oh and yes, there will be a post with another new story snippet later. I need to write it. LOL.

5.0 out of 5 starsChalice of Shadows
ByQwertyon February 26, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
Chalice of Shadows is book three in C.N. Lesley’s Arthurian-Science Fantasy series. The book can be read as a stand-alone, but for maximum enjoyment I suggest that you read all three. In Chalice of Shadows the writing and storytelling are excellent, and the author draws you easily into her world. And what a rich and varied world it is. Based on the traditional tales of Morgan and Mordred, two of the most fascinating characters in Arthurian legend, the author adds her own, unique spin to create a wonderful, original story.

Chalice of Shadows should appeal to lovers of Arthurian literature and lovers of fantasy in general. Within the book the author displays a vivid imagination and a sympathetic understanding of human relationships. These qualities lift this series well above others in the genre.

I urge you to read Chalice of Shadows for I’m sure that C.N. Lesley’s ‘Shadows’ series will soon be regarded as a landmark series in Arthurian literature.

chalice-poster

New story, third snippet.

***
Pain was the last thing she remembered, blinding, soul wrenching pain, but that was gone. She opened her eyes to the sight of a dim overhead light in what looked like the same cell she occupied before they started changing her. Was she an angel now? Her body moved with ease, an ease of youth. It was young. Not her body, and yet it was. She got up off the filthy floor, stretching to ease the kinks out of her back and then she felt an ache from her naked shoulder. Looking down, she saw the brand. They had marked her with her designation number 666. That thought brought home a greater and more terrible truth. She had no name, not for them and not for herself. However hard she concentrated, she could not find who she was, or even a trace of living family, aside from one memory; her murdered son.

Why leave that memory when destroying all the rest? Then the echo of her sentence resonated from the courthouse. The punishment shall fit the crime. She had to remember what she had done and why for the full force of everlasting punishment to take effect. They had sentenced her to be an assassin. The newly made number 666 didn’t like killing. Before killing her victim, she never hurt another person, or did she? How could she be certain? The memories of planning the killing seemed uneasy and the actual act, although driven by rage, provoked such nauseas that she had no chance of escaping after the deed. A sentence to kill others on command represented sublime cruelty.

Would anyone recognize her from her former life? With tentative hands, she reached up to touch her face; her young face. Number 666 had wondered if they cut off her head and grafted it on to a young body and yet no. All of her resonated with youth, which answered her question. Taking a few steps, something felt off. The muscle strength was there, and so too the coordination, and yet her body felt heavier than it should, although what they had given her appeared svelt.
As if her movement triggered action, the door of her cell opened to show guards waiting. They gestured for her to come with them. As she followed, she felt her neck, wondering if talking were possible, or they had decided to keep her mute? The skin appeared smooth and unscarred.

greyling-deeps

Second snippet of new story

The snippet may well be as it is as I was using a large sander this morning. Power tools have all sorts of unintended consequences. Anyhow, part 2. I am wondering about a name for this. Suggestions are welcome.

Rumors swirled about the angels. Some said they were all machine with the consciousness of the culprit trapped inside the circuits. Othes said they had enhanced human bodies; that they were cyborgs. No one believed they were people any longer, for they had no free will. A black cloud of fear swirled around her, eating at her mind, for one thing all people agreed upon was that angels lived forever. How much of her personality would be left? Memories of family wouldn’t exist, but what of the rest? She hoped all would be gone for then she wouldn’t know any different.

The door whispered open to admit a guard in a black Banker uniform and carrying a force whip, they type used on harja beasts to make them do tricks for people. Freya tried to swallow in a suddenly dry throat. She wasn’t people; she was a beast.
“Designation number 666, remove all apparel and jewelry, put them in the waste bucket in the corner and then follow me.”

Stars have mercy on her, it had started. Not Freya Blackhome anymore. The name didn’t exist and soon she wouldn’t remember, either. She jumped up to comply when he cracked the force whip, aware the next time wouldn’t be a warning. Her smart clothes for her court appearance were now dirty and smelled of a mixture of sweat and fear. She peeled them off, along with the rings from her pierced ears, dying a little more inside, ashamed of her older body with its sagging breasts and stretch marks. Now she wished she’d let her graying hair grow longer to give her some cover, but no, she’d cropped it in a shoulder bob before the trial, if that travesty could be called a trial.

Head down, not meeting the guard’s eyes, she followed him along a corridor, up a stairwell and onto a roof, where she was crated in a cage for an airlift by a drone, a marked difference from her arrival in the detention center ground runner. Freya didn’t need to search for her location on the skyline. The obsidian Banker’s building towered above all the rest. While not politicians, elected for a set number of years, a Banker held his place in society for life. They held most of the real power, but not all. Now she belonged to them. Sure enough, the drone aimed for the landing pad on top of the ominous building.

Guards in black uniform waited, their force whips ready. Freya didn’t resist, for what was the point? The only place she could have run was off the edge of the building, but they would never let her near there. Her fate wasn’t to die. Her fate was to be a possession.

She walked between them, matching directions until they stopped in a room with a large, metallic bed in the center with a hooded arrangement poised over where a person’s head would rest. Trembling started then; she couldn’t stop it, nor could she make her limbs move when they ordered her onto that bed. Hands grabbed at her, throwing her into place, strapping down her arms and legs. A sharp pain seared the back of her neck and then all feeling died from her shoulders down. A scream began to build when she figured they had cut her spinal cord, but another savage pain in the front of her neck stopped the intention from becoming reality when they put a tracheotomy in her windpipe. She wasn’t going to make another sound, not now. The carapace joined together over her head and then the cutting started.

greyling-deeps

New story

greyling-deepsFreya sat on the floor of her bare cell under the dim overhead light, where they told her to remain until they were ready to process her. Shocked to the core, she didn’t have the heart to challenge any orders, not anymore. Death was for other people. Freya tried to get her head around what was going to happen.

Guilty as charged. She never denied what she had done. How could she when they found her with the bloody knife in her hand and splatters all over her clothes? Not murder, like they said. No, justifiable homicide. Freya killed the man who murdered her son. She executed the son of a rich man and that is why her sentence was decided.

Flynn had everything going for him; a good position in the science department of Government, a lovely and sweet-natured wife and a baby coming. They were such a happy couple when Flynn and Eva told her she was to be a grandmother. Who could have guessed the rot had already set in? Ava came to her after Flynn died, tearful, guilt-stricken and yet still defiant. The story she told set events in motion, leading to this cell.

A rich man’s son decided he wanted Ava as a concubine, but she wouldn’t go with him; refused to leave Flynn and abort their baby. He dealt with the obstacle by having Flynn eliminated. Freya knew then what she must do and what it would cost her, or rather what she thought it would cost. Accordingly, she gave Ava her property and all her credits before she began her revenge, for once it was done the State would take any asset she had. The child now had an assured future so she took care of the problem.

The criminal code of Altair IV wasn’t difficult to understand. Murder meant the death penalty, simple as that, but Freya tried for mitigating circumstances, wanting to at least have news of what was left of her family from penal servitude.

Under the dim, yellow light, she shut her eyes, trying and failing to shut out the images and sounds from the courtroom. A rich man’s son cost her eternity, for that was her sentence. Let the punishment equal the crime, they said. She would never die and no longer live, at least not as a normal person. She waited in this cell while they got ready the equipment to turn her into an angel. That is what Altarians called the deviant criminals turned into cyborg enforcers.

Freya might be free to roam the planet as she obeyed her new masters, for refusing wasn’t an option. She wouldn’t be shut away, but she would be deprived of the memory of all living family. What happened to her grandchild was something she was never going to know. Was the price of her action worth the consequences? If the child lived and thrived, then she had to hope what was coming justified his existence, for she hoped it was a boy.