Herculanium

by Alex G. Paman

As the League’s premiere Power Forward in basketball, Preston Jones was already the most decorated and bankable athlete in the world. So when he is selected in a worldwide lottery to be the spokesperson for the new Olympus Space Station, the first commercial resort in orbit, he is more than eager to usher in the new age of space exploration—and exploitation. Surviving an assassination attempt, an overzealous reporter, and his own fear of flying, he and his colleagues are sent to Olympus for its grand debut to the world, until a mysterious directive forces them to evacuate back to earth.

Upon re-entry, his space shuttle is attacked by an unknown entity and is sent spiraling through the atmosphere to its destruction. But immediately after crashing, Preston Jones miraculously wakes up two hundred years into his future, and witnesses firsthand how much the world—and its sporting events—had changed since his departure.

In this future, the military controls all the world’s sporting events, and the invention of a new miracle metal called Herculanium infused into the uniforms has set his beloved sports on a path to carnage and bloodlust he couldn’t have imagined in his own lifetime.

How is Preston Jones going to fit in this new world, where violence and mayhem are celebrated over skill and sportsmanship? Where does entertainment end and mortal combat begin? And what could he bring into this new world it hasn’t already seen?

Welcome to the age of Herculanium, the Hercules Millennium, where only the strong, the barbaric, and the merciless survive.

349 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 24, 2014

About the author

Freelance writer, book author, self-proclaimed foodie, and researcher of things that go bump in the night.