The Cold

by Richard Bruce Clay

10,000 words. A grimly funny story of religious war. A hundred and fifty years in the future, fanatical Evangelical Christians seek to leave the solar system to spread their faith on new worlds. Militant atheists are fearful of how any extra-terrestrials might react to a creed that has recently caused a catastrophic nuclear war here on Earth, so they set up laser-wielding bases on the outer planets. From these bases, the outgoing missionaries are murdered without mercy. Then, alone on the black and icy waste of Pluto, Nigel one of the grotesque misfits employed to operate the lasers, begins to believe that he is being watched. But there isn't another human being for millions of miles...

32 pages, ebook

Published August 5, 2015

About the author

Author of the novels 'She's Alone' (2006 - dystopian science fiction), 'Both' (2010 - thriller, supernatural), 'Kingswinford Sunset' (2015 - thriller, supernatural), 'Lydgate' (2020 - science fiction/historical), 'The Croviss Girls' (2024 - thriller/supernatural), the short story 'The Cold' (2012 - science fiction) and the narrative poem 'Grene Woddenesse' (published 2015 in The PoW-WoW Book of Ghost Stories under the name 'Alex Chaplain')

'She's Alone', 'The Cold' and 'Kingswinford Sunset' are available internationally on Amazon Kindle.

Paperback copies of 'Kingswinford Sunset', of 'The Croviss Girls' and of 'Lydgate' are for sale at Saturday Books in Dudley.

Now and again, he reads from his work, very often with music that's more than just 'accompaniment'.