My Science-Fiction books

by Ian J Miller
|
14 books
These follow a future history of Earth from the present until it enters the stage of knowing about aliens. Besides trying to write a good story (and only the readers can judge whether I have succeeded), I try to have the ultimate resolution through some logical approach rather than through some superhuman effort. In my novels, if someone gets a serious wound, they are excluded from further action other than shooting from a prone position. The books come in sets.
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Set 1
Economic collapse and the start of regeneration. These are currently available at most ebook stores.

Puppeteer

Ian Miller, 2011
About 2030, world economies are collapsing through government debt, crime, corruption, and sophisticated terrorism. Lt Colonel John Maxwell believes in honesty and duty but finds himself illegally in charge of an antiterrorist operation. The Puppeteer intends to fix the world by shocking governments into action through a piece of terrorism that will kill hundreds of millions and destroy billions of dollars of property. Critical to the outcome are two young scientists isolated at Kerguelen. A techno-thriller with added romance and the eating of Kerguelen cabbage.

'Bot War

Ian Miller, 2016
Following a decade of near total economic collapse and anarchy, the invention of fusion power permits growth to restart, but how to take the opportunities? The rich see the poor as resources to exploit, but greed sends rich against rich. Money gives a good start, money acquires corrupt politicians, but guns are great finishers when law and order can be purchased. The poor have few options: guns or surrender. They can accept future serfdom, they can serve the rich, or they can fight to keep some independence. One of them, Henry Adams, believes the moral approach is the right one, but will morality be rewarded when betrayal is rife and trust a scarce commodity?

Troubles

Ian Miller, 2012
Following a decade of near total economic collapse and anarchy, the invention of fusion power permits growth to restart, but how to take the opportunities? The rich see the poor as resources to exploit, but greed sends rich against rich. Money gives a good start, money acquires corrupt politicians, but guns are great finishers when law and order can be purchased. The poor have few options: guns or surrender. They can accept future serfdom, they can serve the rich, or they can fight to keep some independence. One of them, Henry Adams, believes the moral approach is the right one, but will morality be rewarded when betrayal is rife and trust a scarce commodity?
Set 2
The problems from before remain on Earth, where governance settles into a corporatocracy, a little like an economic model foreseen by J K Galbraith, but much less tolerant of individuals. However, Mars becomes available for those who want individual freedom.

Red Gold

Ian Miller, 2012
Mars is to be colonized. The extraordinary hype means suckers will be attracted to floats, while nobody can check on them, and Mars will have no law enforcement. Most settlers set out with visions of the great adventure, but they are soon disillusioned. Fraud is exposed, but a murder shows only the fraudster has guns. Where The Martian showed the science behind one person surviving for a modest period, Red Gold shows the science and technology, much of which is yet to be developed, needed for many colonists to survive indefinitely. An appendix shows how the writing of this novel led to a novel explanation for the presence of Martian rivers and led to the author’s theory of planetary formation, outlined in his scientific ebook “Planetary Formation and Biogenesis”. A story with crime, action, science, and the harsh Martian environment.

A Face on Cydonia

Ian Miller, 2013
During a Martian TV program, the Martian rock morphed into the Viking image and winked. Who or what was responsible? The limited evidence supports the possible presence of aliens, so a team is assembled to settle the question of The Face. The team comprises experts who come from incompatible parts of a corrupting society, and only one knows Mars. Some will rise beyond their comfort zone, but they are not ready for what they find and they each end up with what they would never have wanted. A story of corruption, greed, murder, the maverick, and the nature of Mars.

Dreams Defiled

Book Two of the First Contact Trilogy
Ian Miller, 2017
As the party that saw the first evidence of alien civilization leave Cydonia, they each had dreams of what their future would hold. But how do you react when your dreams fail? All Nathan Gill wanted was to be left alone. Grigori Timoshenko wanted to build a defence force capable of deterring advanced aliens, Fiona Bolton wanted to make life fair for the independents, Sharon Galloway wanted to successfully manage the greatest engineering feat in human history, while Jonathon Munro wanted to be important. They should have taken more notice of the saying, be careful what you wish for: dreams rarely correspond to reality, and in this dystopian future, murder and sabotage make achieving dreams unusually difficult, while there is more to the alien hologram than meets the eye. The very worst aspects of a dysfunctional society, together with the flaws in their characters, ensured that nothing was to turn out as they dreamed.

Jonathon Munros

Ian Miller, 2013
Now that Valerie's protector was dead, Jonathon Munro, who had grown to be one of the most evil men imaginable, decided to get rid of her, but what he did not know was that opened the door for many others who wanted revenge. Prolonged revenge required a substitute, and this was supplied by an android indistinguishable from the original and capable of learning everything about Jonathon. Worse still, Jonathon Munro had access to all Federation computer messages and he knew the secret of the Cydonian face, and if that secret were exposed, a treaty that protected Earth from aliens would expire. When the android learned to self-replicate, what could possibly go right? A story of corruption, revenge, greed for power, and sentient machines in a dystopian future. Jonathon Munros completes the First Contact trilogy
Set 3
A duology, set about 50 years after Jonathon Munros. As with set 1, more widely available.

Spoliation

Miller Ian J (author), 1901
A corrupt organization attempts to send Captain Jonas Stryker to jail to cover their ineptitude. Stryker narrowly avoids this and is hired by a dying man nominally to collect asteroids for their minerals. However, he soon finds he must stop a shadowy corporate group called The Board, who employ space piracy, terrorism, and even weaponised asteroids to overthrow the Federation government. Set in Lagrange points, space stations, the Moon and outback Australia, it is a fast-moving story with some speculative future technology. If you were interested in the NASA attempt to alter the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos, you might be interested in this story of greed, corruption and honour, together with the science of asteroids.

Revivisence

Ian Miller, 2023
Jonas Stryker is given a fleet to deal with the space pirates, but when he encounters one such ship, half his fleet turn on the other half. While the Space Corps’ ships are being repaired, The rebels had to be supplied from Earth. If such sources could be identified and arrested, the rebels would have no supply, and their base might be identified. A tale of investigation, greed, corruption and honour, set in the inner solar system and on Earth, with murder, space battles, and the science of asteroids.
Set 4
Five books, set from the 1st century to the 25th century.

Athene’s Prophecy

Ian Miller, 2013
In the 25th Century, a message to the past leads to humanity's near extermination, and the few survivors grasp at their only chance to reverse it: to convince a young Roman, Gaius Claudius Scaevola, to get help from advanced aliens. The temporal viewer shows the classical historian Pallas Athene that Scaevola must do three things: he must prove the Earth goes around the Sun, he must construct a steam engine, and he must become a successful military commander. Athene assumes her goddess role, and in a further message to the past, she gives Scaevola a prophecy, together with a quest to save humanity. When parts of the prophecy start to become true Scaevola believes his dream. All he has to do is the impossible. He must also survive the erratic Imperium of Caligulae, and later, in the hotbed of religious fervour that was Judaea as Christianity began emerging, he must somehow prevent an uprising of the Jews.

Legatus Legionis

Ian Miller, 2014
Historically accurate fiction with a little SF, in book 2 of the trilogy, Scaevola upsets the Scribonianus plot against Claudius, commands a legion during the invasion of Britain and improves his thinking on military strategy. In accordance with Athene's prophecy, he also ignores the most beautiful woman, and having learned from Aristotle’s writings, he shows how scientific theories are really formed, starting with having seen through Aristotle’s biggest mistake. Much of Athene’s prophecy has come true, but what does the Goddess really want from him?

Scaevola’s Triumph

Ian Miller, 2014
Scaevola, his wife and his sister are abducted by an alien ship and taken to the planet Ulse, only to find Ulse losing a war, and worse, the Ulsians have yet to recognize that is happening. Scaevola's sister must accept that thanks to relativity, which she does not understand, she will never see her husband again, Scaevola must accept he is outnumbered two to one by women who do not believe in the man ruling the house, while Vipsania has to work out how to keep the group from self-destructing. Athene had given him a series of tasks to complete, and Scaevola now recognizes the importance of what he has already done, but now he realizes the prophecy required him to save Ulse. He recognizes the problem, but how could a Roman find a way to save an advanced civilization from being exterminated? Particularly when as yet he cannot get out the front door of his apartment without alien help?

Miranda’s Demons

Ian Miller, 2015
In 2285, the 34 exhausts of a badly mauled alien battle fleet are seen travelling at relativistic velocities to end on Miranda, the innermost moon of Uranus. Representatives of a Terran Corporation accidentally meet two aliens on Mars and do a deal: give us Mars and we shall give you the slave labour and metals you need to repair your ships. Natasha Kotchetkova, the Commissioner for Defence is faced with an alien race that totally outclasses any Earth military technology. War is coming, but even if Terran forces can win, who wins the following peace? Meanwhile, Scaevola has followed the aliens, and arrives on Earth to meet his prophesied "second woman in his life: the ugliest woman in the world". A hard science fiction epic with 18 major characters, four alien races, several romances, most of which do not end well, treachery, and is set variously in 3 continents, the Earth-Moon L-4 space station, Mars, Iapetus, the asteroid belt and Miranda. While the fourth in a series, it was originally written as a stand-alone book.

Ranh

Ian J Miller, 2015
An advanced civilization evolved from Cretaceous life on Earth that had been transported to a nearby planet. It is a theocracy, and there are some who, having received a divine message, believe it is their holy task to recover the planet of creation from those pesky mammals. A delegation from Earth arrives to negotiate a peace treaty, but can such a treaty be realized? Or will the raptors launch against humanity? Only Baht, unacknowledged, the lowest of the low, must do what no other unacknowledged female has ever done or there will be interplanetary war. A tale of plotting, conspiracy, religious fervour, murder, treachery, honour, diplomacy, and tail-ball.