(Also available in trade paper as ISBN 1920741712 from Booksurge.com)
The Exile is Volume 3 in Rick Sutcliffe's Irish Christian SF series The Interregnum
All roads lead to Tara to be ready for the restoration of the Irish monarchy in 2001. But Clan Maccarthy and their allies mount one conspiracy after another to undermine Tara's rule and destroy the royals before they can regain the throne. The stories of The Exile play out in Hibernia's Afghanistan, Penal City, Glenfinnan, and Tara herself, as well as Tirdia's British Columbia Gulf Islands.
The Exile is alternate-history Irish-flavoured Christian science fiction and is the sequel to The Peace and The Friends (Volumes One and Two of The Interregnum).
The Exile recounts Day MacAllister's return from exile on Tirdia and subsequent involvement with The Friends, the life of Sheana A'Kildare/O'Toole to her arrival at Tara, Lady Karina's second escape from prison and subsequent life at Tara, and the six months of Lady Mara's life from departing Lagos to the day she entered Tara's court, including the obscure but critically important Afghan expeditionary campaign, whose true nature has only now been declassified.
The Exile also recounts the exploits of Kilkarney's famous class of 1989, some of whose members became almost as well-known as those of the class of 1968.
Events of The Exile play out on Hibernia at Tara, Kilkarney, Moody, Prison City, and in Afghanistan, as well as on the west Coast of British Columbia, Canada (Tirdia).
--- Volume 3 of The Interregnum.
Excerpt
"What do you think, Jack?" the grey man asked once Abdul was ushered out to be properly attired and fattened up in the palace dining room.
For answer, Graham handed him a package. "This was delivered to security today."
The other opened the outer wrapping, then nearly dropped it when he saw the severed hand sealed in tough plastic.
"We handled it in isolation. It's safe," Jack assured the grey man.
"Whose?" His companion's tones were brittle.
"DNA analysis says it belonged to our last agent in Kabul, one of the Bindi brothers." Jack leaned back, his face a dispassionate mask. It hurt deeply to have a trusted man go to his death. Then he dropped his bombshell. "Bindi's DNA had been slightly altered. It was subtle, and our head technician missed it, but one of the kids trained in Mara's London school caught the change."
The grey man let out a long slow breath. "Covenant violaters," he breathed.
Sounds very interesting. If I ever get rich, I may try to find a copy. I read a lot of alternate history sci-fi from Norton to Turtledove, so this would be right up my alley.
Pieces of Eight, Part II is an eclectic collection of eight imaginative novellas that complement the eight tales that appeared in Pieces of Eight. The selections are a blend of different short story/novella plots and themes. Science-fiction, paranorm
