Maelstrom's Edge: Faith and Maelstrom's Edge: Sacrifice are now available on Kindle!

In late 2011 I was asked to join a creative project creating a new science fiction miniatures wargame. Over the last three and half years in my spare time I've worked with a fantastic team of writers, designers and artists to design a universe and the game and miniatures to go with it. Today we went public on the Maelstrom's Edge project - we'll be going to Kickstarter on the game very soon!

I've also written two books - with my fellow Lead Writer on the project, Stephen Gaskell. It's been a lot of effort to get them finished, but at last, finally, today we have launched the novels on Kindle - Maelstrom's Edge: Faith and Maelstrom's Edge: Sacrifice, books one and two in the Battle for Zycanthus series that ties in to our first boxed game. 

Maelstrom's Edge: Faith is the first novel in the Maelstrom's Edge universe. In the far future, a golden age of exploration and progress has been shattered. Humanity and alien alike are on the very edge of annihilation. 

A gigantic apocalyptic explosion of dark energy known as the Maelstrom is rapidly expanding out from the heart of the galaxy, destroying everything it touches. As worlds and stars on the Maelstrom's Edge are obliterated, those who have the means flee towards deep space, while those left behind fight for the chance to escape. 

In Maelstrom's Edge: Faith, conflict and conspiracy grows as the Maelstrom nears the doomed world of Zycanthus. Sheriff Kyle Wynn is one of many living in the shadow of the Maelstrom. When his desert patrol is ambushed by strange warrior cultists, Wynn realises that there are other forces at play on Zycanthus besides the corporate interests of his Epirian Foundation bosses. 

Zafah is a missionary from the Karist Enclave. The Enclave see the Maelstrom as a chance to ascend to a wondrous higher plane of being, but Zafah’s mission to save the people of Zycanthus is threatened by the world's heavy-handed security enforcers--and her own conscience. 

Wynn is convinced that the Karists are a threat to his family and Zycanthus. Can he uncover the intentions of the Karists before it’s too late, or will Zafah’s secretive organisation succeed in their mysterious aims?

Maelstrom's Edge: Sacrifice follows on from the events of Maelstrom's Edge: Faith. The Karist Enclave's plan to save the world of Zycanthus is in tatters. Shocked by their terrible losses at the hands of Epirian forces, Zafah joins the Karist military knowing the time for artful persuasion is over. 

Meanwhile, Sheriff Kyle Wynn is struggling to convince his Foundation bosses of the threat the Karists still pose. But when he infiltrates a Karist base, he discovers that their intentions are far greater and more dangerous than even he could have imagined... 

Zafah and Wynn are thrown into an escalating tussle for supremacy of Zycanthus, both on the planet's surface and in orbit. With the shadow of the Maelstrom hanging over them, the outcome of this clash will decide the fate of millions. Will the robotic might of the Epirian Foundation or the inner faith of the Karist Enclave emerge triumphant?

I'll be doing some blog posts on the design and details of the universe over the next few weeks, but in the meantime you can purchase both books at the Amazon links below!

Science continues...

The last touches are being put on my two novels, and the game they tie into, Maelstrom's Edge. Much more to come on that in a few weeks time, including details of the Kindle release.

In the meantime, there's plenty of work to be done at my day job at the University of Oxford. I've had one new paper published in the last few months, in Applied Physics Letters. APL is a journal I tried (and failed) to publish in during my PhD, so it's nice to finally see something with my name on it in that prestigous journal!

The paper is using the atom probe machine that I run at Oxford to look at the distribution of indium in InGaN/GaN quantum wells. Quantum wells are one of the most significant applications of quantum mechanics used in the real world, where they are used in LEDs. Thin layers of a doped semiconductor, in this case Indium Gallium Nitride, are sandwiched between another layer (Gallium Nitride here) with a different band gap. By restricting the width of the doped layer to a few tens of nanometres, you can confine the carrier electrons or holes so that they can only release energy at a certain wavelength. This means with the right well dimensions, when you apply an electric field they will emit a specific colour of light, perfect for LEDs.

The atom probe in my lab allows us to study these materials at the atomic level, to see exactly how the layers of InGaN are distributed. In this case, we wanted to look at two different orientations of the wells, and found that in one growth plane, the Indium is very evenly distributed throughout the wells, whilst in the other direction, clustering of In occurs that can have degrade the performance of the device.

I have another more technical paper on this work due to be published in Microscopy and Microanalysis soon. I'm working on a bunch of other papers at the moment which should be submitted soon, to reduce my backlog of data from last year. Once these three papers are submitted, I can move on to working on some exciting new experiments, such as fossils and meteorites!

In other news, I was very honoured to be selected as the David Cockayne Junior Research Fellow at Linacre College starting in October this year. Belonging to an Oxford college as a fellow is a great honour and will allow me to mingle with some very distinguished colleagues as well as eat some tasty dinners!

Novel nearly done!

I've been working on it for three and a half years, but the novel I've cowritten with Stephen Gaskell, Sacrificial, is nearly done, although it's still under wraps so I can't tell anyone about it! The final proof copy went out to my beta readers last night. I'm hoping to finish any final edits in early March for release in April. Keep your eyes peeled for then!

I had another scientific publication this week, although I'm not sure I can claim much credit! Kane O'Donnell did all the hard lifting for this one. It's a summary of the computational simulations he's done on the diamond surface using various alkali metals in combination with oxygen. I did a little of this for my thesis.

I'm working on many other papers at the moment, things are really busy! I'm also helping to write some promotional videos for my friend Tom Morgan's production of Arcadia by the Southside Players in Balham this February. Should be fun!

Reading: My novel!
Watching: The Theory of Everything
Listening to: The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World