THE PATH OF CHAOS
by Tom Haward
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GENRE: Dystopian Alternate History
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BLURB:
It is the year 2030, and the Roman Empire never fell. Emperor Nero II rules half the world, but half the world is not enough for the unpredictable Emperor.
Britannia is a Roman outpost. London Bridge is lined with crucified bodies. The streets are patrolled by soldiers in high-speed, horseless chariots. Nero views Britannia as a vital but fractious asset for his planned invasion of the Republic of Indigenous America.
Boatman King was born out of rage. A rage that propels him to try and destroy the Empire. He’s not alone: he leads clandestine rebels fighting to drive the Empire from Britannia. These rebels are his weapon, which he hopes will obliterate Nero and the entire Empire.
Rebellion, though, comes at a steep price. Olivia, Boatman’s wife, is caught and crucified on London Bridge by Nero’s son, Maximus, who is intent on flushing Boatman from hiding.
Instead, Maximus draws Maverick ‘The Beast’ Kirabo, Boatman’s fearsome second-in-command, a champion gladiator who now fights for Rome’s dismay, not their entertainment.
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Excerpt
The general consensus among many Brits was that although they didn’t like Roman rule, they guessed it was better to brush themselves off and make the best of a bad situation. After all, as long as they were still allowed to have a pint or two after work then who cared whether it was a corrupt politician or Roman emperor calling the shots? With this in mind, Nero eased off the terror to a degree. Yes, he still crucified people on the streets, because it was easier than worrying about trials, but he found the British were quite happy to plod along without trying to make too much fuss. This made him happy as he didn’t have to spend too much time or energy on thinking about Britannia.
Everything had changed though. Everything had changed when Boatman stepped into the limelight. Boatman challenged the status quo and inspired rebellion. He was the catalyst of a very un-British uprising against a very ruthless and terrifying emperor. Nero II obliterated anyone who even dared speak against him. He despised criticism and found it offensive that someone would ever see his rule as anything but majestic. Augustus had warned Nero that to try to obliterate Boatman was futile. He needed to reach out to the rebel leader. Nero dismissed his father’s advice as the ramblings of a dying man. The only way to live was to respect the authority of the emperor. To criticize was a sin.
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Guest Post
Less is More
Twenty years ago, when I graduated from university, I decided I would try to write a novel in six months, find an agent and get it published. It was my dream to see my book sitting on a bookshelf in my local bookstore and be proud to say, “I wrote that.” I was twenty-two and buzzing from having graduated with a film and literature degree, so believed I could write something an agent or publisher would snap up. At the time Lord of the Rings was a global phenomenon, so I decided to try and break into that market and I write a Fantasy novel. Within six months the manuscript was finished and I was proud of the world and characters I had created. Rejection after rejection though, no-one seemed as enamoured by my work as I was. It was never taken up by anyone and in utter disappointment I took a few years off from writing.
Looking back, it was a bold book I wrote and I still remember the opening chapter as quite a breathtaking introduction to a very sweeping world. Many years later I wrote a very personal manuscript about battling with depression and mixed it with a psychological thriller reminiscent of Fatal Attraction. From a big fantasy world, I went to a small claustrophobic world. The thing which connected both these vastly different works though, was my penchant for overwriting. There seemed to be an unconscious fear there eager would get what I was trying to describe so went into a mind boggling amount of detail. That’s where you can lose a reader and lose the interest of an agent or publisher if you’re trying to find interest in your manuscript.
The wonderful thing about reading is to imagine the world and characters you’re reading about. A great book lets the reader’s imagination explore and create and the book is the catalyst for that. Less is more. My most basic understanding of this is thinking about someone having a drink. One writer might describe someone, picking up a glass, and the glass is dripping with condensation and she takes a drink, holding it in her left hand, slowly sipping the cold beer. Another writer might succinctly write: It was the hottest day of the year so far. Alice was sitting in the beer garden and had a refreshing swig of beer.
Neither is necessarily wrong, but the second example gives the reader much more room to imagine the details of what’s happening and therefore bring the reader into the book’s world.
Trust your reader and trust yourself when writing. You can lose the reader if you over describe events and it stops that flow of imagination. Less is always more.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Tom was born in Essex and at 4 months old he and his identical twin were adopted into an oyster farming family. Tom now runs the business as generation eight of Haward oyster farmers. He has a fiancée, baby daughter and a cockapoo.
Tom has an MA in Creative Writing and has loved telling stories since he was a child, whether verbally or through prose.
The Path of Chaos is his debut novel. He is also working on a six episode comedy screenplay and tweets passionately about his family’s industry and the challenges it faces.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5350971.Tom_Haward
https://m.facebook.com/tomhawardauthor/
https://cinnabarmothliterarycollections.com/contributing_authors/tom-haward/
https://www.instagram.com/hawardtom/
https://www.amazon.com/Path-Chaos-Tom-Haward-ebook/dp/B0BVG8H9MY/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner.
Thank you for hosting.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting story.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteThe excerpt sounds really interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds incredible!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing an excerpt. It sounds like an interesting book
ReplyDelete