A small country, Bugrawlia, attempts to survive in a hostile modern world. We are at a phase of Bugrawlia's history when it is a colony - the last colony - of the once mighty but now fast-shrinking Empire of Quarto-Invary (a sort of pan-European concoction.), overseen by a Governor-General. The six provinces of Bugrawlia, each with its own slightly warped version of a world culture (Eastern, Arabic, Indian, Doer) are administered by Heimraden, run by local drossaards. There is also a superpower named Amerus and two neighbours, one being Costa Blanca (a good neighbour) and the other Iraquba (the bad neighbour).

The Heimraden are, in the period that the novel is set, quite corrupt and beyond the Empire's control. Then a series of events are set in motion that eventually have far reaching consequences:

• A murder is committed in a circus in Bugrawlia's northern mountains.
• The Governor-General, Lord Ludvig de Sancerre y Brava, decides to wrest back control from the fractious natives. Does he have the wherewithal to succeed.?
• A new energy source is discovered by two Amerussian scientists. What Amerus wants, Amerus will do anything to get.
• The king of Quarto-Invary is made to come to Bugrawlia on a state visit. But he has his own agenda(s).
• Then there is the hero, Jason Poligon. He suffers from a strange affliction and has a murky past.
• And what do the various cultures of Bugrawlia - from the New Nipponese of the southern coast, to the tattooed, head-hunting Bugur'tians of the swamplands, and the Doers of The Burnt-Orange Free State - have up the sleeves of their varied cultural costumes?

Start reading today!

The first part is available here. Download the complete novel as an ebook. It's in pdf format, so you'll need Adobe Acrobat (also free and available here) to read it.

NEXT PAGE