Welcome to Sub Martis... Life in Strange Places

NEWS!

Arianrhod's Line, Book Three in The Pirates' Web series, is out now! (Paperback ISBN: 9781999325961; EBook ISBN: 9781999325978). Books One and Two, Arianrhod, and Arianrhod's War, are available, as are the three Mars-based novels, Sub Martis: Dome Lowell, Sub Martis: Dome Beagle and Sub Martis: Starship [BOOKS]. Pirates' Web 2025 calendars are available on the FREE STUFF page! 

Strange Places

The Charted Galaxy [PDF Map] is full of dangers, visible and hidden. One of the most spectacular is the Crimson Drapes Nebula, one of the wonders of zone Delta. Another strange place nearer home is the Red Planet, but maybe not as you know it. On Mars we have a Provisional Government, a FLAG and our own way of life. We live in Dome Complexes scattered over our planet, each one with its own specialities (and peculiarities), from the prestigious and ancient Viking One to the later Lowell and Beagle Dome Complexes and the younger, newer habitations such as Wells and Savich. If you join THE SERVICE you may find yourself aboard a starship of Mars Fleet. Venturing further afield, around the red star Gliese 876 you can find Gliese 786d Station Alpha, also known as Glow-Worm Alpha...

(The Pirates' Web, Book 1)

Life aboard a galactic trading vessel is getting riskier...

The PSS Arianrhod is a Private starship under the command of Captain Cinnabar Ahxenta. She drops anchor in the Web, that home away from hell that makes up the vast network of docking, repair and marketing facilities (and drinkeries like the Half Moon in a Puddle) around Merkat Three free port. But trade is getting riskier for Arianrhod and her sister ships: there's a new enemy out there intent on chaos that's taking out ships and crews and annexing planets. Drafted unwillingly into a war galactic in scale, even Arianrhod’s renowned firepower, maverick crew and unorthodox tactics may not be able to withstand a faceless foe that seems to be ripping the known galaxy [PDF Map] apart...

"We were drafted into this bloody war through the manoeuvrings of the Trades Alliance and so far it's cost me the lives and health of my crew, my livelihood and as near as dammit my ship" - Captain Cinnabar Ahxenta.

(The Pirates' Web, Book 2)

Old enemy, new weapons and a brief to take out Arianrhod by any means necessary...

This is still war, but this time it's personal... The crew of the PSS Arianrhod thought they had done with the conflict into which they'd reluctantly been drafted and that almost tore the charted galaxy apart. But hostiles are still out there with more tech than sense and a ruthless grudge against Arianrhod's captain, her crew and her contacts. The Web is no longer the semi-safe home away from hell that it was, with new faces and old ones causing concern, not least the ex-raiders who are claiming to be good guys and whose aloof commander is waging his own bitter war against the aliens and their agents. And Captain Ahxenta faces cares closer to home that begin with the theft of her favourite shuttle...

"Hell, I bet this is the first time you've had to order open fire on one of our own..." - Commander Tallica Apnis (First Mate)

(The Pirates' Web, Book 3)

Nothing’s free but trouble, and there’s plenty out there with Arianrhod’s name attached…

The war is over, but as the charted galaxy stretches its limits and a new interstellar alliance is born, the Trades Alliance is bending the rules to make the PSS fleet liable for any firing line. With political unity shaky, old and new threats surface, grisly alien secrets that have personal meaning for Captain Ahxenta come to light, and Arianrhod finds herself in a pact that means a flight into the unknown…  where past sorrows and more troubles arise to haunt her captain.

“You’re worried about what you’ve got your crew into… half the ports in the galaxy closed to us, trade taking us to the edge of nowhere… And now a blast from the past you could’ve done without… The missed time you’ll never make up, links to griefs you thought you’d mastered.” - Dr Axellina Flintlock (Chief Medic)

How on Mars do you make a living even if you have a degree? How do you wash your socks? How good is Lofty's Place? And why is the Crest of the University of Mars a mortar board and a pair of crossed shovels? To find out, follow astrobiologists Copper and Linen as they plan their futures, attempt to conquer the unknown, delve into the bowels of the red planet and mess up the lives of a couple of friends into the bargain.

And they're back! Still delving deep into the past of Mars, Copper and Linen find their work enlivened by mini stealth surf-sci bots, looming presentations of their work, the reappearance of Colonel Moritz, military digs at their site at Beagle, snooping strangers, incompetent thieves and the odd shot. Not to mention the mysteries of telepathy, potential alien artefacts and the  launch of a very special starship. This is Mars and the adventure continues…

What on Mars is out there? Copper and Linen, now drafted into Mars Fleet, find training at Fleet Academy tough enough but posted to the MSS Drake II and under the command of their scary ally Colonel Elle Chryse Moritz they face new trials, strange allies and hostile foes. With the Drake a target of trouble and alien influences undermining humankind, will they finally understand who Spook was and is and what his kind were doing on Mars in the dim and distant past?

Gliese 876d Station Alpha [PDF: Spec]: a vast hollow world thirty kilometres long and eight in diameter that orbits a barren planet. Law Enforcement Officer Erris Fermion has two mysteries on hand: find the Ghost that stalks Grey Seven and that may have caused the deaths of two people, including his predecessor, and halt a weapons-running operation. Hindered by an upper echelon of Station Command that includes the annoying, the inept and the downright hostile, Fermion has to rely on his own intuition, technology in the shape of his personal thought-rec and the assistance of Alpha’s Security Chief and its Chief Medic - whose expert but questionable surgical intrusion appears to have cured LEO Fermion's inner ear imbalance but left him with more than food for thought...

Visit the FREE STUFF page, where you can download calendars, bookmarks and much more. Click on the Flickr icon at the very bottom of the page to go straight to the Sub Martis Photostream! New images recently added!