The Chara Talisman
The Chara Talisman
The Chara Talisman is Alastair Mayer's first full-length novel. (Although short by modern door-stop standards, at some 75,000 words it handily exceeds the SFWA and Hugo definitions for novel length.) It is thus, then, the first-written T-Space novel, although the events take place some fifty years after the first Alpha Centauri expeditions.
- Publisher's page: The Chara Talisman
- Available on Amazon
Plot
The novel builds on the short story "Stone Age" which first appeared in the June, 2011 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine, his third appearance in that magazine (although first non-flash piece). Archeologist Hannibal Carson finds, on an alien planet (Verdigris) what appears to be a primitive artifact, but later turns out to have high-tech origins some 15,000 years earlier. The book further explores the significance of the find, which appears to be some kind of key to a store of alien technology hidden on yet another planet.
Star pilot Jaqueline "Jackie" Roberts, who had a romantic relationship with Carson some years earlier, crosses paths with him again as she's hired (by a mysterious organization) to be his charter pilot to track this alien storehouse down. Along the way they pick up Marten, a timoan archeologist colleague of Carson's.
Meanwhile, a group of bad guys with some connection to the raiders who originally jumped Carson back on Verdigris are also looking for that same alien storehouse. They think it might be an arsenal.
Elevator Pitch
The original "elevator pitch" for the book was "Indiana Jones meets Han Solo", set in the same T-Space universe (but later in time) as the Jason Curtis story "Into the Fire".
Locations
- Verdigris - Delta Pavonis III
- Epsilon Eridani II (deep space and Spitzer Spaceport)
- Sawyers World - Alpha Centauri A II
- Kakuloa - Alpha Centauri B II
- Taprobane - Epsilon Indi II
- Chara III - aka Beta Canorum Venaticum III
- Lalande 21185 (a red dwarf)