Blog Tour and Giveaway: The Cairns of Sanctuarie by Hawk MacKinney

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Hawk MacKinney will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The Cairns of Sainctuarie
Volume I - The Bleikovat Event
Volume II – The Missing Planets
Volume III – Inanna Phantom

From a rocky outcrop a battle-widowed Etkaa, gazed down at the death and upheaval. Rancid green Murian blood stanched the dusklit breezes from the haze-dimmed river marshlands. Nothing has been spared by the Green Dragon forces of Bleikovia. In skirmishes along the Feldon River, Etkaaâ's mate is fatally wounded with deadly selvon poison. Through a gruesome mountain trek of icy blizzards, they elude the Green Dragon. The battered starving Feldovats reach the coast at Eedov City only to be confronted by their implacable enemy determined to destroy the remaining Klarvkon rabble. Taking passage on crowded Maalon freighters, the refugees escape toward a new life among their Maalon hosts. Enraged Bleikovats move against the Klarvkons, bringing indiscriminate bloodshed. War once again surfaces, as it did in the muddy filth along the Feldon River of Malfesov, and becomes a different kind of war.

Generations after the great Murian upheaval of the Malfesian War against the Bleikovats, the Accords between planets Terato and Myr are signed.

Provisional Outpost Terato is under construction near a farm where Teratoan orphan Eklam a'Qoc lives with his uncle and cousin. Inquisitive strong-minded Eklam, Ek to everyone in the village, is captivated by the off-worlders technology, and becomes an apprentice to the Outpost Terato's Murian commander, Grand Duke Korvo. Uncle a'Qoc disapproves; wants nothing to do with these outlanders, wants their shimmering doorway portals-of-travel banned from Terato. As Outpost Terato becomes operational it seems to become a harbinger stirring ageless secrets of The Old Ones and their frightful weapons, of ancient Teratoan ruins, mysterious glowing lights, unexplained killings, a sacred book in a language no Teratoan can read, a moon that doesn't behave like a moon in its wobbly orbit.

From cosmic reaches beyond space and time the ominous secrets of Terato's ancient ruins become more threatening. Ek and Korvo realize both their worlds face extinction with any hope buried somewhere in unknown galaxies far beyond a pastoral Terato or the sophisticated star-empire of the Murians; of missing planets in a star system with its single star in a galaxy far-removed unknown to Terato or Myr. They travel across the universe to a place long forgotten to fight this unknown foe with weapons only dreamed of. Together they face the beast that wishes to consume the entire universe.

The threat of rift invasions seems long passed. Plentiful harvests abound. The Murian first-contact Terato Outpost has grown into the sprawling Terato-Murian Terminus Terato with a hub of relay portals reaching across the vast uncharted galactic expanses and connecting with its eon-extinct Lantaraan prehistory. An exploratory Terato-Murian Jupiterr outpost is established on the gas giant seventh planet, and its quantum and gravitational energies are used to power outpost portals for an archeological survey of the fourth planet, Eorthe. The Lantaraan database aboard Terato’s ancient Downday moon shows that one or more planets of the Solaris planets have apparently been lost. Expanded archeological records on other Lantaraan orbital bodies in the Solaris system show the fourth planet from the star—Eorthe—to be a sterile wasteland. Except it is not. Eorthe’s civilization is not to the level of the Murian Empire, but it is far advanced to those of a pastoral Terato. Terato and Eorthe form the confederated United Terran League under the nominal figurehead leader of League High Judikarr Eklam a’Qoc. Jupiterr outpost expands into a major League stronghold, Jupiterr Base, when civil unrest erupts in the League, the unexpected return of rift intrusions threatens, and the Murian Emperor Klarvko Celo is assassinated. As they prepare for confrontations with an unknown ancient enemy, the internal tensions on Myr and Eorthe push Murians and Teratoans to dangerous discords.

Read an Excerpt from BOOK THREE: INANNA PHANTOM

Eklam managed a translink to Zürich for a meet with David. As he stepped out of his outlink portal in Zürich, his arrival came with a meson core impact near the terminal’s arched glass main entrance.

A haggard armed uniform with a slightly askew field helmet hurried toward him. With a heavy Dutch accent said, “I would not remain in this area of the terminal. It is not safe. Are you the Teratoan Eklam a’Qoc on a scheduled inlink from Jupiterr Base?”

“I am.” It had been some time since anyone had addressed him with a greeting of his Terato homeworld.

The escort made sure his weapon was snugged secure in its shoulder holster for ready access, “The embassy’s portals are nonfunctional. I have orders to escort you to the Teratoan Embassy.” He handed Eklam a compact field terminal, “You have an urgent comlink from Canadian officer David Martin.” The anxious escort cradled a solid grip around his weapon, “It is best we do not linger in the terminal.”

Eklam stepped to one side of the milling crowd of passengers fleeing the terminal area. The tension in the escort’s voice tainted the air in the terminal. Eklam entered his priority code. David’s message opened.

“… link coordinates for eastern Canada are down… arrival time into Zürich uncertain… will keep you posted whenever the net is available… ”

The escort urged Eklam, “There is a lull—it is best we move toward the embassy while we can. Looters were smashing windows, grabbing anything they could. What few polizei were around just watched. Brussels and Cape Town can offer no assistance. Your small personal items and your consular pouches inlinked yesterday to the embassy.”

As they ducked and dodged from building and rubble-shelters, Eklam got the sensation of the air around them becoming heavier. He glanced at the faces in the crowds, here and there small huddles, the solitary figure caught somewhere between survival and panic in the tattered unreal haze. Before he outlinked to Zürich Eklam had received Jupiterr Base updates on sporadic hit-and-run incidents in the larger metropolitan centers, but he hadn’t expected to outlink into the middle of a benumbed multitude that was one step away from anarchy. Half of the servmo med-units serving the wounded were damaged, smoking wreckage and unresponsive. Across the plaza, confused figures stumbled aimlessly through the rubble, freezing motionless at the sound of an incoming core. In office windows overlooking the plaza others stood watching, knowing there was danger; not knowing what to do. Eklam had endeavored to preserve the position of the League High Judikarr above regional politics, but he was witnessing the fabric of government shred to pieces.

About the Author:

With postgraduate degrees and faculty positions in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. His professional writing includes articles on chordate neuroembryology, and aerospace research on muscle metabolic behavior in multi-orbital environments.

In addition, Hawk has authored several works of fiction including a historical romance Moccasin Trace which was nominated for both the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award. His Cairns of Sainctuarie Science Fiction Series and his Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series have received national and international attention.

http://www.hawkmackinneyauthor.com
http://www.sagewordspublishing.com

https://www.amazon.com/Cairns-Sainctuarie-Bleikovat-Event-Book-ebook/dp/B00A6BR6YG/ref=sr_1_3
https://www.amazon.com/Missing-Planets-Cairns-Sainctuarie-Book-ebook/dp/B01402PJM2/ref=sr_1_1
https://www.amazon.com/Inanna-Phantom-Cairns-Sainctuarie-Book-ebook/dp/B07Y2DQRT3/ref=sr_1_2

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