Turner Maxwell Books Free Publishing Free Books Free Literature Free Writers Turner Maxwell Books are an independent co-operative of new writers, committed to publishing inspirational literature. Turner Maxwell Books has over one hundred writers, producing original stories not seen in any other bookshop, Turner Maxwell Books has established itself as a successful and viable publisher. This achievement lies in its innovative and daring approach to establish a shorter supply chain that is simply focused on the requirements of the reader. A CHANGING OF THE GODS. Published by Turner Maxwell Books. First published 2009. Copyright © George Miler 2009 A novel by George Miler.For those who cannot instantly recall aviation’s chronology, Orville and Wilbur Wright did not accomplish the first successful, manned, powered airplane flight until December, 1903, and that maiden voyage was no more than a hop, skip, and a jump. Yet for a ten-month period between November, 1896 and September of 1897, a metallic, cigar-shaped aerial vehicle was sighted by hundreds of sober, respectable citizens. A good many men and women claimed to have spoken with the pilots of the mysterious craft when the object was resting on the ground. The occupants told farmers and retail merchants that they were terrestrial inventors, and said that they would give a full report of their airship to the government as soon as the Spanish-American War was over. Within a year of placing it on public exhibition, the machines were certain to be in general use. The war ended, the year passed, and nothing more was seen or heard or reported. The incidents were recorded in the newspapers, and promptly forgotten, except by those who saw it. And the bewildered members of the inventor’s family. Then, several years later, after an investigation by the Pinkerton Agency turned up nothing except a lot of rumors, the inventor’s son Jack Reid found a clue that led him to Kashgar, China. Something most unusual was occurring there. A gigantic cylindrical craft of some sort, metallic, and about five times as long as its diameter was seen cruising silently over the Kun Lun Mountains. In excess of one thousand feet long and two hundred feet in diameter, the gigantic cigar-shaped structure was obviously under intelligent control of some sort. But whose, and for what purpose? It was highly unlikely that it was a balloon or dirigible. It flew too fast for that, accelerating more rapidly than a rocket. Was it a new mode of travel? Jack wandered far to find out. And to find his father. What he uncovered was a plot against civilization itself. An extract from Chapter One An apparition haunted the skies over the United States in 1897. It was not the kind that threatened supernatural danger or excited the religious imagination. Instead of a fiery chariot swinging low to bear the faithful away to their eternal reward, the thing that lurked in the moonless nights or glimmered furtively in the sunlit cloud tops was made of humbler stuff. Newspapers quoted witnesses who used words like chrome or aluminium, but appearances in broad daylight were rare indeed, and so, too, were credible witnesses. More often the phenomenon came to public notice as a blinding light that stabbed down from the heavens in the dead of night to play over hilltops crowned with cedar and piñon, or to sweep back and forth across the dry prairies. Whenever the cone of brightness was extinguished, blinking eyes were able to make out the red and green glows of navigation lights gliding sedately overhead, accompanied by the rumble of strange machinery. A few stunned onlookers even caught a faint whiff of pungent vapor, as if from a plume of oil or ozone that trailed behind the elusive machine. The object was definitely mechanical. Everyone agreed on that. It was as if American skies had no room for ghostly wraiths or ethereal visions. Even angelic chariots, it seemed, must give a practical account of themselves. As the advancing seasons turned the land russet and brown, the presumed inventor grew bolder, making forays closer to the ground and in broad daylight. He even landed a few times and spoke to amazed citizens, or asked them for water or coils of wire for minor repairs. The accounts of what he looked like and what he called himself didn't always agree. Neither did the reports of what he was supposed to have said, such as his reasons for building the flying machine and his plans for the future. The descriptions of the airship (as it came to be called) varied, too, at least in the details. The consensus opinion held that the contraption was oblong and narrow like a cigar with some sort of carriage slung underneath. The size of the thing, however, grew in the telling until the first frost came, and then it vanished altogether.

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Published by Turner Maxwell Books

First published 2009.
Copyright © George Miler 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in a retrieval system in any form or by any means without permission in writing by George Miler or Turner Maxwell Books.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which this is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

The purchase of this book is a private sale between the reader and the publisher; at no stage will indemnity be claimed against the publisher. The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Warning: May contain explicit material, which is not intentionally offensive.
Not suitable for children

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental and may be more the work of your own imagination. Why not write a book yourself? Turner Maxwell Books are an alternative co-operative of new writers, working towards publishing inspirational literature.

Printed and bound in the United Kingdom for Turner Maxwell Books.

£8.99

A CHANGING OF THE GODS

A novel by George Miler


    For those who cannot instantly recall aviation’s chronology, Orville and Wilbur Wright did not accomplish the first successful, manned, powered airplane flight until December, 1903, and that maiden voyage was no more than a hop, skip, and a jump.
    Yet for a ten-month period between November, 1896 and September of 1897, a metallic, cigar-shaped aerial vehicle was sighted by hundreds of sober, respectable citizens. A good many men and women claimed to have spoken with the pilots of the mysterious craft when the object was resting on the ground. The occupants told farmers and retail merchants that they were terrestrial inventors, and said that they would give a full report of their airship to the government as soon as the Spanish-American War was over. Within a year of placing it on public exhibition, the machines were certain to be in general use.
    The war ended, the year passed, and nothing more was seen or heard or reported. The incidents were recorded in the newspapers, and promptly forgotten, except by those who saw it. And the bewildered members of the inventor’s family.
    Then, several years later, after an investigation by the Pinkerton Agency turned up nothing except a lot of rumors, the inventor’s son Jack Reid found a clue that led him to Kashgar, China. Something most unusual was occurring there. A gigantic cylindrical craft of some sort, metallic, and about five times as long as its diameter was seen cruising silently over the Kun Lun Mountains. In excess of one thousand feet long and two hundred feet in diameter, the gigantic cigar-shaped structure was obviously under intelligent control of some sort. But whose, and for what purpose? It was highly unlikely that it was a balloon or dirigible. It flew too fast for that, accelerating more rapidly than a rocket. Was it a new mode of travel? Jack wandered far to find out. And to find his father.
    What he uncovered was a plot against civilization itself.

An extract from Chapter One

    An apparition haunted the skies over the United States in 1897. It was not the kind that threatened supernatural danger or excited the religious imagination. Instead of a fiery chariot swinging low to bear the faithful away to their eternal reward, the thing that lurked in the moonless nights or glimmered furtively in the sunlit cloud tops was made of humbler stuff. Newspapers quoted witnesses who used words like chrome or aluminium, but appearances in broad daylight were rare indeed, and so, too, were credible witnesses. More often the phenomenon came to public notice as a blinding light that stabbed down from the heavens in the dead of night to play over hilltops crowned with cedar and piñon, or to sweep back and forth across the dry prairies. Whenever the cone of brightness was extinguished, blinking eyes were able to make out the red and green glows of navigation lights gliding sedately overhead, accompanied by the rumble of strange machinery. A few stunned onlookers even caught a faint whiff of pungent vapor, as if from a plume of oil or ozone that trailed behind the elusive machine. The object was definitely mechanical. Everyone agreed on that. It was as if American skies had no room for ghostly wraiths or ethereal visions. Even angelic chariots, it seemed, must give a practical account of themselves.
    As the advancing seasons turned the land russet and brown, the presumed inventor grew bolder, making forays closer to the ground and in broad daylight. He even landed a few times and spoke to amazed citizens, or asked them for water or coils of wire for minor repairs. The accounts of what he looked like and what he called himself didn't always agree. Neither did the reports of what he was supposed to have said, such as his reasons for building the flying machine and his plans for the future. The descriptions of the airship (as it came to be called) varied, too, at least in the details. The consensus opinion held that the contraption was oblong and narrow like a cigar with some sort of carriage slung underneath. The size of the thing, however, grew in the telling until the first frost came, and then it vanished altogether.