Exile to the Stars

In the year 2025, either you have connections on the inside or you are out. On a cold rainy night in Seattle, Washington, Jeff Friedrick is on his way out. Abandoned by his girlfriend, forced into a duel then later attacked by a gang on his way home and nearly killed, he’s certain things couldn’t get worse. Yet several weeks later he also loses his job as an anthropologist. Socially isolated, unable to leave his apartment, Jeff feels his life is over. Needing to get away he decides to go on a long hike.

Renewed peace returns as Jeff wanders the forests of the Sawtooth Mountain Range. However, the weather goes sour and it begins to snow, all the birds disappear, and the wind drops off to nothing. A terrible sense of looming disaster overwhelms Jeff, but where is the threat? At that moment a gigantic earthquake strikes and he is hurled down slope and knocked unconscious.

Jeff awakens in the middle of a howling blizzard covered with several feet of snow. Digging a snow cave he passes out. Come morning, he can only stare around in unbelieving shock. The Cascade Mountains are big, but nothing compared to the enormous peaks that surround him. And where did all the snow come from? Putting questions aside he hurries to hike out before what remains of his food runs out.

Days later there is still no sign of civilization, but Jeff is convinced he will find a highway. Then, one beautiful evening he trudges up a hill to view what promises to be a great moonrise and watches in unbelieving consternation bordering on terror as two moons sail above the horizon. He stumbles back to camp in a state of profound shock. Every rationalization stripped away, he now understands there will be no highway. He is no longer on Earth. So begins the real story of Jeff Friedrick.

Weeks pass and he slowly accepts that he will never see family or friends again. Jeff also learns to trust nothing, for some of the creatures have unexpected and nasty habits. Then there are the predators following him just out of sight. One night, sitting around a campfire, he meets them.

EXILE TO THE STARS is the story of a man pushed so far beyond previous ability that he balances at the edge of death day to day. Yet he survives, gains in strength, and eventually is taken in by a race of giant Northmen. There he finds a mentor and gleans a few hints regarding the questions that never leave his mind: Who or what transported him to Aketti? Why was he dumped into a snow bank and left to die? And who are the invaders marching north to destroy his new-found people? Finding a horse that likely isn’t one, Jeff heads south in search of answers.

New threats face Jeff and Cynic as they cross hundreds of miles of prairie to fabled Khorgan, home to every form of treachery and deceit practiced by man. Meeting traders as worried as he is about what is marching north, they sail south to the jungles of Arzak where their worst suspicions are confirmed—the Salcheks of myth have returned in force. There is no option but to run. Retreating north, Jeff rallies the Northmen and opposing forces meet on the plains of Arvalia as winter descends with relentless snow and cold. It is a battle that is likely to leave no one standing, friend or foe. Pushed beyond his limits for the last time, Jeff staggers toward physical and emotional ruin. Yet he is sustained by a depth of love never encountered on Earth, from a woman who cannot be human.

And so this first volume of THE ALARAI CHRONICLES ends with victory, but also with the knowledge that the battle has just begun and is destined to span two worlds, Aketti and Earth. The Gods say so. But where is Earth? Are they even in the same galaxy? How are they supposed to cross such a distance?

Each of the seven novels in this series is an adventure in its own right and adds pieces to a puzzle that only seems to get bigger and more complex. The challenges and adventures never end and expand to a dimension not dreamed of or imagined possible.