The Battle for Allegra Preorder Announcement

They’re finally up.

Each and every one of the books in The Battle for Allegra – Season One.

Can I just say, “Phew”?

After nearly an entire year since I penned the first word of The Battle for Allegra: Conscripted, we are finally about to see the final book in the season drop.

Admittedly, I’m super excited. As I see it, I have plenty of reason to be too! The completion of Season One means that I will finally be able to drop my first box set of books. What does that mean? It means I’ll be offering all of Season One as one book, rather than ten. That development is still a way off, but I’m nonetheless excited for it.

Now, back to the matter at hand…

The Battle for Allegra Books 7, 8, 9, and 10

I’m releasing each book one week apart. That’s my rapid release schedule and I’m sure that everyone will enjoy that a lot more than the months-long wait for episode six! (Sorry for that.) Season two of my sci-fi saga will hopefully come out more consistently, but I can’t make any promises right now.

Curious what the release dates are? I’ll put that question to rest right now!

From the Author

I was so excited to finally put these books up for preorder. I’ve been working tirelessly on them for what felt like months. To be rightly honest, I think they encompass some of my best work to date as well! There were so many parts that I just had to stop and smile as I threw myself for a loop or I did something else that I was just so proud of.

I felt as proud as a kid who just got their finger painting put up on the fridge.

My excitement extends beyond my pride in these pieces, however. I was most excited by what Matthew was able to achieve in just a few short books. The completion of Season One really gets things set up for Season Two where–spoiler alert–the war will get even more intense.

Join Matthew as he fights to save Allegra.

Series Information

The Battle for Allegra

The Battle for Allegra takes place on a planet on the outer fringes of the Milky Way. It is a planet that was originally colonized by a largely Greek populace, hence all the cities with names that have Greek origins.

This series is the result of several years of brainstorming and more than a few failed attempts at getting it down on paper. Now, all this time later, it’s finally seeing the light of day.

I wrote this series with several different books in mind.

For starters, one can likely see an immediate link between The Battle for Allegra and Starship Troopers. While The Battle for Allegra is a much more serious military sci-fi, it does have “Bugs” that assault space marine soldiers that are in trenches. The government is also rather terrible as well. This, however, is about where the comparisons can stop.

I also wanted to expand on some thoughts that I had with Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. I thought about how alien invaders that were so bug-like didn’t have to be such advanced beings. I reasoned that there could be some brainless brutes in addition to the smarter aliens that would be leading the attack and building the invasion craft. Because of that consideration, you will see plenty of cannon fodder like the Beet that Matthew took on in First Kill, but you will also see more advanced creatures as the series goes on.

Due to the serious tone of The Battle for Allegra, I quickly discovered that it was becoming a lot like The Red Badge of Courage as well. It was no longer the “what if World War One happened against aliens” plot that I originally wrote it to be. Instead, our hero, Matthew Campbell, finds himself exposed to the horrors of war. Like The Red Badge of Courage’s Henry Fleming, Matthew is anything but thrilled by bloodshed. He immediately discovers his hatred of war. Not only that, he is faced with fears that he never thought he might face.

As Matthew fights on, many readers will see that Matthew’s reluctance to make war is not helped by his propensity to win fights. As he wins each fight, Matthew grows more and more accustomed to the rigors of war as well. This is another issue which I try to give enough thought to within the short story/novelette format that I am writing in.

All in all this series is turning into a thing of its own as I write it. No longer is it a format for me to give backstories to characters that will take part in my science fiction novel series: The Limit of Infinity. Instead, The Battle for Allegra is commanding special attention for itself. It’s its own beast now.

Why is Matthew Such a Good Fighter?

I have seen this question asked more than a few times. I’ve even had some negative commentary because Matthew is fighting without any training.

Beyond this being the entire point of the first book (Matthew is thrown to the wolves without training as a punishment), I did foresee this issue. No one is naturally a skilled fighter that can handle himself and knock big burly men out.

As such, I sprinkled in backstory for how Matthew became the scrappy fighter that we know him as throughout Season One. I will likely continue fleshing him out with brief backstory references and memories throughout the series.

I know it leaves a lot of questions regarding young Matthew, but that is not without intention on my part. Mystery keeps all of us coming for more!

Additionally, I can only slip in so much backstory in a story that is this short. If I do too much then the whole book is memories of our little soldier who’s taking on millions of dangerous alien invaders. Memories and backstory getting fleshed out like that can be boring as everything. I’m not here to bore you, I’m here to entertain you. I’ve got a paper that has Matthew’s full backstory written out and I might share it with the world when I have more books out. However, I won’t be doing that any time soon because it’ll spoil more than a few things!

Additional Series Info

Every book in The Battle for Allegra will be at least ten thousand words. I found that this was the shortest length that I could write in while still having the book go somewhere. That being said, I have no intention of writing books that will stop prematurely at that point. I will (and I have) written books in this series that were longer. As it stands, my average word count is about 13,000 words so far. The longest book is just shy of 19,000 words!

This series started out as my own personal sandbox to declare the war that I have been wanting to write about for quite some time now.

I wanted a sci-fi with trenches. Mud. Blood.

I wanted one with big old mechanized legions.

One with bug-like aliens that were just a wee bit harder to kill than real life insects. …Alright, that’s an understatement. I made them so they’d be insanely hard to kill.

I wanted to create characters who were adverse to conflict and have them get guided to the ways of war by battle-hardened individuals.

I wanted to make a science fiction coming of age story that was moving. One that tugged on the heartstrings. One that included more than a little war.

I wanted to write a story that played out like a TV show because who doesn’t like that?

With all of that in mind, I wrote The Battle for Allegra. I chose the novelette format over that of short stories, novellas, and novels because 10-20 thousand words seemed to fit the “TV show” timeslot a lot better while still telling a worthwhile story. Short stories were just way too short to smash in enough stuff. Novels and novellas on the other hand were too long for what each episode demanded. So, by happenstance, I ended up landing in the “novella” category for most of the books in this series.

If you haven’t picked up The Battle for Allegra yet, here’s a link to the series page on Amazon so you can join right in on the defense of an entire planet.