Was Once a Hero

Was Once a Hero - By Edward McKeown



※ Dedication ※

"To my love and my inspiration, Schelly Keefer."



Introduction by Janet Morris, author and editor: Edward McKeown intends to rock you and sock you with his new novel, "Was Once A Hero." Heroism and hardship begin on the very first page. Fast paced action abounds. Buckle your seatbelts for this epic of warships and aliens, love and death beyond the stars. As McKeown points out in this first novel of his ambitious Fenaday and Shasti Chronicles, "The peoples of the Confederacy are weary of the expense and disruption of war. They are demobilizing quickly, too quickly in a universe containing the Dua-Denlenn and the unknown. Your fleet and your people will not risk lives and treasure on the closed book of my race." Wrong decision. Wrong time. And there you have it: politics never intrude on this story, but they fuel it to a blazing conclusion.

Edward McKeown has a wonderful start on a series that plays to his strengths: young people of both sexes, caught up in drama where individual heroism can make a difference. Buy it for the action, read it for McKeown's unique view of a far future that's all too likely. -- Janet Morris May-2011

Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and has since published more than 20 novels. Her first novel, written as Janet E. Morris, was High Couch of Silistra, the first in a quartet of novels with a very strong female protagonist.

She has contributed short fiction to the shared universe fantasy series Thieves World, in which she created the Sacred Band of Stepsons, a mythical unit of ancient fighters modeled on the Sacred Band of Thebes.

She created, orchestrated, and edited the Bangsian fantasy series Heroes in Hell, writing stories for the series as well as co-writing the related novel, The Little Helliad, with Chris Morris.

Most of her fiction work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written historical and other novels. Morris has written, contributed to, or edited several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on nonlethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and national security topics.