Release date: April 29, 2016
Sub-genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy/Short Stories
About Iceslinger:
A deadly showdown on frozen Ganymede . . . an experiment in time travel that has unexpected results . . . the dead being brought back to life—to sell insurance . . . a legendary villain seeking to summon a strange visitor from another planet . . .
These are only some of the ventures into the fantastic and bizarre to be found in ICESLINGER, the latest collection from acclaimed author John Hegenberger. These classic tales of science fiction and fantasy are filled with action, big ideas, humor, and drama. Step into the many worlds of John Hegenberger and prepare to be entertained!
Excerpt:
They crawled along the frozen terrain for more than four hours. Ted tried to raise a response from Quiller on the radio, but the swell of Jovian ions continued to loop through the magnetosphere and blanket the frequencies. If there had been a UHF up-link in the Hopscotch, he thought, a clear signal could be received on the flatscreen. You'd think the designers would have prepared for such a situation. Ah, but that’s why he and the Quiller were getting haz-duty pay; it was their job to identify all the bugs before Winner Corp built a whole fleet of Hopscotches.
"I think I see something," Janice said.
Ted leaned into the forward window.
"Careful!" the woman cried, pulling at his collar. "If your face touches that frozen plex, I'll have to peel you off." Ted backed away, still trying to spot the pogo. “All I see is a deep crevasse," he complained.
"Look over to the left, on the other side. There!"
"Oh, yeah... I see it now. It's half buried in the snow."
"If we don't over there soon, it'll be completely buried."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
"I suppose you noticed that canyon in front of us," Janice replied.
They had come to the edge of one of the planetoid's huge series of parallel wrinkles, one of the strange surface structures created by Jupiter's tidal forces on the Gany ice flows. It looked to Ted as if the first steep drop was at least a hundred meters straight down. And the next ridge over, where the pogo sat, was more than four klicks away.
"Doesn't look good," Janice sighed. "Your partner could be badly hurt or frozen. I'll have to find a way around this, before we pick him up."
"How long will that take?" Ted asked, hearing the edge in his voice.
"I told you this area was uncharted. I've got sky maps for general reference, but they won't tell me a thing about how safe it is to drive this hulking half-track across an ice ridge. This is one of those situations, Ted, where we're near enough to see, but too far away to help."
"Don't say that," Ted snapped. "There's a man out there possibly dying, and a classified lander worth billions of dollars. There's got to be a way to get to him. You people couldn't continue to live in this environment, if you gave up so easily. Now, what's the answer?"
Janice stroked the soft hair behind her left ear. "Well... you're not going to like it."
"Tell me."
"You could try and fit into my suit and take a jet pack over the crevasse. The winds look traitorous, but if you carried a second pack over to your VP, the two of you could shoot back here in less than an hour."
Ted swallowed dryly. His mind scrambled for another solution; any other solution. But he couldn't come up with one.
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About John Hegenberger:
Born and raised in the heart of the heartland, Columbus, Ohio, John Hegenberger is the author of several series: Stan Wade LAPI in 1959, Eliot Cross Columbus-based PI in 1988, and Ace Hart, western gambler in 1877. He’s the father of three, tennis enthusiast, collector of silent films and OTR, hiker, Francophile, B.A. Comparative Lit., Pop culture author, ex-Navy, ex-marketing exec at Exxon, AT&T, and IBM, happily married for 45 years and counting. Active member of SFWA, PWA and ITW.
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