ARIA

ISBN: 978-1-905091-96-6

Ebook version

© 2011 by Geoff Nelder

Published in the United Kingdom by LL-Publications 2012

www.ll-publications.com

57 Blair Avenue

Hurlford

Scotland

KA1 5AZ

Edited by Billye Johnson

Proofread by Janet Schelke

Book layout and typesetting by jimandzetta.com

Cover art ©2012 by Andy Bigwood (http://topaz172.deviantart.com)

Cover design by Helen E. H. Madden (www.pixelarcana.com)

Printed in the UK and USA

ARIA: Left Luggage
is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and incidents are entirely the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, transmitted, or recorded by any means whatsoever, including printing, photocopying, file transfer, or any form of data storage, mechanical or electronic, without the express written consent of the publisher. In addition, no part of this publication may be lent, re-sold, hired, or otherwise circulated or distributed, in any form whatsoever, without the express written consent of the publisher.

“Geoff Nelder inhabits Science Fiction the way other people inhabit their clothes.”

—
Jon Courtenay Grimwood 

“ARIA has an intriguing premise, and is written in a very accessible style.”

—
Mike Resnick

Robert J. Sawyer
calls ARIA a “fascinating project.”

“Geoff Nelder's ARIA has the right stuff. He makes us ask the most important question in science fiction—the one about the true limits of personal responsibility.”

—
Brad Linaweaver

Escaping Reality

Exit, Pursued by a Bee

Hot Air

This novel would not have been possible without a Dawes Super Galaxy allowing me to cycle up the Welsh slope of Horseshoe Pass, North Wales, making my heart thump so fast my brain – freshly oxygenated – buzzed with the original idea in
ARIA
.

Each chapter cranked their way through the critique group of the British Science Fiction Association’s Orbiters. Encouragement came from
Battlestar Galactica
co-novelist Brad Linaweaver, award-winning SF writer Jon Courtenay Grimwood
,
and
Stargate
novel writer, Sonny Whitelaw. Urging me on were publisher Neil Marr of BeWrite Books, friend and guru Les Floyd, M. Kenyon Charboneaux, and literary agent and friend, Rebecca Pratt. Bec Zugor, advised me on the mad Doctor Antonio’s Italian language.

I am the first person I know who has received an email from space when Leroy Chiao gave me technical help and a wish of good luck –
while
he orbited Earth on the International Space Station!

In addition to the above, my friend, Robert Blevins of Adventure Books of Seattle, gave me moral support as did Gladys Hobson, a fine British writer from Cumbria. The world expert on pleonasms and tight narrative, crime writer and agent Allan Guthrie
gave
me valuable advice and support
.

During this time other novels and over fifty short stories had fled my fingers into the world, so my style evolved, and is still developing. Perhaps it is in the bronze age now. In the last minutes Zetta Brown and Billye Johnson tweaked and poked
ARIA
further. Thanks to them and everyone.

None of this would have been possible if my wife had insisted I went out and found a proper job after I left teaching, so ultimate thanks to Gaynor and to my ever-tolerant grown-up kids, Eleanor, Rob, and their exuberant kids. Above all, they understand that when I am staring out of the window, I am really working.

Wednesday 15 April 2015: 

Outside Dryden Space Laboratories, Edwards Air Force Base, California.