- Title:
- Alien Velocity
- By:
- Robert Appleton
- Pages:
- 162
- Rating:
- 3
EPIC Award Finalist 2011 – Best Science Fiction
Charlie Thorpe-Campbell is the greatest RAM-runner the world has ever seen–and he knows it. On the verge of retirement from the sport, he is defending his title as champion of the annual orbital race one final time when he’s suddenly hurtling away into deep space.
Charlie’s unscheduled voyage through a wormhole ends with a crash-landing on a most unusual planet, with scores of spacecraft from all corners of the universe in orbit. Seeking help, he heads toward what appears to be civilization, unaware of the horrors waiting for him there…
Once inside the great, orb-covered city, Charlie is thrust into intergalactic competition by a bloodthirsty alien race. When he discovers he can use his unique abilities to save not only himself, but the entire galaxy, will he face up to the challenge–or run from it?
Previously published as Charlie Runs Rings Around the Earth, newly revised by the author.
39,000 words
This was … A bit weird. It reminded me a little of a Peers Anthony, but with a slightly more fowl-mouthed lead. It had that weird, dissociative feel of some of Anthony’s works, but it did at least take an old motif and do something unusual with it.