Book cover of ‘Alien Assasin.’ Courtesy/T. Jackson King
T. Jackson King
His novel has hit Amazon Bestseller ranking in six sci-fi categories. They are: No. 18, Space Exploration; No. 19, First Contact; No. 23, Space Marine; No. 24, Galactic Empire; No. 25, Alien Invasion and No. 45, Space Opera. The novel is the sequel to the Amazon bestseller Stellar Assassin, which has gained multiple five-star reviews.
Amazon’s Kindle ebook ranking lists only bestselling novels released in the last 30 days and is updated hourly. King’s novel was released on August 16, so it has climbed to these bestseller rankings very quickly.
King is also set to talk about his writing and his novels at Mesa Public Library’s “Quotes: The Authors Speak Series” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28 in the Upstairs Rotunda.
King, 65,is a former government archaeologist and an award-winning journalist who lives in Los Alamos.
“I got the idea for this novel when I asked what if humans go into space and find there is a pre-existing galactic society run by aliens and what if that society only values humans for our ability to exert controlled violence?” King said.
The idea that aliens will have ancient guilds devoted to trade, spying and assassins is reflective of King’s conviction that when we travel star-to-star we will find pre-existing alien cultures in the Milky Way galaxy. In short, Humans will be the “New Kids on the Block” when we first encounter aliens!
That theme led to books like his first novel, Retread Shop (1988), published by Warner Books. He further explored this concept in the novels Ancestor’s World, Stellar Assassin, Galactic Avatar, Speaker to Aliens and Judgment Day and Other Dreams.
Another theme King explores in his Vigilante novel series is that a future galactic culture will oppose a United Planets of the Stars. That gave King the foundation for the two million year-old Anarchate culture. Its space navy enforces anarchy because that is most profitable for the interstellar corporations that run things in the Milky Way. This idea led King to write a five-book sci-fi series that began with Star Vigilante, then continued with Nebula Vigilante, Galactic Vigilante and Anarchate Vigilante. Book five will be Alien Vigilante, set for release in Fall 2014.
In addition to being a writer, King is a UCLA-trained archaeologist/anthropologist. This gives him a lot of insight into how an alien society structured very differently from those on Earth might function.
“I asked myself what could human society have in common with an alien culture? Well, for starters, there’s the need for food, living territory, there’s curiosity, there’s sex and there’s greed,” King said. “I disagree with scientists who say we won’t have anything in common with aliens. I think there will be interesting people on other worlds that we will appreciate knowing. We might even make a buck off of them!”
Support for the idea of many planets in the Milky Way galaxy has been documented in the sky survey of the Kepler astronomical satellite that has recorded about 2,700 planets of all types surrounding other stars in the Milky Way. Some of those planets are in the ‘liquid-water’ eco-zone similar to Earth’s distance from the Sun.
Why is King attracted to this genre?
“One reason I love sci-fi is because it’s a literature of hope. Science fiction assumes a future for humanity. A lot of modern literature is alienated from the theme of hope. I think human nature finds a way to keep on going on,” King said.
Ancient history, archaeology and evolutionary biology articles are also within King’s reading circle, along with international geopolitics. “Aliens that compete will have many motivations in common with humanity,” King speculates.
His writings can be found online at www.amazon.com/author/tjacksonking, on his Author Page at www.tjacksonking.com and the Facebook page of T. Jackson King. The bestseller rankings can be found here.
