LAGRANGE POINT 5
LAGRANGE POINT 5
Approach too close to the asteroid Eureka and electrical devices cease to function. The crew of the spacecraft Wayfarer must explore Eureka, yet the asteroid’s secret could disable their life support. Worse, Eureka’s secret could end warfare as we know it, and many people are unhappy about the idea of a world without wars. (Asimov’s Magazine, November/December 2025)
KEYS TO THE DRAGON MACHINE
KEYS TO THE DRAGON MACHINE
Volume 4 of the Greatwinter series: Britain has not been in contact with Australia for over 2000 years. The Admiralty sends the gunboat Vanguard to open diplomatic channels, not realising that the continent is now governed by a caste of psychopathic librarians. (Hybrid Publishers, 2025)
In this extract, the British gunboat Vanguard has just encountered the first Australian longboats of the voyage. The meeting has gone very badly so far, but Captain Ralder now thinks the Australians have had enough:
“Someone’s holding a musket up by its barrel and waving it at us,” said Saren, who had raised his telescope again. “That may be their signal for a truce.”
“Or a gesture of defiance,” said Lescal.
“M’diem Lescal, I really think those excitable Australians have been put in their place,” said Ralden. “I’ll accept your advice. Take the wheel and put us broadside to the boats.”
Ralden whistled into the Mechaneering’s pipe as Lescal spun the wheel.
“M’sair Dhugael, Dead Stop, if you please, but stand ready for Ahead Battle,” Ralden called, then he strode to the quarterdeck’s inner rail and shouted to the Gunkeep. “M’sair Draken, I want every marine, swivel gun and cannon held ready, and a three sixty degree watch on the waters around the ship.”
“One of the boats is approaching us,” called Saren from the stern rail.
“M’diem Lescal, we may have a truce,” said Ralden as he trained his telescope on the boat. “They’re approaching cautiously. Assessment, Lieutenant Saren?”
“That warrior has an eagle’s wings strapped to his arms, but none of the others do. He may be a warlord.”
“Kill him and the others will be discouraged,” called Lescal.
“Or enraged,” said Ralden. “I’ll tell Shipmarshal Jenna to put a ladder over the side.”
“The Australians may try to board us,” Lescal warned.
“If they try to board us, we blow them out of the water, sink the other boats, burn their piers with flame muskets, and put a few shots from the seven pounders into their village – if we can find it. If they wish to send a visitor aboard, we tell the cook that we have a guest who would like a nice cup of tea and a biscuit! Don’t be obtuse, M’diem Lescal, only one boat is approaching.”
“Understood, Captain.”
“You have the quarterdeck, try not to kill anyone. With me, Lieutenant Saren.”
DATING FORTUNE
Mark Connell is dying of cancer, but absconds from hospital to have at least one night on the town. Then the goddess Fortune decides that it might be fun to date him, and maybe even give him a change of fortune. (Lightspeed issue 185, October 2025)
Prince of Spirals
King Richard III supposedly murdered his two young nephews to clear his way to the English throne. Did Richard manage the perfect crime, or did one of the young princes escape? Forensic archaeologist Angelo Maslini is abducted by a group of high tech DNA burglars, determined to break into the tomb of the princes in Westminster Abbey and resolve the mystery. DNA analysis is notoriously tricky, however, especially because Angelo will be working at gunpoint.
Analog Science Fiction, January/February 2025
Three Days
Cats can see Death approaching for three days and three nights. Lara’s cat Claws can see something that is invisible to humans. It is moving very slowly, but it is getting closer. Claws is trying to stare down the approaching menace, but hour by hour it gets closer. Now there is a strange smell of something burning in the house, and the invisible intruder has almost reachedLara.
Borderlands (Ford Street, 2024)
Mirrorstar
Mirrorstar is an enormous ice telescope whose mirror is the diameter of the Earth. It has been builtin the outer solar system, where cometary ice is harder than steel, and can resolve detail on planets that are light years away. Space can now be explored without using starships, but it has a serious problem that the designers did not anticipate: Mirrorstar’s enormous mirror is gathering and focussing more than just light.
Analog Science Fiction, November/December 2024
AFTER THE WINTER SOLSTICE
In 2025, After the Winter Solstice reached the final shortlist for the Asimov’s Magazine Readers Award for best novelette.
Sendal’s world experiences the most extreme seasons imaginable, and now brilliant astronomer royal has learned to weaponise the winter. The world of Astronomer Royal Sendal has such an extreme orbit that the air becomes lethally cold in the Outer Winter. Life has evolved to survive by freezing solid, so the Outer Winter has always been an unexplored frontier. Now Lady Sendal has begun to explore that frontier – and weaponise it.
Asimov’s Science Fiction, January/February 2024
THE WASHER FROM THE FORD
If you are in the Laundromat and you see a woman putting your slashed and bloody clothes into a washing machine, hurry home and lock the door. Bean Nighe is a spectral fairy from the Scottish Highlands. In centuries past she was seen only by those who are about to die violently, washing the blood from their clothes at a ford. Now she is in Australia, and using laundromats.
Translated and republished in the Chinese magazine Science Fiction World, December 2023
This Spells Trouble
Sean’s collaboration with Paul Collins is a young adult comic fantasy about an apprentice wizard struggling to cope with a dragon, an iffryt, a warrior girl, and his lazy, incompetent master.
“This is just a riotous, joyful comic adventure from the very first page, and, I tell you now, your kids from middle school to upper will eat it up with relish! 14 year old Winton is apprenticed to a very dodgy wizard named Faramond – a lazy, ignorant shyster if ever there was one … But there’s more to this novel than just fantasy, adventure and humour! Interwoven throughout are scientific references, courtesy of Sean McMullen … I highly recommend it to you for your readers from around 11/12 years upwards.” Sue Warren
Saving Galileo
No, this is not the JPL documentary. In Sean’s story of the near future, dead alien civilizations use immense ice telescopes to communicate across millions of years. Lars has spent two years working on the Lunar Kilometer Telescope. Now he is on Earth again, acclimatising to the greater gravity and dating Daria, who was sent to kill him. Lars has learned that, millions of years ago, alien civilizations had ice telescopes the size of planets. Now Earth’s first ice telescope was operational and that was very significant for humanity.