Book Tour: Free Kindle Book Particle Horizon

From the blood and dust of New Jerusalem, the Legion of the LightBringer wages a galactic war against those who would replace their god. Now, the time has come for the Union of Free Worlds to make a stand. The front line is the idyllic asteroid world of Angelhaven, where the greatest mind in human history has discovered an elemental power with far-reaching implications. A power that both sides will do anything to harness.

Marine commander Gomes leads the crack Union task force. An unrelenting warrior driven by revenge and a need for answers, he hides a strange ability neither science nor religion can explain.

On the other side of the war, Aja is forced to fight for a cause she doesn't believe in to protect her own secret.

Caught between them is Una, a living machine who battles for her humanity as her world falls apart.

Outnumbered ten to one and stalked by a mysterious nemesis, all three will play a role in unraveling Angelhaven's enigma.

As the Legion invasion begins, unknown eyes watch with interest...

To finish off the tour with a bang, Selso Xisto is offering his debut novel, Particle Horizon, for free on Kindle during July 4th, 5th, and 6th. Click here to get your copy! 

Blog Tour: Particle Horizon: Tour of Angelhaven

Welcome to Angelhaven.

As your ship emerges from the particle displacement portal, the first thing you will undoubtedly notice is the overwhelming presence of our host planet and great benefactor: Hades. This gas giant monster is almost twice the size of Jupiter and provides us with all the raw materials for our survival and industry. Within its upper cloud decks, a great AI-controlled cloud scoop ship ploughs a furrow day and night.  It farms water, oxygen, carbon, ammonia, silicon and hydrocarbons amongst many other elements which are sent up to Angelhaven through a 3,000 mile-long umbilical. Do not be alarmed by the aurora-like firework display you see through that observation-deck window; the waves of light you are witnessing are created by Hades' vicious radiation battering against the ships' protective magnetic shield. You are quite safe.

As you round the horizon-spanning curve of Hades, the ice-moon of Clara will come into view. A lifeless, insignificant moon with few resources of any use. Uncharitable gossip amongst Havenites suggest these qualities inspired the discover of this star system to name the moon after his late wife. Yohannes Phillips' wife was indeed called Clara, but the board of AngelCorp can assure you that all founding members were fine, upstanding members of the Union of Free Worlds and her contribution to early colonisation efforts will be long remembered.

Within a few moments, Angelhaven itself will come into view. From the outside, it looks like a fairly unassuming asteroid. 15 miles-long and a shade over 4 wide, you will notice the various exterior domes and projections that give a glimpse of the class-leading industry within. From the north end cap you will see the umbilical connection to the cloud scoop thousands of miles below. At the southern end which you are now approaching, you will see the docks that lead to Angelhaven's interior.

After passing biometric and DNA security profiling, you will attend a day-long AngelCorp security briefing. As you are by now undoubtedly aware, we go to great lengths to keep Angelhaven's industry and location a secret. The captain of the ship that brought you here did not even know the displacement coordinates; these are kept on highly-encrypted keys managed by the ship AI. As you begin your new life on Angelhaven and start your illustrious new career working for AngelCorp manufacturing, you will begin to learn the importance of these measures and why your particular skills in nano-engineering and magnetic forge programming caught our recruiter's attention.

As you board your complimentary AngelCorp taxi, prepare for a somewhat disorienting spectacle! People from conventional terrestrial worlds often experience an unusual form of acute claustrophobia. The 'horizon' of Angelhaven curves upwards until both 'ends' meet, 4 miles above your head. If you feel any kind of nausea, please ask the onboard AI and you will be given an appropriate retch-suppressant to inhale.

You will be flying along the central axis of Angelhaven where a bottled sun runs the full 15-mile length of the world. Around it is a sleeve of cloud which casts shadows and rain (strictly on tightly-managed agricultural schedules) on cities and farmland 2 miles below. Angelhaven rotates to create centrifugal force sufficient to approximate one Earth gravity. You will notice that the 'gravity' is strongest on the ground and decreases to nothing the closer you get to the axis.

As you cruise within the cloud tunnel, the AI controlling your taxi will rotate your cabin to shield you from the glare of the light tube and give you the best view possible of our beautiful world overhead. Through the gaps in the cloud the first thing you will surely notice is the apparently solid band of green taking up almost a 5th of our available landmass. This seemingly solid green ring is made up of a new Union-designed wonder-crop you may have read about; Longwheat is a genetically modified alien plant making life possible on dozens of distant worlds whose hostile native biology doesn't want us there. Each long, fibrous stalk is a factory of proteins, carbohydrates and oils and almost every part of it can be synthesised into various foods or plastics.

Your taxi is now approaching the great city of New Chaldea. Perched on the northern shore of Lake Clara, it is dominated by the central, winding spiral which houses Angelhaven's most prestigious hotel for visiting VIPs and the main offices of AngelCorp. As part of your induction you will have the opportunity to sit in the low gravity board room on the 312th floor and take in the breathtaking vista whilst meeting the current board.

As you approach the northern end of Angelhaven, you will see the loading docks and a cluster of unusual-looking modules attached to the light-tube itself. This is the high-security zero G lab complex and is strictly out of bounds to all employees and citizens below alpha-level clearance.

You may also have noticed one of Angelhaven's best-kept secrets as you travel through the cloud tunnel; the teenagers flying past your window like birds are 'gliding the tube' an extreme sport pioneered by the industrious youth of our world. Using custom-designed flight harnesses, they use the peculiar centrifugal rotation and low gravity within the cloud-tunnel to perform regular acrobatic displays. These surfers of the skies are most active during the low-trade seasons when axis-traffic is lowest - wait a moment…

Wait a moment... Please forgive this interruption to your tour but an emergency announcement has been relayed across Angelhaven's network. A pair of Alliance-registered heavy freighters docked this morning have broken security protocols.

Wait a moment… You are being taken immediately to a secure location.

Wait a moment… We are being invaded...




We hope you've enjoyed  the tour of Angelhaven. We at Three Sisters and Rina's Review's are proud to be part of the Particle Horizon blog tour, all previous and future stops can be found at the Official Tour Page.

My review of the book can be found here.

Selso is offering a signed copy of Particle Horizon to one lucky tour follower. You can enter below.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour: Particle Horizon

From the blood and dust of New Jerusalem, the Legion of the LightBringer wages a galactic war against those who would replace their god. Now, the time has come for the Union of Free Worlds to make a stand. The front line is the idyllic asteroid world of Angelhaven, where the greatest mind in human history has discovered an elemental power with far-reaching implications. A power that both sides will do anything to harness.

Marine commander Gomes leads the crack Union task force. An unrelenting warrior driven by revenge and a need for answers, he hides a strange ability neither science nor religion can explain.

On the other side of the war, Aja is forced to fight for a cause she doesn't believe in to protect her own secret.

Caught between them is Una, a living machine who battles for her humanity as her world falls apart.

Outnumbered ten to one and stalked by a mysterious nemesis, all three will play a role in unraveling Angelhaven's enigma.

As the Legion invasion begins, unknown eyes watch with interest...




Three Sisters and Rina's Review's are proud to be part of the Particle Horizon blog tour, previous and future stops can be found at the Official Tour Page.

Selso is offering a signed copy of Particle Horizon to one lucky tour follower. You can enter below.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Review: Particle Horizon by Selso Xisto

  Particle Horizon by Selso Xisto ★★★★★


Let me start out by saying right off the bat that I don’t read a lot of Sci-fi, and when I do it usually takes the form of a novella or short story.
At over 300 pages, 49 chapters and a surprising amount of characters Selso Xisto’s debut novel Particle Horizon, is neither of those things.  What it is is an intricately detailed, and epic space opera.

What I dislike most about sci-fi is not at all present in Particle Horizon, so many sci-fi books seem to assume you have a degree in physics or rocket science, they go into great detail about molecular fusion, particle acceleration, string theory, rocket propulsion etc that the layperson reader begins to wonder if they might be reading a text book.

There is almost none of this in Particle Horizon, there is a bit of it of course, I mean it takes place in a distant future on a planet that is a hollowed out asteroid, there are going to be a few scientific terms, and some of them you may not be familiar with.  However when it comes to the descriptions of the machines, processes and theories of this world, they are very much written for the reader with only a limited amount scientific understanding.

I found the book a bit difficult to get into at first, though it has a very quick pace, it is a very meaty book, not one to be devoured in one or even two sittings, I found that I had to read it slowly, in little bites, allowing myself to absorb and digest it as I read.  

The characters are incredibly developed, even minor characters are given a three dimensional aspect that makes you interested in them as actual characters rather than scenery or filler.

Particle Horizon takes place in an unnamed time frame on an asteroid planet called AngelHaven, we are quickly thrown into the action of an invasion of religious zealots known as the Legion of the LightBringer infiltrate and begin a systematic and bloody purge on the people of AngelHaven.

We meet a number of characters in the first few chapters, in fact the first 10 chapters or so are devoted mainly to character introduction and set up, thankfully there is story progression through out, you won’t find a five page description of a room, or a long winded set up to a short scene, and even as we are learning about each new character there is plenty of action going on and around that description.

We find out a few chapters in that there are two sharply divided factions in this Universe, there is the UFW (United Free Worlds) who have denounced the existence of all deities, and there is the Legion of the LightBringer.  The Legion is viewed by most as a dangerous cult, born from the religious exiles on the desert planet of New Jerusalem the Legion has been systematically attacking UFW communities in the attempt to eradicate those who would eradicate God.

The action starts in the very first chapter with the Legion’s invasion, setting the tone for the rest of the book.  We first meet a cast of body gliders who are staging a dangerous counter attack against the Legion, and a bloody battle ensues.

Meanwhile in a tower high above the killing taking place on the ground, we meet AngelHaven’s greatest mind and his ‘daughter’ a cybernetic woman, known as Una.  Una was created to facilitate and help with unraveling the code behind something called  “the particle horizon” and has recently completed the final string of that research. Unbeknownst to her, this final string completes the research, and allows her father access to a power that could make him a god and destroy the Universe.

Unbeknownst to all is that Humanity has reached its evolutionary apex, and will soon be judged accordingly.

I very much enjoyed this book, the subject matter was similar to other sci-fi books in a lot of ways, but the voice and telling is fresh and original. It kept me guessing and surprised me on a number of occasions.

I recommend this book to all lovers of sci-fi, if you want a story that sucks you in and holds you tight, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with Particle Horizon.