"Hi Andy, I really enjoyed the
Followers Of Horus. Great job! Looking forward to the third and final
instalment."
Nigel Fowler, Kent
"Superb work. Great result
of "crawling into an Anunnaki's mind" which I can't even imagine. Can't wait
for book #3!!"
Warren Judd, Texas
Just wanted to say
that I finished ‘The Followers of Horus’ quite a few weeks ago and I really
enjoyed it! I can’t wait for your next novel!
Cindy Wright, Suffolk
"When Bill Bainbridge, reporter for the London
Daily Standard, was pulled off restaurant reviews in 2012 to investigate wild
NASA UFO conspiracy theories, little did he know that he'd still be doing it six
years later.
True, he and his friends uncovered the UFO -- a giant, top-secret
nuclear-powered spaceship called Ezekiel One, built by NASA and crewed by U.S.
astronauts. But soon enough the ship slipped from the view of earth-bound
astronomers and headed into the great unknown.
The events of 2012 were covered in Andy Lloyd's first science fiction novel
called, appropriately enough, "Ezekiel One". The sequel, called "The Followers
of Horus", begins with Bill trying to meet up with an Italian astronomer. Bill's
employer, a Russian tycoon named Mr. Provotkin, very much wants to know the
coordinates of the mysterious Dark Star, the purported destination for the
spaceship. However, anyone on the verge of finding out tends to end up either
comatose or floating face-down in a river. Very powerful interests want the Dark
Star to remain secret, and they'll stop at nothing.
Bill was very paranoid in 2012, and rightly so -- he survived at least two
assassination attempts. However, he's gotten sloppy, lulled into complacency by
years of fruitless investigations. In his heart, he's fed up with the whole
thing and just wants to go back to reviewing restaurants. By the end of the
first chapter, we'll see how disastrous Bill's carelessness turns out to be.
While a good portion of the earlier half of "The Followers of Horus" focuses on
the search for the Dark Star on Earth, an equally important plot line follows
the voyage of Ezekiel One itself. This dominates the latter half of the book.
The trip is to last fifteen years. The crew consists of relatively young men and
women who are beginning to feel the tedium. Having completed their spectacular
flyby of Saturn and passed beyond the orbit of Neptune, there is really nothing
now for them to see through the transparent glass observation dome, apart from
the Milky Way. Day to day, nothing ever really changes. The ship feels
motionless. The Dark Star, actually a giant planet called a "sub-brown dwarf",
is far too dim to notice. There is a very small amount of artificial gravity
produced by the slow, but steady, acceleration of the ship, but it is not enough
to prevent significant bone and muscle atrophy. The human body is not designed
for prolonged weightlessness. There are exercises the crew members are supposed
to perform, but they're getting lackadaisical. Also, a need for secrecy means
that, for long time, the ship is cut off from radio contact with Earth. On-board
food production is starting to falter, and people are feeling the hunger pangs.
Foolishly -- and against clear orders -- they have begun to have children.
One major source of tension is the fact that only the commanding officer,
Bradley Pierce, knows the true nature of the mission. There are twelve priests
on board, all schooled in the ancient Sumerian language. Supposedly, they're to
serve as ambassadors for humanity when Ezekiel One reaches Nibiru, a
planet-sized moon orbiting the Dark Star. However, they are keeping watch over a
secret cargo, in a no-go portion of the ship. As increasingly mutinous crew
members hatch a daring plan to shorten the voyage and, perhaps, save themselves
from starvation, Pierce tries to dissuade them. The priests will not accept any
shortcuts, but Pierce can't tell anyone why. Before long, tensions will build to
the crisis point, and the crew will learn a terrible secret.
I have known about Andy Lloyd for the better part of a decade, thanks to his
"Dark Star" book and website. I always figured that his theories about a hidden
binary companion to the Sun would make good science fiction novels, and Andy for
the most part has delivered. I first read the books last fall, and have just
finished them a second time. I enjoyed a couple or three exciting
run-for-your-life chase or escape scenes. I also enjoyed some subtle humor, such
as the absurd Monty Python line translated into Russian.
A major character,
known to Bill Bainbridge as the Tall Man, has a surprising amount of clout. His
audience with the Pope is quite unconventional -- he doesn't exactly go in
through the front door. And when a character jokes that he's an alien with cool
space tech -- well, maybe he isn't really kidding after all. I especially liked
the vivid descriptions of Nibiru orbiting in close proximity to its primary,
bathed in ruddy or magenta light, looking very much like the Eye of Horus of
ancient Egyptian lore.
The plot does suffer from a few flaws. The one that sticks most in mind involves
a very dramatic scene where the major villain reveals himself -- and he talks
like Yoda. It just doesn't quite project the right kind of menace. But after
this he mainly stays in the background and lets his henchmen terrorize the
protagonists, and the story starts clicking again. Andy also could have used
another couple of eyes looking over the text.
I know from firsthand experience
how hard it can be for a writer to ferret out those pesky typos. Also, at one
point the names of a mother and her daughter were transposed, stopping me cold
until I figured out what was going on.
If you're looking for a science-fiction treatment of some ancient Babylonian and
Egyptian legends, in the same vein as Stargate, this book could be for you. But
definitely you'll want to read "Ezekiel One" first. I'd love to see a third book
follow up on the fate of the crew of Ezekiel One, and other events on Nibiru.
This story definitely isn't over yet."
Robert Shepard Jr
Barnes and Noble listing:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Followers-of-Horus/Andy-Lloyd/e/9781892264275/?itm=5
How to order advanced, signed copies of
'The Followers of Horus':
Signed, dedicated copies of the book
can now be obtained directly from the author, Andy Lloyd, who is based in England.
Direct payment can be accepted through PayPal, using a
regular credit card if required. To order using PayPal, click the button below
correct for your location:
(1)
Within the U.K. for £13, including
U.K. postage and packing:
(2) To the
Rest of the World (e.g. USA,
Europe, etc) for £16 GBP, including Airmail postage and packing:
Confirmatory details of your order will be forwarded to me
automatically, but I would appreciate it if you could send an e-mail with
details of whom you want the book dedicated to.
E-mail Andy Lloyd at
andy-lloyd@hotmail.com
About the
Book
Some thoughts concerning the origin of the ideas behind "The
Followers of Horus" - The Egyptian god Horus is of course a centrally important
member of their ancient stellar religion. Born in the sky of Isis (Sirius), each
Pharoah was thought to be an incarnation of the god Horus. So symbolically I
portrayed the brown dwarf as Horus (the son of the Sun), Horus also represents
the re-born god Marduk, who appears on the spaceship Ezekiel One on it's way to
Nibiru.
I have only ever come across one reference to the Followers
themselves - in a book by Adrian Gilbert entitled 'Magi'. Since then, I have
not been able to find the exact reference in the book, but his essential idea
was that the Biblical Magi were part of a wider brotherhood anticipating the
return of the Horus-King. I've extrapolated that concept fictionally to a modern
super-secret cult within the Roman Church.
The following image is based upon a scene from the book. As
the black project space mission Ezekiel One nears its goal, a welcome committee
from Nibiru approaches. Their interest lies solely with the living cargo carried
aboard the spaceship.
Here are two paintings I created as potential covers for the
book. Part of the first painting was used to create the stunning Eye of
Horus cover. The original painting depicts a modern warrior appearing on a
ancient Egyptian papyrus - as a Follower of Horus, literally. Well, the
Followers of Horus in the book aren't dressed in this way, but the feel of
violence and conflict that surrounds them is true to the novel.
The second painting (which I'll readily admit isn't one of my
best!) depicts a scene later in the book. If you don't want to know
what happens avert your eyes now!! It shows the crew's difficult arrival
at Nibiru via a landing shuttle - with the Dark Star (named in the novel as both
Horus and Orpheus) shown low in the moon's purple/red sky. A wealth of new
ideas about Nibiru is covered in "The Followers of Horus".
Habitable Planet Orbiting Dwarf Star: As
described in "The Followers of Horus"
My
fictional work is a vehicle to put forward some
new insights and ideas. In "The Followers
of Horus" I have outlined how a world orbiting a
Dark Star could provide an habitable environment
for life. Scientists discuss 'The
Goldilocks Zone' - the rough distance from a
given star where liquid water on a planet's
surface could support life. The smaller
the star, the nearer the planet must be to the
star to be within this habitable zone.
The Sun is technically a
'yellow dwarf', and lies on at the high end of
the dwarf star spectrum. The next down is a red
dwarf, and a planet in its Goldilocks Zone has a
much smaller orbit than Earth. Brown
dwarfs have closer zones still, and sub-brown
dwarfs, like the Dark Star I describe, have
very close Goldilocks Zones - almost like
moons.
The closer planets get to
their parent stars, the more likely they will be
'tidally locked', like our Moon is to the Earth.
This means that the planet rotates on its axis
over the same time period as it rotates around
the dwarf star. This is known as
'synchronous rotation'. The result of this
is that one side of the planet will face the
dwarf star at all times.
That's why I predicted in
"The Followers of Horus" that a habitable planet
circling the Dark Star would be tidally locked.
Here's an extract from the book, written in
2009:
Through the great glass dome, the crew of
Ezekiel One could now see this world
approach. The homeworld was smaller than
Earth, although larger than Mars.
It
orbited the Dark Star in almost precisely 12
Earth days and was close enough to be
directly warmed by the weak infra-red
radiation emitted by the parent star
itself. As Ezekiel One approached, the
bright crescent of the planet glowed red in
the dim magenta light of the Dark Star.
The
side facing away from the Dark Star was as
black as tar, and apparently was entirely
covered in a thick layer of ice and snow.
The planet Nibiru was locked into
synchronous rotation by the Dark Star’s
tidal forces. Like the Moon circling Earth,
Nibiru rotated on its axis at the same rate
as it orbited around the Dark Star. As
such, it always displayed the same face
towards the warming parent star, and the
dark side of Nibiru was literally that -
eternally enveloped in complete shade. As a
result, the side of the planet facing away
from Nibiru was frigid and ice-covered. One
half of Nibiru enjoyed eternal daytime,
while the other was eternally dark.
As
Ezekiel One moved from the back of Nibiru
towards the front, its brightly lit red
crescent increased in size and magnitude.
Through the clouds, great mountains of ice
shone in red light. Eventually, the light
side of Nibiru came into view, as Ezekiel
One slowly moved into an orbital path around
the homeworld.
The
gathered crew in the Ecodome gasped as one.
It was immediately apparent why Nibiru was
known as the “Eye of Horus”. Literally, it
looked like a bloodied eye hanging in
space. Because the hemisphere facing the
Dark Star was perpetually irradiated, the
lit side this world was warmed into a wide,
detailed vista of clouds, seas and
landmasses. In the centre of the
hemisphere-wide ocean was an immense,
habitable landmass covered in clouds.
Fringed with red ice sclera, the ruddy blue
circular ocean was the iris to the central
landmass’s dark pupil.
Funny,
then, that an exciting new discovery in the
extensive Gliese 581 planetary system should
involve a habitable world with synchronous
rotation! Gliese 581g bears the same hallmark as
my fictional account of the Anunnaki homeworld
of Nibiru, as I've described in "The Followers
of Horus". Here's an extract from the
relevant news item from the BBC, on 30th
September 2010:
"The
planet's average surface temperature is
estimated to be between -12C and -31C. But
unlike Earth, this alien world has one side
always facing its sun and the other side
constantly in the dark. So in-between the two
sides, between shadow and light, there could be
an area where life could potentially thrive.
"Any emerging life forms would have a wide range
of stable climates to choose from and to evolve
around, depending on their longitude," said Dr
Vogt."
"NASA’s super-secret
spaceflight to the Dark Star is barely a third of the way into its fifteen year
mission when things begin to unravel. Tensions between the crew of Ezekiel One
and their mysterious mission controller, Etienne Lille, are building, with
potentially disastrous consequences. 
