About Empires of Saladium
The EMPIRES of SALADIUM is a science fiction space epic encompassing the voyages of the USS Lodestar-Crusader and her crew. The galaxy is comprised of a number of key players on the interstellar stage - the Akotarsan Empire, the Manojarran Empire and the Confederacy (or the Unified Confederacy of Interstellar Authority - UCIA). The novels focus on the crew of the Lodestar, flagship of SPACECOM, the fleet operations wing of the Confederacy. The crew is headed by Capt. Alexander D. Malarek and together they strive to bring peace and order to an otherwise chaotic universe of people, governments, space fleets and aspiring conquerors.
Is it Available?
To date, no publisher or agency has accepted my work. That is one reason why I have created a website - so that people like you can see for yourself what this is all about and that in time, with enough popular support, it may someday be found on bookstands across North America. I do this in the interests of allowing a large audience to preview what Empires of Saladium really is, in hopes that in some way it might give a publisher or agent the impetus to take the series on. Those who have read my material continue to enjoy it and I have even managed to convert non-sci-fi readers into fans! In time, perhaps Michael J. van Lierop will be a household name - but until that unlikely event, I must plod onwards and continue to write! I hope you return and discover Saladium along with me...
History of EMPIRES of SALADIUM
The foundation of the Empires of Saladium was begun many years ago, circa 1992, when I created a very simple role-playing game entitled Star Quest: Future Challenge. Much of the Saladium universe as it is today dates back to that cheesy game and the background that it attempted to create for a role-playing environment.I made an effort to complete Star Quest II - The Fourth Dimension RPG but that never materialized and only a few remnants can be found on my hard drive at home - nevertheless, much of what went into that brief version also contributed to Saladium, especially the races and planets. The fact that it was never completed is far from catastrophic seeing how Star Quest already exists.
I later dove into the realm of computer programming, starting with GW-Basic and moving up into Visual Basic for Windows, resulting in a number of silly games and a few good ones, three of which also contributed to Saladium. I made a planet colonization game entitled Terra Nova and about a year later its sequel came about. It was after that game that I moved up to Visual Basic and created a massive interstellar colonization/conquest game. Coincidentally, at this point a commercial game also called Terra Nova had just been released, so that name had to be tossed too. And so it was for that third game that the name EMPIRES of SALADIUM was first used.
Over time the ideas mounted until finally I had the incredible and ludicrous urge to actually write an entire novel. That was in the fall of 1995, when The Battle for Peace was begun. It was completed before the end of that year - the entire FOUNDING Trilogy was completed some five months later. The second trilogy, The PHOENIX Trilogy, was begun without that awesome name in the summer of 1996 with the Prologue and first few chapter of what is now called Forsaken Empires. For some strange reason (mainly having to perform in my academic endeavours at college) the fourth novel in the series failed to see completion until December of 1997. Being my last year of College and first year of University, 1998 produced virtually nothing in terms of the Series. At any rate, the fifth novel is in the works, and the sixth is stuck on the next shelf somewhere in my brain. If
you want to know more, e-mail me!
(c) Copyright 1999 by Michael J. van Lierop
