Award-winning Author Brad Torgersen Releases New Book

Hollywood, CA

Brad Torgersen has not stopped releasing award nominated short stories since winning the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest back in 2010 with his story, "Exanastasis". He has since gone on to publish in some of the genre's top venues, such as Analog Science Fiction & Fact magazine, Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, and Galaxy's Edge magazine.

In addition to winning the Writers of the Future award, Brad won the Analog Magazine 'AnLab' readers' choice award, and was the 2012 triple nominee for science fiction's top three prizes: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Campbell awards. Brad has also collaborated with bestselling award-winners Mike Resnick and Larry Niven. He is now releasing his first full-length novel in October with Baen Books. The story was first published as a short and was nominated for several awards. It has now been expanded into a full-length novel.

The story is about a chaplain serving in Earth's space fleet is trapped behind enemy lines where he struggles for both personal survival and humanity's future. The mantis cyborgs: insectlike, cruel, and determined to wipe humanity from the face of the galaxy. The Fleet is humanity's last chance: a multi-world, multi-national task force assembled to hold the line against the aliens' overwhelming technology and firepower.

Enter Harrison Barlow, who like so many young men of wars past, simply wants to serve his people and partake of the grand adventure of military life. Only, Harrison is not a hot pilot, nor a crack shot with a rifle. What good is a Chaplain's Assistant in the interstellar battles which will decide the fate of all? More than he thinks. Because while the mantis insectoids are determined to eliminate the human threat to mantis supremacy, they remember the errors of their past. Is there the slightest chance that humans might have value? Especially since humans seem to have the one thing the mantes explicitly do not: an innate ability to believe in what cannot be proven nor seen, God. Captured and stranded behind enemy lines, Barlow must come to grips with the fact that he is not only bargaining for his own life, but the lives of everyone he knows and loves. And so he embarks upon an improbable gambit, determined to alter the course of the entire war.

Kudos abound for this story and a few are listed here:

• "Solid hard SF with the frisson of well thought through action. Much to enjoy!" - Dr. Gregory Benford multiple Nebula award-winning creator of the Galactic Center saga
• "Brad Torgersen can write something technical and complex, yet still give it real emotional depth. He's one of the most talented authors I've ever read." -Larry Correia, author of the best-selling Monster Hunter series
• "Brad R. Torgersen shows why he's going to be a power in this field for years to come."- Mike Resnick, multiple Hugo Award-winning author and editor

Now in its 31st year, the Writers of the Future Contest began in 1983 and attracts entries worldwide in science fiction and fantasy. Twelve quarterly winners receive prize monies and, along with selected finalists, are published in an annual anthology, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future (Galaxy Press). The book is sold in bookstores and at Amazon.com and gives the winners the exposure that they need.

Inspired by multiple New York Times best-selling author L. Ron Hubbard, the merit-based Writers of the Future Contest was initiated by him to discover and encourage talented beginning writers of science fiction and fantasy, and thus launch careers.

The idea has proved very successful. Hundreds of winners have had successful writing careers following their win and publication in the anthology, and to date has launched the careers of 12 New York Times bestsellers including: Jo Beverley, Tobias S. Buckell, Nancy Farmer, Eric Flint, Karen Joy Fowler, Tim Myers, Patrick Rothfuss, Lisa Smedmen, Dean Wesley Smith, Elizabeth Wein, Sean Williams, and Dave Wolverton aka David Farland.

Prospective writers should visit http://www.writersofthefuture.com for more information on how to enter the contest.