Journey into the Oort Cloud.

by Grahame R. Smith

25th January 2020

Hello, fellow SciFi readers. I have given free rein to my interest in the outer solar system in this novel. There are many areas in astronomy which have interested me greatly. One is the early universe, and in my books, Journey to the Dawn of Time and No More Moon in the Water, I have brought this into the narrative through a planet called Sphinx of the Folly system. In my last two published novels, Flower-of-Sands and Journey into the Oort Cloud, I have indulged my interest in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. Flower-of-Sands features Pluto and its moon Charon. One of the characters, Venetia, is in honour of Venetia Burney, who, in 1930, at the age of 11, is credited with coming up with the name Pluto. (Incidentally, many regard Pluto and its five moons as a binary mini-system. Space-geek thing.) In Journey into the Oort Cloud, I feature the dwarf planet Makemake and the planetoid Sedna, which is seriously in the solar system's outer reaches. From then on in, it's sci-fi-fantasy with layers of characters and aliens. A central character is Dr Venetia Woods, astrophysicist and authority on the outer system, who heads the science team on a follow-up rescue mission into the Oort Cloud. Her close friend Arabella travels with Venetia, who comes from the Triangulum galaxy - and then there is Aaliyah, a soul-mate from across aeons of time and space. The novel is full of adventures, challenging relationships, and strange and scary encounters. I put this book out there for people to enjoy. So far, most have done so, and I hope you do, and I hope that continues.