[Note to readers: this and subsidiary pages made up Paul Wesson’s 2011 website, InterstellarUndertakers. They are reproduced here in lightly edited form for the benefit of those interested in Paul’s nonfiction books, science-fiction novels and short stories.] 

Dear Reader,

I became a fan of science-fiction at the age of nine, when I secreted myself at school to devour Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. After that, I read widely and indiscriminately as youth will, though with a preference for authors like Asimov, Clarke and Hoyle who combined a sense for adventure with an understanding of real science. Indeed, I became interested in cosmology at a time it was considered unfashionable, and received a Ph.D. from Cambridge in that subject, which was to form the basis for an academic career. Nowadays, of course, everybody and his grandmother thinks they can navigate around a black hole; and it has become blasé at parties to mention that you are a theoretical astrophysicist.

However, while chugging through calculations on five-dimensional relativity, I found time for less nerdish activities. And science-fiction was always in my thoughts, like the memory of some cherished lover. I eventually decided to take a break from the straight physics of the big bang, and write some of the ‘hard’ science-fiction I had always admired (though with a streak of silliness that I am afraid is unavoidable). The result was the first two volumes of what I had planned to be the typical trilogy: The Interstellar Undertakers and Cosmic Dreams. These two books have been effectively out of print for some years. And the third one, Gambling with Galaxies, is only now reaching the market. This situation prompted me to set up the webpage you are now reading.

I hope you will enjoy following the exploits of Jale and his companions as they rollick their way through the Milky Way and battle the evil Black Hand Gang. We can only hope that they (and us) will never have to say Aargh!

Paul S. Wesson