First Contact — Frank Tayell

If first contact took place today, how would the world react?For the alien towani, Earth is a holy site where their Last Prophecy will be fulfilled. They will do anything to protect the planet. Protecting humanity is an optional extra.In 1888, fleeing starvation in Ireland, Sean found work as a guide to the Whitechapel slums for the publisher of grisly penny dreadfuls. Not even the most lurid of those tales was as outlandish as his encounter with visitors from another world. When they take him back to their home-world, first contact with a human will change their society forever.By 2020, there is a permanent, but secret, non-terrestrial presence on Earth. Negotiating our planet's membership in the alien federation, and concealing its existence, is the responsibility of the UN. When the pandemic begins, Earth enters lockdown, and our solar system is quarantined.While technically not a prisoner, Serene is no more able to leave the tunnels below the alien embassy in Germany than any of her human cousins locked down above ground. Keeping busy with janitorial work, one day blurs into the next until she stumbles onto an alien smuggling ring. What begins as a hunt for a thief transporting sacred Earth artefacts off-world leads to a two-thousand-year-old mystery that threatens to bring war to the entire galaxy.By the summer of 2022, Harold Goodwin needs a holiday. As camping is all his bookseller's salary can afford, he opts for a ramble through the countryside that inspired the novels he so loves. Whether by chance or prophecy, a poor choice of campsite thrusts him into the middle of an alien plot to make Earth the next proxy-battleground in a century-old war.Brawl of the Worlds is a light-hearted tale of intergalactic war and planet-shaping prophecies. As booksellers rise, and empires fall, the hidden history of the galaxy will be revealed. Based on real events.