Stittsville author John W. Egan releases a new genre of stories

(Stittsville author John W. Egan releases his newest novel – Empire’s Gate – just in time for Christmas.)

If you haven’t completed your Christmas shopping and are looking for new reading material, then this is the novel for you. Author John W. Egan of Stittsville has released his newest book – Empire’s Gate – set in the sixth century.

Empire’s Gate offers a new genre of stories set in the sixth century Roman Empire that has airships and other advances. The book is the first of a Gaspunk series – The Roman Sky.

John tells Stittsville Central, “Fed up with 2020, then escape to the sixth century.” The series follows Cillian, a Roman soldier from a Gael-Goth family who seeks his destiny on the airships of an Airborne Legion. Newly assigned to the Army led by Belisarius, Cillian is quickly caught up in the race to stop a Persian Army from capturing the city of Dara, the gate to the Roman Empire. But Persian airships and armoured cavalry are not the only threats that Cillian faces.

A bonus story, Dawn of the Airborne, is included with Empire’s Gate. Set two hundred years before Cillian’s time, it captures the moment when Constantine set this Roman Empire on a different course from the one in our history, one that would preserve its power, prosperity, and pagan beliefs.

You may recall that John also introduced us to his 2019 novel – The Ebola War – last July and this editor might add “an excellent read”. John told us, “I find it oddly serendipitous how the second novel about those rebel girls struggling with the Ebola pandemic prepared me for the covid pandemic. Life imitating art?”.

The paperback edition of Empire’s Gate is sold by Amazon while Amazon, Chapters, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Smashwords carry the eBook edition.

Egan began the Stittsville Creative Writers group eight years ago. The group normally meets at the Stittsville Library, but due to COVID-19 has been unable to do so. John also served in the West African nation of Sierra Leone on loan from the Canadian military for eight months in 2001 and has since retired.

John has degrees in History and Education. He has served in three professions, two armies, and one war. Writing helped him cope with his war experience in West Africa and led to his becoming an author. John is currently working on Spring of 1813, the second novel in his Beyond 1812 series.