Wow, what can I say about the tome that is Book of Thunder eh. For the moment let me give you the initial impression that this story has been the cause of more psychological and emotional heartbreak than when the girl I fancied in year four of Primary School told me to piss off after I told her I liked her.

Just in case you're wondering, yeah, it really is that bad heh.

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Even back in Primary School I loved science fiction/space opera. I grew up on a steady diet of vegetarian food and Babylon 5. Farscape and pancakes, Deep Space 9 and Milo hot chocolate. They were a staple of my upbringing, as real to me as the fingers on my hands. Whenever my family went away on camping trips (que awkward groan) I would often stay up as late as I could just so as to get a glimpse of the stars above and wonder at the majesty of it all.

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My Dad, ever the poet himself, had a wonderful phrase about looking at the stars, he called it "Gazing at visions of Eternity" and that was most certainly true for me.

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Yet, the story of Book of Thunder and how it came about is not one of a visionary. I wasn't given the story by magical story elves, nor was it prophesied that I would write the saga that would become the Stargazer Series. Lets just say that it came from a moment of boredom while trying to get through another frightful day at work.

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It has been noted by my long suffering wife, Sammy, that I have a tendency to daydream. Often are the times when she is requiring an answer from her husband but he is too busy, away with the fairies, that she has to resort to throwing at my head in order to gain my attention. The concept for The Stargazer Series was no different.

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Having spent most of my life in manual labour I often switch off my frontal lobe in a vague attempt at shielding my psyche from the monotonous job I do and the truly horrific people I have to work alongside. It was during one of these sessions of listless daydreaming that an idea popped into my head, a picture in time that would change my life forever.

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It was so simple, even recalling it now it still gives me shivers. The picture was of a battle worn Thor, his fight with Jormungand only just finished, black blood and a titanic corpse of the great beast lying dead in the water while Thor throws his trusted hammer, Mjolnir, into the stars, never to be seen by mankind ever again.

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That vision haunted for the longest time and for the longest time I yearned to know where Mjolnir had landed and what happened to it.

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That was the moment I knew I wanted to tell this story.

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I could go further, could regale you with my failures, my heartbreaks, my shattered sense of self, my re-writing this book from scratch entirely, to finally giving up on what I wanted to be my Magnum Opus, my great work etc. But those are tales for another day, for now, be content with the simple fact that Book of Thunder will be published and the tale of Jasenka, Kjartan and the crew of the Mundilfari will now finally be told, here on this very website and for those of you who have yearned to see this story, this is now here 

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