Read chapters 5 and 6 of Queen of the Iron Sands, serial novel by Scott Lynch

After a lull of several months, it’s good to see that American fantasy author Scott Lynch is continuing with his free online serial novel, Queen of the Iron Sands, which is being written “entirely on spec, to keep people amused while I revise and finish several other important projects.” Inspired by pulp author Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic novel A Princess of Mars (1917) and the United States Women's Airforce Service Pilots of World War II (WASP), here’s a refresher of the storyline for Queen of the Iron Sands:

At the height of the Second World War, Violet DeVere was a WASP -- a Women's Airforce Service Pilot, trusted with ferrying the most advanced warplanes in the United States arsenal. Five years after the war, she's barely making ends meet as a crop duster and part-time science fiction writer.

Kidnapped across a hundred million miles of space, Violet suddenly finds herself a prisoner in an impossible empire, an inhabited Mars shielded from earthling eyes by a scientific illusion called the Veil. Mars and its people are ground beneath the heel of the ruthless All-Sovereign, whose legions rule the skies. All resistance to his absolute despotism has been driven to the deadly red sands beyond civilization.

Outgunned and outnumbered, Violet DeVere and her few brave Martian allies make a desperate stand against the All-Sovereign ... against an ageless tyrant with the power to destroy every living thing in the solar system.

If you enjoy Queen of the Iron Sands, please consider making a small donation to help keep Violet fighting!

Artwork and logo design by Clarence Harrison.