Tales of the Always Night

Tales of the Always Night is the name of the science-fiction / fantasy book series detailing the crew and mission of the ACS Conch. Chronologically, the story occurs between the end of Oræl Rides to War and the beginning of The Final Fall of Man, although there are considerable overlaps. The books in the series are as follows: The story takes the form of a serialised adventure, aimed at young adult and casual readers, with lighter prose and fewer wanky philosophical sidelines (although there are still some of those, because some people like them ... it's me, I'm some people). The stories are illustrated for additional entertainment value.
 * 1) The Last Alicorn
 * 2) Untitled Tales #2 (to be released)

"The story of the ACS Conch and its legendary circumnavigation of the galaxy was never a matter of Fleet record, and it certainly never got an AstroCorps mission log. Over the centuries, it became more folk tale than history. By the Thirty-Ninth Century YM, only fragments remained.

"Loës Artikon, at one time a respectable historian, is responsible for assembling the most complete collection of Conch stories and lore, and destroying Artikon’s own reputation utterly in the process. Loës Artikon is remembered, if at all, as an author of the most preposterous fantastical claptrap who was laughed out of the halls of over a hundred universities for attempting to pass such unbelievable rubbish off as fact.

"In the unlikely event you have read Artikon’s original collection of Xidh theria, or one of the popular interpretations to have been published as adventure stories under the title Tales of the Always Night, the story you are about to read will not strike a familiar chord. There are overlaps, of course, but the benefit of a folk tale is the sheer number of liberties that can be taken with characters and events.

"The story you are about to read is the story of what really happened to the crew of the ACS Conch on their famous voyage.

"This story owes a great deal to the work of Loës Artikon, which was in fact earnest and above intellectual reproach. The author hopes Artikon’s memory might find some measure of vindication, perhaps even acceptance, as a result of this tale seeing the light of day.

"Or, alternatively, he will join Artikon in obscurity and ridicule.

"Either way.

"The author would like to add a further special thanks to his firstborn, Elsa Hindle, for loaning him her imagination throughout the process of writing and reading this story. Without her, some of the wildest pieces of truth – Captain Pelsworthy of the Boze, the Nyif Nyif, perhaps even the Last Alicorn itself – may have remained untold by a cowardly storyteller, and dismissed as the desperate embellishments of a fallen historian."

- From the introduction to The Last Alicorn