The third in The Valkyrie Chronicles series sees a 24th century descendant of John Hammond enlist the aid of the Ferengi government as he aims to create a new Jurassic Park - but with a difference. However, he doesn't count on the findings of Ambassador Phineas Magus, and the course of evolution.

This book can now be downloaded in PDF form FOR FREE by logging on to www.lulu.com/twosheds316

A vampiric plague, mass amnesia, the destruction of Valhalla and more as the crew of the U.S.S. Valkyrie go up against a villain from Anglo-Force's past.

The second book in The Valkyrie Chronicles series, The Theophilus Wars, sees the crew of the U.S.S. Valkyrie go up against one of Anglo-Force's most powerful enemies, the immortal telepath, Doctor Armand Theophilus, along with his fellow immortal, the mutant, Celsius, and the renegade wizard Droome.

Now this story, originally written in the early 1990's and containing the individual stories The Mysterious Mister Alucard, A Loss of Memory and The Wrath of Theophilus is available to download in one volume, in PDF form for FREE. All you need to do is log onto www.lulu.com/twosheds316.

As always, feedback on this, and any past story, is appreciated, and can be left either on the Lulu website, or via e-mail to julian@twoshedsreview.com.

A merchandisers dream.

When Star Wars hit the silver screen in 1977, closely followed by the re-emergence of Star Trek and several new sci-fi films, merchandisers came up with a way in which they could cash in on this. And so the action figure came into being. They were snapped up in their millions. I was one of those who did the snapping, albeit a few years late.

After playing with a small assortment of various figures I had collected, I began getting bored. I needed something, some situation I could make my figures act out. It was then that my brother Paul and I began to pen the adventures of a group known as the Defenders of the Galaxy, a group of men and women dedicated to fighting evil throughout the universe. I started off with a small cardboard spaceship called the Eagle. As my collection of figures grew, the Eagle became a larger wooden ship called the Valkyrie. Upon receiving a large amount of money for my birthday one year, the Valkyrie was replaced with the Millenium Falcon, and later joined by an Action Force headquarters, a snow speeder, an x-wing fighter and various other craft. The stories continued to flow from the pen for as long as I was interested in collecting them. The Defender’s membership included Luke Skywalker, Mr. Spock, He-Man, and even the Lone Ranger’s trusty sidekick, Tonto, horse and all. But as I grew up, I became bored with these toys, and I gave them to my two young nieces. They now occupy pride of place in their attic, gathering dust along with the super-hero annuals I gave them.
   
But I have always been fascinated by the science fiction genre. I’ve been watching Star Trek for as long as I can remember. I still find the Star Wars films very good. I also enjoy others such as Battlestar Galactica, Battle Beyond the Stars, and of course, time travel stories, such as those in Quantum Leap. It is partly because of this that the Valkyrie Chronicles came into being. They were originally written as something completely different than Anglo-Force, about a ship set in the near future. They spent most of their time fighting evil alien races, most notably, the Monstrons, but, as with the Anglo-Force stories, the ideas dried up. The Valkyrie Chronicles were consigned to the dustbin.

But it was while I was writing the Anglo-Force mark two stories that something hit men, and I don’t mean Chris Eubank’s right cross. I had always thought that I wouldn’t be able to write two ongoing stories at the same time. I was wrong. With a lot of thought, I came up with a way that I could re-introduce the Valkyrie ship and her crew through an Anglo-Force story, which I did. I made their appearance more notable by having some of the crew descended from those in Anglo-Force, most notably the captain and first officer. It was later decided to put in a constant between the two stories, a way that the two could be connected by one character, one immortal character - Phineas Magus.

So here are the first adventures of the new Valkyrie, a starship in the United Federation of Planets, in Starfleet. What we have done here is set this story in the Star Trek universe, and taken ideas from that universe. But that is not all. We have merged this universe with that used in both Star Wars and Doctor Who. We have also added a few planets of our own, as well as taking small portions from other universes. Some of these stories are original, some are based on episodes and films from various series. All in all, though this is our universe, a universe made up of several others has been created. Scientists have always said the universe is a big place. We’ve just made it a bit bigger.

So here are the Valkyrie Chronicles, which is based on a story first written in 1983, which was based on a collection of toys.

I just wish I’d never given them away in the first place!

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A fictional universe the likes of which you've never seen before - the greatest heroes in British history, led by immortal wizard Dr. Magus and pilot-turned superhero Captain James Watt, band together to combat threats to the nation, before bringing together a powerful force to combat a greater threat, the evil wizard, Saruman the White!

Before you read the following stories, I shall give you a little history lesson.

Way back in the dark and distance 1970’s, yours truly fancied himself as a comic book artist. Inspired by the likes of Marvel and DC Comics, I created my own super-heroes, and drew (or rather scribbled) my own comics. I later pinched a couple of characters that my brother Michael had created, and the original Power Men, consisting of the likes of Jetson Man, Mr. X and more were born.
   
A couple of years later I began to collect action figures. Like many children I began by collecting Star Wars action figures, before eventually adding figures from numerous others to my collection.
   
But as I began to act out scenes for my collection, I also, along with my brother Paul, began to write stories for them. So, long before Flash Gordon met Mandrake the Magician, the Defenders of the Earth were born. As my collection grew they later became the Defenders of the Galaxy, and among their number were the likes of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Mr. Spock, He-Man, and numerous members of my own family, with yours truly acting as Commander-in-Chief, and Paul as an ageing wizard.. They battled a force led by the evil Supreme One and his ally Skeletor, before moving on to face the likes of the Warzoon and the Monstrons.
   
  
As I moved into my teenage years, I discarded these stories, and once again, along with Paul, moved into the super-hero genre. The wizard “Professor Paul” morphed into Doctor Magus, while “Commander Radbourne” became Captain James Watt, a name suggested by my late father. Some of the original members of the Power Men were added, and the first incarnation of Anglo-Force was born.
   
I can’t remember how many stories we wrote back then, but I do remember that their main villain was established Tolkien evil-doer Saruman the White. Eventually I just got fed up with doing them, and the stories were thrown away. Although I can reveal a little known fact - these stories were almost adapted into comic book form. My cousin Jayne Ellis, a very talented artist, had some contacts who were interested in the stories, and if everything had gone to plan, they would have been published - in Nigeria. Nothing actually came of this though.
   
A couple of years later, Captain Watt and Doctor Magus were rebooted, moved forward a couple of years, and given their own starship in the form of the Valkyrie. The Valkyrie Chronicles featuring some characters based on those who had appeared in Anglo-Force. But like their predecessors, I got bored, and threw the stories away.

Forward now to 1990. I wanted to write these stories again, but I wanted to do something different. Before I had always thought that I couldn’t write two on-going series at the same time. I soon found out that I could.
   
What you about to read are the first few stories of the second incarnation of Anglo-Force, once again written by me and my big brother Paul. At first I had originally intended for it to be a self-contained universe, but then I thought that as I was just doing this for fun why not use characters from other fictional universes. So this volume contains not only original characters (and those created by big brother Michael), but also the likes of Saruman the White, Doctor Who, Q, Davros, and a few others. As I’m not actually asking you to pay money to read this I can use these or any other character I want, and the end of this book helps launch the second series me and Paul re-booted, The Valkyrie Chronicles.
   
This is the first time these stories have been available, in their entirety, to the public, almost twenty years after they were first written on a battered old typewriter. I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed writing them.

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If you were to ask your average man in the street who the most well known cage fighter in Britain is at the moment, you’d probably get a mixed response.

Some would say Michael Bisping, the most high profile Brit in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and rightfully so. Indeed, Bisping actually placed fourteenth in the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year poll a couple of years ago.

Some would mention Paul Daley, mainly because of his recent impressive win in the UFC, or even current Ultimate Fighter contestant James McSweeney. Ian Freeman might even get a mention.

But the name that most people would mention would be Alex “The Detonator” Reid. But sadly, Reid wouldn’t be known for his mixed martial arts career.

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past few months, Reid is the current beau of former glamour model and tabloid favourite Katie “Jordan” Price. Ms. Price has recently gone through a messy divorce with Aussie pop star Peter Andre. The two of them met while they were contestants on dire reality show “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here”. And I say dire in the nicest of terms.

It seemed like a day didn’t go buy when we didn’t hear something about what Katie and Peter had done to each other. The insults came thick and fast, mainly through the pages of the tabloid newspapers.

But then, this past July, a new face entered the scene, the aforementioned Mr. Reid, and since then he’s been in the papers as much as Katie and Peter.

We seem to have heard it all, haven’t we. It began with the simple Alex is a cage fighter line. It then developed to Alex is starring in a film that glorifies rape, to Alex is more than a father to Peter’s kids than Peter is, Alex shops for toys with Katie instead of training for his fights, to Alex likes to wear women’s dresses. Today, having apparently engaged in an argument with Peter over the phone, news has it that Alex has challenged Peter to a fight.

But what about Alex Reid the mixed martial artist? We’ve heard a great deal about what happens in his private life, but how does he actually fare within the confines of the cage?

This year Alex has competed in two kickboxing fights for the Ultimate Challenge UK promotion, defending his UK1 title. He hasn’t exactly been that impressive, folks. The first fight last July saw him knock out Jake Bostwick. Bostwick came out swinging for the proverbial fences, and halfway through the first round Alex caught him with a knee. Bostwick failed to beat the count in what was considered by many to be a lucky win.

Last month Alex defended his title against Jack Mason in what was a highly publicised fight, with Ms. Price cheering on her man from cage side. Many people were critical over Alex’s apparent lack of training going into this fight. Mason began slowly in the first round, but certainly upped his game as the fight went on, while Alex visibly tired. Many people, including yours truly and television commentators Pierre Guillet, Rob Nutley and Malcolm Martin thought Mason had won the fight. The judges, however, seemed to be watching a different fight, as Alex got the unanimous decision.

But as far as his mixed martial arts career goes, is Alex Reid actually any good. Well, the proof is in black and white, or rather on several MMA websites. Alex has twenty one MMA fights under his belt. From that he has secured eight wins, nine losses, and one no contest. But here’s the interesting statistic for you - he hasn’t actually won an MMA fight since July 2005, when he defeated Kyosuke Sasaki at Cage Rage 12. Since then he’s lost seven in a row, including losses to Murilo “Ninja” Rua and “Professor X” Xavier Foupa Pokam. Okay, so he hasn’t fought professionally as an MMA fighter for two and a half years, but the facts don’t lie.

Which really makes you wonder why Dave O’Donnell, the head honcho of Ultimate Challenge UK, and Cage Rage before that, has apparently put so much faith in him.

Well, the answer to that is simple really. Alex Reid is the most high profile cage fighter this country has ever seen, because of his association with Katie Price, and his almost constant daily appearances in the tabloid press. Tons of publicity for Alex means tons of publicity for the promotion he fights for, Ultimate Challenge UK.

Which brings me on to my next point. Alex Reid has become the man the fans love to hate, to the point that most of those in attendance at the Mason fight were there just to see him get the beating of his life. So when he was announced as the winner, despite putting in a sub-par performance, the fans weren’t exactly too happy. It makes you wonder, though, just how these nameless judges came up with their decision. Could it be that the powers-that-be told the judges that Alex must get the decision, no matter what? Unfortunately, MMA promotions don’t have any sanctioning body here in Britain, so given the somewhat dubious nature of the decision, there isn’t anyone who can actually investigate it, or order an immediate re-match between the two fighters concerned.

Sadly, this sorry state of affairs is set to continue, with Alex continuing to make daily headlines, not because of his fighting career, but because of who he is having sex with at the moment. So what will happen next? As Alex has promised to “sort out” Peter Andre after their telephone argument, will Dave O’Donnell try to promote a Reid/Andre grudge match on an upcoming Ultimate Challenge show? Given that former Big Brother contestant Ziggy was due to fight on one of his shows in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised. The freak show element would certainly turn out in force for a Reid/Andre showdown.

And the rest of us long-time fight fans will hark back to the days when fighters were known for fighting, and not for dressing up in stockings and suspenders.