My own science fiction novel, Terranova: The Black Petaltail, used to be copyrighted and sold via Amazon. However, I have now decided to release it for free on this page, under a Creative Commons license, so that all may freely read and distribute it as they please. You can download the file type most convenient for you here:

Terranova - The Black Petaltail (PDF) - 4.81 MB

Terranova: The Black Petaltail (.mobi for Kindle) - 829.13 kB

Terranova: The Black Petaltail (.epub for tablets) -

If you would like a hard copy of Terranova, you can still find the paperback version on Amazon.

Terrinova: The Black Petaltail is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. This means that it can be freely shared, copied, and distributed while attributed to the original author, but not commercially resold or altered. For more information on the license, click the link in this paragraph.

Below, you can also find a couple of reader reviews and a description of the novel. If you read Terranova, Please feel free to come back afterwards and share what you think in the comments at the bottom of this page.

You may also be interested in the GeoCurrents series of posts on imaginary geography and science fiction/fantasy, which led up to this book release.

Thoughts From Readers

Gripping and Original by B. Kolb

Martin Lewis has deftly combined two worlds in this fascinating novel – that of Earth (in year 2030), and the newly discovered planet named Terranova. In the California foothills, researchers study life on Terranova through projections at a state of the art imaging facility. We follow the eccentric and edgy researchers as they lead their lives and are pulled into the lives of the Terranovans they study. Even the dreams of the researchers are impacted by the lives of these distant aliens. Lewis balances near future and cutting edge academia with the savage and brutal reality of an alien culture at war. This riveting story offers us a glimpse of a hostile and beautiful alien world not completely unlike our own.

A Great Ride by Marie Price

Martin Lewis has created two engaging worlds–Northern California in the 2030s and Terranova, a remote earth-like planet that scientists are monitoring from Earth. I’m not a science fiction reader, but I found myself completely drawn into these two worlds. Terranova is a cross between Central Asia and Middle Earth, with many human-like beings engaged in battles over territory and religion. The book even begins with a detailed map of Terranova! The San Francisco Bay Area of 2030 is densely settled, diverse, and yet ecologically and politically transformed. At the heart of this transformation is the corporation Gym-G, a multinational corporation engaged in surveillance. Gym-G has created the probes that are monitoring activities on Terranova.

This is not a science fiction book but a book about ideas, belief systems, technology, the new urbanism, drug trafficking, and quests for control. The dual narratives and inventive characters are artfully intertwined into fast-paced chapters that keep the reader eager for more. It’s a great ride.

A Description of the Book

Having experienced a series of scientific and technological breakthroughs, Earth in the 2030s is finally coming to grips with its environmental crisis. Nowhere is the new techno-environmental sensibility more pronounced than Northern California, where the bland suburban expanse of Silicon Valley has been transformed into a densely populated, pedestrian-oriented city flanked by a radically restored wilderness. But are the denizens of this sophisticated society ready for the metaphysical shock generated by the discovery of another world, one similar to pre-industrial Earth yet in odd ways more highly advanced? How will they contend with a planet whose inhabitants they can reach out across time-space to see and hear, but who remain unaware of their existence?

On Terranova, a two-thousand year period of political and social stability has recently come to an end due to the schemes of the shadowy Emperor of the Kulgsh. Aiming for global domination, the dying monarch has unraveled the carefully constructed Novan world system, unleashing bloodshed such as had not been seen for centuries. Kulgsh warriors, some aiming to restore peace, others hoping to finish the Imperial crusade, compete for the soon-to-be-vacant crown through intricate games of ritualized war. Meanwhile, three young women of the mercantile Telaran society, accompanied by a novice Shunelian monk, fight for survival as they travel to the continent of the Kulgsh, exploring their cultural differences while grappling with their own peoples’ responses to the Kulgsh invasion.

On Earth, professor Shanna Malone faces her own personal and professional quandaries. Haunted by extraterrestrial dreams, she struggles to learn what is happening on the distant planet while grappling with her new social milieu. The study of Terranova returns Shanna to the company of her one-time lover, Malcolm Harris, along with his appalling but appealing boss, Bowman Alexander (Xander), head of General Imaging and Gaming (GImG). Shanna is dismayed by the secretive corporation, but fascinated by its cult-like structure. As Shanna, Malcolm, Xander, and the other members of Xander’s unusual family begin to uncover the secrets of Terranova, they must confront a series of thorny moral dilemmas.

A science fiction adventure with elements of romance, Terranova is equally a metaphysical novel. Its overriding question is: What would it mean for our conception of the cosmos if we were to find another planet much like Earth? Along the way, the reader is taken on excursions into world history, novel social systems, the psychology of game playing, and the quirky communities of the northern California coast.