The Starbirth Assignment

Book details of Starbirth Assignment Part One: Shifter

Real-life soldiers gifted with supra-normal future technologies battle criminals with drug-enhanced powers for control of the world.

As a teenager, Lock Harford was exposed to an unknown drug originating in the exotic jungles of the Amazonian tropics in South America. The drug changed his brain, giving him unique abilities. Now aged twenty-five he is a teleporter and has the ability to move his body through an invisible dimension that exists all around us. In this strange world which only he can see, living creatures are visible as auras of fragile, pulsating colours. Only dense rock can provide cover from Lock’s supernatural vision.

His powers draw him to the world of intelligence agencies and Special Forces. Lock becomes a valued operative but his way of life is shattered by an unexpected development. He is no longer alone. Across North and South America an illegal drug called Starbirth, containing the very same ingredients he was once exposed to, hits the streets. Within weeks, criminal teleporters are wreaking havoc, travelling across the globe on an unprecedented crime spree. Lock’s controllers send him on a mission to find the source of Starbirth and shut it down, before the world is drawn into a vortex of chaos and before Starbirth ends up in the hands of criminals more sinister than thieves.

Jackie Johnson, writing while chained to her house in Shropshire, England, by a serious illness, has conducted meticulous research into the techniques and psychology of modern special operations units. Her extensive knowledge gives this book its unique power and terrifying believability.

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Some reviews of The Starbirth Assignment, from readers including military and ex-military personnel:

Review 1
This is a clever action novel which is fast-moving and engaging. J M Johnson intelligently uses the science-fiction devices of altered abilities to explore a theme of covert operations in South America. It contains a detailed view of operations by Special Forces in a fantasy context which nevertheless conveys a convincing atmosphere. The author relates an accurate picture of the close bond between comrades in the context of the way in which they are deployed by their own masters and others who might have power over them. As the plot develops it becomes more and more difficult to put the book down.

A most unusual and well researched adventure which has a bearing on current issues and possibly future ones too. Regiment members may find it pretty thought-provoking. It is also a tribute to our Armed and Special Forces and the commitment they make to their country.
Robert1351

Review 2
Crossing genres is ambitious at the best of times, but when you're a new author it's not a project to be approached without extreme care. The care taken by J M Johnson then is the key to this books success. The diligent research undertaken is evident from the outset and while great attention to detail is present throughout (particularly in all things military), the skill of the writer shines in using it to enhance the intelligent plot, rather than bog the reader down.

Introducing a vehicle such as super powers into a military setting sounds more like a set for improvisational comedy than the basis of a credible novel, but these elements are interwoven with no little skill and produce an invitation to action and adventure that is irresistible. As if that wasn't enough, the author evokes an impressive level of empathy for the carefully crafted characters.

Humour, pace, excitement and intellectual intrigue are in abundance from first to last as the multi layered characters of Harford and MacKenzie take us on a globetrotting battle against the darkest of threats.

Topical, fantastic, spectacular, clever and above all, superbly crafted.
The Guig

Book Series

What if….?

What if people really could teleport, physically travelling through an alternative dimension simply by tapping into a different state of consciousness? What if the mind could be stimulated to produce other abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis and transmutation?
The Starbirth series of books, based in the reality of ‘right now’, explores the scenario where such powers are introduced into the world as we know it.

Teleportation is depicted as more than physically vanishing in an instant and seconds later turning up halfway around the globe. It is imbued with wonder and fantastic experiences which are as individual as those who possess such an extraordinary skill, but it is also fraught with danger. Telepathy, the ability to accurately create a mental link with another mind, is a double-edged sword. Telekinesis, the useful power of moving objects by thought, can be both spectacular and disastrous. Transmutation, the ability to alter one’s body using mental processes alone, is much more than creating a new physique through ‘mental plastic surgery’.

For every wonderful development there is a price to pay.

The Starbirth books set science fiction and fantasy against a backdrop of credible characters, some of them Special Forces soldiers who possess future technology based on research and development taking place now.

The books examine the question of who would use mentally-enhanced people, and why, and how enhanced people would interact with the current world order. The reader is taken on fast-paced adventures starring Lock Harford, teleporter-by-accident, and his colleague and friend Jimmy Mackenzie, a Special Air Service trooper whose skill at adapting to adverse circumstances is stretched to the limit by foes unlike any he has ever encountered before. Sometimes accompanied by friends, sometimes surrounded by enemies and sometimes in situations where it is difficult to tell the difference between friend and enemy, their journey into the unknown is never going to be quiet or easy.

Author’s note
Science fiction, comic-book heroes and stories of imaginary worlds have been a lifelong interest. The Starbirth books began life as short stories in emails to an internet friend during times when fluctuating illness kept me more or less housebound. A substantial portion of the subsequent writing was executed while I was confined to bed. What began as a lifeline soon became a passion. I began a study of the military, the intelligence communities and in particular the Special Air Service (SAS). I wanted to know what drove soldiers to go through the gruelling tests that allowed only a few to become part of the SAS? What made them suitable candidates for Special Forces? What fuelled their need to be in that environment? I was fortunate in being able to contact men who had previously been part of the SAS and to draw on their experiences. I also studied advances in technology and military applications, and the paranormal. My purpose was to create a realistic background for the books.

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March 2012

The Starbirth Assignment - J M Johnson

Book Series and Author

My thanks go to the firm of youCaxton for their guidance and advice on self-publishing and marketing. http://www.youcaxton.co.uk/