The Starving Vulture

“I’m a big fan of science-fiction, alternative history, and adventure … so I’m thrilled that I stumbled onto The Starving Vulture, a debut novel that takes us back to 1527 in a world where steam technology reigns and Rome has just ended its 300-year-long Eternal War with Parthia. Exciting? Not for the squeamish, it’s non-stop battles, mayhem, and bloody corpses from start to finish. Oh yeah!”
- H.L. Osterman, Robots and Rust Buckets

A former Roman Legionnaire, Malic has only been a member for four months in the mercenary company the Fame Volturius, or as they are known in the common Low Latin tongue “The Starving Vulture.” Led by the enigmatic Captain Tertius Regulius, they operate in the Western Continent of Amerigio where they service elements from both the semiautonomous Settlement Republics and the Native Chiefdoms. The company is notorious for its efficiency in combat, courtesy of its exclusively Eternal War veteran membership. And a company policy that states the Volturius will never operate as an attacking force, but only take escort or protection work. This does not bode well with some of their clients, especially those that desire their skill in battle. But all that will change after the Volturius is tasked by its longtime client Lady Arslen Kawl of the Trade Guild Chryseum to deliver a cargo of multibarrel cannons into the Free City of Rancidheim.

Miguel Enrique Samuel C. Montaña has traveled the countryside at the behest of corporations, observed weary homemakers as they navigated through the tight corners of a wet market, all the while embedding everything onto a spreadsheet. But through it all, it has been his passion to be a writer, creating new worlds and building the lives of characters within it. Welcome to his first novel!