Demons of Antares

A note from the publisher

A note from the publisherAlthough the first 37 books of the saga of Dray Prescot were published in English, books 38 to 52 were previously published in German translations only. They were written in English by Ken Bulmer (writing as Alan Burt Akers) and the current Mushroom eBooks and Bladud Books editions are published from the original type-written manuscripts. Unfortunately, the original manuscript for Demons of Antares could not be found, and the decision was made to attempt to retranslate it into English using the German translation as the source.

A project like this would not normally be attempted, because translating from English into German and back again would almost certainly result in the loss of too much of the author’s voice and style. However, we had the advantage of forty-five previous volumes in the series to refer to, and a vast pool of in-depth fan knowledge to call upon. Also, the German edition is a very faithful and accurate translation by Andreas Decker, who translated the entire series into German for Heyne Verlag.

Translating into a very rough and ready version of English proved to be ridiculously easy, thanks mostly to Google Translator Toolkit. A number of volunteers then worked hard to tidy this “machine” translation into readable English. More volunteers then brought their extensive knowledge of Dray Prescot and Kregen to bear, honing the text into a style hard to distinguish from the rest of the books in the series.

After reading and re-reading, checking and re-checking so many times, I feel confident this book closely represents Ken Bulmer’s intent. I am also confident that there are mistakes. Please let me know (martyn@mushroom-ebooks.com) if you spot any — this is, and always will be, a work in progress.

I would like to thank Ken Bulmer’s family for allowing us to even attempt this, and Andreas Decker and Heyne for producing the German edition. Thank you to everyone who contributed time and energy and encouragement, including Michael Victor Bassett, Helen Folkes, Simon Maybury, Sven Paulik, Stephen J. Servello, Michael Sutton, Tyketriker, Els Withers, and many others...

And thank you, Ken, for Dray Prescot.

Martyn Folkes