His Majesty’s New World

A NEW WORLD FULL OF ADVENTURE… AND DANGER…

1881

Explorers in the Rocky Mountains on either side of the Canada-U.S. border discover gateways to a new planet. The British Empire and the United States partner to settle and exploit this rich, Earth-like world…

1896

The new world has replaced the American West as a frontier for those seeking adventure and fortune. Amongst the chaos, Sergeant Edwin Barnes arrives from South Africa with an outfit of ex-British soldiers, and their families. They plan to seek a fresh start by offering protection to explorers and prospectors, but quickly find themselves being underbid by reckless American gunhands. Then, an unusual foreign aristocrat appears.

1919

After returning from a campaign in the Third Afghan War, Major Thomas Waller and the Royal Newfoundland Regiment are assigned to escort two mysterious ladies into the unknown lands of the new world. With the help of an American drifter named Smith, Waller and his men must face hordes of savages that roam the steppes of the alien planet, and help to uncover the ladies’ secrets  –  and the secrets of the new world itself.

SOLDIERS OF EMPIRE

They fought the Zulu, the Ashanti, the Boers. Now they’re unemployed.

Sergeant Edwin Barnes’ men trust him. He saw them through Victoria’s wars across Africa, and now that their service is done, they believe he can find them a fresh start on the new world.

Thirty men and their families follow Barnes, his wife Evangeline, and his daughter Caralynne to the Selkirk Mandate in 1896. They have a plan: together, they will offer protection to some of the many expeditions being launched to unknown corners of the new world. British companies fearing feral savages and bold outlaws will be able to hire a platoon of veteran ex-soldiers for proper protection…

Except proper protection isn’t cheap. With so many American gunhands and Indian fighters coming to the new world in search of fortune, a cadre of ex-soldiers in khaki seems awfully expensive, and perhaps even unnecessary. Why hire and equip a Sergeant and thirty men when ‘Yankee cowboys’ come so cheap?

Even on a booming frontier, work can be scarce when your skills are specialized. Can Sergeant Barnes and his wife find employment for the men of this outfit… or will their dreams of a second chance come to nothing?

An answer arrives in the form of a mysterious German aristocrat, who appears in Selkirk with designs on Her Majesty’s New World…

THE DRIFTER

Smith had never seen so many savages before…

Savages look like men, but they’re feral monsters. They’ll eat any flesh — human or otherwise — and when thousands of them stampede together, they’re like cannibalistic locusts. A horde of them just overran a town, killing hundreds of men, women and children, along with the troop of United States Cavalry sent to protect them. Smith watched it happen.

The savages turn north — head for the border between American and British territory. Another town is just across that line, and thousands of innocents will die if they aren’t warned about the horde. Smith knows that British administrators might dismiss him as a ‘Yankee cowboy’ if he rides in with a warning… but he has to do what’s right. He has to try.

And fortunately for Smith, the soldiers in that town aren’t British, or even Canadian: they’re a bunch of fishermen-turned-soldiers from the remote island of Newfoundland. They’ve just come back from a war in Afghanistan, where they learned the hard way to trust local wisdom, not self-important Generals, when their lives are on the line.

Smith has spent most of his life drifting, but a new adventure awaits him on the grasslands of His Majesty’s New World…

THE NEWFOUNDLAND REGIMENT

They get the impossible missions… because they always get the job done.

Major Tom Waller and the b’ys of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment have just returned from the Third Afghan War, but their hard-won reputation has preceded them. As soon as they get home, they’re dispatched to the new world for a special mission: two ladies must be escorted out onto the grasslands –– an unexplored territory, crowded with savages and shrouded in mystery.

The mission doesn’t add up, and the Newfoundlanders know it. They ask questions and demand answers, making themselves unpopular with the secretive ladies they are meant to protect… but they don’t shirk their duty. Whether they like it or not, they’ve been given a job to do. They’ll just go in with their eyes open, and rely on their wits –– and each other –– to make it through alive.

Fortunately, help is at hand. None of the b’ys have fought a savage, but when an American drifter called Smith arrives warning of a savage horde, they find a kindred spirit. Working together with the unassuming American, these unpretentious, hard-fighting Newfoundlanders might just manage to survive their impossible mission.

Who are the ladies they’ve been assigned to escort, and what is their true agenda? The b’ys of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment will find out when they march out onto the grasslands of His Majesty’s New World…

His Majesty’s New World encompasses the stories of two groups of fighting men: the British ex-soldiers who followed Sergeant Edwin Barnes from Africa to the new world in The Count, and the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who arrived more than twenty years later in The Grasslands. Portraying these men are living historians from two reenactment groups, one in Canada and the other in South Africa.

DUNDEE DIEHARDS

Portraying Sergeant Barnes’ outfit in images for this universe are men from the Dundee Diehards re-enactment team, based in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

The Diehards were founded in 1991 when the Duke of Kent opened the Talana Museum, at the site of the Battle of Talana (the first engagement of the Second Boer War).  On that occasion, a number of men from the UK  joined local local volunteers to execute the first re-enactment of the Battle of Talana. More than 400 actors took part, before an audience of some 5,000 people. This marked the beginning of the Dundee Diehards, they continue to grow from strength to strength.

The team has now re-enacted the Battle of Talana, Pieters Hill at Ladysmith, Majuba, Isandhlwana, Rorke’s Drift, and many more engagement that took place during the colonial wars in South Africa. They have formed guards of honor for Remembrance Day parades, and provided sentries around cenotaphs. They have even provided an arch at a wedding, for the bride and groom to walk beneath. The team has worked with National Geographic, South African Broadcasting TV, the BBC, numerous magazines, documentaries, and some locally-produced films.

It is a privilege for us to have the Diehards’ support and involvement!

CANADIAN MILITARY HERITAGE SOCIETY

Portraying the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in images for this universe are men from the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry Living History Unit of the Canadian Military Heritage Society.

The CMHS is a non-profit charitable organization, dedicated to the promotion and the preservation of Canada’s national and military heritage. Members of the CMHS study all aspects of Canadian military history and re-enact time periods of historical interest. Each volunteer has the rare opportunity to gain knowledge while recreating the experience of the Canadian soldier in combination with the study of wars involving Canada.

The CMHS hopes to “educate through living history” by attending air shows, museums and historical sites where the unit displays a large collection of uniforms, weapons, personal effects and documents from various periods. The society also participates in re-enactment displays in Canada and the U.S.A. at various historical and military sites. The 49th Foot had been involved in the 175th and 180th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo on the historical grounds in Belgium.

We are extremely grateful for their involvement and support!

KENNETH TAM

He’s putting his degrees in military history to good use… on another planet.

Kenneth Tam is responsible for more than fifty of Iceberg Publishing’s titles, across four series, and he’s also a partner in the company. He studied for six years at Wilfrid Laurier University, securing both a BA and an MA in military history. During that time, he also spent a year as a Balsillie Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, there working for Canada’s former ambassador and permanent representative to the UN, Paul Heinbecker.

After graduating, he spent two years as a Communications Consultant on staff for Member of Parliament Peter Braid, before joining his father as an advisor in wealth management with Sun Life Financial. He has since moved to Edmonton, Alberta, and taken up the duties of Communications Manager with the $75-million Future Energy Systems research program, at the University of Alberta.

Kenneth is a Newfoundlander. Even though he’s now lived away from the island longer than he lived there, he will never consider another place home. Of course, it’s a complete coincidence that His Majesty’s New World (and every other series he’s worked on) features Newfoundland-born heroes. Funny how that worked out.

You can find Kenneth on Twitter, but please understand that he’s terrible at it. If you have questions for him, feel free to get in touch.