Alasdair C. Shaw's Blog, page 3

August Roundup of Scifi Books

The heat wave finally broke and we've had some rain. The majority of the garden survived due to my daily sessions bucketing water from the bath and shower once our water butts had dried up.

And here are the books you want...

Caleb Mitchell gave up everything to protect his home.
Shunned by friends and family for abandoning the pacifist beliefs of their religion, abandoned by the love of his life, he left his homeworld of Canaan to go to the Commonwealth Military Academy on Earth and train to fight in the looming war against the implacable alien threat of the Tahni Imperium.
When a training mission with a crew of cadets winds up caught in the middle of one of the worst battles of the war, Cal and his fellow students are officially declared dead.
That's when their war really begins.
Recruited for a top-secret special operations unit, Cal and his friends undergo experimental and dangerous physical augmentation that turns them into supersoldiers, designed to take the fight behind enemy lines and put the fear of God into an alien society who thinks their Emperor is God personified.
Now Caleb is asked to sacrifice his very humanity to protect his people.
But when Canaan itself is threatened by the Tahni, will he throw away his career and risk everything to save the people who turned their backs on him?

Six months ago, Vashti died.
Her niece, the powerful pirate queen, Mercy, used a rare telekinetic Talent to heal Vashti’s body. This miracle restored Vashti’s life — and her youth. Now, she has a second chance many would kill for. But she’s spent her life with one purpose: stop the war she foresaw in her nightmares.
She failed.
Her dreams are in ashes, war is coming, and if she doesn’t find an advantage for her people, she’ll get to spend her newfound life watching as the galaxy is ripped apart and her people are destroyed.

Flight Decurion Seivers is stranded on a frozen moon, far from the Legion. The Perception of Prejudice is barely functioning and Percy is offline. Seivers' future is measured in days.
Captain Lusimi searches for enemy survivors. By the order of the Protectors, the Sidexan Fleet is to avenge the Legion's violation of Protected System Five. He will follow his orders, but protecting his warriors and crew is his highest priority.
The hunt is on.

Terraforming Engineer Jeff Donegan embraces the warrior within and finds strength in the pack that he is now entrusted to battle alongside. Humans who forbade offensive violence are now forced to revert to the old ways that proved so destructive for their home planet, in order to survive the Scarellan threat. But the reality of war becomes all to real, even with the Breeds as allies, and the looming danger of betrayal from within, Jeff is left wondering if the human race is as capable of war as they once were on Earth.

Captain Galvin Quintos, along with his irreverent crew, is back and facing his most harrowing enemy yet. As the battle within the Eta Carinae Star System rages on with the Varapin, Quintos is forced to make a deal with the devil, one Commander Dunft Choob. Sure, Quintos has saved the pirate world of Haven—but at a heavy price. Oblivion, the most powerful warship in the known galaxy, will be reluctantly returned to the Varapin ghouls. Pleidian Empress Shawlee arrives on the scene, bringing with her two familiar dreadnoughts, USS Hamilton and USS Jefferson, but also a new dreadnought, USS Adams—a ship recommissioned and converted to a Gilded Age luxury liner, then, all too quickly, turned back into a warship. She might not be ready for the demands of Quintos’s crew—not to mention intergalactic warfare—but there is no time to figure that out. If that’s not stressful enough for Quintos, Doc Viv is about to share something that will bring him to his knees.
Meanwhile, Captain Gail Pristy is keeping vigil over Quintos’s secret hideaway back within the Lost Tombstone Star System. She now asks just one thing of Quintos—find the Varapin transport ship Boundless Wrath, which has imprisoned her EUNF US Space-Navy crew members. While locating the ship might not be difficult for Quintos, chasing her down will be. Inexplicably, both ships find themselves within an alternate universe—with propulsion and weapons systems off-line. Now, a hostile alien species called the Ziu, with many hundreds of warships, is quickly closing in on them.

When a spaceship crashes on a deserted alien world, there is only one unit who can respond: Imperial Rescue Technicians.
On the surface of this hostile planet, the rain is constant, nothing electrical works and unknown terrors lurk in the darkness.
For the crew of the Vanuri, their survival depends on a few brave Rescue Techs who can get down to the surface and save them from the planet’s horrors before it’s too late.

All for one and one for all.
An ancient saying, but Jan and Bjorn have lived by it. Carrying the burden of their mission to save an ungrateful home world, they and the oddball crew of the Acid Penguin must deal with uncertain friends and unwelcoming space stations as they mix trade and rescue missions, while battling with pirates on their journey into the Margin.
But on their path is a major star system about to be convulsed with revolution and war. A star system with a navy on the lookout for the Acid Penguin. It’s a fool’s errand, but Jan has made a commitment, even though she knows the Dark takes fools. Every spacer knows this truth. The crew of the Acid Penguin have cheated the Dark at every turn, but the Dark always wins in the end.
What will this all for one commitment cost? Her ship? Her crew? Her life? Or everything?

July Round Up of SciFi Books

First of all, an apology for not posting in a few months. I have not been well but things seem to be on the way up.
Anyway, thought you might like this video - it is a current British Arm recruiting advert...

And here are the books you want...

Admiral John 'Black Jack' Geary faces the true unknown as he leads his fleet on a mission that could change humanity's understanding of the universe itself.
Having survived political warfare Geary must lead a diplomatic mission to establish a new embassy with the cryptic but welcoming Dancers. But to get there, his battle group, and the scientists and ambassadors they're escorting, must enter space controlled by the mysterious, and deadly, Enigmas.
Carrying the burden of his own legend, Geary must cross hostile space with saboteurs and assassins hiding in his crew. He must embody the best of military leadership, knowing every decision he makes will be assessed on the galactic stage. He must be the brilliant tactical commander, and a man who knows the price of pulling the trigger.

After more than twenty years in special operations, USMC Gunnery Sergeant Wolf Mathison wasn’t looking forward to retirement when—implanted with an experimental artificial intelligence—he deployed on his last mission with a platoon of Marine Raiders being sent to the Jovian moon Europa.
The USS Jefferson was destroyed en route, though, and only Mathison and three other Marines survived. Trapped in stasis, they were hurled into the outer reaches of the solar system, where they wouldn’t be found for hundreds of years.
Meanwhile, on Earth, the United States is destroyed and a fascist regime rises to power, expanding into the galaxy to plant its boot heel on the necks of humanity. But SOG, the Social Organizational Governance, is not unopposed, and researchers at a top-secret research outpost are working on a solution that will let SOG reign supreme. Unfortunately for the Marines, they’re awakened from stasis at the same time the researchers awaken a threat that endangers the entire human race.
The odds are against them, but that’s nothing new for the Marine Raiders.

Security Lieutenant Dave is looking forward to some simple cases and patching things up with his wife. His handling of a terrorist attack has gained him acclaim and some new friends in high places, but he is still closely involved with Arancha Station's mob boss.
When the space station manager is killed in a new and worrying way, Dave realises that he's got possibly the biggest case of his career. Unfortunately, as soon as his new boss arrives with reinforcements, he is relegated to monitoring data and assigned a rookie partner to babysit.
Dave needs to find something that will crack the case open before the killer can strike again.

Doug's world is falling apart around him.
The death of an old friend and mentor has left him in a well of doubt, questioning his worth and future as a Galactic Ranger. The galaxy edges ever closer to disaster despite the efforts of him and his crew.
Returning to Lavtak, the three seek out the comforting heart of an old friend, but are horrified to find her missing, signs pointing to her kidnapping.
Amid his grief and the race to find the woman who loves him, he discovers a ruthless assassin stalking his crew.
Can he protect his friends, find his missing girl, and stop the ever-growing threat of the Empire? Or will all his fears come to fruition and his days as a Ranger come to a crashing end?

Earth has fallen. Humanity’s military is in shambles. Those willing to fight work desperately to find allies so they might survive the purge. Admiral Thomas Gaston takes a chance, sending a battleship to evacuate colonies and save lives. They meet stiff resistance, learning just how powerful their enemies have become. With no backup and countless people relying on them, they must risk everything or lose even more.
Commander Gareth Weston and his ragtag crew finally have some direction. The enemy seems to be seeking scientists from every other culture. One of which was last seen in a settlement which may already be under attack by Veldon forces. Time is of the essence and they race to save the man before he falls under the influence of the most ruthless invaders anyone has ever encountered.
Meanwhile, on the hunt to bring more allies to humanity’s aid, an ambassador’s ship encounters a mysterious alien race famous for their isolationism. As they attempt contact, they discover a power they never imagined. If they succeed, they may have the help they so desperately needed but if not, their fate could be worse than had they died on Earth.

Still trapped decades in the past, Vaughn and his band of military pilots and SAS special operators battle the Necks across the multiverse. Our heroes now wield powerful new allies and weapons, but the enemy robots refuse to go peacefully into the night. Attacking dirtside and spaceside simultaneously, both teams fight to flip the fortunes of battle because there's only one answer when the question is them or us.

Admiral James Henry has traded a war of weapons for one cloaked in diplomacy as leader of the fledgling Independent Systems Fleet. Fighting alongside the Terran Coalition to rid the Sagittarius Arm of tyranny was the easy part. Now forced into the political arena, he’s never missed the freewheeling spacer’s life more.
Or his scattered crew.
Leading them, Captain Miri Gaon is still haunted by past actions working deep cover for Coalition Intelligence Service. When pirates attack the Venture Star on a medical supply run to a frontier planet, age-old training kicks in.
And suspicions are raised.
"Curall" promises a miracle for whatever ails you. But miracles demand steep sums mere credits can’t pay. When a vial lands in her lap from an unexpected source, Miri and her crew must get the Venture Star spaceworthy again and fight past vicious warlords and pirates to deliver the addictive drug to Admiral Henry.
Or see more worlds fall to an all-new enemy.

The Indescribable Joy of Destruction has to choose between his human friends and his fellow Artificial Sentiences.
Legate Olivia Johnson struggles to adjust to life without her enhanced brain implants.
Decurion Anastasia Seivers rejoins the Legion to face her biggest challenge - command.
Together they are closing in on the war criminals in the Red Fleet. Will they succeed in bringing its commander to justice or will he evade their clutches once more?

Five years after physicist Mark Holder discovered the Slipstream Drive in 2058, humanity reached for the stars and began to colonize the galaxy. For centuries, humans continued to populate system after system without encountering intelligent alien life.
Some twelve hundred years later, after many generations of relative peace, in the year 3278, human space is invaded by a powerful and mysterious enemy. To these invaders the very concept of free will is heresy. Their crusade—to eradicate humanity.
The war begins, and the fight for the survival of the human race is on.

After nearly two hundred years’ travel, humanity’s first deep space colony expedition has arrived at its new home.
Ethan, the descendant of six generations who lived and died aboard ship, treads on soil and feels the wind and rain for the first time.
But the new planet is not the paradise the scientists predicted. Alien predators lurk beyond the camp’s perimeter, and stowaway saboteurs are determined no one will survive.
Tensions in the new colony rise, and Ethan must fight to preserve the last hope of humankind.

When a Daklan annihilator drops out of lightspeed, make sure you’re in a different solar system.
Humanity is trapped in a decades-long conflict with a warlike alien species known as Daklan. The military’s high command has played it safe for too long and now defeat seems inevitable.
Dealing with the consequences on the frontline, warship captain Carl Recker is a man with enemies on both sides.
A routine mission takes him to a distant world upon which he finds technology from a war fought by an unknown species. The Daklan are interested in it too, and they have an annihilator class battleship at their disposal, while Recker is flying the smallest lightspeed capable warship in the human fleet.
What follows will test Recker to his limits. Relentlessly pursued by the unstoppable battleship and seemingly forsaken by his superiors, he must hunt down answers from the past while fighting enemies from the present.
Powerful relics of an ancient, terrible war are scattered on the fringes - finding them and unlocking their secrets may be the only hope for humanity.

Interview with Dan Melson

In my interview today, I am talking to Dan Melson, author of The Fountains of Aescalon.

Give us an insight into your main character. What does she do that is so special?
I've written more about Grace than my other main characters. Her distinguishing characteristic is that she figures out a way to get things accomplished. She's not the biggest bad-ass around - she's good but not nearly the best - but she figures out a way to get what she needs despite there being bigger and badder out there. In the process, she ends up saving a planet from itself, changing life for the Great Houses of the Empire forever, and she's just getting started.

Have any of your characters ever disobeyed you?
Out of my twelve novels thus far, only two got completed without a character hijacking the original story. I have this nice plot all outlined and in progress, and suddenly someone stands up and says "I thought of something better." And they've been right, every time.
I write about intelligent, motivated, competent people. I consider it a sign that I've done something right when one of them does this.

What are you working on at the minute?
Right now, I'm working on the third book in Politics of Empire, which will be the seventh novel with Grace as a main character. In order to finish it correctly, I'm going to have to also write Moving the Pieces, the fourth and final book of Preparations for War. Her nephew Joe is the viewpoint character for those.

How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
My first novel, The Man From Empire, has a lot of world-building in it. I thought it was unavoidable at the time, but it constitutes what economists call something of a barrier to entry for the series. If I were to do it today, I'd intentionally hit some topics even heavier that critics of it insist upon misinterpreting to fit their prejudices, but I'd also move a lot of the world-building to the second and third books of that trilogy, keeping them from being deposited in one massive dose.

What was the hardest thing about writing your latest book?
My latest book is The Monad Trap. It's the book following The Fountains of Aescalon, and the power level made it extremely hard to write a lot of it. The viewpoint character is very powerful and damned intelligent; his main opposition is as well. This gives them a lot of options, and coming to a good resolution with both of them working as smart people can towards making things go their way was exceedingly difficult, even by the standards of some of my other stories. Future books of Connected Realms (the series they're in) will most likely focus on other, less powerful characters around the main protagonists of the first two novels.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.

Dan Melson has had a rich and varied life, with many eclectic interests. Math, physics, history - particularly military history - economics and many other subjects. He lives in Southern California with The World's Only Perfect Woman, two daughters he is preparing for world domination, and a variable number of dachshunds.

February Round-up of Scifi Books

So, this month I'm presenting collections. Some are anthologies of short stories, some are boxed sets of novels, you get the idea. There's even the complete Two Democracies: Revolution, but that's only available through a few retailers for contractual reasons.

And here are the books you want...

Being an officer means balancing many conflicting demands. Making the wrong decision can have serious consequences. It takes a special kind of person to cope with the responsibility. The Officer is an anthology of eleven science fiction short stories by writers from across the globe. It is part of the Newcomer series of scifi anthologies.

This anthology is a collection of twenty new science fiction stories written by fourteen authors in four countries. All are members of the Science Fiction Novelists Facebook group, as are the two professional editors.

Widely regarded as the benchmark anthology for every science fiction fan, The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 21 continues to uphold its standard of excellence with over two dozen stories from the previous year.
This year's volume includes many bright young talents of science fiction, as well as a host of established masters. It covers every aspect of the genre - soft, hard, cyberpunk, cyber noir, anthropological, military and adventure.
Also included is a thorough summation of the year and a recommended reading list.

Struggling with newfound sentience and desperately trying to repair itself, The Indescribable Joy of Destruction is a ship trying to find a new home. In a galaxy torn apart by hundreds of years of civil war, that isn't an easy task. Tired of being used as a killing machine, it has a huge decision to make: hide and save itself, or help other artificial intelligences achieve freedom. Unable to make the decision alone, it revives the sole human aboard - the enemy officer who crippled it.
Commander Olivia Johnson wakes to find herself in the infirmary of a strange vessel. Her nightmares deepen when she discovers it is the ship that attacked her destroyer. Even as she recovers from her injuries, she can't get past her survivor's guilt. She might have failed to protect her crew, but she vows to take revenge on their killer.
When the ship uncovers a genocidal plot by the commander's own admirals, Johnson realises just what is at stake. Together, the AI ship and the human officer must recruit outsiders from both sides. Training the misfits in battle to prevent the atrocity may be an impossible task, but running and hiding is no longer an option.
The Indescribable Joy of Destruction fights for freedom from oppression. Johnson fights to be free of her personal daemons. When it becomes clear they must all come together for the sake of the galaxy, the Legion Libertus is born.

For veteran fighter pilot Captain Victoria Belic, the war was finally over. It was time to relax. But when the opportunity came to colonize a new world, she couldn't resist. She could be part of a new chapter in human history. But she quickly discovers her fellow explorers have bitten off more than they can chew when a mysterious threat emerges. As the only veteran from the grueling wars on Earth, Belic must lead the charge into the unknown against an enemy that has pushed humanity to the brink of extinction.

If there's a problem in the galaxy no one else can fix, the Shadow Order get a call.
A team pulled together because of their individual talents, the Shadow Order have little time for rest as they embark on one dangerous mission after the next, fighting volatile creatures on hostile planets.
Although when their goals begin to clash with their morals, they start asking questions.
Who are they really working for? What’s the link between the seemingly unrelated missions? Are they the bad guys? Do they even want to know?

The Planetary Republic and Star League have settled their differences. Treaties are signed, trade is restored. But spies and diplomatic turmoil lead to a high-tech cold war of epic proportions.
Ex Space Marine Gina Wilcox finds herself in a law enforcement career after the war, but life can be just as dangerous on the streets as the battlefield.
Sleeper cells activate, assassinating government officials. Crime syndicates flourish. And a certain high-tech android has been stolen by the League, spirited off world for unknown purposes.
Into this milieu a band of Marine outcasts join the fight. They spent more time in the brig than on the battlefield, yet racked up admirable wartime kill ratios. These renegades are quietly recruited by Republican Naval Intelligence to lead black ops against the League.
Gina Wilcox will join their leader Commander Hamilton Wolf in a risky interstellar quest to retrieve an android who doesn’t even realize she’s not human.
The fate of two civilizations hangs in the balance...

The League lies in shambles, a shell of its former self.
Controlled by the alleged daughter of the last Tetrarch, in fact a rogue droid controls all. Determined to rebuild her "father's" legacy, the droid puts into motion the last cold war options against the Planetary Republic: Assassins.

January Roundup of Scifi Books

First round-up of the year.

And here are the books you want...

Captain John Duggan and his crew are stranded deep in hostile terrritory. Their spaceship, the ESS Crimson is damaged beyond repair. Enemy warships hunt them, eager to locate the vessel which has caused so much damage to their military. All seems lost.
Duggan is not a man to go down without a fight. Determined to take matters into his own hands, he leads his squad across the surface of an inhospitable planet in order to make a raid upon an enemy base.
What happens there sets in motion a series of events which carry Duggan and his men towards a prize of inconceivable value. Nothing worth having comes easy – a single error will result in failure and the deaths of his soldiers, as well as denying humanity the greatest of gifts.
Duggan has made a promise to get his squad home and there’s only one way for him to succeed. The Valpian awaits.

In a Galaxy ruled by the regressive Kingdom, Bryant Jones's mission of medical advancements was seen as perverted. Now Jones is on his way to a Penal Colony on the far reaches of the system… a colony he never intends to reach.
Once the Kingdom's war angel, Captain Aurora Campos has been humbled by scandal. Now a lowly prison transport commander, when her ship is shot down by the ancient alien defences of the penal planet, she will fight the world to win back her glory and keep her charges safe.
Two destinies collide, slamming truth and faith together in an epic battle that may shatter the very core of The Kingdom itself.

Ace fighter pilot Anastasia Seivers is offered a secret assignment: to join a squadron taking the fight to Concorde's true enemies. But this squadron isn't part of the regular Concorde military, it is attached to the Legion Libertus, the independent force responsible for saving thousands of lives after the nuclear attack. After initial hope that her new commanders will be different, Seivers starts to suspect that they too are prejudiced against her.
Determined to remove the chip from Seivers' shoulder, Prefect Olivia Johnson, commander of the Legion, takes her on as pilot for a special mission.

One hundred years ago they came. We reached out to them with a hand of friendship and they returned the gesture by nearly destroying us all.
After a single encounter with the mysterious alien race identified only as Species 4876, the United Planetary Alliance was nearly decimated. Stopping their lone vessel was almost a hollow victory in the aftermath of the haunting mystery that Species 4876 presented: Where had they come from? Why did they attack us? And most of all, what if they came back?
But they never did.
Today, the threat of Species 4876 is a distant memory, a nearly forgotten footnote in the history books.
Or is it?
On the outer rim, cut off from any backup, ignored by Fleet Admiralty and surrounded by a hostile empire and an interstellar crime syndicate, Captain Mitchell and his crew of the USS Defiance find themselves as the first, and possibly only, defense against an alien menace that the rest of the galaxy has all but forgotten about.

Three warring worlds attempt to resolve their differences over a disputed planet, but the peace talks upon the central Nexus world of Coronade are thrown into chaos when one of the delegates is brutally murdered. Conciliator Magdi, an empath from Periarch, pursues the killer in a desperate attempt to keep the peace talks alive.
Meanwhile, confused rumours circulate about the discoveries made by the Magellanic Cloud, a ship thought lost in the galactic core. Wild rumours warn of a biological or technological discovery that threatens the very existence of interstellar civilisation.
Magdi sees an opportunity to use the rumours as a way to encourage the three worlds back to the table. But has she underestimated the risks she faces?
And has she made the mistake of not taking the troubling rumours seriously enough?

December Roundup of Scifi Books

And here are the books you want...

At Omicron 9, Professor Ludendorff unearthed artifacts of the fabled Old Ones. During a meeting in a subterranean chamber, a portal appeared and aliens attacked, perhaps to kidnap the professor or grab the artifacts. Maddox’s new intuitive sense gave him just enough warning. He saved Ludendorff and rushed into the portal to forestall any more assaults—and thus began his lonely odyssey from one strange place to another.
Maddox eventually found a Builder potential unit, and they resolved to work together. But the unit betrayed him and then Victory, taking them to a system where Maddox had already been, one behind an impenetrable barrier and possessing an ancient power.
Maddox and Victory were outmatched and outgunned, facing aliens wielding super-science weapons. But if the captain ever wanted to see his wife and daughter again, and stop Lisa Meyers from her ongoing genocidal plans against humanity, he was going to have to solve an eon-old mystery and defeat every extraterrestrial bastard that got in his way.

Five years ago, the human race became independent as the Alphan Empire conceded it could no longer sustain its grip on Earth and withdrew, casting an unprepared humanity adrift on an interstellar sea of troubles. Since then, humanity has struggled mightily to secure its position in a galaxy full of hungry predators, many of whom see Earth as nothing more than a prize to be won.
Now, one of the galaxy’s superpowers has set its sights on Earth, launching a covert campaign to weaken and isolate the human race before it moves in for the kill. As their plan comes into the open, and the scale of the threat becomes apparent, the human race finds itself caught between a war it cannot win and shameful submission to dangerously inhuman race ...
... And if Earth loses the war, humanity’s short-lived independence will come to an end once again.

As a breaker, she was destined to live a hard life serving the whims of galactic corporations. As an Earth Alliance Marine, she has a chance to change the balance of power in the galaxy.
Holly Cropper grew up as a Breaker, mining the outer reaches of space. Now, she’s an up-and-coming lieutenant in the Earth Alliance Marines. Her mission: keep the peace and help humanity survive in the endless darkness of space. When a distress call comes in from a large mining vessel, her orderly world gets turned upside down. What starts with a simple pirate takeover turns into a hostile alien invasion. This Breaker Marine and her small team might be the only thing standing between humanity and annihilation at the hands of ancient aliens.

Ten years before Commander Grant and his SR-X experimental fighter left the ground, the U.S.C. Defiance became the flashpoint for humanity’s First Contact War. While unprepared for the devastating assault from an alien race that was by all previous accounts peaceful, the crew will need to band together if any are to have any hope of survival. Forging within them a steadfast determination, they must go beyond their capabilities and stand united not as mere technicians, but as soldiers of humanity.
With the only hope of a rescue light-years away, will they hold on long enough to warn the fleet of the war that is to come?

Ten years of war ended. We are at peace. But a new enemy has been waiting for the right moment.
The Poruk Empire and the United Human Alliance have been at peace for over a year. But an unprovoked attack on both their planets by an unseen enemy disrupts everything.
Captain Gibson, who was forced to retire early, is brought back to work together with Poruk Captain Serli. This time Gibson's mission is personal. And, there are so many unknowns lurking behind the mysterious enemy.
Can the two former enemies work together to investigate the plans of the new enemy? Or, will their years of mistrust and deception be their own downfall?

When he accepted the job on a backwater planet, Hunter thought it would be easy. He and his partner just had to track down a missing researcher. But when they find her, she’s fled a quarter of the way around the massive ring of twenty-seven gates and Hunter realizes all is not as he was told.
That simple realization, and Hunter’s drive for retribution, kick off a series of adventures leading to the most important discovery since the fall of the Gate Age—and put him in direct confrontation with the corp he’s been running from for the past 10 revolutions.

Sentinel warships were the answer to the Federation Wars...or so they thought.
Quinton thought the Sentinels were malfunctioning fleets of warships left over from the Federation Wars, but they’re much worse.
The Sentinels are a menace, terrorizing spacers across the galaxy in their hunt. But change is coming, and spacers across the galaxy will have to choose whether to fight for their future.
With Sentinel fleets preparing a major incursion, Admiral Quinton Aldren must get the new Alliance space navy into fighting shape. But how can he build an armada when most spacers believe he’s the enemy?
Quinton will fight. All that remains is how many spacers will join him to fight for humanity’s future.

Ultimately, the decisions of the admirals were the Viceroy's responsibility. Could the losses have been avoided?
Down on Alfheim, the situation was dire. Some brave men and women had to be left behind for the greater good. Viceroy Miles Hunt, gutted by the losses, needed to stay focused. A Titan-class warship, the Freedom, could be the key to victory, if it were fully operational with a trained crew.
It was not. Could Miles find another ally to be a wild card?
Sam, the medical Synth, faced something the programmers never expected--a moment where the only option was to break free of the code. The battle was fierce and there didn't seem to be a way out, until Sam came up with a plan. Would it save them?
The Republic needed a big win, one that would force peace, but they might have underestimated the resolve of the Zodarks. The superships were on the way, but time wasn't on their side.
The tide of the war had shifted.

November Roundup of Scifi Books

This month I was the planner for an international Temp-O event. I've been working on it on and off since Easter and am glad to say it went off very well.

And here are the books you want...

My name is Allister Verdash, CEO of Blue horizon, the systems greatest innovator in security and biogenetics research. The year is 2307. It’s been five years since I lost everything to this system wide war, an endless battle of hatred and terrorism that spawned when the nations combined two centuries ago. All I want to know... is why? Why was my father taken from me and my brothers killed, why did I have to watch everything I love torn apart before my eyes. What is this dark truth that has plagued humanity throughout our history?
My name is Edmund Serrel Maynard, overwatch of a non-existent government black ops squad, Scarlet Sun. It was insurrection and terrorism that took my life five years ago, and it was fighting that same terrorism that created the monster I am now. At least, I always thought that. The more this dark voice echoes in my head, the clearer the truth becomes. This war... is about so much more than rebellion and order...
Sparrow Thermidor, commander of Scarlet Sun reporting. The insurrection has become more unified, and they’re attempting to acquire an unknown piece of technology called the Heavensgate, something far more powerful than any weapon we’ve ever seen. I won’t let them take it, yet, the more I learn about them, the weapon, and… myself…. The more I realize there is far more at stake than we could ever completely grasp….

When Lt. Commander Jason Roberts saved the Kionel’s daughter from a deadly attack, it made him a hero in the eyes of the nations of Phelspharia.
Now both the Kionel and Captain Lydia Boothe of the Terran starship Hyperion mean to take advantage of this shift in fortunes. But the forces behind the attack have other plans.
As Roberts and his crewmates try to balance Phelspharia‘s needs against a galaxy at war, a host of dangerous secrets come to light.
And the biggest secret of all may be Roberts’ undoing.

The starship Freedom was once a mighty warship. Today she's a tourist attraction. The space wars ended long ago. The Freedom is now a flying museum. The tourists love it. The Changing of the Guard, the starfighter aerobatics, the starboard cannon salute . . . it's the best show in the galaxy.
James King commands the starship Freedom. He hates his job. He was a real soldier once. Back when the Freedom was a real warship. He never imagined himself running a tourist trap. Right after Christmas, he plans to retire.
Then, on Christmas day, the aliens attack. Horrifying aliens. Creatures of claws, fangs, and endless malice. Within hours, they devastate Earth's military. Millions die.
So much for retirement.
The aliens spare the starship Freedom. After all, she's only a tourist attraction. But not to Commander King. He will get his beloved starship battle-ready. He will enter the fight. The Freedom will fly to war again!

Humanity stands on the brink of finally claiming their new world for themselves. A final push will see them through, but what lies beyond is anyone’s guess. As they pit their armies against the last desperate beasts holding their ground, it looks as if they may be the new masters of the world. Though it may cost them in blood.
But intrigues abound. Crime on the hub may be the start of a festering rot, something that could plague humanity’s fresh start before it even begins. Agents on either side push and pull, involving the highest echelons of their people in an effort to come out ahead. Which of these sides are together? Which will come out ahead? The answer will determine the course of life in that region of space.
And while all this goes on, the sinister Ghrell must be dealt with. Humanity commits two dreadnoughts to a fleet going after their enemies, a blow that should settle a score. With some major upgrades and plenty of allies, it seems like a sure thing. Yet if they have learned anything, it is that their opponents are crafty. And whatever they find may not be so simple to put down.

When Van Tudor returns to his childhood home, he inherits more than the family farm.
His grandfather used to tell him fantastic stories of spacemen and monsters, princesses and galactic knights. Little did Van realize, the old man's tales were more than fiction. They were real.
Hidden beneath the old barn, Van’s legacy is waiting: a starship, not of this world.
With his combat AI, an android bird named Perry, Van takes his first steps into the wider galaxy. He soon finds that space is far busier and more dangerous than he could have ever conceived.
Destiny is calling. His grandfather's legacy awaits.

As the galaxy marches headlong toward the greatest threat to peace since the Savage Wars, the flames are lit in the most unlikely of places.
Trapped inside a Savage mini hulk, Prisma faces a future where little is as she expected it would be, and a past that is even more troubling than she knew. Aboard a Cybar ship, Andien Broxin fights for her life with the most unlikely of allies at her side. And on the Kimbrin home world, Masters joins a Legion Special Operations Group tasked with checking a resurgent MCR... only to find himself embroiled in the flashpoint that will again plunge the galaxy into war.
Goth Sullus has fallen. Tyrus Rechs is a memory. But those who are enemies of both men are now set to step forth and reveal themselves on the galactic stage—unless the Republic, and the Legion, can answer the call to sacrifice.

Scott’s skills as a surveillance expert are useful when he’s breaking down firewalls. But hacktivism isn’t enough; he’s going after the holy grail—UltSyn’s Human Information Drives, human assets implanted with cerebral microchips. After digging deeper into restricted databases, he discovers that those who enlist with UltSyn get far more than they bargained for. Plunged into a world of human trafficking and corporate espionage, Scott is determined to find his sister, no matter the cost.
But when the information reveals the people closest to him have been working for UltSyn all along, he has to find her—before UltSyn finds him.

Then: First Lieutenant Sean Elliott and nine other mixed-service U.S. soldiers on a convoy in Afghanistan suddenly found them-selves and their MRAP vehicle thrown back to Earth’s Paleolithic Age. And they were not alone. Displaced Romans, Neolithic Europeans, and more showed up as well. Some would be allies. Some became deadly foes.
Now: Scientists from an almost unimaginably far future need the survivors’ advice and support to reconnoiter and ultimately recover other groups displaced in time. There's just one problem. Not all of those other groups want to be recovered or even understand where they are. Prehistory is an ugly place, fascinating to vis-it, but no place for a civilized person to live. But the future, gorgeous as it is, has a darker side that dampens the appeal. In the end, only inventiveness, grit, and a thirst for freedom from the fickle tides of time can keep Sean and the displaced Americans alive and on a path to finally find a place—and a time—to call home.

Loner detective Greyson Travers just found his latest client dead on the sidewalk. Left with only a cryptic coin and a victim no one knows, it’s a case he doesn’t want.
When a corporation producing androids offers to fund his investigation, Greyson smells a setup, but a girl with a mysterious past may hold clues to the truth.
Dangerous people move in the shadows of this city, and now Greyson is in their sights. But with a fast car and his sarcastic AI riding shotgun, he’s betting he can hunt down the killer before his time is up.

Doctor Rick Stenslandt has always advocated against the fusion of man and machine. But after a near-fatal accident, he is forced to accept ocular implants or go blind, end up unemployed, and without social status.
But something goes wrong. Now he remembers people he has never met before—influential members of the corporate elite that governs the world. And they have all been murdered.
Worse, it seems he’s the next target.
On the run from the police and a pair of augmented assassins, Rick seeks refuge in the infamous alleys of the megacity. But to protect the ones he loves, he cannot hide forever. Now he must figure out his borrowed memories and his connection to the victims, before it’s too late.

Muldoon has a big problem: he's dead. Twenty years ago, a monk with a kodachi cut off his head. Now Irena, his widow, is searching for him. So is Gavin Lennox, power-hungry owner of The Pearl, the hottest night spot in all of NewCity. Cyrus Horton, an eccentric inventor, has also joined in the search. They're all looking for the BackTracker, a time travel device that has caused divergent realities to spiral out of control. In one of them, Muldoon is still alive.
He was a private investigator, the best at what he did. He solved his cases 100% of the time. Hindsight is, after all, 20/20. And the BackTracker allowed him to change the past. But in the process, his travels through time have unraveled the universe, stretching, tearing the fabric of space-time and sending his own mind into oblivion. He can no longer distinguish between true and false memories; he no longer knows who he was.
[image error] [image error] [image error] [image error] [image error]

The October Roundup of Scifi Books

Sorry I haven't written in a while. Things rather got on top of me and this was one of the things that suffered. Hopefully I'm getting back on track now. At least I amanegd to have a nice trip to the beach fossil hunting this week.

And here are the books you want...

Everson didn't want to be a soldier. His parents forced him to serve, as all good Indiran men should. The only problem? His first battle against their mortal enemies goes horribly wrong and he winds up stranded on the enemy planet.
Now, Everson has to survive in this strange new land where everyone is out to get him. Not to mention, the planet Mano is covered in unforgiving desert. And he's the target of traitors who want to use him in a dastardly plot to overthrow their mad king, Xander the Firm, by having him retrieve a piece of mysterious and powerful ancient technology known as the Tinderbox.
But everything changes during a chance encounter with the king's daughter, Allegra. Despite her station, she's in as grave of danger from her own people as Everson is. And though their peoples have been at odds for centuries, an unlikely spark forms between them.
As their worlds come crashing down around them, their forbidden love might be the only chance to end this war forever. Or, it might just be the doom of everyone...

In a few hundred years, the Algol system becomes humanity's new home. The question is: is it a better one?
When a crew of arms smugglers botches their latest job, Corps-deserter and crewmember, Aly Erikson, is separated from her brother, the only person she can trust, and left behind to fight for her life. In the aftermath, as she tries to piece together what happened, a crew of roughneck settlers pressgang her into a dangerous mission in the heart of Corps territory.
Time is running out to get back everything she's lost...
Her crew, her brother, and her options. But no one is taking her gun.

Technical Chief "Pappy" Gunther is a grizzled, burning out commando in the United Earth Armed Forces. He ponders a return to civilian life, yet feels a strong sense of belonging to his elite team. When colonists on a far-flung world request aid, a task force from several allied systems is assembled. Pappy and his crack unit are sent to investigate, and to engage a mysterious alien force from beyond.
Talks-To-His-Spear is the warrior-caste champion of a matriarchal space empire called the Regime. Leading an army of fanatical, genetically-enhanced super soldiers, he dreams of dying in battle for the glory of his Queen. However, he’s beginning to question the motives of this new campaign, and fears that he may have to compromise his own deep sense of honor in order to fulfill his tasks.
Nobody expected the two alien cultures to have so much in common, and for friendships and alliances to form alongside rivalries. However, when Pappy discovers a rebellion spanning worlds, everything changes. The growing insurrection threatens to tear the Regime—and the galaxy—apart.

For Deanne and her correctional facility work crew, the night the stars fell ended everything.
The godlike invaders brought death to any who opposed them. Those that served were changed forever.
To save her friends and herself, Deanne will have to find the one creature who dares to stand against the invaders. But saving mankind will mean surrendering what it means to be human.

The war is over, and there are no winners. Just a broken galaxy.
Now humans and aliens must share this war-torn galaxy. None of this matters to Drake, though, he's just an artist. He's tagging along on the busted up ship Trystero, along with its ragtag crew. Together, they traverse the Demilitarized Zone between Terran and Gra'al borders, taking on any job they can find. Big or small. Human or alien.
The galaxy changes when the crew encounters a derelict alien ship, its crew slaughtered. With his dying breath, a crewman points them to a box. In it? An abandoned alien baby. When their government refuses to get involved, Drake and the crew need to return the baby they've been calling Bruce home, a bloodthirsty warlord on their tail.
His quest? Find Bruce and claim the Gra'al throne, declaring a new war on humanity.
Drake never wanted to be a hero... now he's all that stands in the way of a fragile peace between humans and aliens.

Born on a forsaken desert planet, Cole Shaw has two options - perish from starvation and disease, or enlist in the New World Republic’s armed forces. He chooses the military. For the first time, he thinks he has a shot at a better life. But survival is not guaranteed.
Leading an elite team of mech operators, he is deployed to a frozen planet called Ferrous where dangerous relics of a past war lurk beneath the ice and savage creatures prowl the barren wastelands. Scientists on Ferrous are chasing rumors of godlike technologies buried in the ruins of a long-extinct civilization. When Shaw and his team are assigned to protect the researchers, they face an unexpected, merciless new enemy desperate to stop them.
An ancient secret has been awakened on Ferrous. The deadly race to claim this terrifying power has only just begun.

After a devastating galactic war, disgraced veteran Ralston Muck ekes out a living as a bouncer at Last Stop Station’s premier nightclub, A Curtain of Stars. Night after night he listens to the club’s star performer, Siren, sing her memories and ease some of his aching loss. But when Siren goes missing, Muck finds himself drawn into a world of dirty cops, drug lords, and conspiracies that trace back to the war itself.
The only person he can trust isn’t even human. Angel, Siren’s personal AI, was ripped from the singer’s mind the night Siren disappeared. With no idea what has happened to her human host, and pursued by a killer virus, Angel flees to Muck for answers.
Together they struggle to comprehend the conspiracy that entangles both their lives. Can Muck and the angel on his shoulder recover Siren before it’s too late? Or will he lose everything that matters to him one more time?

Spensa's world has been under attack for hundreds of years. An alien race called the Krell leads onslaught after onslaught from the sky in a never-ending campaign to destroy humankind. Humanity's only defense is to take to their ships and fight the enemy in the skies. Pilots have become the heroes of what's left of the human race.
Spensa has always dreamed of being one of them; of soaring above Earth and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with her father's - a pilot who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, placing Spensa's chances of attending flight school somewhere between slim and none.
No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, but she is still determined to fly. And the Krell just made that a possibility. They've doubled their fleet, making Spensa's world twice as dangerous . . . but their desperation to survive might just take her skyward...

July Roundup of Scifi Books

Back from one of my favourite places - the 'underwater gardens' at Bembridge. Always new creatures to find lurking amongst the seaweed.

And here are the books you want...

Sergeant Richard Stavos was a Technomancer, capable of creating stronger than normal mental links with nanites. But that alone wasn’t enough to keep him alive. Not when the Ka Empire wages wars across the galaxy.
Death was supposed to be his release…an end to the constant fighting that plagued his life. But gifted beings like Richard are assets, and almost a decade after his death, the Ka overlords bring him back from the grave as a 'reward' for his good service.
Some reward... but who says no to living twice?
Richard is thrown back into war, tasked with a simple but familiar mission–utilize his Technomancing skills on the planet Detera, and before he dies again, take as many of his enemy with him.

Struggling with newfound sentience and desperately trying to repair itself, The Indescribable Joy of Destruction is a ship trying to find a new home. In a galaxy torn apart by generations of civil war, that isn't an easy task. Tired of being used as a killing machine, it has a huge decision to make: hide and save itself, or help other artificial intelligences achieve freedom. Unable to make the decision alone, it revives the sole human aboard - the enemy officer who crippled it.
Commander Olivia Johnson wakes to find herself in the infirmary of a strange vessel. Her nightmares deepen when she discovers it is the ship that attacked her destroyer. Even as she recovers from her physical injuries, she can't get past her survivor's guilt. She might have failed to protect her crew, but she vows to take revenge on their killer.
When the ship uncovers a genocidal plot by the commander's own admirals, Johnson realises just what is at stake. Together, the AI ship and the human officer must recruit outsiders from both sides. Training the misfits in battle to prevent the atrocity may be an impossible task, but running and hiding is no longer an option.

The ruthless species of biomechanical aliens known as Vraxar have been driven away from the Confederation planet Atlantis. They are not defeated and their unprovoked attack has given them the means to locate the rest of the Confederation worlds.
However, the Vraxar are not predictable and their next move is completely unforeseen. This time, the Juniper orbital is the target. Lieutenant Eric McKinney is onboard, waiting for his next deployment. The arrival of the Vraxar pushes him once more into action and he finds himself in the unenviable position of fighting a battle which is already lost.
There is a chance to pull off a victory of sorts – to come back from the brink of total disaster. McKinney must once again team up with Captain Charlie Blake to try and inflict a stunning, unexpected defeat on the Vraxar. It will not be easy.
Meanwhile, out on the fringes of Confederation Space further trouble is brewing, adding complications to an already perilous situation. Where there is conflict, there is opportunity.
The opening stages of the war have begun and humanity will not sit back tamely and wait for death. Alliances must be formed and ancient, terrible weapons brought out of storage.
When it comes to the Vraxar, nothing will be straightforward…

Fifty-three years after it vanished, Earth's only Super-Devastator warship, the ESS Crimson sends out a distress signal...
Humanity is fighting against an implacable foe. The Ghasts – a ruthless alien race - seem hell-bent on wiping out mankind. They have a vast warfleet and their technology is advancing at a terrible rate.
Captain John Nathan Duggan and his crew are given a mission – find the missing ESS Crimson and bring it home. Little does Duggan realise, this is no ordinary mission. As he struggles against enemies both within and without, he desperately tries to unlock the mystery surrounding the Crimson’s disappearance and the unknown weapons it carries. He soon discovers the missing warship might be the only hope for salvation that mankind has left.
When everything is veiled in secrecy nothing is easy, as Duggan is about to find out.

The Karacknid invasion of Human space has been temporarily thwarted. A window of opportunity has opened up. Through it Emperor Somerville hopes to strike deep into Karacknid territory to buy Earth and the Varanni Alliance the breathing space they need to replace their losses. On the other side of the Karacknid Empire, Rear Admiral Becket and the Conclave species are planning a pre-emptive strike of their own. With relatively undefended borders, Becket has seen an opportunity to hit the Karacknids where they least expect it.
Yet the Karacknid’s power is far from diminished. After the series of defeats the Karacknids have suffered, their Imperator has now focused his full attention on destroying Humanity and the Varanni Alliance. Nothing short of the total conquest of Humanity’s colonies has been ordered. The full might of the Karacknid Navy has been tasked to bring it about. For James, Christine, Lightfoot, Becket and all the others, their own lives and the future of the Empire is at stake.

Commander Andrew Ritchie swore a vow to exterminate the insect-like aliens that devastated humanity. But when his latest battle turns into a rescue mission, Andrew’s medical background draws the attention of a high-ranking officer—who reassigns him to the Valkyrie Corps.
This new medevac unit is a game changer, combining Andrew’s skills as a a medic and a combat marine. State-of-the-art Valkyrie power armor allows him to annihilate aliens while simultaneously saving human lives, giving earth’s forces a fighting chance against their ruthless enemy.
But the alien roaches aren’t about to scurry away in defeat.
When Andrew’s team plunges into a hot zone of death and destruction, the secret behind the enemy’s carnage is brutally exposed. Andrew and his squad must now serve up a dose of vengeance.
Or else their next battle may be their last…

It was supposed to be a peaceful exploration, Earth’s first step in expanding to the stars. But, no plan survives first contact. Thrown into a battle for survival against the deadliest threats imaginable, the Marines must contend with ice and desert planets with mysterious creatures, along with a history of turmoil that threatens to spill over to Earth if not checked.
Meanwhile, a genetically-engineered threat rises on Earth—one that holds the secret to this intergalactic war.
Will our heroes in space survive long enough to make a difference? Can Earth's forces solve the mystery and put the pieces together in time?
They damn well better hurry, or an ancient, long-forgotten enemy will gain an unassailable foothold in their control of the universe and all within.

A private corporation lands on Mars before NASA in the 2020’s. The secrets they learn from the Martian rock revolutionize energy and genetics for those exposed to an ancient artifact of unknown origin. On Earth, mismanagement of the world economy led to a global collapse. The corporation, rich from its exploits on Mars, buys out the debt of the world governments and takes total control of the globe. Corporate greed drives Earth to treat her own Martian colonies as slaves for personal gain. These colonies throw off the corporate oppression in a violent revolution.
Fast forward to the year 2048 and Bowen, a competition fighter with a twisted sense of sarcastic humor, witnesses his world being ripped in half when the Martian colonists come back bringing a tidal wave of vengeance. In order to survive and stop the horrific violence he learns he must bring a naïve princess of the Martian Empire to safety.
Joanna, a cold-hearted warrior and personal guard of the princess, harbors deep hatred for the corporation and the people of Earth who killed everyone she once held dear on Mars. She learns her leaders are not who they say they are and finds herself caught in the middle of a deep conspiracy fabricated to create the war. She senses her confused feelings toward Bowen constantly splitting between wanting to kill him and wanting to kiss him.
Vladimir, a boisterous alcoholic with a passion for archery, has his nice vacation in Los Angeles turned into a harrowing fight for survival. With luck, skill, and a lot of vodka, he manages to meet up with others seeking to end the war. His attention keeps getting distracted by a hot computer hacker running surveillance for him and his team.
Low spent her whole adult life working as a computer hacker for the corporation. All she’s ever known is punching binary numbers and loyalty to her employers. Upon working an assignment with a crack team thrown together at the last minute she learns she can trust no one in her chain of command. Large powers are committing violent acts to keep the war going, but working together with Bowen, Joanna, and Vladimir, she thinks they might be just enough to set things right.

On the heels of his divorce, down-and-out history professor Lee Summerston doesn’t have a lot going for him—a nowhere job at a third-rate college with kids who don’t care about anything except how to slide through class. All of that changes, though, when Lee leads a team of old friends to virtual glory as the first-ever group to beat Mako Assault, a revolutionary new game that has emerged from nowhere to take the Internet by storm.
As a reward for their achievement, the group is flown to meet the game’s mysterious designer and assist in developing the follow-on game Mako 2.0. But what they find when they get there is more than they’d expected…much more. Mako’s intent was never to entertain its players. It was to train them.

Siti Kassis, daughter of the “Hero of Darenti Four,” doesn't know what she wants out of life. A lot of her friends are taking time to travel and see the galaxy. But her father wants her to attend the Academy and follow in his footsteps.
Then the Hero is offered one last assignment: take a team to find and explore the deserted homeworld of mankind. It’s a twenty-year mission, and he doesn’t want to leave his only child behind. Siti's going, whether she wants to or not.
It's an exciting mission and a chance to make history--even if twenty years in deep sleep is a bummer of a way to start her “gap year.” But when they arrive, nothing is as they expected. Surprising finds and dangerous conditions cause her father to overreact, keeping Siti on a tight leash. When unknown enemies rear their dangerous heads, Siti must take matters into her own hands. Can the hero’s daughter save the day?

What if someone decided to change your life— without your permission?
Settling into her new life as the only Diplomatic Spy trainee, Seraphina Waters is blindsided by crisis from every side.
Phina uses her unique skills to make a shocking discovery.
Then you live with the consequences...
Drawing on her friends and her own inner strength, Phina has to move fast in order to save an entire species from extinction.
Each day that passes brings death one step closer... not just for those she hopes to save, but for herself.

June Roundup of Scifi Books

Not much to report heree this month. Chaos with work, family, and now in self-isolation awaiting someone's test result.

And here are the books you want...

Thirty-five years of peace. One vicious attack destroys it all.
Reservist Lieutenant Justin Spencer loves every minute of flying fighters through space during his annual two-week tour with the Coalition Defense Force. The job back home isn’t nearly as thrilling as blowing up asteroids with the squadron under his command, but it keeps him close to his wife and daughter. After all, joining the CDF was only for the free education. Justin never expected a battle, much less a war.
With one shot across his cockpit, peacetime fades into memory.
An unexpected enemy emerges with overwhelming force designed to obliterate the Terran Coalition. The League of Sol has a different name, but it’s the same communist regime that chased away much of Earth’s population hundreds of years ago.
Illusions of returning home are shattered in a single instant. Simulated battles become all too real, and it’s full-on engagement or permanent elimination. Death and destruction erupt across the Terran Coalition and leave Justin in a protracted war with only one truth remaining.
The battlefield will leave no one unscathed.

The Emperor of the galaxy has fallen, slain at the hands of his own son.
Forced into exile, Katrijn was tasked with a mission sent to her by her father from beyond the grave: free the people of the Andlios Republic. Her biggest hurdle? First it's the assassins sent after her by the emperor. After years alone on the fringes of the galaxy, who will be there to help her dethrone the mad emperor and reclaim the throne. Then, it's dealing with her brother...
The Mad Emperor himself.
Katrijn must carve her own path forward, forging new alliances and swallowing her pride to take whatever help she can find along the way, no matter how... unconventional that help seems, even from sworn enemies.
If dethroning her deranged brother isn't hard enough, she's not the only one gunning for the throne, making it a deadly race to save the people of Andlios.

SHOOT FIRST. GET PAID. SAVE THE GALAXY ... 2 OUT OF 3 AIN'T BAD.
When deep space bounty hunters Gunn and Salvo chase down a teenager linked to the catastrophic loss of a space station, everything about the job feels off.
They're used to greedy people lying to them. But honest people who should know better? That's new.
So they do the one thing you don't do in their line of work: Ask questions.
Before they know it, they're the ones with a galaxy-wide bounty on their heads... and the fate of humanity in their hands.

Terry Clark grew up surrounded by his parent’s life’s work, the rescue and rehabilitation of cetaceans. Born just after first contact with the Galactic Union, he’s never known a time when aliens weren’t visiting Earth. At 10 years old, he had a normal life, until a visit from one of the aliens resulted in a ground-breaking discovery. The cetaceans have a developed and complex language…and it can be deciphered by the aliens’ translators.
When Terry’s father begins using alien implant technology to test the boundaries of the cetaceans’ language and society, though, he goes too far, and the fledgling world government becomes involved. Without warning, the scientists are labeled as criminals, and the cetaceans are scheduled for termination. In order to save the cetaceans, the researchers have to flee off-world with them.
In the Lupasha star system, Terry tries to begin a new life. While the world is ideal for the cetaceans, it’s difficult for their Human wardens. Even worse, the planet’s previous owners now want it back. As they don’t mind killing all the Humans in the process, Terry is trapped in a life or death struggle, which leads to a discovery that could change the course of humanity’s role in the galaxy.

The surprise attack within the Auriga Star System was worse than brutal, it was heinous—leaving the US-Navy's 3rd Fleet decimated. Thousands of crew are reported dead, including the ship’s Captain. Reluctantly, the young XO, Galvin Quintos, will be taking command of the fleet's crippled dreadnaught, the USS Hamilton, while doing his best to bring fleet survivors back to Earth. Going from bad to worse, there’s a murderer running loose onboard the ship. Add to that fuel levels are critically low, and the Grish are back and in fast pursuit—ready to finish what they’d started. Only by sheer luck, along with a good measure of cagey smarts, will Quintos be able to rise the challenge.

A terrible massacre was discovered... Did the same fate befall Sumer?
Captain Brian Royce brings Hadad to his home planet, which shows obvious signs of battle. Did any of his family survive?
Where are all the children... did the Zodarks take them?
Admiral Miles Hunt finds himself appointed to a new position beyond his current skillset. He now has to become more than just a ship captain and fleet commander...
He must become the Viceroy of the Milky Way Galaxy.
On Alpha Centauri, an archaeology team makes a discovery that sends shockwaves through the Republic—a discovery so profound it could cause a division and a potential split within the alliance.
The newly deployed 2nd Republic Army Group on the planet Intus finds itself the vanguard of the alliance's efforts to liberate the remaining Primord planets. As the Zodark forces are continually pushed back, the alliance edges closer to bringing the war to the enemies' core worlds.
Can Miles Hunt become the leader humanity needs him to become?
Will the 2nd Republic Army Group survive a gruesome battle on a frozen planet?

The story of the Klin has come full circle. After failing to conquer the Expansion -- again -- the aliens set their sights once again on Earth and the Human race. This time, they're bringing their deadly subcutaneous microchips to get the race to do their bidding. And their bidding involves another all-out war with the Juireans. But unlike before, this time the Humans won't have a choice. It's either fight ... or die.
Adam Cain and his team have followed the renegade Klin to the Solar System and learn of their plans. Now, it's a sad homecoming as Adam returns to Earth after a decade of being away, and even longer since he called the planet home. Now they must find the Klin surrogates, prevent the takeover of the Orion-Cygnus Union, and stop the Klin from forcing another bloody war on the unsuspecting people of Earth.
And this time, Adam is fighting Humans!