The May Round-up of Scifi Books

Welcome back to my speculative fiction round-up. I'm sitting, gazing out over my garden as I write, the foxgloves and iris coming into flower. Today was filled with edits on Equality and the paperwork for a caving expedition I'm leading this summer (the MOD really takes planning seriously).
I'm looking forward to next week when the entry for the next anthology I'm editing closes. If the field is anything like it was for The Newcomer, I'm in for some great reads. It's due for release at the end of June. Those of you on my mailing list will be the first to hear when it's available.
My big news since the last newsletter is that I have taken up the Running Down Dementia challenge from Alzheimer's Research UK. Vast amounts of money has been poured into cancer and AIDS research over the years, with some very impressive results. Now, with dementia set to be the biggest killer of the century, it is high time to focus on identifying the causes and working on treatments for its various forms.

So, on to the books. This month, I've chosen a wide range of stories. The genres run from military scifi, through fantasy, to the hi-tech edge of thriller. As you know by now, I try to mix established big-hitters with rising stars and as-yet undiscovered authors.
By the way, if you aren't yet receiving this in an email, you can subscribe to my blog mailing list here.

17-year-old orphan, Adara isn’t like the other girlygigs in Cityplace, she has six fingers on each hand and a secret power she is forbidden to use. Rebellious and headstrong, she is thrilled about leaving school so she can follow her dream to train as an elite soldier of the New World Territories. But as starving renegades and religious fanatics storm the last safe haven in NotSoGreatBritAlbion, her plans are cut brutally short.
Fear spreads amongst the inhabitants when the all-controlling Agros, who have cut food supplies and are stealing ‘special’ children, send in troops to wreak havoc. With the population weakened and scared, Adara and her Santy Breanna must fight to save their home and family from a savage and terrifying enemy.
But when her brother Deogol, is abducted, Adara is forced to leave her hygiene home and venture into a hostile and savage realm to save him from a sinister fate.

Being orphaned on Mars puts Rion Istlegaard on a collision course with the malicious Planetary Alliance.
When his father abandons him in a bustling Mars spaceport at age five, Rion is forced to use his wits to survive by any means necessary. At least he’s not alone. It isn’t uncommon for children to be left behind thanks to the callous rules of the planet’s overseers. But Rion is determined to rise above the squalor and get back at those who took everything away from him. With the help of a legendary spaceship, he just might do it.

When Molly gets called onto a case that she is uniquely qualified for, the team discovers a little more about her past.
In the race against the clock to prevent the city of Spire from being subjected to a deadly toxin, it takes both new team members and new allies working together in order to save the millions of lives.
Meanwhile, problems continue on the political scene, and exciting progress is made with the investigation into the strange door in the safe house basement.

Beatrix Rose has a knack for making the British government’s problems go away. When the assassin is sent to Venezuela to track down a missing scientist, she meets a contact who knows the lay of the land: none other than John Milton...
As the state-sanctioned assassin and the special forces soldier team up in South America, they’ll do more than capture a missing scientist. They’ll discover a secret that will change Beatrix’s life forever...

Across the void formed by two galactic spiral arms, vast forces face each other.
The tenuous Alliance, sixty civilizations united only by fear of invasion, prepare to resist the encroachment of their as-yet unseen enemy, known only as the Creeps.
The Void has become a battleground. Three thousand light years across, and populated by a scattering of ten thousand ‘dark’ worlds, it is the Alliance’s last chance to protect their way of life. Self-destructive, robotic drones pour across the Void in ever-increasing numbers, testing the Alliance fleets to breaking point.
In the midst of the surging tides of war, a single cruiser carries an incursion team between the dark worlds, striking at the advancing enemy as it establishes footholds. The team probes for a weakness that might be exploited before the odds become overwhelming.
But will Commander Trenn and her misfit squad of mixed-race marines be able to make enough of a difference, and can they hope to uncover the enemy’s plans for galactic domination before the Alliance falls?
Maybe they can—if they can stop fighting each other for long enough...

Jonathan Bartell is a young man, just out of university, when he signs up for the position of Quarantine Officer at the Orbital Launch Station.
He is part of a crop of students who flocked to study exo-biology when bacteria were discovered on Mars, and who are now all making their living flipping burgers, because the jobs are few and hard to get.
He is lucky to get a job in space, no matter how mundane.

Or so he thinks...
Gaby Larsen is a doctor at the tiny hospital at the space station, and she keeps secrets, not because she wants to keep them, but because she is too scared to share them.
Because out in space, your worst enemies are your fellow travellers.

When space freighter pilot Calen Macleef accidentally wins Larissa “Bit” Earnest in a lucky hand of poker, his main concern is what his gruff and uncompromising brother Jack will say about it. Jack Macleef is the captain of the ship in a world where space travel has only recently become the norm and space piracy abounds. Painful memories of prior abuse surface for Bit as she finds herself on a freighter full of rowdy, ungentlemanly merchant marines. Jack works to find a safe place for frightened Bit amongst the ungentlemanly crew, but good looks and innocent ways continually charm the men. With tension and danger running high, each begins to wonder: will they survive the pirates... and each other?

Invier's family is too lowly-ranked for a union with Neith, so she, unwilling to accept a loveless union with someone else, revives a long-abandoned competition called the Pursual. In the Pursual, the prize is the girl and an alliance with her influential family.
Entered into the competition without his consent, Invier becomes suspicious of Neith's motives. Still, he must win, or see his love married to a rival. The mysterious deaths of competitors, the discovery of dark secrets, and a growing rebellion mean that nothing will come easy.
The competition meant to bring them together threatens to tear the couple apart. Yet only by working together will they overcome their rivals and gain a life with each other.

In a divided, futuristic America, merit is used to camouflage oppression. Votes are allocated according to tax revenue. And all people are not created equal.
Daniela Machado is offered a chance to escape the deprivation of Bronx City through a coveted slot at the elite Tuck School. There, among the genetically superior highborn of Manhattan, she discovers an unimaginable world of splendor and greed. But her opportunity is part of a darker plan, and Daniela soon learns that those at society’s apex will stop at nothing to keep power for themselves. She may have a chance to change the world, if it doesn’t change her first.

Lynx of Norin is a proud warrior who always does what’s right for her people. When an ancient treaty and a thousand superhuman guardsmen force her to leave her land for an arranged marriage, she knows it’s her duty. Lynx begrudgingly travels to wed her sworn enemy, the beautiful, brooding Lukan Avanov.
Lukan grows to love his bride-to-be, but he wasn’t prepared for a second mysterious visitor to ruin his plans. A curse that has been prophesied for ages may come true on Lukan’s watch, and it could kill him and destroy his empire.
As Lynx seeks to overthrow the Avanovs from the inside, Lukan fights to protect his life and his empire with secret, mind-controlling devices. Will Lukan manage to save himself from her, or will Lynx destroy him and his empire first?

Fifteen hundred years after the Catastrophe, Inventor Benjamin Kerr built the domed neo-Edwardian city-state of Bridges in the center of the former U.S. Three hundred years later, Bridges is in trouble. King Taylor Kerr is elderly, the economy is struggling, and corruption is rampant.
Forty years ago, a fence was built outside of the "Pot of Gold" — the city proper — to keep out the growing numbers of homeless. This number has increased to over a hundred thousand, whole generations knowing nothing else but life in the tent camps.
Acevedo Spadros is a high school Bridges history teacher. His former student Xavier Alcatraz is head of the Guard. When King Taylor is assassinated by his son Polansky Kerr, who then plans to slaughter everyone outside the fence, Acevedo and Xavier plan the unthinkable: to bring down the Mad King.
Emerging after its stint in the science fiction/fantasy box set Dark Humanity, The Alcatraz Coup becomes available for the first time as a stand-alone novella. Set 100 years before the Red Dog Conspiracy series, this dark, violent story brings you a collision of science fiction, steampunk, and war fiction with a story reminiscent of Black Hawk Down, set in an neo-Edwardian city gone mad.
Only available as a paperback.

A helpless ally calls for aid
A ruthless enemy strikes without mercy
The fate of empires turns on even the smallest actions
When a minor trade partner sends the Castle Federation a desperate call for aid, they have few resources to spare from their all-consuming war against the Terran Commonwealth. Unwilling to be seen failing their allies but able to spare only a tiny force, Castle sends a hero to command the task group: Captain Kyle Roberts, the Stellar Fox.
Beyond the Rimward frontier of the Federation and its allies, little is as it seems. The pirates are being armed by an outside force, and the politics of these worlds is made deadlier by their poverty. When the Coraline Imperium, the Federation’s oft-difficult ally, sends forces as well, it risks a conflict that could undermine the Alliance protecting them both.
There are deeper games afoot as local schemes play the great powers against each other. Captain Roberts is caught in the chaos as fire and blood explode across the region. There is only one certainty: these Rimward Stars must not fall.

Commodore Straker's rebellion grows in strength--but his enemies are growing even faster. Faced with a dozen rebel planets in their territory, the Mutuality finally takes notice of the upstart known as the Liberator, and they gather a vast fleet to crush him.
Preparing for a titanic interstellar battle, it's clear Straker has no chance. His tiny enclave of free planets can't survive the weight of a thousand worlds. His own officers realize this, and some of them begin to turn against him...
In a desperate attempt to halt their inevitable destruction, Straker and his team set out to capture the largest ship ever built. The monstrous vessel is well-defended and contains secrets no one suspects. Unleashing its power might turn the tide of the war, but it may also doom humanity.

As the Earth plunges toward Saturn, Jessica struggles to decide whether to save the ones she loves, or save the human race.

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.