Tag: new releases

On the dark side of the horizon, where the ocean of stars met the blackness of night, a tiny point of light gradually grew brighter than all the others. It was the station, reflecting the starlight. As they came closer, the man-made structure gradually took shape: two narrow wheels running at cross-purposes to each other around a fat central cylinder with long antennae on either end. Isaac gripped the flight stick a little tighter and rechecked the nav-computer to make sure that they were still on course. Down below, a flash of pale blue lightning lit up a tiny patch of the planet’s atmosphere, but only for an instant. Whatever tempest swirled in the clouds below them, it preferred to brood in the shadows.

“We’re coming up on the station,” said Aaron. “One klick and dropping.”

“Can you try to contact them as I make the final approach? Be sure to try the shortwave too—if anyone’s still alive in there, chances are better that they’ll have something rigged up on those bands.”

Aaron shrugged, but he went ahead and did it anyway. Isaac kept an eye on the main screen as he made the final maneuvers to put them in a parallel orbit just 500 meters away.

“So this is Alnilam station,” he mused as he peered out the forward window. The station’s hull was a dark gray, the beacons at the ends of the antennae a deep flashing red. The starlight was too dim to give anything more than the basic shape of the structure. On the inside of the wheels where the windows should have been, there was a blackness as dark as the night on the planet below.

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Brothers in Exile (Sons of the Starfarers, Book I) is my latest book, due to come out later this month. It expands the Star Wanderers universe and starts an epic new story arc that will eventually tie in with the Gaia Nova books as well.

To be notified when it comes out, be sure to sign up for my mailing list if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading!

Excerpt 1
Excerpt 2

“There,” said Aaron. “Got it.” The main cockpit holoscreen lit up between them, showing an image of the planet with their current trajectory in green. Around the sphere representing the planet itself, a red ellipse traced a separate orbit.

“What’s that?” Isaac asked.

“The station. Since they aren’t responding to our hails, I figure we ought to calculate our own approach vector.”

Isaac frowned. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. We don’t know what else is down there. For all we know, our approach could put us on a collision course with local traffic.”

“What traffic? We’re picking up nothing but radio silence across all bands—for all we know, the station is dead.”

Dead.The suggestion sent chills down the back of Isaac’s neck. He sighed and shook his head.

“If the station were dead, wouldn’t the colonists have set up some sort of distress beacon?”

“What’s the point in setting up a distress beacon if you’re more than two parsecs from the nearest help?”

What if they are dead? Isaac wondered. What if that’s why they haven’t hailed us?

“Something is definitely wrong,” he said softly. “Maybe we should just cut our losses now and leave.”

“What? You mean turn around and go back to Nova Minitak?”

“That, or move on to Esperanzia. This isn’t right—we’ve been transmitting on every major frequency, with no response. Something about this system is very wrong, and I don’t want to get involved.”

“Involved in what?” asked Aaron, his face incredulous. “If something is wrong, maybe they need our help. How can we turn around and leave them if they need us?”

We can’t help them if they’re already dead.

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Brothers in Exile (Sons of the Starfarers, Book I) is coming out in ebook format later this month. It is the first book in the Sons of the Starfarers series, which takes place in the same universe and timeline as Star Wanderers. To be updated when it comes out, be sure to sign up for my mailing list if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading!

Excerpt 1

 

Something about the Nova Alnilam system felt wrong. Perhaps it was the silence that greeted Isaac and his brother as they exited jumpsace near the fifth planet. The deep blue ice giant world shone pale in the crystalline light of its sun, while all their commscans picked up nothing but empty static. For a planet that was supposed to have a mid-sized orbital colony of more than a thousand people, that was highly unusual.

“Alnilam Station,” he said, transmitting across all the major radio bands. “This is Isaac of the Medea, requesting docking permission. Do you copy?”

Silence. Isaac counted to five and glanced at his younger brother Aaron.

“I don’t think they’re picking us up,” he said. “How’s our orbital trajectory?”

“It’s coming, it’s coming,” said Aaron, his eyes practically fused to his display screen. “Just give me a second.” He brushed his unkempt brown hair out of the way and scratched at the patchy stubble on his chin.

Isaac sat back in his chair and mentally reviewed what they knew about the system. A class F star on the barely inhabited Outworld fringes of the south second quadrant, it lay almost six light-years from the nearest established settlement. The first colonists had arrived about a hundred and twenty standard years ago, but all the records since then were spotty and inconsistent. An obscure astrographical survey in the Gaian Imperial catalog showed that the system was rich in uranium and other radioactives, which if true would make it the perfect third leg in a trade route of the local stars. Few starfarers ever came out this way, though—for all Isaac knew, they were the first people to visit this colony in a generation.

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Brothers in Exile (Sons of the Starfarers, Book I) is coming out later this month. This excerpt is the opening scene, taken from the first chapter.

To be notified by email when it comes out, you can sign up for my mailing list here. Brothers in Exile is also listed on Goodreads, so feel free to add it to your to-read list. It doesn’t have a cover yet, but that should be coming out soon.

Thanks for reading!