Collection of previously published short fiction.
'Far in the future, Bianca is the only planet where people have ever found any form of intelligent life. The planet has two species that look remotely humanoid, but none of the human scientists have been able to make much sense out of them. The creatures have nothing to trade, so human interest has waned, and the care of the planet's human outpost has been left in the hands of a religious order. But recently, the two species have gone to war with each other. It is envoy Miranda Tonkin's task to determine if it is worth human effort and money to try and stop the conflict.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Wendy travels to the terraformed dome of Ophis Chasma on Mars to find out what happened to her brother whom she hasn't heard from for a long time.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (ebook release).
'Like three space stations before it, Zhiminda Station has fallen silent. Zhyara and his crew travel to the very edge of settled space to investigate. Will they find the station dead, its corridors exposed to the vacuum of space? Will they find bodies? Will they run into the unknown killers? Or is the reason much more sinister than that?'
Source: Publisher's blurb (ebook release).
'Humanity has expanded. Interstellar colonies exist in the far-flung frontiers of space.
'After an interstellar war, Mauro and Gabriela arrive at the frontier base on the world Vittoria. But before their arrival, the space fleet commander shares a secret: The previous settlers were not victims of the war, but they have mysteriously disappeared.
'Alone in a hostile environment, they have to find out why.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'On the strongly volcanic and radiation-soaked surface of the moon Io, the smallest mishap means mortal peril, even for artificial humans like Daniel and Oscar. Clones are expendable and easy to re-create. Why then does company boss Eilin Gunnarsson care so much about these young men that she sends them warnings written on the clouds of Jupiter?'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Out in the darkness of the Oort Cloud, Kee Paris and her clan live in habitats constructed from ice, mining the space rocks for whatever they can find. Kee is determined to propose to Ruz from the prestigious Suarez clan, but to do so, she must first build a home, using borrowed money and borrowed equipment. But then an accident changes everything.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (from ebook edition).
'Ed Hasegawa is a dissident, forgotten in a prison work camp at Io's stick farms. The job is hard and dangerous and he attempts to get out in the dissident way: by contacting journalists about his plight. He doesn't realise how much the world has changed.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'On a planet where human settlers bond with subhumans, Inita Muravi is set to follow her mother’s clan into the rich storytelling tradition.
'However, Inita’s love of music points to some very different talents. Just who was her father and what is he doing now?'
Source: Magazine blurb.
'While diving in the methane lakes on Titan’s south pole, Hadie’s fiancee Paul Ormerod is struck by mysterious ‘lightning’ from a glass sphere. Hadie, a construct, artificial human, battles prejudice and hostility to help him recover, and discovers the truth behind the spheres.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'In a far future, a fleet of ships hurtles through space on its way to a distant war. Aboard the ships is an army of artificial human soldiers, highly trained and dangerous. Doctor Charlotte West, the neuro-technologist responsible for the soldiers’ artificial brains, travels in the support fleet. Two months before the arrival at the war site, the soldiers start fighting each other and disobeying commands. When they are brought in for tests, Charlotte finds that all seven thousand men share a pathological obsession with her.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Three weeks ago, Daddy left town with the other volunteer firefighters to fight the fires in the city, and Tom and Mother have looked after the farm. Radios, phones and TV broadcasts have fallen silent, trains have stopped coming and the main road has remained empty.
'When Tom finds a large metal egg on the farm, and a metal-spiked echidna hatches from it, the neighbour Mr McGregor wants to kill it. Whatever has silenced the rest of the world is creeping into town. Roads start talking and zombies come into town, wanting to tell everyone how they died. People must fight back.
'But Tom thinks differently. The echidna, which he names Thing, is a true friend. Thing protects Tom from the greedy roads, the evil zombies and even Mr McGregor. To find Daddy, Tom needs to follow a map he has found in a vagrant camp site, a map which leads him straight to the place where all the trouble started.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
