Cirrus@Austlit

'For three months, Cory and his team have hung with Asto's military in orbit, watching as drone armies attacked Earth.

'They could have helped more had Nations of Earth communicated with the fleet or if they could only find out where these drones come from, who controls them and from where. The enemy is smart, enmeshed with sections of Earth's population and Asto's military severely hamstrung by Nations of Earth playing chicken.

'Three months ago, the president contacted Cory asking for help. The connection was interrupted and never re-established.

'It's as if they don't want help.

'Cory's got gamra breathing down his neck with the requirement that Nations of Earth officially approves the presence of Asto's military in orbit.

'Something has to give.

'He and his team return to a battle-scarred Earth on a hare-brained mission to talk to Nations of Earth, to check on the president, to get him to sign for approval. Getting there is hard. The state of the Nations of Earth assembly is deeply troubling. But getting out, that's where it gets truly interesting.' (Publication summary)

'Tina and her crew finally arrive on Olympus, the world that holds the Federacy Assembly. Her initial plan was to go there to present the data the left in a locker on Kelso Station fifteen years earlier, but many things have changed.

'For one, rather than wait for someone else to do it, she and the scientists they collected at Aurora Station have been working on a cure for the infection that turns people into grey-skinned mutant pirates.

'Secondly, they're bringing a stricken war ship and a few of its remaining crew members who were rescued from pirate captivity.

'Little has gone to plan. After a few attempts, they don't yet have a cure. And while the infection does horrendous things to people besides giving them a long, but miserable, life, it seems that the only way it spreads is through human intervention.

'Tina and her friends are about to make a few discoveries about power, who wields it, and how it is used in this conclusion to the Project Charon series. The betrayal runs much deeper than anyone has predicted. Those in power are not going to take their uncovering lying down.' (Publication summary)

'Cory has made several commitments to members of the Asto inner circles. He needs to spend time with Thayu’s son. He has also been asked to give a favour to a boy of the Azimi clan.

'What better to do with a couple of pre-teens than to visit the theme parks that are historic relics from the 21st century on Earth?

'Of course he has a hidden agenda. On a previous trip to the south of Barresh, Cory and his team found disturbing evidence that people from the former Southern California Air Corps made it to Ceren about fifty years ago. He needs to find out about them.

'Except this is 2125, and the former city of Los Angeles is in Mexico, and the interesting places are across the heavily guarded and impenetrable border in America Free State.

'While he’s investigating, while he’s being shadowed and occasionally threatened, while the kids are having old-fashioned fun going on rides and starting rebellions (oops), something is about to come to a spectacular crash.

'It’s not that the highly armed rebels of America Free State want to take back land that they consider theirs, although they do.

'It’s not the fact that Nations of Earth president Simon Dekker hates Cory and the fact that he’s poking around in what Dekker considers his territory, although he does.

'It’s that the Southern California Air Corps is about to pull a very large and nasty surprise.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Both stations they can visit are in pirate hands. They have to make a toss-up which would be the safest. They choose the bigger station.

'But while they’re in the dock, trying very hard not to be noticed until they can negotiate the ridiculous supply wait times before they leave again, Tina finds out that her daughter Evelle is a prisoner at the station.

'Trying to free her brings Tina much closer to the pirates than she ever wanted to get.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'The shop makes a modest profit, but when a creditor turns up wanting his money back, everything goes pear-shaped.

'She needs money, and needs it fast. Another creditor is impossible to find. That leaves her one option: to return to the world she fled fifteen years ago and Kelso Space Station, where her spaceship has languished for over fifteen years, and finally sell the thing.

'Tina worked as scientific officer in the Federacy Force’s top secret Project Charon, and was forced out when she rang alarm bells about particles that escaped out of a rift to another universe.

'As it turns out, the alien dust has been infecting people in her absence, causing profound changes in human behaviour.

'When Tina re-surfaces at Kelso, her presence is a threat to those who still defend the project, including her ex-husband, and they want to shut her up, but her continued silence may well mean the end of civilisation.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Jonathan and Gaby arrive at the ice moon Miranda to work with a local researcher and find that adventurists have snuck into an area infected with alien bacteria and have gotten themselves in trouble.

'Do these people have to be stopped because they’re about to spread a bacterial infection to the human settlements or are there other factors at play? A tale of petty vindictiveness, competition and jealousy. Oh, and a wedding.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Astoria Station stopped responding to everything except automated messages. Jonathan and Gaby, familiar with disease and habitat collapse, offer to help.

'But not even they are prepared for what they find, or the efforts by some to sweep it under the carpet.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Ceren, the world that's the home of the city of Barresh, has vast swathes of untamed wilderness, most of it tribal land belonging to meta-human tribes like the Pengali.

'For many years, illegal organisations have seen these tribes as inroad into the lucrative gamra economy, abusing the local population with next to no payment, inflicting damage on their society. Sadly, Cory knows far too much about this, having studied Earth's history.

'The conflict has brewed for generations, until it has become too big to handle.

'Cory and his association finally return to Asto on the invitation of his father-in-law, for his official induction ceremony into the Domiri clan. They are housed in a magnificent villa overlooking a valley, away from the hustle of cities or the military base.

'Take an adolescent boy. Make him angry. Add dragons.

'Saving Prince Bruno from the church crypts hasn't turned out the way Nellie had planned. The boy is morose, angry, hellbent on revenge, and incapable of wielding the power he has been given.

'A young prince, an evil wizard, and a city that no longer seems to care.

'Cast out from the palace, Nellie survives in the streets of Saardam with the poor and destitute and a dragon whose behaviour she can't control, but is the key to finding the last member of the royal family. The pompous Regent is hell-bent on finding the person who has killed his court advisor and he has decided the dragon is guilty. If he doesn't find a culprit, his main source of money is at stake. The guards comb the city. It's only a matter of time before they find Nellie.

'She has a dragon, and she’s not afraid to use it.

'Nellie Dreessen is a kitchen maid in the palace of Regent Bernard of Saardam. She has worked for two kings and two regents, has seen two royal families murdered through magic, has seen ghosts and demons, and kept her head down like a good girl.

'Johanna and her band of strange companions have fled the influence of the Red Baron and return to Saardam.In the months that they have been gone, the Fire Wizard has laid waste to the city and any surviving citizens, including Johanna’s father, live in fear for their lives.

'To fight an evil wizard without magic is dangerous to say the least, but then Johanna learns why the Fire Wizard came to the city in the first place.

'An eastern trader comes into the port city with an iron ship that needs no sails and no animals to pull it. Every ruler or noble who fancies himself a ruler in Saardam or the neighbouring countries wants to get his hands on this magical ship, and many of them don’t care how much blood they spill.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Ghosts, demons, wizards and a kingdom in trouble.

'As the only child of a successful merchant, Johanna has her wits and a sense for business.

'The royal family is in deep trouble: ever since the crown princess died of illness, the king has attempted to educate his son to become king. However, the prince is “not good in the head” and quite unsuited to the task. In his grief for his daughter, the king has run the coffers dry: he hired dubious magicians for even more dubious tasks. Those magicians circle like vultures waiting for the kingdom to fail. The king must get his son on the throne, preferably supported by a smart and well-off wife.

'He holds a ball in his son’s honour. Johanna has agreed to a dance. But the guests include a number of magicians who are not there for the festivities.

'This collection of the first three books in the series has all the ghosts, demons and evil magic you ever wanted, and a strong heroine to deal with them all.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Deadly creatures, hostile climate, and that is just the scenery.

'For many years, mysterious things have happened on the ice world of Tamer, but when a scientist goes missing from Barresh thought to be on Tamer, Cory is forced to take the issue by the horns.

'While space biologists Jonathan Bartell and Gaby Larsen attend a conference held at a base in the asteroid belt, a man approaches Jonathan in great distress.

'He was asked to take over command of a previously commercial research station, but strange things started happening: plants glowing in the dark, lights turning themselves on and off, computers misbehaving.

'He discovered the cause, but Section Command issues a gag order on the issue. This is strange, because the Force is investing big in research.

Jonathan is left with many questions: who is this man, why does no one want to hear what he says, what is he doing at the conference, and what is the ultimate enemy of humanity?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A prisoner, a secret he can't remember, and the military force that will destroy planets to get their hands on it. When Fabio Velazquez arrives on the secretive military base on Jupiter's moon Io, he knows two things: one, that he's had his memories erased and two, that he has a secret. Except because of point one, he can't remember what point two is. The portents aren't good: he's hated by his fellow soldiers, responsible for "the greatest f***-up in military history", traitor and human guinea pig. Yet, he managed to be trusted with a secret so big that the military has almost killed him and still haven't gotten their hands on it. Where is it, and who does it belong to? His nickname might be Escape Artist, but in the hostile environment of Io there is no escaping punishment. Or so the military thinks, but they're not the only ones interested in him. A secret group lurks in a base in the cloud tops of Jupiter. They watch. They wait. They will strike.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.