Midwinter Knots

Chuck Boeheim

A short story for the holidays in the world of Knots. Escher and Emeline have brought a tree into the house to decorate, and Trefoil the cat must investigate, of course. There’s something not quite right about this tree – they’ve brought trouble into the house along with it. It’s up to Trefoil to guard the house against the mayhem that ensues. If he doesn’t get put outside first.

Free download from StoryOrigin

Judgment at Proteus

Timothy Zahn

Just last month I reviewed the first book in the series. Now I’m featuring the last book? Well, I got drawn in and binged the entire series all at once. The series is just fun. It’s tense enough that you just want to know what’s coming next, and the characters are engaging enough that you start to care about making it through the gantlet. (Yes, gantlet. Running the “gauntlet” is a misquote. Look it up.)

To recap: there is a galaxy-spanning railroad run by a race named the Spiders. You can take a train to any of thousands of worlds belonging to the twelve known intelligent races.

1. Night Train to Rigel Earth agent Frank Compton teams up with the Spider’s agent Bayta to investigate a galactic threat from a group mind called the Mohdri.
2. The Third Lynx Compton and Bayta investigate art thefts that have had deadly consequences. The art pieces just might be artifacts of a long-dead warrior race that had formerly enslaved the galaxy, the Shonkla-raa. They may not be much to look at as art, but they may be much more. And the Mohdri wants them.
3. Odd Girl Out Compton comes to the aid of a girl after her sister was murdered on Earth. The Mohdri wants her dead, and Compton and Bayta race to find out why she’s so important.
4. The Domino Pattern In a change of pace, this book takes on the air of murder mystery on a sealed train between stations. People are dying. Bayton and Compton work to find out why. Even more puzzling, the Mohdri wants to help them.
5. Judgment at Proteus Compton and Bayta travel six weeks across the galaxy to the home of the Shonkla-raa. Both their enemies and their allies follow, but with former enemies aiding them and former allies hindering them, the power dynamic is shifting. Compton must figure who are the Shonkla-raa and how can they be stopped?

Overall, this is a fast-paced series of galactic intrigue, espionage, and tactics that rivals anything else out there.

Buy on amazon

Chronicle of an Alien World

Kate Rauner

Interstellar journey to a new world. An unexpected indigenous culture. Two reluctant leaders desperate to save their people.

Trey Jackson is burdened with guilt over his lover’s death four decades ago. The old pilot languishes among settlers who fear exploring the planet they colonized. A teen’s secret study of the planet’s whales offers salvation, but one of the creatures drags them away on their research raft, and they wreck on the aliens’ shore.

Among the aliens, mystic Zahra keeps a vicious chieftain drugged to thwart his deadly marauding. As her herbs lose their power, she steers the violent lord away from her childhood home to other helpless clans.

When Jackson seeks Zahra’s help, he triggers a dangerous chain of events. Their mutual first-contact veers toward tragedy. Could one lonely old man be the hero they need?

Chronicle of an Alien World is an action-packed science fiction adventure. If you like relatable heroes, fascinating scenarios, and heartbreaking moral quandaries, you’ll love Kate Rauner’s thought-provoking tale.

Buy via StoryOrigin

Traitors Unseen

Dave Dobson

Provisional Inspector Emerra Denault is working on a case with her mentor investigating some stolen money. Everything seems straightforward, but then she is accused of a crime she would never commit. On the run from both her enemies and her friends and not sure of which is which, Emerra must solve the mystery of her betrayal and uncover the plot that led to her misfortune. That plot, still in motion, is deep and deadly. It would give the city she loves over to relentless murderers bent on power. Emerra faces criminals, corruption, magic, villainous nobles, and rot within the Guild she serves. She must overcome them all to save Frosthelm and to stay alive.

Free via StoryOrigin

The Devil Take You

Mitchell Luthi

When Rome died, she left behind a rotting corpse… …a memory of the light that was her beating heart… …but something stirred from amidst her bones… A new age but not of light.

The Devil Take You is an anthology of medieval horror comprising 14 tales set in the world Rome left behind. Join us in the plague-infested streets of London and the howling expanse of the Carpathian Steppes. Explore the once-hallowed halls of fortified monasteries and bear witness to the sacrilegious Vikings who would plunder them. From the macabre corpse collectors of Al-Waset to vicious highwaymen and their blasphemous secrets, The Devil Take You offers a delicious glimpse into the hellish world of the Middle Ages. Within these pages, life is fleeting, but death is never slow.

Free via StoryOrigin