On the backwater world of Cayelle, Tina Freeman runs a shop with her son Rex: fifteen years old, half-human, half-android with a massive chip on his shoulder about having been born without arms or legs. 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. For those who enjoy a rollicking space opera tale with adventure, drama, conspiracies and pirates. Readers of the Miles Vorkosigan series and books by Lindsay Buroker will enjoy this.

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.

After having escaped from Kelso Station, Tina and her crew run low on supplies. 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. A tale of space adventure, mutants, conspiracy and pirates. Trying to free her brings Tina much closer to the pirates than she ever wanted to get.

Tina had no choice but to escape Aurora Station on board the Starfighter Manila: the ship was about to blow up and would have killed the entire station. But they're in deep trouble. They have less than half the very minimum crew number necessary to fly the ship safely, the engines are damaged and Tina's travel companions are on a different ship. Aurora Station fell into pirate hands, so returning is not an option and the ship isn't safe to fly long distances. On top of that, several crew members may have been exposed to genetic treatment by the pirates and may be turning into violent monstrous creatures. With no outside help forthcoming, survival becomes an intense battle.

Nine novels of Space Adventure: Project Charon 1: Re-entry by Patty Jansen Starship Waking by C. Gockel Star Mage Quest by J.J. Green Children of Darkness by James E. Wisher Faring Soul by Tracy Cooper Posey Spaceberg by M. Pax Ghost by Demelza Carlton Traitor's Code by Jane Killick Derelict by LJ Cohen

24 October 2114: the day that shocked the world. Young diplomat Cory Wilson narrowly escapes death in the assassination of President Sirkonen. No one claims responsibility but there is no doubt that the attack is extraterrestrial. Cory was meant to start work as a representative to Gamra, the alien organisation that governs the FTL transport network, but now his new job may well be scrapped in anger. Worse, as Earth uses military force to stop any extraterrestrials coming or leaving, as 200,000 extraterrestrial humans are trapped on Earth, as the largest army in the galaxy prepares to free them by force, only Cory has the experience, language skills and contacts to solve the crime. But he's broke, out of a job and a long way from Earth. Will appeal to readers of C.J. Cherryh's science fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles series, Lindsay Buroker, Alastair Reynolds, Elizabeth Moon and Sean Williams. Science Fiction series, free, space opera, aliens, thriller, murder, political, Patty Jansen, Ambassador, scifi, sci fi, alien planet