Series Starter Paperbacks

These four paperbacks will introduce you to some of my many worlds, for one low bundle price.

Take the Shilling (The Confederated Worlds, Volume 1)

“Military science fiction [concentrating] on the psychology and politics of societies in conflict.”

—Analog, on The Confederated Worlds series

The Confederated Worlds implanted in his brain the skills to make him a soldier.

He had to learn for himself how to survive interstellar war.

Tomas Neumann seeks escape from his backwater planet and overbearing mother, and a mentor to replace his long-dead father.

“Taking the shilling”—enlisting in the Confederated Worlds military—promises both.

But the soldier’s skills implanted in his brain can’t prepare him for combat against fellow humans. Especially ones supposed to welcome him and his fellow soldiers as liberators. The war on New Liberty threatens to destroy him. Not just in body. Also in spirit.

Grieving for lost comrades, demoralized by harrowing combat, Tomas must learn what he needs to survive. 

Because soon, with the fates of thousands of his fellow soldiers in the balance, he will face his war’s ultimate challenge.

The Progress of Mankind (Stone Chalmers #1)

A “thriller-style science fiction tale that’s a quick and fun read…. A good start to a promising series.” – Sfreader.com

One man can make—or break—Earth’s iron grip on its galactic colonies: Stone Chalmers. Spy. Assassin. Earth’s top operative.

On the newly-rediscovered colony world of New Moravia, an Earth operative is murdered. Stone’s mission: journey through an artificial wormhole to the planet. Find the perpetrators. And terminate them.

Going undercover, with a cover persona overlaid on his mind and genetic markers tweaked inside his cells, Stone expects an easy mission.

But on encountering shadowy, powerful men and dangerous women, Stone discovers more than a plot that killed a fellow operative. A conspiracy plans a powerful blow against Earth’s control of the planet.

A blow that will kill tens of thousands of colonists.

A blow supported by treacherous forces inside the government of Earth.

Join Stone on a distant planet in a headlong race against the clock in the first adventure in his complete four-novel series.

Exploration 2127 (The False Flag War ⋅ Book 1)

Concordia‘s mission reflects the best of the human race. Crew and scientists from both of Earth’s rival factions journey for years at relativistic speeds to reach Bravo Charlie, a life-bearing planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, to expand the frontiers of knowledge for all.

Concordia‘s mission also reflects humanity at its worst. Corrupt bureaucrats and ambitious political leaders in both factions maintain a status quo backed by weapons of mass destruction. The faction commanders on the mission each seek to seize advantages for their side alone.

Then the ship receives transmissions. Signs of an ancient alien presence buried on the planet.

Sent to explore, Jaeger and McIlroy, born and raised in a Texas divided by razor wire and minefields. Men torn between the mission’s ideals and orders from their faction commanders.

When they discover the prize left by aliens dead over a million years, the future of the human race will change forever.

The First Voyages: The Complete Science Fiction Stories 1998-2012

From 21st century asteroid settlements to World War II Romania, from an Earth dominated by immortal aliens to Christ’s empty tomb, join me on journeys to the photosphere of the sun, the coding regions of DNA, and the complexities of the human psyche in this ten-story science fiction short story collection.

Includes Selling Short, The Imitation of Christ, The van der Rohe Forgery, La Rubia, On the Road to Sibiu, The White Witch of Bendugu, Katalysis’ Heart, Nine Views of Transco Tower, by Iak/Sohu, Mike Fink Goes to Big Bend, and The Evidence of Things Seen.