Spacer's Bet

The attack came out of nowhere. Suddenly a hunting pack, flashing Lupan IDs, dropped out of Jump to fire on the unarmed ore hauler Shojai.

Isfahan "Iz" Hauler Shojai had only an instant to wonder why before the attackers’ guns ripped open Shojai’s cargo bay.

The cargo bay where her ditzy younger brother Kansas was working. The bay whose crew was sucked out into the void. Like herself, Kansas was genetically engineered to survive vacuum. But his protective shell couldn’t hold forever. Battling time and the chaos of a wounded ship, Iz launched herself into the vacuum of the gutted hold to rescue her brother.

Badly damaged Shojai limps into RockPort only to discover that the port is now under the ‘protection’ of Moscow, a woman whose laws are as harsh as the blue ice of her liege world, Streiker. She demands all fees up front. Worse, the voices Kansas ‘hears in his head’ have him spouting a language he doesn’t even speak. But Moscow does.

Already fearing repercussions, Iz drags Kansas away from a dockside murder. But she soon learns that there is far more at stake than just their own lives. They must get to the near-mythical world of Earth or risk the destruction of the human Commonwealth itself.

It doesn’t help that Moscow’s cat attaches itself to Kansas. Especially because the cat seems to have an agenda of its own…

If you enjoy Anne Leckie’s Ancillary series, or Firefly, then you need to meet Iz and Kansas. Dive into this exciting prequel to the upcoming Aliya War series!