Ruler of Naught: Coming December 27 from Book View Cafe

Updates:

December 28: Sherwood and I talk about how ebook publishing let us dive into rewriting a 20-year-old space opera at Scalzi’s Big Idea.

December 28: Sherwood Smith talks about Star Wars, Dave Trowbridge, and the Zing! of inspiration.

December 27: Deborah J. Ross talks about The Lesbian Chocolate Sex Scene, or Life With Exordium.

December 27: The The Phoenix in Flight is on sale for $0.99 through January 27th to help new readers get started on the series.

In the sequel to The Phoenix in Flight, Brandon vlith-Arkad, who fled the Mandalic Palace and his old life only hours ahead of assassination, is now heir to the Panarchy. He only wants to rescue his father, the Panarch. But everyone wants of piece of him. The Dol’jharians, who smashed the Panarchy and took his father prisoner. A Rifter pirate and her crew, who helped him escape a doomed planet—twice—and now wonder what to do about a royal prisoner with the price of ten planets on his head. And the remnants of the government of the Thousand Suns, for whom he’d at best be an inconvenience.

And that’s before things go seriously pear-shaped. Racing ahead of the light-speed news of their attack with FTL comms and weapons looted from a fortress built millions of years ago, the Dol’jharians and those Rifters allied with them are consolidating their victories. Elements of the Panarchist Navy struggle to understand what’s happening, find surviving units, and strike back. And Eusabian of Dol’jhar, now master of the Mandala from which his defeated enemy once ruled the Thousand Suns, awaits news of the Heart of Kronos, the missing key to ultimate power.

Which lies in the hands of Brandon’s captor. The chase is on, and unexpected detours await.

Sherwood and I are fortunate to have the services of the talented Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein as cover artist for the revised edition of our space opera, Exordium. Book Two, Ruler of Naught, comes out December 27th from Book View Cafe, and Rhi has captured perfectly the feeling of the book. It carries forward the theme of the new cover she did for The Phoenix in Flight, which will continue with the next three books.