Audacious (Kris Longknife #5)

Audacious by Mike Shephard is the fifth book in his space opera featuring Kris Longknife.

As all of Kris Longknife's assignments, she is being sent somewhere to be kept out of trouble. And like all assignments, that is not the real mission. The problem is that no one ever tells Kris what the real reason is for her being in what feels like the wrong place at the wrong time.  

The planet of New Eden is controlled by the descendants of three Earth nations - a precarious balance that no one outside of the government really understands. Partly because of the inordinately high price to subscribe to any media source. Most citizens cannot afford to pay it. 

There are factions at work who want to overthrow the government and are using the lack of media as a kind of shield to get things started. Kris has to figure out a way to get information out of this frustrating planet. 

The one thing that might help is that Abbey, Kris's maid / bodyguard / maybe-a-spy is from New Eden. She may have sources - only she left more than a decade ago and never looked back.

The Kris Longknife series is a swashbuckling good read. 

Shephard, Mike (2007). Audacious. New York: Ace Books.

The Splinter in the Sky

The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa is a brilliant space opera, filled with political intrigue, espionage and some deserved comeuppance! 

On the distant moon of Koriko, a territory of the Holy Vaalbaran Empire, those who live on the planet are not doing as well as they were before they were subjected to the Empire.

Tea Specialist and Scribe Enitan Ijebu is about to become a political prisoner to ensure the uneasy peace between the Empire and the Ominirish Republic. Losing both people she cares about, she is taken to the capital planet - home of the God-Emperor.

The seat of government, and the upper classes, is a floating city that hovers over the planet long abandoned by all who could. There Enitan will do everything necessary to save her sibling, exact revenge and try to free her home planet. 

Ashing-Giwa has written a wonderful science fiction, espionage story. This is a great read-a-like for fans of Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire. 

Ashing-Giwa, Kemi. (2023). The Splinter in the Sky. New York: Sage Press.

Resolute (Kris Longknife #4)

Resolute by Mike Shephard is the fourth book in his space opera series featuring Kris Longknife. 

To get the trouble-making (for some) Kris Longknife out of the way, she is assigned to a planet on the Rim. The planet Chance is one not many people have even heard of. She is to take over the guarding of two jump gates. 

When Kris arrives, with Jack, Penny and Abby, the station she is assigned to has been mothballed. The ship they arrived on is more a floating museum than a proper Navy ship. And she has no personnel - everyone from Chance has been retired and moved back to the planet. 

With her usual "luck" five Greenhaven ships enter the far star gate. Greenhaven has been commandeering planets since the alliance with Earth broke down. Now Kris has just a few days to invent a way to defend Chance space.

Shephard has created a badass character in Kris Longknife. This series is every entertaining. 

Shephard, Mike. (2006). Resolute. New York: ACE Books.

In the Time of Our History

In the Time of Our History by Susanne Pari is a family saga centered on an Iranian American family in New Jersey.

Mitra Jahani grew up in New Jersey with her parents and younger sister Anahita. She is on her way back there now, from San Fransisco, for Anahita's One Year - marking the anniversary of the death of Anahita, and her two children. 

Being back among her family is a blessing and a curse for Mitra. Her father has not spoken to her for years and her mother is caught in the middle. She has extended family she adores and those she wishes to never lay eyes on again. 

Pari has written a beautiful family saga with all of the complications of any family, likely enhanced by the parents being immigrants from a different culture and children who grew up American. 

Pari, Susanne. (2023). In the Time of Our History. New York: John Scognamiglio Books.

The Terraformers

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz is the story of creating a habitable planet out of a rock spinning in space. 

The Environmental Rescue Teams job on the planet SASK-E is to keep things in balance. Teams through the ages have been guiding the planet through stages from oxygen production to soil enrichment to plant growth. SASK-E is now in a Pleistocene-like era.

Destry, an Environmental Research Ranger, in the year 59,006 is charged with caring for the planets and helping when the ecosystems need it. 

While accompanying another ranger to the south of the main continent, they discover a city that should not exist - a people who should be impossible. This will make Destry rethink all she knows about SASK-E and Verdance, the corporation who owns the planet. 

Newitz has written a great environmental science fiction story that will make you think differently about our world and all kinds of people. This is a great book.

Newitz, Annalee. (2023). The Terraformers. New York: TOR.

The Monsters We Defy

The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope is an historical fiction novel set in 1920s DC.

Clara Johnson can talk to spirits. It was likely to happen as she was born at a crossroads. Then she made a deal with an enigma - which always comes with a trick. 

Clara has the chance to free herself of her trick if she steals a ring. She agrees, no questions asked. It is not until later that she wonders how someone in the spirit world can use a ring.

Either way, she will need a team to help with this heist. Especially after she realizes that the ring may be responsible for poor people going missing. 

Penelope has written story set during the Roaring Twenties and the Harlem Renaissance (which took place in more cities than just NYC). Read this wonderful book.

Penelope, Leslye. (2022). The Monsters We Defy. New York: Red Hook.

Clara "Carrie" Johnson was a real person. She is known for being shot in her apartment during the 1919 DC Race War, then accused of killing a police officer who broke in shooting. There were 18 bullets in her bedroom door. Her and her father both shot. Sound familiar? Like nothing much changed between Carrie Johnson in 1919 and Breonna Taylor in 2020?