Showing results by author "J. L. Doty" in All Categories

As a lifer in the Imperial Navy fighting in a war that has lasted for generations, York Ballin's only hope for an honorable discharge is the grave. But what events led up to his reluctant enlistment? What spawned York's almost fanatic loyalty to his friends - and his doubts regarding the imperial uniform he once wore with such pride? York rarely recalls his childhood, which began with a mystery and ended at age 11 when he was given a harsh choice: Join the navy or face certain death on a prison asteroid.

As a lifer in the Imperial Navy, fighting in a war that has lasted generations, Lieutenant York Ballin's only hope for an honorable discharge is the grave. Neither the Empire nor the Directorate seems to care that millions have died or that millions more are doomed as hostilities continue. Ballin's only option is to hunker down, keep his crewmen and women in top condition, and try not to get them all killed.

When Commander Charlie Cass, the bastard son of the Duke de Maris, returns from five years in a squalid Syndonese POW camp, he finds that little has changed in the Realm. As always, the King and the nine Dukes are conspiring against each other, but now some of them are plotting with Charlie's old enemy. And as interstellar war looms, they certainly don't need Charlie Cass messing up their delicate plans. Unfortunately for them, that's what he's best at.

The diplomatic mission has arrived at Viktorkinde. Palmutter is getting more unstable and unreliable each day. On Sarkovie, Anders Eindride learns that the people responsible for the tragedy on Novalis III are planning something big, a real game changer. He's unable to warn his Commonwealth contacts before being put on a ship back to Viktorkinde, where the factions among the Kelk are splintering.

After John and Nikaela are rescued from the rogue warship Sycorax, Katrine Primatov has only a lone hunter-killer to back her in the remote Sarkovie system, and she is faced with a Kelk force of overwhelming firepower superiority. The Kelk decide to take John and Nikaela back to Viktorkinde, whether Katrine likes it or not, and everyone is pretending they're not prisoners. But the Kelk are quietly at war among themselves, fighting their own battle against superstition and irrationality. John and Katrine begin to learn the roots of the Kelk hatred of the Blacksword.

Nikaela Vreekande joins Kristdokar's clandestine operation to identify those responsible for the tragedy on Novalis III and the incident on Reisenar. Lieutenant Colonel Katrine Primatov meets with Thordahl and Brynjar on Norandyne to establish covert lines of communication between the Kelk Supremacy and the Commonwealth. John Mathius travels to Trafalgar to attend O-School. All seems well, but there are those in the Commonwealth and the Supremacy who would prefer that John and Nikaela fail, or barring that, they would see them dead.

For many, the dying part is hard. For some, the living part is harder. At 16 years of age, Mathius’ life is focused on scrounging bits of food in the midst of a five-way civil war on the planet Novalis III. Two government factions and three rebel factions are all hell-bent on killing one another, and the civilian population is caught in the middle. If Mathius doesn’t find food, he and his father, mother, and sister will go hungry for the day, a not-so-unusual occurrence.

Morgin finds himself living two lives. When he goes to sleep at night he dreams of a life 1,200 years in the past. But it's not like a dream, it's more like another life, for when he goes to sleep in that other life, he awakes again in this one, still a hunted man. In the far past he's a mercenary Benesh'ere warrior hired out to one of the 12 Legions of Angels fighting in the Great Clan Wars. And there he fights alongside, and against, legendary figures from the far past of the Shahot.

Now a Benesh'ere slave, every whiteface in the tribe hungers for Morgin's death. But he is Harriok's property, and while Harriok remains in a coma, a victim of the venom of the sand cat's sixth claw, the warriors wait and bide their time. As Morgin accompanies them on the March, an affinity for steel is slowly awakening within him, and he truly fears the truths his growing knowledge may reveal.

Morgin is trapped in the Kingdom of Dreams, the realm of the Unnamed King. He knows he must somehow get back to the Mortal Plane to save France and Rhianne, and he's frustrated that he doesn't know the way. He decides to find the Unnamed King, for surely His Majesty could show him the way, and maybe even tell him his true name.

Rat is no ordinary thief. A feral, filthy, and malnourished child, he haunts the streets of the medieval city Anistigh and survives on what he can steal. When he tries to steal a purse and bungles it, a mob wants to cut off his hand as punishment, so to save himself, he slips into a convenient shadow to hide. Rat thinks it's just another warm and comfortable shadow cast by the sun, but a clan wizard sees him create the shadow with his magic, an instinctive act of which Rat is unaware.

Creepy Serial Killer Guy (SKG) has relocated from Dallas to San Francisco so he can hunt down Paul and Katherine. The demon in his soul can't rest until it possesses Paul. But in Dallas, Paul and Katherine badly weakened it. So SKG's master needs to gain strength before attempting to take them. He prowls the streets of San Francisco and the Bay Area looking for more Alices. While creepy SKG hunts Alices, Vasily Karpov conspires with Ag, King of the Unseelie Court.

Salisteen, a very powerful colleague of McGowan's, suspects a demon is loose in her city, the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Something has murdered and possessed the souls of a string of young girls. At her request, McGowan brings Paul down to see if his special necromantic powers might be of help in hunting down the demon. McGowan also brings Colleen and Katherine. But Salisteen's hidden agenda is for her and another senior practitioner to have a look at Paul, and he finds himself under their microscope.

Paul Conklin is a rather ordinary, 30-ish fellow, sharing his ordinary, present-day San Francisco apartment with the ghosts of his dead wife and daughter. Suzanna's cooking for him again, and Cloe's bouncing around the apartment in her school uniform, and things are almost back to normal. But a piece of Paul realizes he's really bug-f--k nuts, or at least that's what he thinks. He has no idea that a Primus caste demon from the Netherworld covets his soul.