Obsidian Rim Books

Help no one. Show no mercy. Stay alive. Lehana Saar learned the smuggler's trade the hard way--as an indentured servant to the Rim’s most notorious pirate. With the skills she acquired and now with her own ship, the star freighter Phoenix , Lehana is known throughout the Rim as a trafficker who will take any job, however dangerous, for the promise of a good profit. But when she's forced to crash land near a mining colony owned by the heinous, galactic cartel QueCorp, she'll need all her cunning and experience just to survive. And maybe, with a little luck, she might even turn a profit by forging a deal with the mine's owners. That is if she can turn a blind eye to the dismal conditions and merciless exploitation of the thousands of QueCorp's slave laborers. Forty-five years ago Kash Trider and his wife crashed on Ydro-Down. Captured by QueCorp, they were forced into the mines with no chance of release. Qubition ore killed Kash's wife and now only two things keep him going: his hatred of QueCorp and the hope of freeing his two children from the same fate. When the Phoenix crashes near the mine, Kash risks everything to get his children on that ship. But will the hard-edged captain help him escape or will she turn him in for the five million DIC price on the head of a fugitive QueCorp slave? Buy Now to join this galactic adventure with a romantic twist. Obsidian Rim Book 1

Fighting for freedom on a deadly moon, first he must win the soul of the woman sent to destroy him. He means nothing to her. After losing everyone she loved, Yumi Swinton was promised a chance to save what remains of Salty Way Galaxy devastated by the catastrophic Oblivion Wars—and finally make peace with her pain. But when she’s ordered to quell flaring unrest on a barren quarry moon, the stalwart hardrock miner at the heart of the trouble forces her to question everything she believes. She is his enemy. Sold as a child to the QueCorp consortium, Gavyn Grey once hoped to someday pay his debts with qubition—the rare, volatile mineral that reveals wormhole passages. Now, struggling with punishing new quotas, the indentured Q miners have a choice: keep digging their own graves or risk revolt. Except the arrival of the enigmatic corporate enforcer could ruin their desperate rebellion. The treasure they seek won’t be found in the rock. In the darkness of the mines and the oblivion between stars, hope is rarer than Q—and more precious. Gavyn needs Yumi to salvage his faltering revolution…if he can unearth the secrets buried deep in her stone-cold heart and light a new way for her. Trapped together as the moon spins toward violence, trusting each other might be their only chance of survival on the Obsidian Rim. The only step more deadly than plummeting into the unfathomable Q mines…is falling in love. * * * The first book in the “Edge of Sunrise” trilogy: full-length action-adventure space operas with standalone romances—HEA guaranteed. Find escapades, peril, and romance on the Obsidian Rim! From the five-star reviews for ROCK RIFT: “If you like space opera adventure with a romantic twist, don’t pass up this book.” “This space opera romance hit all the right notes.” “Danger, betrayal, seduction, and high-stakes plays for power fuel the suspense and generate the adrenaline on nearly every page.” OBSIDIAN RIM Edge of Sunrise #1 Rock Rift #2 Fire Strike #3 Deep Claim

When a dying fugitive entrusts Cassy with a forbidden code, she must protect a secret which promises to save humanity – and threatens to get her killed. Freelance spaceship captain “Cassy” Cassandra investigates the mysteries of a code stolen from the Fertillan royal family while Prince Stephen, the head of its security service, pursues her. Evading soldiers, fighting pirates and calling in favours, Cassy returns to her home planet of Fertilla where her past and its connection to a dead king wait for her. Realising the key to both lies with Prince Stephen, she closes in on her enemy. But, what begins as a clandestine probe for information, turns to love as she discovers the real man behind the military uniform. Until Cassy cracks the code and understands she must escape Fertilla to bring salvation to the galaxy. Stephen follows, under orders to stop her, and only the final battle will decide if Cassy and the code survive. A page-turning space adventure, Traitor’s Code mixes murder and intrigue with the heartache of impossible love in the first, unmissable instalment of the Freelancer trilogy.

Her secrets can set us free. After a disastrous laboratory accident, exobotanist Dr. ShaylaRam Gomez is desperate to redeem herself in the eyes of the scientific community, and more importantly, her beloved father. But now, with her carefully nurtured study of new black bean seeds in tatters, Shayla is banished to a dishonorable tour of the Obsidian Rim worlds with the man responsible for destroying her reputation – the brawny farmer from some backwater planetoid, Dr. Rahim Xie. The people who freed Rahim from a lifetime of slavery are struggling under crushing debt to the Earth’s Conservatory, and Rahim has vowed to save these destitute Prithvi and Rim farmers. He’ll even steal classified research on sustainable crops from his irascible mentor Grumpy Gomez. When he discovers that meticulous Shayla has a hidden maverick streak, Rahim is tempted to enlist her aid. He needs more than her secrets; he needs her and her brilliant mind to help his cause. But how can he ask Shayla to join a revolution that will pit her against her own father – a man known for his political ruthlessness? Forced together with their dogbot and humanoid companions, they'll travel to the edges of a decaying galaxy to fight the corporate greed that is slowly starving the worlds of the Rim. Are these scientists planting the seeds of their own destruction -- or will their reluctant collaboration blossom into something beyond mere coexistence?

He found her in the darkness of an embattled moon. Once frozen and forgotten, she may be their only hope. Her home was destroyed, her memories all but erased. Imprisoned in cryo for five hundred turns, Tick woke to her world in crisis. Since then she’s been lurking in the shadows of the qubition quarries, willing to fight with knife and fire—until she stumbles on a charming hardrock miner lost in the depths. Though his hands are too soft and his tongue too sharp to suit her quiet, dangerous moon, he makes her yearn impossibly for a life out of the darkness. His life was torn away, his family lost to him. Betrayed from a place of honor and luxury into servitude on Ydro-Down, Arjay twists his once-noble aspirations to save Ydro-Down from ruthless corporate control. But he dares to hope he may reclaim the charmed life he lost when he discovers a legal loophole that might legitimize the miners’ claim: the violent, half-feral Tick. To survive, they must strike a new path together. The rebellious miners of Ydro-Down may have won a fortune in the rare crystalline mineral that energizes intergalactic travel, but their overlords won’t take the loss without a fight. On the Obsidian Rim, only might makes right. And stepping into the light might mean reaching for the stars…or igniting a fire that will burn their moon, their dreams, and the Salty Way Galaxy to ash. * * * OBSIDIAN RIM Edge of Sunrise #1 Rock Rift #2 Fire Strike #3 Deep Claim

Mkhai Kerbasi is a former soldier running on luck’s fumes. He gambled and won, but he’s still in debt to the mob boss who runs Gizem, a glitzy, glamorous space station where all the shine hides a dark underworld. The only hand he’s got left to play is getting the mob boss’s daughter off the station… but how much of his heart is he willing to lose?Silbe Otxoa is no pampered princess, even if her father is one of the most feared men in the ruined galaxy. Now that she’s embroiled in a desperate scheme to keep her family safe, she has to team up with a roguish smuggler who makes her want to bet on him with everything she's got.The two of them together might be able to beat the odds, if they can trust each other enough to lay their hearts on the table.***ROLL OF THE DICEZev sent Mirari Otxoa away years ago to protect her and their unborn daughter. Now that he’s rolling nothing but snake eyes, he needs to see them again, if only to say goodbye. But Mirari has no intention of walking away again from the man who’s always had her heart weighted in his favor.

She found him in the trash. Things can only get better from there. Dance teacher Wil Tango, adopted by a cat who needs to make use of his opposable thumbs, knows all too well the primary rule of their arrangement: never reveal the cat is a genius. Their clever scheme to win all the jackpots on Gizem Station works until a bigwig gets suspicious, and he finds himself stuffed in a stasis box and shipped to Garbage Planet. At least he’s got the cat for company. Sulari Abfall, scrapyard picker extraordinaire, thinks she’s scored when she earns access to the latest offload from Gizem Station. Their trash is her treasure, and the profits from her recycling program should provide more than enough to upgrade her clunky garbage scow into a clunky tow ship, a huge step up in trash hierarchy. When she’s drawn to a hazardous waste container, she finds more than she ever bargained for. A naked man. And a sentient cat. But unsealing the stasis pod sends an interspace signal back to Gizem Station—and the vengeful VIP who thought Wil was dead. It will take all the wits of a lovely garbage scow captain, a down on his luck dance instructor, and a brave orange feline to defeat a gang intent on mayhem, murder, and a galactic catnapping that could change the course of the future for the entire Obsidian Rim. Tropes: disabled characters, animal main characters, running from the mob, saving each other, midlife characters, famous hero

He'll do anything to get a lovely thief and her deadly pursuers off his planet. She'll do anything to stay. Lukas Verde is out to wrest a fortune from the Obsidian Rim. With only a skeleton crew and ragtag tech, he's claimed territory on the unsettled planet Vorona. There he'll build a kingdom giving the Rim what it craves--real food. But Lukas and his people soon realize they are far from alone. There's a reason this lush, verdant planet has never been settled by humans. It' already home to terrifying beings legends say are malevolent spirits. As if ghosts aren't enough, Lukas has a new problem--a small female with the strange ability to control the very vegetation on Vorona. And then there are the deadly beings on her trail. Pleiades Jones didn't mean to steal the mysterious treasure aboard the great ship Flora del Sol. But she can't part with it now--so she's on the run from those who will kill to get it back. To stay alive, she jumps ship on Vorona. Too bad the powerful leader of the only human settlement doesn't want her there. Will Lukas Verde turn her over to her executioners... or will he set her free in the one place she feels at home, the Ghost Planet?

He loves returning to his roots as a farmer and believes in the connection and goodness of all things. She knows that love is not forever and the universe will find a way to devastate you when you begin to trust anyone with your life. After her indentureship to the pirate Hellebor was paid by Kash Trider, Lehana and Kash started a new life with different names on a bucolic ag planet. As Nisa Star and Kieran Sulien, they and the two children are thriving and the Raeaa colonists have embraced them as one of their own. But the agricultural life in every Rim ag planet is put at risk when a virus begins decimating the crops and then infecting the people with a wasting disease—a disease that can kill an entire population within a few months. As Rim scientists rush to find a cure, Nisa and her ship are called to take trial vaccines to every impacted colony. What seems to be an easy run to save the Rim is thrown into peril when KaCorp makes a power play to corner the market and sell the vaccine only to colonists who can afford their exorbitant price. They’ve forcefully taken over the research facility and destroyed all the equipment. The scientists have been imprisoned and their work stolen. Worse, to distract Nisa from her mission, someone has kidnapped Kieran and he is dying alone on a poisoned planetoid she can’t find. Thrown into a fight for the lives of all those on the Rim, Nisa must make heartbreaking choices, face the call of revenge, find a way to her own redemption, and ultimately learn to embrace the gifts of the cryoborn. To win she must learn to trust her life and those of her family not only to those she knows, but to complete strangers…the one thing her entire life experience has taught her never to do. OBSIDIAN RIM BOOK 10 Cryoborn Gifts Book 2

Caught in the crossfire of brotherly rivalry, a spaceship captain must risk her life to save an entire planet. Torn between her love for Prince Stephen and her love for her freelance career in space, Cassy lives her life in limbo. But when a madman hijacks her spaceship and burns all her valuable fuel, circumstances compel her to accept a job offer from Stephen. Her mission: spy on his brother James. Going undercover on Prince James’s spaceship, Cassy travels to a planet on the verge of collapse. James, in covert negotiations with the ruling president, offers a radical solution to their problems, but the details remain locked out of Cassy’s reach. To discover them, she must delve deeper into the lives of the planet’s desperate population. But the horror of what she finds becomes overshadowed when she reveals the terrifying truth about Prince James’s future plans. Cassy must race across the galaxy and enlist the help of an old friend to stop a planetary disaster – unless James captures and kills her first. A page-turning space adventure where action and intrigue fight alongside love and betrayal. The unmissable sequel to Traitor’s Code .

For a hardrock miner and a mercenary drifter, survival is no longer enough. Her strength and the song in her heart kept her alive. Miner Jashanna Riz has lived her entire life of Ydro-Down, bashing the precious spacetime-folding qubition out of unforgiving stone. She fought fiercely alongside her friends at the front line of the rebellion, wielding her hammer to wrest their quarry home away from its cruel corporate overlords. Now begins the delicate work of kindling new life from cold stone…and she’s going to start with the aloof mercenary who intrigues her. Rejecting a fate worse than death, he drifts the Salty Way. Though his plasma gun is always for hire, Fenn Alexos has only ever truly fought for himself. Calling a dangerous, broken moon home, and defending it against a merciless galaxy? Ridiculous—and impossible. But until the next mission, he’ll shoot for the pay…and maybe for the tempting smile of a hardrock miner. Sharing one bed in the outback of a deadly moon. Sent out into the remote mountains to rekindle a lost signal, Jashanna and Fenn will unearth a dark secret from the depths that might finally free Ydro-Down—along with the chance to finally choose their own path, bright as the hope of a sunrise to come. * * * OBSIDIAN RIM Edge of Sunrise #1 Rock Rift #2 Fire Strike #3 Deep Claim

Lincoln doesn’t want trouble. Briar is trouble personified. Lincoln Caster owes everything he has to the Trash Planet recycling plant that hired him, allowing him to lead an uneventful life for a change. When he’s asked to plan a heist from a less than savory rival factory, he wonders if his checkered past is the only reason he got the job. That is, until he realizes the priceless item he’s been asked to steal will save a top-secret generation ship full of cryopreserved humans…and freakishly intelligent cats. But first Lincoln has to seduce—or at least fool—the rival factory’s sales agent, cool, competent Briar Pandora, who may or may not be leading a double life as a corporate mole. He’ll have to trust her with the truth…unless her own agenda results in them becoming targets of a vicious intergalactic corporation that will stop at nothing in its quest to hijack generation ships and sell off their parts—and their passengers, be they human or feline. Tropes: grumpy sunshine, animal main characters, big secrets, blue collar hero, friend groups, found family

Framed for an assassination she didn’t commit, Cassy must prove her innocence to bring a life-saving technology back to her home planet. When Freelance spaceship captain Cassy discovers an assassin at the wedding of her ex-lover, Prince Stephen, she fights to wrench his rifle away. But a stray blast shoots into the royal party and kills Queen Triana. Knocked unconscious, Cassy wakes to find herself holding the murder weapon, the assassin gone and a squad of guards who condemn her as guilty. Facing certain execution, Cassy breaks out of jail with Prince Stephen’s help and they escape together. Taking refuge in a secret underground lab, they learn of a forbidden technology hidden in a spaceship and sent beyond the rim of the galaxy. Retrieving it promises plentiful food for everyone, but the journey lies through a supposedly impenetrable barrier. Even if they achieve the impossible, they cannot return until they prove Cassy’s innocence. So they must infiltrate a dangerous rebel army on another world to unmask the real assassin. From the first page to the final scene, Assassin maintains its page-turning action. Can Cassy find the real assassin and prove her innocence? Can she find the lost spaceship and bring back its secrets? Can a freelance spaceship captain like Cassy and a prince like Stephen ever be together? Find out only in the thrilling conclusion to the Freelancer trilogy.

Two humans, a bunch of cats, a space ship...and murder. Han-Ja Gee has made a fine living on Trash Planet trading information and secrets with those who are willing to pay, either in money or in more secrets. He thought he knew everything...until a talking cat interrupted a business meeting. But cats can't talk. Cats are so rare that only very wealthy people own them. If he can find and sell some cats, he can pay off the life-debt he owes and leave Trash Planet forever. Farah Shine Collins is the last human to awaken on the ancient generation ship, the Catamaran, two thousand years after it was supposed to reach a habitable planet. Her adjustment to this new world of sentient cats and a hardscrabble existence in a galaxy that barely survived a catastrophic war is not smooth going. And it becomes infinitely worse when she's asked to partner with an information broker named Han-Ja, who is clearly trouble, in solving a murder on board the ship. A murder for which the primary suspect is Farah's mother. A murder that not even mind-reading cats seem to know anything about. A murder that was only the first in a string of deadly attacks that threatens to tear the whole ship apart. Han-Ja just wanted to escape a brutal racketeer. Farah just wanted a place that she and her mother could call home. Neither expected to fall in love while locked on a murder ship with three thousand terrified colonists and almost as many angry cats. But if they cannot stop the killer, the collateral damage will be a lot more than their hopes and dreams. It will be their lives. Tropes: stranded or stuck together, charming hero, found family, friend groups, serial killer, sharing a room, colonization NOTE: This novel is the third in the Cat Ship series and features some characters and settings from the previous two novels, Catalyst and Catapult. Maybe read them first.