Stories of adventure and hilarity for ages 9 to 12

The cadets of the Oymyakon Foreign Service Academy know more than most about challenging environments. They experience one every day just while crossing their campus. Their planet barely ranks as habitable on the best of days. But now the third and fourth year cadets face even harsher conditions, climbing to heights nearly at the edge of space and totally within the heart of Oymyakon's ever-present storms. Murdina Ritchie relishes the opportunity to test her mettle in ways she never could back home in the stable, comfortable environment of a space station. Shackleton Fitz IV delights in freedom from campus life and distance from the growing rumors of political turmoil in the Union of Free Worlds, if only for a few days. Then a fellow cadet falls to her death. No one in the camp thinks this an accident. But with no way down off the mountain until the storm passes, they all live with the knowledge that a murderer lurks among them, possibly planning to kill again. Ritchie and Fitz face death all the time. But if a human killer fails to end them, the planet itself just might finish the job. Staying alive calls on them to apply everything they've learned at the academy. But will it be enough?

Cadets Ritchie and Fitz finally face their last year at the Oymyakon Foreign Service Academy. Which means decision time for what comes next. The golden wings and ivory robes of a diplomat? Or the crossed spears and navy blue uniform of a guardian? Before they decide, they and the other last-year cadets first spend a week on the university planet, visiting both of the colleges. A single day at the guardian school exhausts even the most highly trained of the cadets. But the first night visiting the diplomat school ends in a very undiplomatic murder. One of the guests at a mock state dinner dies in the middle of the dessert course, a victim of a very gruesome poison. And the only suspect? Cadet Shackleton Fitz IV. So Murdina Ritchie finds herself alone on a strange planet with its own set of rules, desperate to prove her partner's innocence. Hard enough under any circumstances, made harder still by the presence of two former Oymyakon cadets: Finn and Feena Berweger. Can Ritchie defeat her old nemeses one more time? Maybe. Can she do it with her best friend and close partner in crime-solving trapped in police custody? She has to. An Undiplomatic Murder, book five in the Ritchie and Fitz Sci-Fi Murder Mysteries.

Murdina Ritchie and Shackleton Fitz IV start their junior year at the Oymyakon Foreign Service Academy finally feeling like they belong in that world. They stand as equals among the other cadets. And the crushing load of schoolwork? Surprisingly manageable when you're not trying to solve a murder at the same time. But the rumors of big changes in the political universe reach even the depths of the Academy. Distrust and secretiveness invade the minds of all of the cadets. Something dark and tumultuous hangs over all of them, and not just the ever-present storms of Oymyakon. Then someone finds a body in the lower levels, and the accusations fly. A murder, but committed decades before. Long before the time of any of the cadets. But not before the time of the instructors. In fact, exactly at the time Colonel Hansen was Cadet Hansen. Can Ritchie and Fitz solve the coldest of cases and prove the colonel innocent? Or worse, guilty?

This box set collects the entire six book series The Travels of Scout Shannon.   Under Falling Skies Scout's whole family died the day the Space Farers dropped an asteroid on their domed city. Now she lives alone, out in the wild with only her dogs for company. She prefers it that way. But Scout finds herself at a crossroads. One road leads back to a quiet life snug under the protective dome of a city. The other road leads to a life in the rebellion, a life of adventure and excitement but also danger. Dare she try to find the rebels hiding in the hills? Then a chance encounter with a stranger from the other side of the galaxy threatens to derail what remains of Scout's life. The entire galaxy awaits her, if she survives the next four days.   In Quaking Hills Scout just wants to find the man who conned her mentor and leave her home world for good. Alas, the long-threatened war draws nearer and Scout finds herself caught in the middle, surrounded by rebels and bandits. Worse, she carries a pocketful of dangerous secrets with no one to entrust them to. And the hills keep shaking. Something lurks deep underground. Something massive. Something world-destroying. Scout leaves in three days. If she lives that long.   Among Treacherous Stars Scout wants nothing more than to leave her home. She makes it as far as her own planet's orbit before the snares of bureaucracy close around her, trapping her on a space station populated by her people's oldest foe. Then her rescuer, her only friend in the galaxy, disappears, abducted by a group of strangers the moment he steps off his ship. Alone in a strange place, surrounded by the old enemies she knows and new enemies just making themselves known, Scout faces a challenge like none before. But with her dogs at her side, Scout stands prepared for anything.   Against Impassable Barriers Caught between two factions of a powerful trade dynasty, Scout fights to remain free and to protect her friends. But the people trying to make her their pawn barely seem human to her eyes. Fight them? She can barely understand them. With friends on both sides of the planetary blockade, Scout just needs to find a way to get her friends stuck on the inside to those waiting for them on the outside. But foes also lurk on both sides. And they hide among her friends. How to tell friend from foe? Scout better learn before the enemies close in around her.   Over Freezing Altitudes Having escaped yet another closing trap, Scout finds herself on a snowbound mountaintop far from civilization. With assassins eager to kill her, laying low on an alien world is the smartest play. But wherever Scout goes, trouble follows. And a hamlet in the mountains gets far more remote when girl assassins destroy the only means back to civilization. Now Scout and her dogs face a long, cold climb back to the frozen star port city, her only guide, a girl whose sister Scout killed when fighting for her life. Can she get to safety before the girl learns the truth about Scout? And what secrets of her own is this strange girl keeping?   At Galactic Central Galactic Central, a collection of floating cities in a vast, manmade, planetless cloud. Scout longed to see it since she first heard of it. This place long represented her shining future. But in her less shiny present, she reaches it by smuggling herself aboard a cargo ship and hides in the lower sewer-like levels of the most opulent of the floating cities. Teams of girl assassins still hunt her. Worse, her friends are in danger and don't even know. Scout has to save her friends, because saving her friends means saving her entire planet from enslavement to the Tajaki trade dynasty. Caught between two sides of that dynasty, with a mysterious third party desperate to remove her from the galaxy, Scout is in way over her head. But with her friends, she just might see a path to victory for all of them.

This box set collects the three novels in the Slums of the Solar System shared world: MITWA, THE MARS OF MALCONTENTS, and A WHOLE WORLD FOR EACH.   MITWA: When a deadly plague ravaged the Earth refugees fled into space, crowding into any space station or lunar colony that would take them. Decades passed and the descendants of the survivors struggle to live in anything remotely spaceworthy.Omesh, banished from his Earthly home, finds himself in Barnacle Town. A collection of salvage clinging to the hull of a space station in lunar orbit. Thousands of lives cling precariously to the hull, at the whim of the corporation that owns the station.The station manager welcomes everyone. But then the CEO arrives, intent on scraping the hull of his craft clean. Omesh and his family, friends and neighbors? Not the corporation’s problem. With nowhere else to go, Omesh vows to fight for his new home. But physics? More merciless than any CEO.   THE MARS OF MALCONTENTS: Valentina knows how to live in the community spread throughout the old mining caves under the Martian ice cap. A violent place in a forbidding climate, but home for her and her brother. Until she wakes from a coma to find her brother gone. Her father thinks her incapable of following them back to the equatorial cities. He underestimates her – her stubbornness, her courage and her inventiveness. But she underestimates the cold, airless surface of Mars. A journey from the polar ice cap to the Martian equator? Not enough to stop Valentina. Not with her brother on the line.   THE WHOLE WORLD FOR EACH: After humankind fled Earth for space they discovered one inescapable truth. People die in space. And lots of dead people means lots of ghosts. April Nguyen earns a nice living getting rid of those ghosts. People all over the Solar System clamor for her aid. April's only problem? Never actually seeing a ghost. She pretends, she feigns, she completely convinces her clients, but she fears her inevitable exposure as a fraud. And then comes Hakim, the ultimate suspicious sceptic watching her every move. And yet April feels herself drawn to him. He knows a whole other world."The Whole World for Each", a story about belief and disbelief and how we jump between the two. Humankind escaped Earth, but not death and what comes after.

Galactic Central, a collection of floating cities in a vast, manmade, planetless cloud. Scout Shannon longed to see it since she first heard of it. This place long represented her shining future. But in her less shiny present, she reaches it by smuggling herself aboard a cargo ship and hides in the lower sewer-like levels of the most opulent of the floating cities. Teams of girl assassins still hunt her. Worse, her friends are in danger and don't even know. Scout has to save her friends, because saving her friends means saving her entire planet from enslavement to the Tajaki trade dynasty. Caught between two sides of that dynasty, with a mysterious third party desperate to remove her from the galaxy, Scout is in way over her head. But with her friends, she just might see a path to victory for all of them. "At Galactic Central" the sixth and final book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of plucky heroines, girl assassins, political intrigue, and loyal dog sidekicks.

When a deadly plague ravaged the Earth refugees fled into space, crowding into any space station or lunar colony that would take them. Decades passed and the descendants of the survivors struggle to live in anything remotely spaceworthy. Omesh, banished from his Earthly home, finds himself in Barnacle Town. A collection of salvage clinging to the hull of a space station in lunar orbit. Thousands of lives cling precariously to the hull, at the whim of the corporation that owns the station. The station manager welcomes everyone. But then the CEO arrives, intent on scraping the hull of his craft clean. Omesh and his family, friends and neighbors? Not the corporation’s problem. With nowhere else to go, Omesh vows to fight for his new home. But physics? More merciless than any CEO.

This box set collects Against Impassable Barriers, Over Freezing Altitudes and At Galactic Central, the fourth, fifth and sixth books in the Travels of Scout Shannon series. Stranded on the far side of the moon with her friends, Scout Shannon waits for rescue from galactic central. Hunted by two sets of enemies, surrounded by an impenetrable barrier maintained by an almost alien class of humans, time runs short. Caught between two factions of a powerful trade dynasty, Scout fights to remain free and to protect her friends. But the people trying to make her their pawn barely seem human to her eyes. Fight them? She can barely understand them. With friends on both sides of the planetary blockade, Scout just needs to find a way to get her friends stuck on the inside to those waiting for them on the outside. But foes also lurk on both sides. And they hide among her friends. How to tell friend from foe? Scout better learn before the enemies close in around her. "Against Impassable Barriers" the fourth book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of resourceful heroines, political intrigue, and loyal dog sidekicks.   Having escaped yet another closing trap, Scout Shannon finds herself on a snowbound mountaintop far from civilization. With assassins eager to kill her, laying low on an alien world is the smartest play. But wherever Scout goes, trouble follows. And a hamlet in the mountains gets far more remote when girl assassins destroy the only means back to civilization. Now Scout and her dogs face a long, cold climb back to the frozen star port city, her only guide, a girl whose sister Scout killed when fighting for her life. Can she get to safety before the girl learns the truth about Scout? And what secrets of her own is this strange girl keeping? "Over Freezing Altitudes" the fifth book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of resourceful heroines, survival in extreme environments, girl assassins and loyal dog sidekicks.   Galactic Central, a collection of floating cities in a vast, manmade, planetless cloud. Scout Shannon longed to see it since she first heard of it. This place long represented her shining future. But in her less shiny present, she reaches it by smuggling herself aboard a cargo ship and hides in the lower sewer-like levels of the most opulent of the floating cities. Teams of girl assassins still hunt her. Worse, her friends are in danger and don't even know. Scout has to save her friends, because saving her friends means saving her entire planet from enslavement to the Tajaki trade dynasty. Caught between two sides of that dynasty, with a mysterious third party desperate to remove her from the galaxy, Scout is in way over her head. But with her friends, she just might see a path to victory for all of them. "At Galactic Central" the sixth and final book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of plucky heroines, girl assassins, political intrigue, and loyal dog sidekicks.  

Having escaped yet another closing trap, Scout Shannon finds herself on a snowbound mountaintop far from civilization. With assassins eager to kill her, laying low on an alien world is the smartest play. But wherever Scout goes, trouble follows. And a hamlet in the mountains gets far more remote when girl assassins destroy the only means back to civilization. Now Scout and her dogs face a long, cold climb back to the frozen star port city, her only guide, a girl whose sister Scout killed when fighting for her life. Can she get to safety before the girl learns the truth about Scout? And what secrets of her own is this strange girl keeping? "Over Freezing Altitudes" the fifth book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of resourceful heroines, survival in extreme environments, girl assassins and loyal dog sidekicks.

After humankind fled Earth for space they discovered one inescapable truth. People die in space. And lots of dead people means lots of ghosts. April Nguyen earns a nice living getting rid of those ghosts. People all over the Solar System clamor for her aid. April's only problem? Never actually seeing a ghost. She pretends, she feigns, she completely convinces her clients, but she fears her inevitable exposure as a fraud. And then comes Hakim, the ultimate suspicious sceptic watching her every move. And yet April feels herself drawn to him. He knows a whole other world.  "The Whole World for Each", a story about belief and disbelief and how we jump between the two. Humankind escaped Earth, but not death and what comes after.

Valentina knows how to live in the community spread throughout old mining caves under the Martian ice cap. A violent place in a forbidding climate but home for her and her brother. Until she wakes from a coma to find her brother gone. A journey from the polar ice cap to the Martian equator? Not enough to stop Valentina. Not with her brother on the line.  Valentina wakes from a coma to find her brother gone. A journey across Mars from the polar ice cap to the equator? Not enough to stop Valentina. Not with her brother on the line.

Stranded on the far side of the moon with her friends, Scout Shannon waits for rescue from galactic central. Hunted by two sets of enemies, surrounded by an impenetrable barrier maintained by an almost alien class of humans, time runs short. Caught between two factions of a powerful trade dynasty, Scout fights to remain free and to protect her friends. But the people trying to make her their pawn barely seem human to her eyes. Fight them? She can barely understand them. With friends on both sides of the planetary blockade, Scout just needs to find a way to get her friends stuck on the inside to those waiting for them on the outside. But foes also lurk on both sides. And they hide among her friends. How to tell friend from foe? Scout better learn before the enemies close in around her. "Against Impassable Barriers" the fourth book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of resourceful heroines, political intrigue, and loyal dog sidekicks.

Scout Shannon's whole family died the day the Space Farers dropped an asteroid on their domed city. Now she lives alone, out in the wild with only her dogs for company. She prefers it that way.   But Scout finds herself at a crossroads. One road leads back to a quiet life snug under the protective dome of a city. The other road leads to a life in the rebellion, a life of adventure and excitement but also danger. Dare she try to find the rebels hiding in the hills?   Then a chance encounter with a stranger from the other side of the galaxy threatens to derail what remains of Scout's life. The entire galaxy awaits her, if she survives the next four days.   "Under Falling Skies", a young adult science fiction novel, set on a remote planet with a distinctly Old West feel. For fans of gunslinging women and young girl assassins. And dogs.   After spending the last four days of her life hiding out from a deadly solar particle storm in an underground bunker, trapped with six treacherous women and a trio of girl assassins, Scout Shannon just wants to find the man who conned her mentor and leave her home world for good. Alas, the long-threatened war draws nearer and Scout finds herself caught in the middle, surrounded by rebels and bandits. Worse, she carries a pocketful of dangerous secrets with no one to entrust them to. And the hills keep shaking. Something lurks deep underground. Something massive. Something world-destroying. Scout leaves in three days. If she lives that long. "In Quaking Hills", the sequel to "Under Falling Skies" and the second book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of plucky heroines, complicated boys, and loyal dog sidekicks.   Scout Shannon wants nothing more than to leave her home world and its petty squabbling factions behind. Galactic central with all of its excitement and opportunities awaits her. She makes it as far as her own planet's orbit before the snares of bureaucracy close around her, trapping her on a space station populated by her people's oldest foe. Then her rescuer, her only friend in the galaxy, disappears, abducted by a group of strangers the moment he steps off his ship. Alone in a strange place, surrounded by the old enemies she knows and new enemies just making themselves known, Scout faces a challenge like none before. But with her dogs at her side, Scout stands prepared for anything. "Among Treacherous Stars" the third book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of plucky heroines, girl spies conspiring in political intrigues, and loyal dog sidekicks.

After spending the last four days of her life hiding out from a deadly solar particle storm in an underground bunker, trapped with six treacherous women and a trio of girl assassins, Scout Shannon just wants to find the man who conned her mentor and leave her home world for good. Alas, the long-threatened war draws nearer and Scout finds herself caught in the middle, surrounded by rebels and bandits. Worse, she carries a pocketful of dangerous secrets with no one to entrust them to. And the hills keep shaking. Something lurks deep underground. Something massive. Something world-destroying. Scout leaves in three days. If she lives that long. "In Quaking Hills", the sequel to "Under Falling Skies" and the second book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of plucky heroines, complicated boys, and loyal dog sidekicks.

Scout Shannon wants nothing more than to leave her home world and its petty squabbling factions behind. Galactic central with all of its excitement and opportunities awaits her. She makes it as far as her own planet's orbit before the snares of bureaucracy close around her, trapping her on a space station populated by her people's oldest foe. Then her rescuer, her only friend in the galaxy, disappears, abducted by a group of strangers the moment he steps off his ship. Alone in a strange place, surrounded by the old enemies she knows and new enemies just making themselves known, Scout faces a challenge like none before. But with her dogs at her side, Scout stands prepared for anything. "Among Treacherous Stars" the third book in "The Travels of Scout Shannon" series, a young adult science fiction novel for fans of plucky heroines, girl spies conspiring in political intrigues, and loyal dog sidekicks.

Kate MacLeod writes both fantasy and science fiction. This book collects her nine previously published short stories as well as two new bonus stories. These tales span from Heian era Japan to the near reaches of space, from alternate world fantasies inspired by Babylon and Mohenjo-Daro to post-apocalyptic air ships that never touch the ground, from light-hearted fare like "Trifle" to the darker "On Desperate Seas", based on the ill-fated John Franklin Expedition. This collection includes:Blood and InkOil FireGardens of WindSeagull and RavenMother RiverTale of a FoxFull CircleOn Desperate SeasTrifleThe Onmyoji's WifeDin Ba Din (This short story appeared on the 2013 Locus Magazine Recommended Reading List, was given an honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Tenth Annual Collection, and was recommended reading in Rich Horton's The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2014 Edition.)

Kate MacLeod has been published in both fantasy and science fiction. This books collects five of her previously published short stories as well as one new bonus story. These tales span from the time of the search for the ill-fated John Franklin Expedition to the near and far reaches of space, from alternate world fantasies inspired by Babylon and Mohenjo-Daro to post-apocalyptic air ships that never touch the ground.This collection includes:Oil FireGardens of WindMother RiverFull CircleOn Desperate SeasDin Ba Din

"Tales from Forgotten Days" collects five never-before-seen stories from fantasy and science fiction writer Kate MacLeod: the high fantasy murder mystery "Impostor Apparition", the western weird tale "Unsafe, Unsound", the pseudo-Egyptian fantasy "Tear of a Sphinx", the early Bronze Age fantasy "Changing Tides" and "In the Waste Places", the sequel to "Oil Fire".

"Tales of Old Gods and New" collects ten stories from fantasy and science fiction writer Kate MacLeod: the high fantasy murder mystery "Impostor Apparition", the western weird tale "Unsafe, Unsound", the pseudo-Egyptian fantasy "Tear of a Sphinx", the early Bronze Age fantasy "Changing Tides", "In the Waste Places", the sequel to "Oil Fire"; the science fiction story "Taren and Keui", tale of two alien beings finding a way out of a zero sum game; the dark fantasy tale "The Story for the Letters", about a little girl and an ancient evil; the science fiction story "AI: Aesir Intelligence", where the sole survivor of a shuttle crash stays alive on a hostile world with the guidance of some unconventional babysitters; the science fiction story "Upon the Lonesome Wild" about a woman meant to be the matriarch of a far reaching clan on a newly discovered world who instead finds herself alone on a dying one; and the science fiction novelette "The Inscrutable Visages of the Sowmyatha" where a young officer finds it easier to communicate with a rocklike alien race than her human teammates.