Martin L. Shoemaker, author of “Today I Am Paul”, presents stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary work. Planning, exploring, constructing… living and growing and dying… across the Solar System. Includes these award-winning stories: Scramble (second place, Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award, 2012) Unrefined (third place, Writers of the Future, 2014) Racing to Mars (first place, Analog Analytical Laboratory award, 2016) Plus seven more stories!

    Attacked without warning, enemy unknown. Their last transmission originated from a world on the edge of known space. Alpha Company is dispatched to investigate. They’re the best of the best. Hardcore warriors piloting battle-tested mechs, they’ve never lost an engagement. Until they arrive on Ganog 7. Now, shattered and stuck behind enemy lines, the remnants of Alpha Company struggle to survive. Between them and escape stand three Planetstriders, thousand meter monstrosities capable of destroying an orbiting capital ship. In order to survive, they must disable these titanic war machines, an impossible task made even more difficult by the discovery of a terrible secret – one that must reach fleet command, no matter the cost.

    Fighters bombard the ruins. Monsters hunt the wastes – some humans serving the Welorin in order to indulge their petty cruelties. The last free survivors struggle against starvation and capture. It’s a world where friendship costs too dearly and heroics verge on suicide.One young man simply can’t resist either. Welorin torture machines ravage his world, filling it with literal nightmares. Cannibalistic aerobics instructors hunt him and snatcher teams dog his every step. Alaric attempts one rescue after another, hoping someone might possess keys to unlock memories stolen by the initial assault.An aborted rescue lands him in a three way fight between Welorin forces and interstellar raiders. He takes cover in the pirates’ ship, coercing its AI, Cassii, into helping him. Success comes with unexpected consequence as Cassii abandons her crew, his friends and Earth’s solar system.Cassii refuses to return to Earth, decrying her former captain’s despoiling of the ship’s weapons and armor. Alaric leverages goods stolen from Earth by Cassii’s former crew into a bid at privateering. Surrounded by tech he barely understands and exotic life forms, he’s easy prey for the Protectorate’s mercenary population.Escort Captain Manc Shepherd and the sultry pirate Tyne Ren – Manc’s onetime partner – manipulate, exploit and seduce him across the stars. Alaric’s perilous heroics complicate their tug-of-war, endangering both and Alaric’s ship – their intended prize.Alaric must decide who he is, what he holds dear and how far he’ll go to protect both. He must choose who to trust: his mentor, his temptress or his smitten ship’s AI. The right choice could save worlds. The wrong one could throw him into a desperate battle to save thousands from his betrayer at the cost of his truest friend.

    There are no warders. Satellite technology is used to keep the convicts under watch. New arrivals are dumped by helicopter and must learn to survive as best they can. To Sert, one afternoon in July, is brought Anthony John Routledge, sentenced for a sex-murder he did not commit. Routledge knows he is here for ever. And he knows he must quickly forget the rules of civilized life. But not all the islanders are savages. Under the charismatic leadership of one man a community has evolved. A community with harsh and unyielding rules, peopled by resourceful men for whom the hopeless dream of escape may not be so hopeless after all ...

    The mercenary ship is commissioned to run missions on dangerous planets. To reap great rewards from unsuspecting alien races. To take minerals, precious metals and invaluable resources for Earths galactic expansion. They do the work that no other ship in Earths fleet would dare consider. Why? Because if they get found out, then Earth abandons them. Leaves them to rot in the middle of the universe, unaided and unheard of until the very end of time itself. For Captain Flynn, he never imagined that day would come. He and his crew were more than happy with the way things were going. That’s until one day they wake up from stasis not knowing how they got there. One minute they’re back on earth, relaxing after another hair-raising, highly-illegal mission, and the next, they’re waking up from a six-year slumber, in the middle of a galaxy they don’t recognise. But not all is as it seems. They are not alone. Aliens are aboard their ship. And unfortunately for Captain Flynn and his rag-tag group, they don’t come in peace. Earth has sold them down the river. Banished them from the blue planet with no return ticket home. Now the aliens have them. And they plan on using them against their enemies. They take them prisoner on their home planet. Shackled and bound, the crew fear that their fates are sealed. But unfortunately, it is just the beginning for them. The aliens that hold them captive have far greater plans for them than death. Plans that will undoubtedly shake earth to its molten core. Prepare yourself for a journey that leaps from star system, to star system, in a space opera filled to the brim with nail biting suspense throughout. Warning: This book contains some strong language and violence. Reader discretion is advised. Destroyer of Worlds, book two in the Alpha Ship One series releases February 2016.

    As sea levels rise and livable landmasses shrink, the Reorganized United States of America has instituted population control measures to ensure there are sufficient resources and food to sustain the growing population. Birth authorization must be paid for and obtained prior to having a child. Someone must die before another can be born, keeping the country in a population neutral position at what experts consider to be the optimal population. The new laws are enforced by a ruthless government organization known as Pop Con, responsible for terminating any children resulting from unauthorized births, and any illegals who manage to survive past their second birthday, at which point they are designated a national security threat and given the name Slip. But what if one child slipped through the cracks? What if someone knew all the loopholes and how to exploit them? Would it change anything? Would the delicate resource balance be thrown into a tailspin, threatening the lives of everyone? And how far would the government go to find and terminate the Slip? In a gripping story of a family torn apart by a single choice, Slip is a reminder of the sanctity of a single life and the value of the lives we so often take for granted.

    Intelligent, well-educated, perfectly isolated in his lofty rank, responsibilities, and privilege of the divine Imperial Dynasty. He's the most powerful boy on Atlantis and he's going into the real world for the very first time. . . .Now just another student in Fleet Cadet School, Aeson must learn everything normal people take for granted—including the basics of how to look after himself, how to interact with others his age, how to laugh, and how to make friends.As if that wasn't enough to boggle the mind of a confident but shy boy who's never had a real conversation with anyone but his mother, Aeson has one more lesson ahead . . . what it's like to fall in love.Get inside Aeson's mind and learn his story from the inside out as he forms the bonds that will change him forever—with Elikara, Xelio, Oalla, Keruvat, Erita, and other favorite Atlantean characters, long before they took to the stars as astra daimon! AESON: BLUE is the first in The Atlantis Grail Novella Series.

     EMPIRE OF BONES After a terrible war almost extinguished humanity, the New Terran Empire rises from its own ashes. Sent on an exploratory mission to the dead worlds of the Old Empire, Commander Jared Mertz sets off into the unknown. Only the Old Empire isn’t quite dead after all. Evil lurks in the dark. With everything he holds dear at stake, Jared must fight like never before. Victory means life. Defeat means death. Or worse. VEIL OF SHADOWS Princess Kelsey Bandar made a terrible, life-altering mistake. Her enemies gave her unspeakable agony in return. She must forge the iron will to control the weapon her body has become. If she fails, the monsters who tortured her come for humanity. And horrors worse than she knows wait in the darkness. COMMAND DECISIONS Commander Jared Mertz thought the glories of the Old Terran Empire once more within his people’s grasp. One bold strike to make them his. But no plan survives contact with the enemy. With the odds stacked against him, the battle to save humanity starts now. FIST OF GOD With tens of thousands of lives on the line, Princess Kelsey Bandar must harness the power of Imperial technology to stop terrorists with a nuke. Her friends call her plan suicidal. If they only knew how dangerous it really was.

    Doug had started to believe the conspiracy theories and rumors that had swirled for years; that NASA had discovered more than just rocks on the Moon and had conspired to keep the rest of the world in the dark. A super computer’s enhancement and compilation of the old photos proved his belief and sent him on a quest that has now revealed revolutionary new space travel technology and will enable him to lead a group on a return journey to explore ancient ruins on the lunar surface. But Doug’s pursuit of the truth and discovery of a destroyed GLASS city on the Moon pale in comparison to what lies underneath the lunar surface. What he finds will solve the mystery of a long-dead Apollo Astronaut and provide clues to the missing elements of Earth’s ancient history. But, even he isn’t prepared for the discovery that will reveal the past and change the future of mankind…FOREVER!

     With the realisation that the previously failed brain implant can now interface with the alien’s computers Tristan decides to accompany the alien in her quest to return home. When he is captured and imprisoned he has to make a choice between conscience and love. Enslaved alien species look to him for leadership so he must overthrow everything the woman he loves stands for. His choice is victory or happiness. He can’t have both or can he?

    This book is guaranteed to horrify you in the best way possible. Open it up, turn the page, and take a journey to a world consumed with mystery in madness.

    The Ring keeps out all of humanity’s enemies – in particular, a vicious race of reptilians known as the Parsnaak. On the outer fringe of human-occupied space is the planet Muse, an entire world dedicated and established as a colossal museum – a storehouse of antiquities and relics from the ancient histories of both men and aliens. There, Ian Lotus, a man with his own mysterious past, has chosen to live in deliberate obscurity, harboring secrets that could reshape mankind’s destiny. Now, the impossible has happened: the Chronos Ring has been breached – rendered inert – and Lotus finds himself no longer able to hide in the shadows as he becomes the object of a massive interplanetary manhunt. However, his problems go well beyond simply being the most wanted man in the galaxy. There’s also the approaching Parsnaak invasion fleet to deal with, as well as an enigmatic, extra-dimensional being of immense power who, for reasons unknown, wants Lotus dead.

    The only problem is, there are many people who would want the child to be killed simply out of fear. And that isn't the only problem: Argus's daughter has also been discovered. If the Minister learns that he is the father, then both of their lives are at risk. Elsewhere, a new Captain is taking over policing the Republic, and she wants to make a strong first impression. She's tired of rampant greed controlling the world, so she will do anything to make the people responsible pay. Darius Gray, a member of the Ministry and guard of the most powerful man in the galaxy, has turned his back on the Republic and is amassing an army. He intends to start a war. The entire galaxy is falling to despair. No one knows where to turn or who to trust. The future of the galaxy rests in the hands of two small children whose birth rights promise pain and suffering.

    It’s dangerous, deadly. Inhuman creatures rule the planet. Animals have mutated. The land is hostile. But it’s all I’ve ever known. Hunger. Fear. Panic. Those emotions are my reality. They are my every day. I am Avery, and I am seventeen. My father died a year ago. Since then I’ve been responsible for my eight-year-old sister, June. I worry we are the only humans left. Humans have been hunted for centuries, to the brink of extinction. I must fight each day to protect my sister. It is the reason I wake, the reason I breathe. But how long can I go on fighting? How long will it be before they find us? More than two hundred years into the future, human beings are an endangered species. The planet has been battered by war, its inhabitants plagued by disease and death. Few humans survived and remained unaffected. Most changed dramatically and evolved into something else entirely. Irrevocable alterations caused by chemical warfare have created a new species. North America is in ruins and has been overtaken. Humanity has fallen at the hands of mutants known as Urthmen. Seventeen year-old Avery is alive and unchanged. But she has not been immune to the harshness of the new world. She has lived on the run for much of her life, in terror. After losing her father, Avery is the sole guardian of her eight-year-old sister, June. Avery is now charged with June’s safety as well as her own, a nearly impossible task. Forced to hide deep in the forest and away from the cities overrun by Urthmen, Avery and her sister are constantly hunted. Danger awaits them at every turn. They fear they are the only human beings left, that they are the last of their kind. But are they truly alone? Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2) After fleeing the only refuge she’s known for much of her life, Avery, along with her sister June and new friends, Will, Oliver and Riley forge through the forest to uncharted territory in search of a better life, in search of other survivors. But Avery soon learns that life beyond the woods is far worse than she ever imagined. She finds that safety does not exist for human beings in a world run by Urthmen. Hope seems futile. But Avery refuses to surrender hope and chooses, instead, to push forward and move her group into the heart of danger, to seek out more humans. Will she and the others survive their journey into the savage lands of Planet Urth?

    A team of teen scientists... A desperate fight to survive.... A rock slide at a fossil site uncovers a portal through time. Park Ranger Hannah and a team of fossil hunters are caught in it and whisked back to an era when giant predator mammals roamed the earth. Before they can find their way home, they must survive the Dawn of Mammals. In book 4's adventure, The Miocene epoch places them nearer to home, but can they make it back without a lost team member's knowledge? After Hannah abdicates as leader, relationships shift. Ancient canids hunting in a pack bring down another human. Who will survive this epoch, and who will fall?