Mostrando resultados por autor "Jon Kiln" en Todas las categorías

Albert never planned to stay long. A makeshift community of schoolteachers and half-feral kids wasn’t exactly his idea of peace and quiet—even if it came with running water, rationed rice pudding, and the faint smell of chalk dust. But when trouble brews and tensions mount, Albert finds himself doing something unexpected: sticking around. And when staying becomes dangerous, he does something even stranger. He leads them away. Because he knows a place. Off the map. Out of the way. Where tomato plants grow in neat rows, the old folk still believe in crochet, and nobody makes you join a ...

They came to train. They found a war that began 50,000 years ago. In the swirling crimson mists of the Carmine Nebula, what starts as a routine training mission for Crix Nakato and his navigator protégé, Izzy, turns into a nightmare. A haunting disturbance in the Vermillium network—what Izzy can only describe as screaming—triggers echoes of an ancient threat long thought vanquished. When Pixel, the strange fox-like companion linked to Izzy, begins to change, the danger becomes impossible to ignore. Called back to the heart of the Navigator Collective, Crix must confront a chilling ...

Ezra Kowalski thought life on Halcyon had finally gone back to normal—just him, his hens, and thirty‑six varieties of cucumbers. But when Nora Velasquez shows up unannounced at his homestead, poking around the wreck of her crashed starship, peace goes out the airlock. Nora claims she just wants to check on the Silver Beetle, still half‑buried in Ezra’s field months after the accident. But when Sprocket—her overly helpful, socially oblivious droid—accidentally boots up a forgotten memory log, Ezra discovers the truth: Nora wasn’t joyriding when she crashed. She was chasing a ...

On a dusty little backwater planet where nothing ever happens, retired mechanic Ezra Kowalski’s biggest worry is keeping his prized cucumbers safe from pests—and from his meddling neighbor, Mrs. Wong. That is, until a spaceship crash-lands square in the middle of his veggie patch. Out tumbles a soft-spoken teenage girl from a nearby world and her infuriatingly cheerful robot. With a massive solar flare knocking out all communication and grounding space travel for the foreseeable future, they’re stuck there together. Ezra wants nothing more than to fix his vines and go back to being ...

Fleeing into the heart of the Carmine Nebula, Izzy risks everything to find Crix and uncover the truth behind her family's past. With their ship barely holding together and a storm closing in, she leads a daring rescue mission that uncovers lost technology, buried secrets, and a legacy more valuable—and dangerous—than she ever imagined. As alliances form and choices weigh heavy, Izzy must use her wits, courage, and a mysterious creature named Pixel to survive the storm and bring her makeshift family home. But safety is short-lived. When a powerful corporation begins circling Hellix ...

Ezra Kowalski never wanted houseguests, much less a mood-sensing plant that changes color when people get emotional. But now that Nora’s garden plot is home to a rare specimen of stellaria, Ezra’s quiet homestead has become a magnet for scientists, reporters, and tourists with feelings—and worse, opinions. Ezra can handle the odd visitor. Barely. But when a shiny corporate rep shows up with plans to turn his property into a full-blown attraction, Ezra starts to wonder if it’s time to post a “Go Away” sign… in thirty-six languages. All he wanted was cucumbers. Now he’s got a ...

Two years after Station Zenith, Captain Crix Nakato is once again on the run—this time from a sector-wide manhunt launched by the ruthless Landrake Corporation. Fourteen-year-old Izzy’s mysterious abilities are growing stronger, and with corrupt authorities closing in, Crix must rally a patchwork alliance of old friends, outlaws, and unlikely allies to protect her. But hiding is no longer an option—the only way out is through. As buried secrets surface and the true power of Izzy’s legacy is revealed, Crix faces a terrifying truth: the war they’ve been avoiding may be the one they ...

Stranded at Hellix Station on the fringes of the Carmine Nebula, Crix and eleven-year-old Izzy find themselves taking on increasingly perilous courier jobs through unpredictable ion storms after a catastrophic engine failure. Their routine stopover transforms into something more complex when Izzy's explorations with a local mechanic's daughter uncover an underground racing scene, earning her the respect of daredevil pilots—and unwanted attention from station authorities. When Crix embarks on a dangerous three-week salvage mission to settle their mounting debts, disaster strikes as a ...

After decades of scraping by with whatever work the galaxy offers, Crix Nakato finally has his own ship—a temperamental ex-courier vessel with one dead engine and enough quirks to match its world-weary new owner. When a routine delivery leads him to a derelict ship harboring the sole survivor of a family massacre, Crix faces a choice that will challenge everything he thought he wanted. With a nine-year-old stowaway now aboard his ship and dangerous cargo in his hold, Crix navigates the murky waters between profit and conscience as Izzy Garcia's irrepressible spirit begins to thaw his ...

Albert never expected to see the end of the world, let alone survive it. Now he’s the last stubborn old man in a quiet Australian town, keeping himself—and his dog, Winnie—alive with equal parts routine, grumbling, and sheer spite. He scavenges in the mornings, locks the doors at night, and tells himself he’s perfectly fine with being the last one left. Then he finds Matilda. She’s seven years old, stuck up a tree with a horde of zombies milling below and an attitude far too big for her size. Against his better judgement (and Winnie’s very vocal sigh), Albert helps her down. ...

Albert survived the apocalypse by keeping to himself—until Matilda and her mum came crashing into his life. Now, instead of solitude, he’s stuck with a talkative kid, a stubborn foster mother, and a golden retriever who thinks she runs the show. It’s not the quiet end of the world he had in mind, but it’ll do—more or less. But peace never lasts. When Jenny decides Matilda deserves an education—even if the world has ended—she ropes Albert into a half-baked plan to reach a crumbling coastal town where she once taught. She swears it’s for the books and teaching supplies. Albert...

Easy jobs don't exist. Jerold should have remembered that. Jerold thought guiding some desperate foreigners around the city would be quick coin. Find one missing relative, collect his fee, done. But his clients are hunting a man who left behind furious creditors, dangerous enemies, and what appears to be a truly impressive talent for bad decisions. Now Jerold's caught between rain-soaked ambushes and mounting threats, wondering if any amount of coin is worth babysitting people who somehow make every situation worse. And as the trail grows colder, one thing becomes clear: some people stay ...

He thought it was just another job. She turned out to be his destiny. Malthus Vane, a grizzled mercenary haunted by his past, takes what seems like easy coin: escort a defiant young girl across the blighted Dusklands to Dunmire. But fourteen-year-old Elysia carries more than a mysterious birthmark—she’s the last heir of a lost house, the key to an ancient prophecy, and the target of fanatics who will stop at nothing to claim her power. As they flee through haunted forests, cursed ruins, and shadowed realms, Elysia’s forbidden gifts awaken—veilsight, shadow-magic, and the ability to ...

The frontier has fallen. The kingdom doesn’t know it yet. After thirty years guarding the mountain passes, Commander Doric is the last man standing—wounded, haunted, and alone—when the barbarian horde finally breaks through. With a shattered arm and enemies all around, Doric must cross hostile territory to deliver a warning to the capital before it’s too late. But the road is long and the kingdom’s defenders are gone. Along the way, Doric gathers a desperate band of farmers, smiths, and scared villagers, forging them into a fighting force with nothing but grit, fury, and the hard ...

A wagon full of Tianshu silk was meant to bring a tidy profit in Norrevald. But the locals are as frosty as their weather, and just as uninterested in foreign luxury. Jerold isn’t a trader—he’s a sellsword—and charm was never his strong suit. Now he’s stuck hauling worthless cargo through a land that doesn’t want them, with Jin talking them into trouble and Ruby pushing them deeper into it. With tensions rising and the ice thinning beneath their feet, Jerold starts to wonder how far they’ll slip before something breaks. Some roads are smooth as silk. Others crack beneath your ...

When a nighttime break-in uncovers more than they bargained for, Jerold and his ragtag companions find themselves entangled in the secrets of Pemberton’s most powerful wool baroness. What began as a simple job quickly spirals into something far more dangerous, and far more personal. As wagers are made and rivalries stoked, the group must outwit sabotage, social scandal, and their own missteps to stay ahead. But in a city where every thread is pulled by someone else, one wrong move could unravel everything. When the stakes are wool, the drama’s never threadbare.

Jerold’s guiding job was supposed to be straightforward: keep the caravan alive, tolerate Jin’s theatrics, and reach Pemberton in one piece. But when the group is forced to cut through the infamous Fernwood, things start to unravel. The forest is dense, the air is too quiet, and something—or someone—is watching. Rumors say the People of the Ferns don’t take kindly to outsiders. Jerold’s not sure if he believes in forest spirits or hidden tribes, but he does believe in getting paid. Now, with tensions rising and odd things stirring in the trees, he’s beginning to suspect this ...

In the shadow of Highcrown’s towering walls, war drums thunder from two fronts—one familiar, one forgotten. Commander Doric, a battle-hardened sentinel dismissed as a relic by the kingdom's council, finds himself racing against time to protect a city besieged by the Khentar and stalked by the far more sinister Grau'gach. As old enemies close in and strange kidnappings unsettle the realm, Doric and the earth-healer Moira uncover a chilling truth: the Grau'gach are not raiding, they’re harvesting bloodlines tied to the kingdom’s ancient founding. Across the mountains, Doric’s former...

A battle-hardened warrior with a debt to settle, Vorgan faces his toughest challenge yet. Tasked with honoring a promise to a former comrade, he embarks on what should be a straightforward journey — deliver a package no more than’s a month’s ride as the crow flies. However, Vorgan's mission takes an unexpected turn when he realizes the “package” is a fiercely independent young woman. Together, they must traverse lands ravaged by plague, battling not only common foes like bandits and ruffians but also facing a sinister, supernatural evil. Amidst these perils, the greatest threat ...

Doric, once a soldier of the realm, now travels westward with Moira, a healer mistrusted for her gift, and Nessa, a sharp-eyed girl caught in the storm of war. Together they move through a kingdom teetering on the edge—haunted villages, frightened towns, and a spreading silence in the east. Their path crosses with wandering performers, wary soldiers, and desperate survivors, each bearing pieces of a growing mystery. As tensions mount and battles draw near, Doric finds himself once more thrust into the center of the Kingdom’s defense, this time with far more to protect than orders or ...