Showing results by author "Kristine Kathryn Rusch" in All Categories

Somewhere in the galaxy, millions suddenly perish in a blinding instant of pain, anguish, and despair, a disruption of the Force so shocking, it is felt by Luke at his Jedi academy on Yavin 4 and by Leia at home on Coruscant. It is a deed that rivals the terrifying power of the Death Star, the long-destroyed weapon of the defeated Empire.

As a young recruit, brilliant engineer Nadim Crowe accidentally destroys an entire Scrapheap full of ships. Now, decades later, he ends up on the crew of the Renegat, the only ship in the Fleet ever sent on a mission backward to investigate an ancient Scrapheap. Something invaded that Scrapheap, and the Fleet wants to know what. Or who. The Renegat: The only ship the Fleet dares risk. The Renegat: A ship of misfits and screw-ups sent on an impossible mission. All alone in deep space. 

Boss loves to dive historical ships, derelict spacecraft found adrift in the blackness between the stars. Sometimes she salvages for money, but mostly she's an active historian. She wants to know about the past--to experience it firsthand. Once she's dived the ship, she'll either leave it for others to find or file a claim so that she can bring tourists to dive it as well. It's a good life for a tough loner, with more interest in artifacts than people.

Defying their Black King in order to rally an attack on the peaceful Blue Isle, warrior-prince Rugar and his fearless daughter, Jewel, do not suspect that the islanders, under young prince Nicholas, have prepared to defend themselves.

Leaving Boss behind to continue diving the Boneyard, Ivoire Engineer Yash Zarlengo returns to the Lost Souls Corporation’s headquarters to analyze the data from the runabout they discovered there. Convinced the experience in the Boneyard proves the Fleet still exists, Yash buries herself in her work, interested in little else. Ivoire Captain Jonathan “Coop” Cooper notices Yash’s growing obsession with finding the Fleet and joins her in her search. For the first time in six years, the crew of the Ivoire feels real hope. Coop and Yash know all too well the dangers hope can pose. 

His name: Miles Flint. His occupation: Retrieval Artist. His job: find the Disappeared - outlaws on the run, wanted for crimes against alien cultures. The catch: Flint isn't working on the side of the law anymore.

Boss, a loner, loved to dive derelict spacecraft adrift in the blackness of space...But one day, she found a ship that would change everything - an ancient Dignity Vessel - and aboard the ship, the mysterious and dangerous Stealth Tech. Now, years after discovering that first ship, Boss has put together a large company that finds Dignity Vessels and finds "loose" stealth technology. Following a hunch, Boss and her team come to investigate the city of Vaycehn, where 14 archeologists have died exploring the endless caves below the city.

Ten people signed up to help Squishy in her fateful mission. Only five returned. Paired up in teams of two, they set out across the Enterran Empire to infiltrate and sabotage the Empire’s bases used to back up their stealth tech research. But what exactly happened on those bases? Who survived? Squishy’s Teams provides the answers to those burning questions and reveals twists to the ongoing saga no one sees coming.

Rusch's popular character Boss returns in a whole new adventure, one that takes her far outside her comfort zone, to a sector of space she's never seen before. Searching for ancient technology to help her friends find answers to the mystery of their own past, Boss ventures into a place filled with evidence of an ancient space battle, one the Dignity Vessels lost. Meanwhile, the Enterran Empire keeps accidentally killing its scientists in a quest for ancient stealth tech.

Fleet sector bases close as the Fleet moves on. Everyone knows and expects it. But still, the announcement that Sector Base E-2 will close - although still 30 years in the future - breeds a mood of tension and anxiety. So when Rajivk Agwu finds two pairs of shoes on a trail near Fiskett Falls but no sign of their occupants, his already heightened senses warn of danger. Those on the base fare no better.

Retrieval Artists help the lost find their way back home, whether they like it or not. Specialized private detectives, they investigate the most unusual crimes in the galaxy. But Miles Flint isn't a Retrieval Artist. He's just a cop, trying to do his job.

A graveyard of spaceships, abandoned by the mysterious Fleet thousands of years earlier. Boss calls it "the Boneyard". She needs the ships inside to expand her work for Lost Souls Corporation. Yash Zarlengo thinks the Boneyard will help her discover if the Fleet still exists. Boss and Yash, while exploring the Boneyard, discover a small ship with a powerful and dangerous problem: the ship's active anacapa drive.

As a Retrieval Artist, Miles Flint helps the Disappeared, saving the lives of those oppressed under the Earth Alliance regime. He owes his livelihood and his very sense of honor to a woman known as Paloma. It was she who was responsible for setting him on this path. And now she has been murdered.

Who better to narrate today's best science-fiction stories than today's favorite science-fiction stars? This exciting collection features many.

When the captain and senior crew abandon the Renegat, linguist Raina Serpell assumes command. She needs to get the ship and remaining crew home. As the ship comes under attack from the planet below, Raina must first figure out how to operate the ship’s firepower. Harder still, she must battle her own past to become captain in more than just name alone.

Four years ago, a bomb destroyed part of the dome protecting Armstrong, the largest city on the Moon. Now, as the city celebrates its survival with an event it calls Anniversary Day, a larger threat looms - one that begins with the murder of the mayor, and spreads across the moon itself.

Most people become freelancers without any idea of how to run a business. They learn in the school of hard knocks. Kristine Kathryn Rusch has taken the school of hard knocks and made it into one of the most useful business books written in years.

For Amelia's second marriage, Gram gives her a visit to a wedding counselor. Not a marriage counselor, but someone who will advise how to achieve a perfect marriage through the perfect ceremony. Superstitious nonsense, Amelia thinks, but she doesn't want to offend Gram. But as the meeting progresses, Amelia realizes what the perfect wedding means - and why Gram wants her to have one.

Are vampires a bloodthirsty menace to mankind? Or simply misunderstood creatures struggling to survive? After hearing these six entertaining stories, you'll be able to decide for yourself. From the horrifying to the humorous, some of today's finest authors share stories about one of the oldest imagined evils, the vampire. From Tanith Lee's chilling story to Esther Friesner's comic tale of rival teens trying to best one another, these stories bring vampires to (un)life, in all their majesty and terror.

Watch out - the Earth just fell into a dark sun's orbit! Or maybe you'd rather visit a theme park called Hell? These are just two of the strange and unnerving tales you'll find in this collection of great science fiction and fantasy stories.