Cat Empire

Looking for military science fiction and grand adventure on a galaxy-spanning scale? If dead empires, galactic exploration, civilization-threatening war, and the battle for the future of humanity sounds interesting, this is the series for you! This box set omnibus edition includes the first three books in The Empire of Bones Saga plus a bonus story.

Commander Jared Mertz, the bastard son of the Emperor, and his half-sister, Princess Kelsey, barely speak to one another. To their dismay, their father seizes an opportunity to change that and sends them on a dangerous quest to explore the fallen Empire. Separated from home by an impassable gulf and struggling to redefine their relationship, they find themselves thrust into a vicious war. Unless they work together to stop the Empire's deadly legacy, billions face a horrific fate.

With Terra finally within their grasp, Princess Kelsey Bandar, and Admiral Jared Mertz, must secure the key to their ultimate victory over the AIs - or humanity is doomed, and they are dead. Dealt setback and disaster, they must find a way to overcome the odds, no matter how impossible they seem. New friends and allies might help, but the weight is on them to win. Success seems impossible, but turning back is no longer an option. They will march to victory, or die.

After years of battle, Kelsey Bandar and Jared Mertz are finally ready to face the master AI enslaving the Terran Empire. With just a bit of luck, this nightmare will finally be over. Only luck can run out just when you need it the most. Outnumbered and outgunned, they must salvage victory from certain defeat. Failure means extermination, invasion, and the loss of everyone they love. Can they beat the odds just one more time?

Between a rock and a hard place! After winning a hard-fought victory, Commander Jared Mertz and Princess Kelsey discover another insidious foe blocking their way home. A remnant of the Old Empire still exists and seems allied with the savage, AI-dominated Pale Ones. With the existence of the Terran Empire at stake, another enemy, this one from Jared's past, threatens everything they've worked so hard to achieve. Jared and Kelsey must fight for survival while the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

Cut off from home, Princess Kelsey Bandar needs a place to hide from the vengeful Rebel Empire. The secrets she stole give her people a fighting chance in the war that brought down the original Terran Empire. If she gets them home. If her prisoners cooperate. Should that prove impossible, she must then convince a long-hidden people to help her. After she finds them, of course.

Admiral Jared Mertz and Princess Kelsey Bandar saved billions of lives and staved off an invasion of the Terran Empire, but not everyone is cheering their success. Their triumphant return sets off a chain of events that threaten not only their lives, but everyone they hold dear.

As Kelsey struggles to master the combat enhancements the Pale Ones forcibly implanted inside her and Jared works feverishly to resurrect an ancient battlecruiser, they discover the Pale Ones aren't as defeated as they seemed.

Kelsey Bandar and Jared Mertz must retrieve the electronic override buried under the ruins of the old Imperial Palace to win the war against the AIs. Oh, and get off the planet in spite of the murderous warships orbiting the destroyed world. How hard could that be? Imprisoned in a dead megacity and surrounded by howling savages thirsty for their blood, they must triumph or die. And if they die, humanity dies with them.

Marooned on ruined Terra, Kelsey Bandar and Jared Mertz must march to the Imperial Palace to recover the key to defeating the savage AIs that have enslaved humanity. If, of course, the fierce and primitive Terrans don’t kill them first. Trapped without their advanced technology, they must overcome foes determined to take everything they have left, including their very lives. If they don’t find allies fast, humanity is doomed.

Trapped between murderous xenophobes and calculating artificial intelligences, an interstellar war threatens to wash Princess Kelsey Bandar away in a tide of blood.

Jared and Kelsey won the battle for Harrison's World, but the enemy holds thousands of Fleet personnel prisoner. They must get their people back without revealing who they really are, or the sentient AIs will eradicate the new Terran Empire. Coordinator Olivia West sees an opportunity to free her people from Harrison's World now that the AI that had crushed them under its heel was no more. To do that, she must outwit the Fleet officers holding the keys to her planet's destruction.

Ants number in the ten quadrillions, and they have been here since the Jurassic era. Inside an anthill, you'll find high drama worthy of a royal court; and between colonies, high-stakes geopolitical intrigue is afoot. Just like us, ants grow crops, raise livestock, tend their young and infirm, and make vaccines. And, just like us, ants have a dark side: They wage war, despoil environments, and enslave rivals - but also rebel against their oppressors.

Sent on a mission critical to the survival of the New Terran Empire, Jared Mertz must travel deep into the AI-dominated Rebel Empire on an operation of deception. Only there are games afoot that no one could foresee and players at the table that no one could expect. The stakes couldn't be higher. When unexpected enemies deal themselves in, Jared must bet everything on a single hand. Bluffing might get him killed but folding isn't an option. If you love military science fiction and grand adventure on a galaxy-spanning scale, grab The Terra Gambit and the rest of The Empire of Bones Saga today!

Separated by an almost unimaginable gulf in space, Princess Kelsey Bandar and Admiral Jared Mertz must fight to stop the diabolical artificial intelligences that destroyed the Old Terran Empire. Though unable to communicate with one another, they must overcome terrible odds and defeat foes determined to kill or enslave them. They cannot allow themselves to fail. Yet time is running out. Unless both quickly make their way to Terra, the computers win and humanity loses.

The war against the AIs is won, but the fight for humanity has only just begun. With the xenophobic Clans rampaging though the Rebel Empire, Princess Kelsey Bandar must convince the skeptical resistance to help them to establish a base of operations to fight back. To do that, Kelsey needs every ally she can get, and a whole lot of luck. Instead, she finds herself trapped in an alien universe while her mother tries to save the day. Even if she does get free, can she turn the situation around in her own universe before everything comes apart in their faces?

Tigers Between Empires: The Improbable Return of Great Cats to the Forests of Russia and China by Jonathan C. Slaght is a forthcoming title from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Eris is no ordinary human. In fact, she’s not human. This beautiful, unaware mage knows only a life of privilege. Until the night I rescue her—twice—and lead her into my shadowed realm of shifters, magic, and rebellion. Eris holds the key to finding the man who murdered my family. I hold the key to unlocking her hidden past to uncover the truth about her heritage and why so many want her dead. The foes aligned against us are determined to keep their secrets. As her courage rises, so does her magic and our passion. Her soft skin tempts the beast and the man in me. No shifter can resist...

At just fifteen years old, Veronica Fancourt is already turning heads with her compelling stories, inspired by her vivid dreams. Her latest publication is a gripping tale of heists and cathedrals, entitled "The Countess's Keep." It's captured the imagination of everyone who chances to read it, including someone for whom it is no mere fantasy. Meanwhile, an employee of a coffee roaster in Trieste discovers her bosses are more than ordinary businessmen. She finds herself tied up in a dark warehouse as bait for a sister she insists she doesn't have.

Ants have been walking the Earth since the age of the dinosaurs. Today there are one million ants for every one of us. The closer you get to ants, the more human they look: they build megacities, grow crops, raise livestock, tend their young and infirm, and even make vaccines. They also have a darker side: they wage war, enslave rivals and rebel against their oppressors. From fearsome army ants, who stage 12-hour hunting raids where they devour thousands, to gentle leafcutters gardening in their peaceful underground kingdoms, every ant is engineered by nature to fulfil a role.