Showing results by author "Charles Gannon" in All Categories

When reluctant interstellar diplomat and intelligence operative Caine Riordan returns from humanity’s first encounter with alien races, sudden war clouds burst. With Earth's fleet shattered by a sneak attack and its survivors fighting for their lives, Caine must rely upon both his first contact and weaponry skills to contend with the non-humanoid enemy.

It’s been two years since Caine Riordan was relieved of his command for following both his orders and his conscience. Now he’s finally received the message he’s been waiting for: a summons to visit the ancient and enigmatic Dornaani. And this time, making direct contact is not just professional, but personal: the Dornaani still have his mortally-wounded love, Elena Corcoran, in their unthinkably advanced medical facilities.

Caine Riordan and his self-styled "Crewe" have survived their first months on the planet they call Bactradgaria. They've overcome floods, dust storms, tornadoes, searing heat, bitter cold, desperate battles, and attacks by various strange species. However, their most desperate struggles have been against the wildly ferocious x'qao, for whom the pursuit and genocide of other beings is as much a sport as it is a strategy.

Caine Riordan has faced many crises in his unintended career as diplomat, soldier, and first-contact specialist, but none more challenging than the one he faces now. He and twelve of his crew are adrift in uncharted space, so far beyond Earth that the starfield is unrecognizable. Instead, trapped on a derelict alien ship, they have only forty-eight hours before its decaying orbit causes it to burn up in the atmosphere of the strange planet beneath them.

History may be written by the victors, but it is not always written in stone. It comes down to a bit of luck. What if the histories of Billy the Kid, Vlad Dracula, and Jack the Ripper had a new twist, an alternate history? What if the fictional world of The Great Gadsby had a hidden tale?