Showing results by author "J.S. Morin" in All Categories

Dive back into the worlds of the best-selling Twinborn Trilogy with this collection of eight short stories - including three exclusive, never-before-published works. J.S. Morin peels back the larger Twinborn story to reveal the smaller tales concealed beneath.

Chuck Ramsey is a traveling comedian trying to turn a planetside gig on Earth into a cash cow. Of course, the cost of living on Earth is astronomical. He needs to get rich quick - or at least come out ahead - and head for cheaper pastures. Enter Mordecai The Brown. Once the golden boy of the Convocation, Guardian of the Plundered Tomes and the Convocation's number one hunter of dark wizards, "Mort" has found himself on the wrong end of an internal investigation.

With their outpost secure, the newly crowned king of the Dragonhammer dwarves finds himself more concerned with trade and infrastructure than conquest. The failed invasion weakened their enemies, and the dwarves have graciously declined to counterattack. After all, the Dragonhammer Clan sees the monument to their dead every day. But the goblins can't afford to leave well enough alone. Desperate for resources only available within the dwarven-controlled region, they try to barter. And when the dwarves refuse to deal with their enemies, the goblins resort to theft.

Carl Ramsey is a dead man. Or he will be soon. Captured by the Eyndar Empire, his old Third War service record becomes a list of charges. Actions that earned him commendations and acclaim from his own side resulted in thousands of deaths to his eyndar foes, and they plan to make a public celebration out of his executions. Plural. Thanks to medical science, they have Six Deaths lined up. With a calendar of events available via the omni, the Arete crew has a very literal deadline to work with formulating a rescue plan.

Space station Echo Niner remained neutral in the Earth/Mars civil war. For a pair of fugitives on the run from both sides, it sounded like the perfect place to regroup. But Eric and Jessie Ramsey barely set foot aboard Echo Niner before getting embroiled in local disputes.

Fresh off an inglorious defeat, the starship Arete has been thwarted in its noble mission. Unable to move on and find some other way to use the awesome technology at her disposal, Captain Jessie Ramsey seeks payback. The unidentified interloper of a starship may have won the battle, but she's determined to make this rivalry a war...and win it.

Captain Jessie Ramsey has brought the starship Arete to the hostile Eyndar Empire. She and her crew have traded the complexities of the Earth/Mars wars for the open hostility of a species that will shoot them on sight. Their anti-piracy mission has evolved. Rather than simply clearing the star lanes for peaceful merchants and civilian transports, they're going after an illicit trade in sentient laborers. It's all going fine until one of the traffickers they capture reveals the location of a black market space station that makes their own operation look like small potatoes.

A simple pickup and delivery. No questions asked; no looking inside the cargo. All it requires is a fast, stealthy ship and a crew who can keep their imaginations and consciences in check until the drop-off. The Mobius is up to the task, but when the crew can't control their curiosity, they're faced with a moral dilemma. Do they cut their losses? Contact the authorities? Take the money and run?

Esper may dress the part. She has her own ship. She even carries a blaster - not that she ever uses it. But she violates the cardinal rule of the galaxy’s most cold-blooded profession: get paid. At least she's not alone. Her partner, Kubu, is an alien who gets mistaken for a dog. One is a wizard on the run from her past. The other is a lovable eating machine. Between them, they haven’t got a ruthless bone in their bodies. But when a client hires them, they’ll do whatever it takes to bring a target home safely. This time, it’s a teenage kidnapping victim.

When the crew of the Mobius takes on passenger Bryce Brisson to make some easy money, they find themselves caught up in his business dealings with Tanny's estranged family: the Rucker Syndicate. On top of that, Tanny has exhausted her supply of the drugs she needs to keep up her enhanced marine physiology. But will Carl double-cross family to make his payday or dive headlong into a trap that wasn't meant for him? If he plays this wrong, he risks making enemies of the most ruthless gangsters on Mars.

Jessie and Eric Ramsey finally catch a break. The League of Independent Planets has granted them asylum and allowed them to live on the techno-paradise world of Phabian. Jessie gets a clerical job. Eric ends up working at a factory making magical construction materials. He might even have a girlfriend. Of course, trouble always finds a Ramsey. Eric’s inquisitor parole officers locate him despite having no official jurisdiction. Jessie gets recruited into Phabian’s ultra-secret counterintelligence agency, Section 74. Yet somehow, everything revolves around a newcomer to this part of the galaxy.

A routine resupply stop takes a terrifying turn when the crew of the Arete realize they're unable to access astral space. Now, intelligence services across the galaxy are realizing that the advanced haathee vessel is trapped in realspace and unable to flee. Now, Captain Jessie Ramsey has to play the less enviable role in a game of cat and mouse. Her ship is tough, great in a fight, but there's only so much she can handle at once.

Desperate for allies, captain Jessie Ramsey enters negotiations with an independent border colony. The planet has food and basic essentials aplenty; the Arete can offer protection in return. However, talks take a turn for the worse when half the ship's delegation is kidnapped—and the other half doesn't notice. Who leaked their itinerary to the kidnappers? What will become of the negotiations? Who is even qualified to take over command when all the top officers are either captured or actively involved in the rescue?

The galaxy's most feared pirate raiders are the megalodogs. Massive, nearly indestructible, and knowing just enough magic that science cannot save defenders. The best way to deal with them? Never to let them board your ship. If you invite them aboard, knowingly or not, you're pretty much screwed. That's the situation Captain Jessica Ramsey finds herself in. With her wizard brother Eric off on a personal quest halfway across the galaxy, her resources for dealing with the giant canines are limited. But once a special forces operative, always a special forces operative.

The hunt for captive humans still held in Eyndar Empire space has hit a wall. Captain Jessie Ramsey's assault on Outpost 71 resulted in the liberation of hundreds but little in the way of leads. But what if dark magic could find more? Wouldn't the benefit outweigh the harm? And what if that dark magic was chronomancy? And what if that chronomancy was wielded by the galaxy's least responsible wizard, Eric Ramsey? Still willing to give it a try? Still worth the risk?

The astral drop took out all the tech on the ship—maybe for good. They’re so far down that rescue seems unlikely. If they had it to do over again, maybe Eric and Jessie would have found some other way to escape their pursuers. But unless Eric figures out reverse time travel, they’re going to have to live with the decision.

Earth has fallen and Mars is in chaos. With their coup behind them, the Arete crew regroups and plans for life beyond the civil war. There's only one problem: one of their number has yet to return from his undercover mission.

If he could turn back time, he would find a way... A loved one's life is on the line. The only hope of saving him is a slim one, and so much will have to go right that it would take a miracle to rescue him. Eric Ramsey isn't willing to accept failure, and his solution to a long shot is to lock himself and the entire Arete crew in a time loop. Their only hope for escape is to save a single life that refuses to be saved.

Though she's new to the resistance, Jessie Ramsey and the crew of the Arete are the spearhead of an assault that's been years in the making. They've uncovered the heart of a sinister alien conspiracy to hide the existence of ongoing human labor camps, and on a scale that's unlike anything any of the heroes have seen before. They have a target. They have a goal. What they need is a plan, and that's a tall order when the idea is to rescue a small city's worth of captive laborers.

It seemed like a safe enough gig. A week aboard a One Church missionary ship. Bland entertainment for respectable money. A place where the family could relax and let their guard down. Until the pirates attacked. Alone in alien space, the missionaries are sitting ducks. When the hijackers commandeer the vessel, Mort and the Ramseys get split up.