Sasha is young, impetuous and contradictory, but impassioned about doing the right thing if she can figure out what it is. Rumors of war outside the kingdom point to larger conflicts down the road. Soon Sasha finds herself at the head of an army, facing her honest but deeply conflicted father. Jaryd saves Sasha from treachery after a fight, and the consequences accelerate toward war between the overlord Hadryn and the common Udalyn. But do Captain Debogande and Major Thakur have any other choice? Read onlineįrom Publishers WeeklyShephard's epic gets off to a slow start as feisty bladeswoman Sasha, her master, her princely brothers and Jaryd, a local heir, lecture one another about religious differences amid a hodgepodge of names and invented terms.

Shali insists it's suicide, and every bit the existential threat to humanity that Nia is. But this will mean placing the most powerful AI war fleet in known space into the hands of Styx. To free her, Phoenix and Styx must win control of an AI fleet known as Raka, derived from Nia's deepynine technology long ago, and used by the Reeh Empire for special missions. And Chion, of course, will be defended by the full might of the Reeh Empire. Freeing Chion could be the key to beating Nia, and saving humanity.īut Phoenix's allied drysine queen Styx, and Chion's AI former sidekick Shali, both want Chion for their own purposes. Within her vast knowledge lies the most intimate data on Nia, the deepynine queen now threatening humanity's very existence. This one is named Chion, and she has been installed at the heart of Reeh Empire power, enslaved against her will, for the past 8,000 years.

Deep within hostile Reeh Empire space, the UFS Phoenix is hunting another AI queen.

Crossover joel shepherd