author : W. Michael Gear

Dr Jim Button and his daughter, Brett, are raising Umber, a bonobo chimp bred by pharmaceutical giant SAC. But Jim is slowly realizing that Umber, who reads, types, and even contemplates theology, is too intelligent to be a “normal” ape—and more closely resembles one of humanity’s as ancient ancestors. When SAC abruptly demands Umber’s return, Jim and Brett are compelled to discover why.

A chilling legacy

Their quest leads to a SAC facility in Africa, where they discover a covert genetics lab, crude buildings decorated with skulls…and human corpses, savagely hacked to pieces. A project to genetically “augment” apes has worked too well—and gone hideously wrong. Now Jim, Brett, and Umber are trapped in the jungle, hunted by beings who are brutally aggressive, brilliantly inventive, and far stronger than any human. And like humans they can be utterly, and murderously, psychotic…

When the ship Turalon arrives in orbit, Supervisor Kalico Aguila discovers a failing colony, its government overthrown and the few remaining colonists now gone wild. Donovan offers the chance of a lifetime, one that could leave her the most powerful woman in the solar system. Or dead.

Planetside, Talina Perez is one of three rulers of the Port Authority colony—the only law left in the one remaining town on Donovan. With the Corporate ship demanding answers about the things she’s done in the name of survival, Perez could lose everything, including her life.

For Dan Wirth, Donovan is a last chance. A psychopath with a death sentence looming over his head, he can’t wait to set foot on Port Authority. He will make one desperate play to grab a piece of the action—no matter who he has to corrupt, murder, or destroy.

Captain Max Taggart has been The Corporation’s “go-to” guy when it comes to cold-blooded military enforcement. As the situation in Port Authority deteriorates, he’ll be faced with tough choices to control the wild Donovanians. Only Talina Perez stands in his way.

Just as matters spiral out of control, a ghost ship, the Freelandar, appears in orbit. Missing for two years, she arrives with a crew dead of old age, and reeks of a bizarre death-cult ritual that deters any ship from attempting a return journey. And in the meantime, a brutal killer is stalking all of them, for Donovan plays its own complex and deadly game—the secrets of which are hidden in Talina Perez’s very blood.

Supervisor Kalico Aguila has bet everything on a fragile settlement far south of Port Authority. There, she has carved a farm and a mine out of the wilderness. But Donovan is closing in. When it seems conditions couldn’t get worse, a murderous peril descends out at Donovan’s sky—one that will leave Kalico bleeding and shattered.

Talina Perez gambles her life and reputation in a bid to atone for ruthlessly murdering a woman’s husband years ago. Ironically, saving the life of the woman whose husband Talina killed may save them all.

Lieutenant Deb Spiro is losing it, and by killing a little girl’s pet alien, she may have precipitated disaster for all. In the end, the only hope will lie with a “lost” colony, and the alien-infested reflexes possessed by Security Officer Talina Perez.

On Donovan, only human beings are more terrifying than the wildlife.

The transition that should have taken Vixen years is instantaneous. Worse, a spaceship is already orbiting Donovan, and, impossibly, human settlements have been established on the planet. For Dr. Weisbacher, Donovan is an ecological disaster.

Down on Donovan, Talina Perez takes refuge in the ruins of Mundo Base with the wild child, Kylee Simonov. But the quetzals are playing their own deadly game: one that forces Talina and Kylee to flee farther into the wilderness. Too bad they’re stuck with Dortmund Weisbacher in the process.

Back in Port Authority, Dan Wirth discovers that he’s not the meanest or deadliest man on the planet. Tamarland Benteen is making his play for control of PA. And in the final struggle, if Benteen can’t have it, he’ll destroy it all.

Supervisor Kalico Aguila settles them at remote Tyson Station. With the discovery of a wasting disease among the Unreconciled, it’s up to Kalico, Dya Simonov, and Mark Talbot to try and deal with the epidemic. Only Batuhan has plans of his own—and Kalico and her people are to be the main course.

Talina Perez has brokered an uneasy truce with the quetzal molecules that float in her blood. Now, she, young Kylee Simonov, a quetzal named Flute, and a clueless nobleman named Taglioni rush to save Kalico’s vanished party.

But as always, Donovan is playing its own deadly game. Lurking in the forest outside Tyson Base is an old and previously unknown terror that even quetzals fear. And it has already begun to hunt.

But Donovan is never what it seems; the changes in the children are innocuous—oddities of behavior normal to kids who’d find themselves in a new world. Even then it is too late. An alien intelligence with its own agenda now possesses the children, and it will use them in a most insidious way: as the perfect weapons.

How can you fight back when the enemy is smarter than you are, and wears the face of your own child?

Welcome to Donovan.

Much to her disgust, Falise Taglioni has been chosen to ensure that her family emerges triumphant; she comes with instructions for her brother, Dek. After all, she could always manipulate him to her will. And she will again, even if she has to destroy Talina Perez in the process. And if her war with the Grunnels, Xian Chane, and Radceks destroys Port Authority in the process? Who cares?

But sothing on Donovan is static, and in the three years since Ashanti’s departure, life on the planet has hardened Kalico Aguila and the scrappy inhabitants of Port Authority. Life in the bush breeds a different kind of human, genetically altered, tough, and self-reliant. And on Donovan, determining who is predator and who is prey has never been easy.

Meanwhile, for Kylee Simonov and her bonded quetzal, Flute, there will be a final comeuppance. Because on Donovan, blood vendetta needs to be paid. And then she’s going to town. After which, nothing will be the same.

But even more baffling is the puzzle of Alpha herself. She speaks in a strange tongue, and doodles in bars, dots, and little pictures. Is she some sort of savant, or the most cunning spy he’s ever met?

Meanwhile, in Egypt, archaeologist Reid Farmer uncovers an 18th-Dynasty tomb that shouldn’t exist, filled with Mayan epigraphy, mathematics, and materials that didn’t exist 3,000 years ago. As a result of this discovery, Reid and forensic anthropologist Kilgore France—along with the sarcophagus they have found—are snatched away to a hidden lab to solve the enigma of a man lost in time.

As dark forces gather, Alpha makes an impossible escape from Grantham. Ryan quickly becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance, but with a team of unique allies, sets out to prove his innocence. Together, they must find Alpha and save Ryan before it is too late.