Hugo award-nominated author Stina Leicht has created a take on space opera for fans of The Mandalorian and Cowboy Bebop in this high-stakes adventure. Persephone Station, a seemingly backwater planet that has largely been ignored by the United Republic of Worlds becomes the focus for the Serrao-Orlov Corporation as the planet has a few secrets the corporation tenaciously wants to exploit. Rosie-owner of Monk's Bar, in the corporate town of West Brynner, caters to wannabe criminals and rich Earther tourists, of a sort, at the front bar. However, exactly two types of people drank at Monk's back bar: members of a rather exclusive criminal class and those who sought to employ them. Angel-ex-marine and head of a semi-organized band of beneficent criminals, wayward assassins, and washed up mercenaries with a penchant for doing the honorable thing is asked to perform a job for Rosie. What this job reveals will effect Persephone and put Angel and her squad up against an army. Despite the odds, they are rearing for a fight with the Serrao-Orlov Corporation. For Angel, she knows that once honor is lost, there is no regaining it. That doesn't mean she can't damned well try.
In this sweeping sequel to the critically acclaimed Cold Iron-which NPR Books raved, "reminded me, pleasurably, of Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice series"-the Kingdom of Eledore has fallen and Nel and Suvi lead a diaspora of their people to safety, but the magic that has kept the demon forces away is dwindling, and they must find a new way to protect themselves. The Acrasian army has swept through Eledore, nearly massacring the entire race in fear and hatred of the magic they possess. This same magic is all that was keeping the demon incursion at bay, but now the great evil that was banished is seeping into the world. Watchers are formed to warn of any sightings of the demons, but little can be done if one encounters them in shadow or at night. Meanwhile, Nels leads a precious few hundred survivors of Eledore through the wilds, hoping to find solace and rebuild their civilization while his twin sister, Suvi, seeks allies at sea. There is hope, born in the ashes of this devastation-a hope that Eledorian magic can grow, but only if they survive.
For centuries, the Kingdom of Eledore has relied upon the kainen race's natural magical talents to retain its elevated and seemingly impervious status in the world, particularly above the humans in Acrasia. Plots and assassination attempts grow against the royal twin heirs, Nels and Suvi, as the Acrasians seem to be doing more than saber rattling against what they see as an evil, tyrannical nation. Nels, the only kainen in Eledore to study the Acrasians, understands the threat they pose and relinquishes his standing as heir to join the army, while Suvi supports the kingdom from within as admiral of the dwindling Eledorian navy and the new heir to the crumbling throne. Slow to change, the Eledorians soon face the Acrasians' vast military armed with muskets and cannon. But a revolution is coming, and along with it the possible end of a kingdom. The assumptions of generations will be turned on their head as kainen and human clash, love and friendship are found and tested, and war comes as unwelcome as cold iron
