A second chance… at life.

When a natural disaster destroys Charlie’s planet, she almost survives the carnage, dying just a few minutes before a rescue crew would have saved her.

When she wakes up again, a number of surprises await her, not the least of which is that she’s been brought back to life. In addition to that unlikely event, she’s also been taken to another planet and drafted into the Combined Service, a service composed of all the allied races—octopods, gu’ul, avians, and the upstart humans, who the others aren’t sure they can trust.

Being drafted does serve one purpose, though: it allows her to get off the planet on which she finds herself, giving her the only chance she has to get back to the planet of her birth, where she hopes to find her missing family. When she’s offered the chance to serve aboard the Magnetar, the first jointly operated cruiser of the Combined Service, she seizes the chance.

But the Magnetar is on a dangerous mission: to return an octopod terrorist, Praetori, to the home world of the octopods. No one has ever successfully held an octopod captive, and the only thing found of the last ship that tried—the Roggewein—were tiny pieces.

Will Charlie and the Magnetar see the prisoner transfer to its successful conclusion, or will they suffer the same unexplained and disastrous fate as the Roggewein?

Book 1 of the The Combined Service series.

After a catastrophe on Charlie’s home world, she awakens in a hospital on a strange planet. She can’t remember enlisting, but she’s compelled aboard the Magnetar, assigned for covert transportation of a dangerous octopod terrorist. This hard sci-fi novel warps through basic training and crew alliances while Charlie confronts her mysterious past and tries to disentangle a terrorist plot. Author Jo Boone explores the dynamics of a bio-diverse spacefaring alliance and the marvels of its flagship. A galaxy of four distinct species and complex plotting makes for a fantastic read.

Best for: Fans of hard sci-fi, futuristic military, and space opera.

Discern: Some mild profanity and themes of trauma.