Overall a pretty good book. A wonderful space opera. I enjoyed the main character and his first mate. Both good characters easy to like. Other characters not so much. Many of the more main characters had actions that caused you not to like them but actually lose respect for them. Other char...
This is book one in a new series. Nuttall is a fairly new author; I read his first books, the Ark Royal trilogy. I see he has now started a series. I enjoyed his trilogy so decided to give the series a try. The Galactic Empire is dying and chaos and anarchy are breaking out everywhere. Our pro...
I've read many of Christopher Nuttall's books now, and this is one of my absolute favorites.Unlike many authors who write magic-oriented books, Mr. Nuttall created a story with realistic, believable characters who just happened to practice magic. He introduced his characters with enough detail th...
“You know,” Colin Richards said, “I feel all alone out here.” John Naiser smiled at his wingman’s tone. “You are all alone out here,” he pointed out. “It’s a million miles to the carrier and dozens of light years back to civilisation.” Richards sn...
Karla reported. “There’s so much activity in this system that they probably wouldn't notice if we charged in transmitting a list of Captain Haddock’s favourite curses.” “Don’t get overconfident,” Joshua warned. “We’re just here to have a look at the system, nothing else. I...
He’d threatened her, effectively warning her that others might also want to kill her…of course, she’d upset their kingdoms merely by introducing new elements. Emily had known that it might happen, but it had still been a nasty shock. And he’d effectively admitted that if she hadn’t had Void as a ...
Cover Blurb The Imperium; a million worlds, trillions upon trillions of humans and aliens, an empire that dominates half the galaxy...an empire that is falling into chaos, revolution and civil war. Only a handful of people are struggling to keep the Imperium together, knowing that the brut...
it was, he felt, the only explanation that suggested his superiors weren't terrifyingly incompetent. And no one pays any attention to us, he thought, while the goons make their way through the university. It was clear, astonishingly clear, that none of the new student...
She’d rarely slept deeply, not since her mother had remarried; she’d always been nervous about someone coming into her room when she was asleep. It had been hard to share a room with two people — and then a dorm, at Mountaintop — and she’d welcomed the chance to sleep alone. But now, someone was ...
- Professor Leo Caesius. War in a time of ‘Peace:’ The Empire’s Forgotten Military History. Thomas ducked as a bullet cracked through the air above his head, then unhooked a grenade from his belt and tossed it towards where he estimated the shooter to be lurking. There w...
Charlotte said. Susan nodded, studying the display. The alien ships had reversed course themselves after the human ships had broken contact, following the task force while maintaining a safe distance from human weapons. Shaking them was not going to be easy. They were...
John said, “precisely what you were thinking?” Crewman Ryan Bjorklund and Crewman Francis Turner looked at each other, nervously. It was rare for crewmen to be called in to face the Captain; normally, disciplinary matters on the lower decks were handled by the Senior Ch...
Master Grey didn’t like her. Master Grey had never liked her. He’d expressed his disapproval time and time again, first to Jade and then to Emily’s face. To have him teaching her... Aloha elbowed her, none too gently. “You’re meant to bow,” she reminded Emily, very quietly...
Golem had said, “and it doesn't always work. But you need to destroy the body now, just in case.” Caitlyn had agreed, although the autopsy had turned up nothing out of the ordinary, or at least nothing connected to mana. Matt had developed a sense for magical creatures...
Jack smiled at Olivia’s surprise. The young girl – wearing male clothing, as always – had been born in London, abandoned in London and forced to learn to live on her own in London. She had never seen Hyde Park or any of the great gardens patronised by the rich and powerful; she had certainly neve...
Both Alassa and Imaiqah were determined to find new outfits for themselves—and Emily—and she reluctantly allowed them to suggest several new outfits for her. Two pairs of light trousers that reminded her of jeans, although they were a little tighter than she would have preferred, would come in ha...
Ed’s reasoning, therefore, was sound. ‘Comrade Li’ had nothing to gain - and a great deal to lose - from keeping a reminder that women can be broken in her headquarters. Further, her pretence might just have led the troopers to hold her in contempt, which might have led to them turning their ...
-Solar News Network, Year 54 “I wasn't expecting it to come together so quickly,” Max Kratzok commented, as they stood together in the observation blister. “It’s really quite something.” “It’s been two weeks,” Hoshiko said. “I’m surprised more ships haven't shown up....
Their Darkest Hour Cover “No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own...across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those o...
Despite Raechel’s protestations, the women were put in the centre of the formation, walking right down the road towards the river. There was no attempt to sneak through the shadows; the undead lurked in nearby buildings, waiting for anyone unwary enough to get too close. Instead, they moved as qu...
He kept his face impassive as a pair of wounded soldiers flirted cheerfully with her - they would never have dared flirt with anyone else on the council - and tried hard to resist the temptation to organise an extremely dangerous posting for both of them. They had been wounded in combat, true,...
LADY BARB said, two days later. “I wish I could say I’m surprised.” Emily nodded. Lord Gorham seemed to have blocked the whole experience out of his mind, leaving them without any leads to follow. None of his servants had any idea when the runes had first started to appear...
The young and impressionable girl I had been had believed that – if only because my parents had never spanked me – yet now I knew that it was nonsense, total nonsense. I had inspected myself in the mirror as soon as I had been released and allowed to go to my room and discovered that my aching bu...
- Professor Leo Caesius. The Empire and its Prisoners of War. Saltine Asteroid, Year 5 (PE) “We have a unique opportunity here,” Jasmine said, the following morning. “I do not intend to waste it.” She glanced around the makeshift conference ...
JULIANNE said. “You certainly impressed Bernard.” Emily shrugged, irritated. She hadn’t been the only magician to faint after taking part in the ritual, but that hadn’t stopped Master Chambers inquiring if women genuinely had the power to cast complex spells. He’d even sug...
I hoped that they would just agree at once and send the items over to the ship, but I knew better. It wasn't an hour before a message came back, reluctantly granting a quarter of what I’d asked for…and querying the rest. It was just absurd. Every starship in the UNPF needed a reserve supply of ox...
Nuttall http://www.chrishanger.net http://chrishanger.wordpress.com/ http://www.facebook.com/ChristopherGNuttall Cover by Justin Adams http://www.variastudios.com/ All Comments Welcome! Cover Blurb Humanity is losing the war. The once-mighty space navies have be...
Sally said. “Three mass drivers are gone. The landing window is open!” “Signal Colonel Boone,” James ordered. “The landing force is to begin deployment; I say again, the landing force is to begin deployment.” He turned his attention back to t...
Kat glanced at the hatch, then muttered a curse under her breath. “Come in!” The door opened, revealing the XO. “You didn’t answer the buzzer,” he said. “I was worried.” “I’m fine,” Kat said, crossly. She glanced down at the datapad in her hand. “I ...
Had they had the funds to keep it balanced, they might have been able to maintain law and order throughout the Core Worlds, even after the Fall of Earth. - Professor Leo Caesius. The Decline of Law and Order and the Rise of Anarchy. Isabel was dead....
CALEB SAID, the following morning. “He’s...a little surprised he wasn’t the first one to bring a girl home.” “I think he wanted the dueling ranking,” Emily said. She pulled her cloak over her robes as they stepped out of the house. “I could just give it to him.” &nbs...
The bar didn’t have any lights advertising its presence, apart from a single slit in the door that hinted there was something inside. It had no windows and no sign, save for a drawing of a donkey lying on the ground, surrounded by flies. But it did have had one thing going for it, he decided as h...
Everyone knew that Inquisitors didn’t talk. Nor could they be bribed. The only person they talked to openly was the Grand Sorceress, who already had everything she could possibly want. But they did have to work with the City Guard and many of the guards were not averse to taking money – or covert...
She followed the captain into the conference room and frowned in surprise as she noticed the foreigners who’d been invited to the meeting. The Americans were understandable, she supposed, but Admiral Boskone had invited the French, Russians, Japanese and Indians, even though the Indians had be...
the tactical officer said. “The only shipping in the system are the asteroid miners and the local defence ships.” Captain Daniel Hawthorne nodded, forcing himself to walk back to the command chair and sit down. Peering over his officer’s shoulder was accomplishing noth...