The garden looked amazing earlier this month, but the heatwave has left quite a few plants looking strained. It's still nice to sit out under a tree and write. There have also been some lovely moths and butterflies.
I've just got back from a holiday in Brittany. Lots of walking and swimming in the sea. I visited plenty of historical sites from Neolithic and Bronze Age right through to remnants of Hitler's Atlantic Wall.

And now my monthly list of scifi book suggestions. Remember that those of you getting this by email via Mailerlite should see an option at the bottom to toggle between receiving the full list and a brief summary. The full list shows all the cover images and descriptions and allows clicking on a cover to go straight to that book. The summary contains the little snippet of my life and a link to a webpage with all the books on. Looking at the figures, most people have chosen to get the full listing and browse direct from the email.

It was a nice simple war. Just the Earth Federation and the League of Sovereign Systems fighting for the third time over who would be the supreme power in settled space, and who would have to exist in the victor’s shadow. Then the Ascendency showed up and ruined everything.One moment, Flight Lieutenant Mason Grey was a fighter pilot of the Federal Space Forces about to strike a League base located on a dwarf planet in an uninhabited system. The next, unknown starships showed up, blew his carrier to hell, killed his squadron, shot down his fighter, and left him stranded amid the ruins of the very base he had come to attack.With nothing but a space suit and a dwindling life support system, Mason was in way, way over his head. And that was just the start of his problems.

Harry and Jess thought they had enough on their plates: genetically altered humans bent on world domination, interstellar aliens that thought humans made decent slaves, and a government determined to arrest them for treason.
Then the universe said, "Hold my beer."
With war brewing over the alien technology, a secret society determined to betray Earth, and a head-to-head fight with the aliens on the horizon, they gather both enemies and allies alike to fight for humanity.
If their shaky alliance fails, humanity faces slavery or extermination. They must not fail.

The recently colonized world of Glenlyon has learned that they're stronger when they stand with other star systems than they are on their own. But after helping their neighbor Kosatka against an invasion, Glenlyon has become a target. The aggressive star systems plan to neutralize Glenlyon before striking again.
An attack is launched against Glenlyon's orbital facility with forces too powerful for fleet officer Rob Geary to counter using their sole remaining destroyer, Saber. Mele Darcy's Marines must repel repeated assaults while their hacker tries to get into the enemy systems to give Saber a fighting chance.
To survive, Glenlyon needs more firepower, and the only source for that is their neighbor Kosatka or other star systems that have so far remained neutral. But Kosatka is still battling the remnants of the invasion forces on its own world, and if it sends its only remaining warship to help will be left undefended against another invasion. While Carmen Ochoa fights for the freedom of Kosatka, Lochan Nakamura must survive assassins as he tries to convince other worlds to join a seemingly hopeless struggle.
As star systems founded by people seeking freedom and autonomy, will Kosatka, Glenlyon and others be able to overcome deep suspicions of surrendering any authority to others? Will the free star systems stand together in a new Alliance, or fall alone?

Eighteen years have passed since the Core Civilization was defeated; New Britannia and the Colonies are flourishing and their populations growing. Grady decides that it's time to go home to Britannia. The planet has recovered from the damage done by the Core Alien's attack and is ready to be resettled. The Henricks children will be graduating in a few months and there's nothing standing in the way of them going back home to the planet they were born and raised on. Thousands of the Britannia survivors will join them in the Home Coming.
However, at the end of the war with the Core Civilization, Taffy neglected to share some information she was given by the scouts investigating the Stealth Civilization. It was a small omission but when it comes out, the plans for a Britannia home coming are thrown for a loop. Grady calls off the move to Britannia but sometimes going back home isn't an option. Things can have a way of forcing you to do what you planned anyway.

Disaster has struck the Human Federation of Worlds. The Eternals have finally found Earth and are preparing to destroy it and the rest of the Federation. They begin gathering a massive fleet to overwhelm and destroy all of the Human worlds.
Fleet Admiral Jeremy Strong is far away on the far side of the universe attempting to build an alliance to stop the Eternals’ spread across countless galaxies. However, in his explorations he may have found a threat far greater than that represented by the Eternals.
The Originators along with their Human allies rush to the aid of the Federation, but it may already be too late. If the Federation falls, the Originators will lose their war against the Eternals. Massive space battles erupt and worlds are destroyed as the battle for control of the universe rushes toward its fateful climax.

Admiral Tyler Barron and the Confederation navy face a new threat, darker and deadlier than any that have come before.
The Confederation has just concluded its war with the Hegemony, but now that power, so long the hated enemy, is calling for help, for the Confederation to join it to face a deadly invasion, one likely to subjugate all humanity.
Barron must overcome his own resentments, and the resistance of the Senate, and find a way to lead his forces into battle once more. The odds are long, but the stakes couldn’t be higher, no less than a choice between survival and freedom…and slavery and death.
Barron and his people will find the strength, somehow, to face the invincible enemy, to find some way to fight, to overcome the darkness.
Or at least to survive to fight another day.

Criminal attorney, Liam Price, can't believe his luck. He scored a deal for a suite aboard the Starlit Dream to the exotic world of Aquaria in the Kepler star system. He surprises his wife, Aria, with the trip for her 40th birthday, and the Price family gets ready for the trip of a lifetime.
Soon after the voyage starts, they learn that they've somehow jumped to the wrong star system. Liam consults the ship's computer to determine their location, but he can't access the navigational data. The captain claims that there's nothing to worry about, but Liam wonders: if there's nothing to worry about, why restrict access to the ship's nav data? He fears that pirates may have detoured them to rob and ransom the wealthy passengers.
Before they can learn more, the ship plunges into darkness, and suddenly the cruise of a lifetime turns into a trip to hell. As the crisis unfolds, Liam and his family are thrust into the middle of a deadly conspiracy and a desperate struggle for survival.

The Free Navy - a violent group of Belters in black-market military ships - has crippled the Earth and begun a campaign of piracy and violence among the outer planets. The colony ships heading for the thousand new worlds on the far side of the alien ring gates are easy prey, and no single navy remains strong enough to protect them.
James Holden and his crew know the strengths and weaknesses of this new force better than anyone. Outnumbered and outgunned, the embattled remnants of the old political powers call on the Rocinante for a desperate mission to reach Medina Station at the heart of the gate network.
But the new alliances are as flawed as the old, and the struggle for power has only just begun. As the chaos grows, an alien mystery deepens. Pirate fleets, mutiny and betrayal may be the least of the Rocinante's problems. And in the uncanny spaces past the ring gates, the choices of a few damaged and desperate people may determine the fate of more than just humanity.

Humanity is within months of losing an interstellar war to a species of aliens known as Fangrin. Giving up isn’t an option. Victory doesn’t seem like an option either.
When assault craft pilot Commander Jake Griffin is sent out with the Eternity carrier group to hunt down and destroy enemy facilities, he has no idea what’s coming to him. The planet Graxol-4 out in the middle of nowhere hides a critical enemy base with vital resources just waiting to be stolen. The only problem is, it’s guarded by a war fleet and surface troops, while the planet itself is toxic and gripped by constant storms. The coming fight will be relentless. It will test Griffin’s combat skills to the limit against a vastly superior foe. In a way, he’s got it easy – the troops on the ground will have to beat the Fangrin in the most challenging circumstances imaginable.
That job falls to Lieutenant Tanner Conway, a man who just wants to go home to his family. Victory on Graxol-4 may not win the war, but it will buy time for humanity to regroup, toughen up and come back harder.
However, a third - unknown - player has an interest in this game and their involvement will turn everything on its head.

Hadrian Marlowe is lost.
For half a century, he has searched the farther suns for the lost planet of Vorgossos, hoping to find a way to contact the elusive alien Cielcin. He has not succeeded, and for years has wandered among the barbarian Normans as captain of a band of mercenaries.
Determined to make peace and bring an end to nearly four hundred years of war, Hadrian must venture beyond the security of the Sollan Empire and among the Extrasolarians who dwell between the stars. There, he will face not only the aliens he has come to offer peace, but contend with creatures that once were human, with traitors in his midst, and with a meeting that will bring him face to face with no less than the oldest enemy of mankind.
If he succeeds, he will usher in a peace unlike any in recorded history. If he fails...the galaxy will burn.

Bacchus Than wants nothing more than to return home after what felt like a lifetime in space. His plans are de-railed when he crosses paths with an old rival determined to throw a wrench in his plan.With his ship damaged and his body bruised one question remains. Will Bacchus ever make it home?

Being an officer means balancing many conflicting demands. Making the wrong decision can have serious consequences. It takes a special kind of person to cope with the responsibility. The Officer is an anthology of eleven science fiction short stories by writers from across the globe. It is part of the Newcomer series of scifi anthologies.

Them vs Us is a small collection of short stories about alien invasions, and the human errors that welcomed them.
Please note that this is a free download in exchange for signing up to a newsletter.

The Science Fiction Collection features some of the most amazing sci fi tales ever told from authors including Philip K Dick, Ray Bradbury, Ben Bova and Frederick Pohl.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, the endlessly-mysterious moon is explored in this reprint short science fiction anthology from award-winning editor and anthologist Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld, The Best Science Fiction of the Year).
On July 20, 1969, mankind made what had only years earlier seemed like an impossible leap forward: when Apollo 11 became the first manned mission to land on the moon, and Neil Armstrong the first person to step foot on the lunar surface.
While there have only been a handful of new missions since, the fascination with our planet’s satellite continues, and generations of writers and artists have imagined the endless possibilities of lunar life. From adventures in the vast gulf of space between the earth and the moon, to journeys across the light face to the dark side, to the establishment of permanent residences on its surface, science fiction has for decades given readers bold and forward-thinking ideas about our nearest interstellar neighbor and what it might mean to humankind, both now and in our future.
The Eagle Has Landed collects the best stories written in the fifty years since mankind first stepped foot on the lunar surface, serving as a shining reminder that the moon is and always has been our most visible and constant example of all the infinite possibility of the wider universe.