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LEATHER: A Runaway Girl Across Three Worlds
"I ended the first chapter with a total "wow" moment." Erin Penn, VINE VOICE
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"Fast paced and sucks you right in!" Janine K. Spendlove author of the War of The Seasons series
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Everything was going her way—for a while.
The only child in a loving family on a freshly colonized earthlike planet. But when she was eleven, her mother sickened, passed into a coma, and died. Her father—her only remaining source of comfort and strength—took the loss as hard as she did. Drained of life, he withdrew into himself.
She did too. She stopped caring about friends, hobbies, or school. With no interests, she watched TV and movies, not passively, but as a fantasy life. She lived only through their stories. Their characters became her only friends.
A few years later, her father remarried. At first, she was leery of this new woman, but as Ruthie began to show her true nature—harsh, cruel, abusive—she grew to hate the woman.
The story begins a few weeks after she beat the living crap out of Ruthie, ran away from home, and changed her name to Leather in the hope it would help her become tough, like the friends of her fantasies. But Leather has a long rough ride ahead of her.
She falls for a traveling conman who lavishes her with gifts, carries her from her home world, and introduces her to his criminal friends, most of which are alien. Through these "friends," she becomes an accessory to the mass-murder of forty scientists who had just discovered the ruins of a dead alien civilization. Participating in the quest for priceless alien artifacts, she is secretly lusted after by the most vile of these miscreants. A man whose desires will not be denied. When priceless artifacts are actually found, the vile man plots to kill everyone except Leather, so he can take all the spoils—and her—for himself.
.
"Fast paced and sucks you right in!" Janine K. Spendlove author of the War of The Seasons series
.
Everything was going her way—for a while.
The only child in a loving family on a freshly colonized earthlike planet. But when she was eleven, her mother sickened, passed into a coma, and died. Her father—her only remaining source of comfort and strength—took the loss as hard as she did. Drained of life, he withdrew into himself.
She did too. She stopped caring about friends, hobbies, or school. With no interests, she watched TV and movies, not passively, but as a fantasy life. She lived only through their stories. Their characters became her only friends.
A few years later, her father remarried. At first, she was leery of this new woman, but as Ruthie began to show her true nature—harsh, cruel, abusive—she grew to hate the woman.
The story begins a few weeks after she beat the living crap out of Ruthie, ran away from home, and changed her name to Leather in the hope it would help her become tough, like the friends of her fantasies. But Leather has a long rough ride ahead of her.
She falls for a traveling conman who lavishes her with gifts, carries her from her home world, and introduces her to his criminal friends, most of which are alien. Through these "friends," she becomes an accessory to the mass-murder of forty scientists who had just discovered the ruins of a dead alien civilization. Participating in the quest for priceless alien artifacts, she is secretly lusted after by the most vile of these miscreants. A man whose desires will not be denied. When priceless artifacts are actually found, the vile man plots to kill everyone except Leather, so he can take all the spoils—and her—for himself.
390 pages, Paperback
First published June 10, 2011
11 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Euin Cobb
23 books14 followersStephen Euin Cobb is an author, novelist, magazine writer, futurist, award-winning podcaster, and host of The Interstellar Research Group's video series “From Here to the Stars,” for which he won the Iridani Award in 2021.
For over ten years, he produced a weekly podcast, "The Future And You," which explored, through interviews, panel discussions, and commentary, all the ways the future will be different from today. For that, he won the Parsec Award in 2006.
His science fiction novels include two about Leather — Leather & the 40 Corpsicles in the Cafe Freezer and Leather: A Runaway Girl Across Three Worlds. And three others without Leather, but in her universe’s historical timeline — Plague at Redhook, Bones Burnt Black, and One Small Theft for Man: One Giant Siege for Mankind.
A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor to Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen’s Universe Magazine.
An artist, essayist, game designer, and transhumanist, he is also on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation.
He has interviewed over 500 people and written over 100 magazine articles.
His nonfiction books include: Naked Space Theory: A Radical New Theory of Everything which Flips Physics on Its Head, as well as A Brief History of Predicting the Future, and Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science.
Recently, he created a series of Sudoku and Cryptogram puzzle books under the short version of his name: Steve Cobb.
For over ten years, he produced a weekly podcast, "The Future And You," which explored, through interviews, panel discussions, and commentary, all the ways the future will be different from today. For that, he won the Parsec Award in 2006.
His science fiction novels include two about Leather — Leather & the 40 Corpsicles in the Cafe Freezer and Leather: A Runaway Girl Across Three Worlds. And three others without Leather, but in her universe’s historical timeline — Plague at Redhook, Bones Burnt Black, and One Small Theft for Man: One Giant Siege for Mankind.
A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor to Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen’s Universe Magazine.
An artist, essayist, game designer, and transhumanist, he is also on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation.
He has interviewed over 500 people and written over 100 magazine articles.
His nonfiction books include: Naked Space Theory: A Radical New Theory of Everything which Flips Physics on Its Head, as well as A Brief History of Predicting the Future, and Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science.
Recently, he created a series of Sudoku and Cryptogram puzzle books under the short version of his name: Steve Cobb.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 8, 2025
Smart Sci-Fi with a Street-Smart Heroine and a Wild Ride Across Space
If you love clever sci-fi with action, aliens, and big ideas, this book delivers. Leather is a runaway teen who ends up escaping her planet in a disguised spaceship—what follows is part chase, part galaxy-spanning adventure. There’s a godlike alien managing civilizations like a garden and a sadistic villain who tortures aliens for secrets. Fast-paced, fun, and surprisingly deep. Think Ender’s Game meets The Fifth Element. A wild, smart, weirdly touching ride.
If you love clever sci-fi with action, aliens, and big ideas, this book delivers. Leather is a runaway teen who ends up escaping her planet in a disguised spaceship—what follows is part chase, part galaxy-spanning adventure. There’s a godlike alien managing civilizations like a garden and a sadistic villain who tortures aliens for secrets. Fast-paced, fun, and surprisingly deep. Think Ender’s Game meets The Fifth Element. A wild, smart, weirdly touching ride.
December 30, 2024
I ended the first chapter with a total "wow" moment. Mr. Cobb got me on this one. Skinbrain is the best of his fictional books and a cool hard science-fiction book.
Located in the same universe as Plague at Redhook, you don't have to read the first book to enjoy the second. Reading them back-to-back shows Mr. Cobb's growth as a writer over a decade - and boy did he ever get better. If seeing how writers can grow is a thing for you, read both books. If you just want a great sci-fi yarn, read Skinbrain.
Good Side: The mix of different characters with different motivations is solid, and the main POV character - Leather - has some nice emotional connection moments with the reader. Following a three-act format, several different plotlines happen - twisting together in a crazy-awesome fashion.
Down Side: Trigger warning - rape and torture. The android, Eve, is really annoying from a female perspective - and seems to be a typical character type in stories by Mr. Cobb; some characters cross over into caricatures instead of layered characters. And the book does contain Mr. Cobb author flaw of revealing something which even in the book states the characters do not know about and has no impact on what happens. The author needs to trust the readers more; someone reading a hard science-fiction book does not need as much details about common things.
The different: The book has huge swaths of a pet theory by the author. When it start bogging down the story, he breaks them out as "can be skipped by the casual reader" - and I started skipping. Normally a publisher-editor would have said "if you don't need to read it, it shouldn't be in the book". But the reality is this is why he created the book, at least part of the reason. He wanted to publish this little complicated brain exercise and you can do that when self-publishing. That is okay. I skipped about three-quarters of the "can be skipped" stuff. The story is still long and solid and entertaining. And go him for writing what he wanted to write.
Final notes: As mentioned, the best of Mr. Cobb's books so far (three as of 2011) and clearly shows his growth as an author. It's a demented warm-blanket read.
Picked up while free on kindle in relation to ConCarolinas 2016 where he did a special on his books for the duration of the writers' convention.
Final comment - Dude, get better covers. Your work deserves them.
12/29/24 - OH LOOK , HE GOT BETTER COVERS!!! And a better name for the book.
Located in the same universe as Plague at Redhook, you don't have to read the first book to enjoy the second. Reading them back-to-back shows Mr. Cobb's growth as a writer over a decade - and boy did he ever get better. If seeing how writers can grow is a thing for you, read both books. If you just want a great sci-fi yarn, read Skinbrain.
Good Side: The mix of different characters with different motivations is solid, and the main POV character - Leather - has some nice emotional connection moments with the reader. Following a three-act format, several different plotlines happen - twisting together in a crazy-awesome fashion.
Down Side: Trigger warning - rape and torture. The android, Eve, is really annoying from a female perspective - and seems to be a typical character type in stories by Mr. Cobb; some characters cross over into caricatures instead of layered characters. And the book does contain Mr. Cobb author flaw of revealing something which even in the book states the characters do not know about and has no impact on what happens. The author needs to trust the readers more; someone reading a hard science-fiction book does not need as much details about common things.
The different: The book has huge swaths of a pet theory by the author. When it start bogging down the story, he breaks them out as "can be skipped by the casual reader" - and I started skipping. Normally a publisher-editor would have said "if you don't need to read it, it shouldn't be in the book". But the reality is this is why he created the book, at least part of the reason. He wanted to publish this little complicated brain exercise and you can do that when self-publishing. That is okay. I skipped about three-quarters of the "can be skipped" stuff. The story is still long and solid and entertaining. And go him for writing what he wanted to write.
Final notes: As mentioned, the best of Mr. Cobb's books so far (three as of 2011) and clearly shows his growth as an author. It's a demented warm-blanket read.
Picked up while free on kindle in relation to ConCarolinas 2016 where he did a special on his books for the duration of the writers' convention.
Final comment - Dude, get better covers. Your work deserves them.
12/29/24 - OH LOOK , HE GOT BETTER COVERS!!! And a better name for the book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews