Titan's Shadow: A Hayden's World Novella

Hayden's World #5

by S.D. Falchetti

Old Battles Return.

In Aero One, Jia nearly lost everything during her encounter with the pirate ship Maya. A year later, she’s trying to restart her life as a freelancer aboard Saturn’s newly-built Cassini Station. But Cassini has its own secrets. When a chance encounter with a past adversary sets old battles in motion, she must unravel the mystery of Titan’s Shadow before more lives are lost.

Titan’s Shadow is a hard science fiction story set in the Hayden's World universe. The story is a 12,500 word novella (1 - 2 hours to read) and is the perfect size for reading on the go.

77 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 14, 2018

About the author

I wrote my first story at the age of eighteen. A Monte Carlo, gas station, and small town were nearly destroyed to keep anyone from reading it. I'm giving it another whirl.

Reviews

[Frank Carver · Rating 5 out of 5]

A direct sequel to book 3 “Aero One”. Make sure you read that first

I am really enjoying the “Hayden’s World Origins” series of short, hard sci-fi, stories about exploration (and development of) the solar system. The series weaves in and out of the lives of several main characters and this one, despite being listed as book 5, is a direct follow-on from book 3 “Aero One”. It’s just as good as that book, though.

Jia and Ping, the main characters in Aero One, find themselves picking up any odd jobs they can having lost their jobs after the disastrous events of that story. They may have been heroic, but the company was not impressed at the loss of billions of dollars of materials. Now they keep an eye on the job boards at Cassini Station, a freeport orbiting Saturn and hope they can bring in enough income to cover their equipment expenses. It’s a life, at least until one of the raiders who attempted to kill them in the previous book turns up on the station. Things go from bad to worse, and even with the help of a station security officer they soon find themselves fighting for their lives again.

Just as with the previous books in this series, this is a relatively short book (about 13000 words) but packs in a lot of adventure, a lot of science, and some believable characters. The whole set up of commercial exploitation of the solar system resources feels true as does the running struggle of law to keep up with those who find it easier to take the results of others’ work. If you like thought-provoking space fiction that’s short on the hand-waving answers, you’ll love this series.

[Aj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and expanding universe

Reunites the reader with characters from a previous story, "Aero One" to carry their story further.

While our heroes personalities do not develop much beyond Aero One, revisiting these two characters with a change locus really helped flesh out the Hayden World universe as we get to see how they behave in a variety of situations along with other characters.

If you enjoyed Aero One, Titan's Shadow will continue your fun. Plan for a variety of fun space battles, learning about an ever expanding Hayden World universe, and a fun afterword that takes you into how recent NASA missions provided the foundation for the setting.

[D. E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A SDF. SYFY. Novel (HWOB - 5)/Pirates Again

SDF. has. penned a SYFY . Novel About the young lady from a previous novel that was robbed by pirates. The young lady accepts a position at a distant space station and as she arrive she spots two of her old nemesis, the pirates. She notifies the authorities, but the two pirates evade the law enforcement team. She knows she has not seen the end of the pirates and plans accordingly. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Story, with Lots of Shoot-‘Em-Ups

This was another well-written tale, that was amusing and fun and interesting to evade. I definitely recommend for you to read the Hayden’s World series ASAP!

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too short, weak story line, characters are not believable.