Desperate Measures: Book One of Angel's Juck

by Joe Clifford Faust

No doubt about it, James May was more hard luck spacer than merchant. Still, after a run-in with the law, things were turning around. He had a new co-pilot and a cargo hold full of hot product. But when the co-pilot and the cargo both turn out to be a bust and the next payment to his loan shark falls due, May has to scramble to make ends meet. Even if it means hiring a motley crew of mercenaries and trying to pick the very pocket of the crime syndicate trying to repossess his spacecraft. May and crew might just come out of it alive, but if they do, they're going to need a lot more than regular luck…



"A hell of a lot of fun… Faust has a better idea of what makes a good story than most." - Locus



"An elaborate, high-tech version of a standard heist… the tale is brightened by Faust's wit, evinced in small but welcome doses." - Publisher's Weekly

248 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2021

About the author

Joe Clifford Faust is an American author best known for his seven science fiction novels primarily written during the 1980s and 1990s, including A Death of Honor, The Company Man, the Angel's Luck Trilogy (all published by Del Rey Books), and the satirical Pembroke Hall novels (published by Bantam Spectra). His novels are known for their tightly controlled plots and their sense of humor. Like many authors, he draws inspiration from previous and current occupations, including projectionist, record store clerk, radio announcer, sheriff's dispatcher, and advertising copywriter. He currently works in advertising, but keeps his hand in writing and through other creative projects such as occasional forays into cartooning and songwriting.

On February 16, 2011, Faust announced on his blog that he had created a publishing company called Thief Media as an organ to distribute his out-of-print novels in ebook formats. Releases are scheduled to begin in March 2011 with "A Death of Honor" and will include two previously unpublished novels, "The Mushroom Shift" and "Trust."