“With their beat-up ship and eclectic group, comparisons with the fan favorite TV show Firefly are inevitable, but in more of the way of homage, since Burke and Jensen’s characters take center stage all on their own.” –Library Journal Discover intergalactic romance and out-of-this-world stakes in the first book of the critically acclaimed Chaos Station series. “You’re not real. Felix Ingesson … “You’re not real. Felix Ingesson is dead.”
The war with the alien stin is over, but Felix Ingesson has given up on seeing his lover, Zander Anatolius, ever again. Zander’s military file is sealed tighter than an airlock. A former prisoner of war, Felix is attempting a much quieter life keeping his ship, the Chaos, aloft. He almost succeeds, until Zander walks on board and insists that Felix isn’t real.
A retired, broken super soldier, Zander is reeling from the aftereffects of his experimental training and wants nothing more than to disappear and wait for insanity to claim him. Then he sees footage of a friend and ally–a super soldier like him–murdering an entire security squad with her bare hands and a cold, dead look in her eyes. He never expected to find Felix, the man he’d thought dead for years, on the ship he hired to track her down.
Working with Felix to rescue his teammate is a dream come true…and a nightmare. Zander has no exit strategy that will leave Felix unscathed–or his own heart unbroken.
Book one of Chaos Station
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Gripping space drama with a strong central romance and an awesome spaceship crew. I’m looking forward to exploring more in this universe.
This first book in the Chaos Station series took me by surprise, pulling me in with great characters, interesting and consistent SciFi worldbuilding, action, angst and romance. I bought the next book the moment I closed this one, and then read through the entire series back to back. Very well done.
Zander is a man badly betrayed by the government he worked for. He sacrificed his relationships, his health, and part of his humanity, and helped them win the war. Now that the conflict with the alien stin is over, he’s been cut loose by his supervisors, expected to go off and die somewhere quietly and without making a fuss. He’s cut himself off voluntarily from his wealthy family, and most of his past, but he’s still loyal to the small group of people who went through the final training and modification program with him. And one of them is in trouble. He has plenty of money, so he hires a ship to go find her… and on that ship, he encounters the man he always loved. The man he thought was long dead in enemy hands.
Zander is overjoyed, and devastated, to see Felix. Because Zander knows he’s not the man he was – he’s not sure he’s really still human at all – and how can he even approach his old lover, let alone start anything new, with everything that hangs over him?
Felix came out of stin prisoner of war captivity with a permanently damaged hand, a lot of nightmares, and a broken life. He found a home, and the strength and friends he needed to go on, as the engineer and half owner of the ship Chaos. The one person he never expected to see again is the one man he loved when he was younger, back before his world and heart, body and life, were broken in the war. But here he is – Zander Anatolius – war hero, wealthy scion of a powerful family, and a man with changes and secrets Felix isn’t sure he wants to even know.
Both men are damaged, hurting, not ready for trust or affection or a relationship. But both yearn back to a moment in time when they realized the other was their soul-mate. Before life broke them apart.
They have duties, and a rescue mission. The government is not on their side, neither are various other factions, and the alien peace is an uneasy one. They can’t afford to take all their time and energy to pause and work out where they stand with regard to each other. But they also can’t deny the warmth that being together dredges up in their chilled souls. So in the midst of risk and adventure, conspiracy and conflict, they touch and speak, come together and come apart, trying to survive, and trying to find something more to life than just survival.
This was a fast moving, imaginative, emotional story. I fell for these damaged men, and their dilemmas, risks and challenges. This story has a non-cliffhanger ending, but it’s just a beginning for these two men. I was delighted that the series (and some free short stories) were available for me to plunge on to the further adventures of Felix, Zander, and their interesting cast of friends, family and enemies.