Robert Jeschonek is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author whose action-packed, envelope-pushing fiction has made waves around the world. His stories have appeared in CLARKESWORLD, GALAXY'S EDGE, ESCAPE POD, PULPHOUSE, and many other publications. He has also written official STAR TREK and DOCTOR WHO fiction and comics tales for AHOY and DC Comics.

A prolific, versatile, and award-winning writer, Annie Reed's written more short fiction than she can count. She's a frequent contributor to both PULPHOUSE FICTION MAGAZINE and MYSTERY, CRIME AND MAYHEM. She's received a Silver Honorable Mention from Writers of the Future, and her stories have appeared in numerous annual year's best mystery volumes. She's even had a story selected for inclusion in study materials for Japanese college entrance exams. Her Unexpected series of short-story collections showcase some of her best work.

Her longer works include GRAY LADY RISING, co-written with Robert Jeschonek, the superhero origin novel FASTER, novellas THE WIZARD BEHIND THE CURTAIN and IN DREAMS, and mystery novels PRETTY LITTLE HORSES, PAPER BULLETS, and A DEATH IN CUMBERLAND.

Annie writes mystery, science fiction, and fantasy under her own name and suspense as Kris Sparks. She also writes the sweet romance Liberty Springs novels under the name Liz McKnight. She can be found on the web at anniereed.wordpress.com.

Gray Lady - Books 1 & 2 Omnibus by Robert Jeschonek and Annie Reed

Buckle your seatbelts and get ready to blast off in this omnibus of adventures in the Gray Lady series from best-selling and award-winning writers Robert Jeschonek and Annie Reed!

This two-book collection starts with GRAY LADY RISING, the first book in the series. In GRAY LADY RISING, retired military armor jock Augusta "Gus" Light, the Alliance's heroic Gray Lady, roars into deep space on a desperate mission that's as personal as it gets.

Thirty years ago, young Gus Light led a last-ditch battle to save the people of Shepard's Moon from a bloody guerilla uprising. She earned a medal for her heroism but lost everything she held dear, including the newborn son she was forced to leave behind.

Now, an army of guerilla fighters led by a megalomaniacal warlord are staging a bloody takeover of Shepard's Moon, and this time the guerillas are winning. When the Alliance refuses to send troops to defend the planet against this new menace, the take-no-prisoners Gray Lady comes out of retirement for one last battle. Partnered with charming smuggler Mephistopheles Drake, Gus hurtles into the middle of a civil war and goes toe-to-toe with the rebel forces attempting to seize control of Shepard's Moon.

Nobody but nobody threatens her son.

In book 2, GRAY LADY'S REVENGE, Gus and Drake follow the battle of Shepard's Moon with a mission to bring down the corrupt politician who sparked it.

Disgraced ambassador Jorritz Tor used his position with the Alliance to provide the moon's rebels with the weapons that nearly killed not only Gus and Drake, but also her son, the governor of Shepard's Moon. Tor fled into the Frontier instead of facing justice for his actions. Nobody but nobody threatens the Gray Lady's son and gets away with it. Not while there's breath left in her body and ammo in her guns.

If there's one thing Mephistopheles Drake knows, it's the Frontier. And if there's one woman he'll do anything for, it's the Gray Lady. Even if that means putting himself and his ship at risk to help her take revenge against the one man underhanded enough and powerful enough to build his own empire in the Frontier.

In an action-packed adventure filled with intergalactic intrigue, Gus and Drake struggle with old enemies —and old friends in the bargain—all while navigating the dangerous waters of mutual attraction. GRAY LADY'S REVENGE proves once again that revenge—as well as space—is a dish best served by the old (armor jock, that is).

CURATOR'S NOTE

•Annie Reed is a longtime friend and one of the best in the business—a real "writer's writer." There's nothing she can't do…including co-authoring this mecha-meets-Firefly space opera series with me. We debuted the first book in the series, Gray Lady Rising, in last year's Heroines of Space Opera bundle—and had so much fun writing it that we decided to develop book two and include it in a series omnibus edition for this year's effort. The result, I think, brings together some of our individual strengths as writers—Annie's uncanny ability to create multidimensional characters with rich back stories and powerful motivations, plus my love of writing offbeat, surprising tales that bring new life and surprises to well-worn genre tropes. Will there be a book three? Let's just say Annie and I have big plans for Gus and Drake, the heroes of this series. They aren't quite ready to hang up their spurs just yet. – Robert Jeschonek

 

REVIEWS

  • "Annie…and Bob? Writing together? Folks, this is epic!"

    – Dean Wesley Smith, Editor, PULPHOUSE FICTION MAGAZINE

  • "By the brilliant hands of Robert Jeschonek and Annie Reed, GRAY LADY'S REVENGE rejects any trace of the flattened scifi woman. Stature doesn't hold over the skill of this weathered, whirlwind protagonist, whose level of trust in her own ass-kicking ability never bows to the strident influences of intergalactic law enforcement or arrogant old flames, much less to towering, shrouded foes. Space frontierism is subverted in this sharp-staked story that makes way for sensitive and authentic relationships and tender sacrifice, while still never forgetting to leave room for brawling badassery throughout."

    – L. Daniel, Reviewer

  • "GRAY LADY RISING explores relevant themes of companionship, family, and self-reliance against the backdrop of elaborate intergalactic politics and action-packed conflicts. The captivating storyline builds suspense and urgency; my eyes were glued to the page the whole time. A paragon of feminine power, the protagonist possesses a vitality that both stuns and inspires readers, making us feel that we too are capable of anything. If you enjoy military sci-fi thrillers and non-traditional characters, you might enjoy reading this as much as I did!"

    – Alicia Chen, Reviewer
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Gus could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she'd waded into battle without her armor.

The 83rd Armor Division was officially part of the Alliance's infantry. They were boots on the ground just like standard infantry, but that's where the similarities ended. Infantry soldiers didn't have a few tons of metal and a few hundred circuits that controlled the most advanced targeting systems the military could buy between them and the bad guys. Standard infantry ran into battle with body armor, a rifle, hand grenades, and a shit-ton of guts.

The few times Gus had to run into battle armed with only a laser pistol—or two, like today—she thought each and every infantry soldier deserved a medal just for getting the job done.

She could kick anyone's ass when she was inside her armor, soldier and armor acting in unison, turning and firing and chewing up the distance between her and her targets with long, bounding strides like it was the most natural thing in the world. There for a while during the journey to Shepard's Moon, she'd worried that she'd lost her edge. She'd been retired for nearly a decade, her armor safely locked away in storage, before she'd hired Drake and the Void to drop her in the middle of the war her son was fighting—and losing—against a rebel warlord determined to take over the planet no matter how many people he had to kill to do it.

Gus hadn't known it at the time, but the warlord was backed by Jorritz Tor, a former Alliance official who'd used his position and his influence to stockpile enough Alliance tech and military hardware, including a dark matter cannon, to virtually guarantee that any strongman he backed would have an easy victory. Only Gus and Drake had shown up just in time to spoil his plans.

Tor hadn't expected that his hand-picked warlord would end up facing a seasoned armor jock. Gus knew military strategy like the back of her hand, and more importantly, she knew when to throw that strategy out the window and act on pure instinct. The warlord had been an insane megalomanic, a narcissist who didn't think he could lose. Gus had shown him otherwise.

Thanks to an insane encounter of their own on the way to Shepard's Moon, and a rather unique survival strategy cooked up by Drake, Gus had reconnected with her armor like she'd never spent any time away. Her armor had felt like the second skin it had always been. Aiming and shooting had felt as natural as running and breathing.

Any second thoughts she'd had about whether she could still do her job—still be the Gray Lady? She'd left those behind in the rings of a gas giant.

When she'd engaged the warlord's troops on Shepard's Moon, she didn't feel an ounce of regret about taking out the enemy. That enemy been trying to kill her son, but more than that, they'd been killing innocent people. Hell, they'd used bound and blindfolded civilians as human shields. Cowards like that got what they deserved.

Gus didn't have her armor now, she didn't even have body armor, but here she was, running into battle with Drake—and Rhapsody, of all people, her wildly printed caftan whipping around her and her immovable hairdo sticking out like some weird helmet. In another time and place, the vision of Rhapsody, armed to the teeth, running into battle with her caftan and sandaled feet, might have been comical. It wasn't now.

Only the battle was over by the time the three of them got there.

Gus had no idea what criminal the security drones had been hunting, but they'd inflicted as much indiscriminate damage on innocent civilians as the rebels on Shepard's Moon had done to her son's people. Laser cannons were good at that.

She had no trouble identifying the weapon the drones had used. She'd seen the kind of damage laser cannons had inflicted on other worlds. The cannon the drone had fired had expelled enough energy to chew through glass and steel and the support structures underneath the ground floor of another high-rise only a few blocks away from Rhapsody's building, heating everything until it seemed like the very air had exploded. From the look of the debris, this part of the building had housed an actual restaurant. If the drone had been hunting only one person, it hadn't cared who got in the way, or how many people it killed to take out its target.

At least the debris from the explosion hadn't breached the dome, and fire suppression systems in what was left of this part of the building had put out any remaining flames. Firing any kind of weapon inside a dome was idiocy, much less a laser cannon.

What kind of security force equipped robo-drones with laser cannons? Against unarmed civilians?

Cowards, that's who.