Honey Watson

A smart sci-fi epic interwoven with political intrigue; set on a dystopian world ravaged by a time-plague where a brutal murder will start a civil war. Perfect for fans of Dune, A Memory Called Empire and Ninefox Gambit. During their temporary research post on Apech - a planet ravaged by a time distorting illness - Wilhelmina Ming and four other elite students of the Crysthian empire have witnessed such illogical brutality that they've resorted to psychedelic antidepressants and group sex to take the edge off. After a night of indulgence following a gruesome execution, they wake to find an oblique warning in the form of an impaled corpse dangling from the exterior of their residence. When their subsequent investigation uncovers a web of collusion and conspiracy in the ranks of their own diplomatic corps, the envoys find themselves caught in the middle of a bloody civil war. As bodies pile up above ground, a deranged fanatic stokes an existential threat below, coaxing the embers of a forgotten god, and its temporal virus, to life. File Under: Science Fiction [ Timing is all | Amateur heroics | Body of God | Birdsong ]

A Dark Space Opera Unfolds in the Shadow of a Crumbling Multi-species Empire, Driven by a Nihilistic Quest for Power The central palace of Crysth is overrun; the empire has surrendered to an invading army led by Wilhelmina Ming, a traitor from its own capital city. However, the invaders can no longer control their divine power source--a being they worship as god--and now both invader and the invaded are trapped inside the palace with no way to rein in the eldritch force that has taken over, and no choice but to join together against it. Ming's last hope is Speaker, the slain emperor's twin and former imperial steward who is somehow bonded with the deity. A wannabe artist and writer, Speaker has been held hostage by the invaders for months, forced to recount the final days of the empire in the hopes that something in these details might give a clue as to the god's desires and motives. The Emperor's Twin is a haunting exploration of power, identity, and the terrifying intersections between the human body and the divine-the grotesque and the sublime-that questions the nature of control, survival, and the price of unrelenting ambition.