Tessa was desperate, and a two year contract with an Imperial Embassy looked like the way out. Helping a newly contacted species develop to a point where they're ready to deal with the universe is a years' long project, and those whose missions succeed can expect more lucrative contracts in the future as well as the knowledge they've helped an entire species survive.The Empire of Humanity is not being altruistic. It has selfish reason to want the Morelli and others to survive. But ...

It started innocently enough. Joe was the engineer on one of Earth's first explorations beyond the Solar System, using borrowed Imperial technology. Captured on a hostile planet, he has to make a plan for his crew to escape - and then he discovers his real mistake!He becomes a Missionary of Civilization on a primitive planet caught between massive empires - and the enemy has to think it's all native ingenuity!

The first thing Alexan knew was standing over an impossible corpse with an ichor-stained sword.Exiled from home for reasons of politics and health, he has to orient himself in a new home, but he still has the skills he was 'born' with, skills which make him a wizard in his new homeland. A blasted, sterile cavern has many portals, but the one he chooses leads to the top of a huge tree, the source of magical power for an entire world....

Mark Jackson's problems begin when he wakes up with his ex-wife's mummified corpse.Seven years ago, she walked out on him and vanished. Now she's back desperate for help. She claims a cult cured her cancer. Now they want to kill her.Sceptical, Mark agrees to help. But when she knocks on his door, she looks like a teenager. They patch things up and one thing leads to another...In the morning, she's a mummified corpse and LAPD thinks Mark did it. The solution to his p...

A step by step guide that prepares you with what you need to know about mortgages as a consumer, tells you how to cut through the nonsense, what is important and what is notWritten by a working loan officer with wide-ranging experience and a decade of running a consumer education website, What Consumers Need To Know About Mortgages draws from a depth of experience dealing first-hand with issues that actual consumers have brought to the author for examination, together with common s...

Pregnancy is dangerous in the EmpireFor thousands of years, Imperial women have used artificial gestation. But Grace was born on barbarian, pre-contact Earth. She can't call herself a mother without doing it the hard way at least once.Grace has married into one of the most important families in the Empire - and Imperial politics are deadly at the top.Despite the risks, she discovers that there are advantages, both to herself and to her unborn baby.The Empire...

A duel in the shadows as echoes of an ancient war wash up on a new planet!Life in the Empire has finally settled down. The last of the ston rebels have taken amnesty, and re-joined civilization - or have they?A massive terrorist attack kills millions and the trail leads the investigator straight to a remote world with no known Imperial contact - a world known to its inhabitants as Earth

It's fascinating at the junction of universes - until one of them starts throwing shockwaves!Alexan and Petra have settled into an idyllic life as Jarl and Frue of Ygg, each satisfying their respective divine curses. But Siluria next door starts generating massive shockwaves, unable to absorb the energy being generated by the scourgings every seven days. Worse, Siluria is home to the warlike diligar, who are likely to launch an invasion as their home is ravaged.It's hard to...

Beware goddesses giving gifts. Especially ones you didn't intend to ask for.Mark and Julie managed to stop the regular profaning of the goddess' ritual. But that doesn't mean everything is coming up roses. What pleased The Mother angered The Mad God. He is angry with Mark and Julie, and his acolytes are using deadly magic against them, but sorcery leaves no fingerprints, no facial recognition, and no evidence of who is responsible. Mark and Julie will do anything for a lead back to...

Kusaan del. It means 'divine finger'The Empire of Humanity is locked in a war for survival with the Fractal Demons. Years on, the dice are still tumbling. Billions have died and planets have been destroyed. Meanwhile, an old loose end has resurfaced and forced Grace to confront a mistake from her teenage years - her son by a long-dead lover has lost his adulthood, and only Grace can save him from exile.But the Fractal Demons initiate a new strategy, and are starting to turn...

The die is cast.The Empire has caught the fractal demons marshaling troops for assault, and there is no avoiding the decisive Armageddon between humanity and the fractal demons. Both sides have their strengths and there is no certainty about the outcome. While the Empire is free-falling towards open war, Grace is tasked with nudging the odds a little bit, ferreting out traitors to humanity, bribed with the seeming of the most precious gift possible but with a nightmare catch.

You'd think there'd be more for a god to do.Alexan and Petra have become Eternals - minor gods, binding themselves together in their divinity. According to most stories, that's where 'happily ever after' would start.However, there's a divine ecosystem, as red in tooth and claw as any other part of nature, competing for power and worshippers and other divine benefits. There's also the diligar deity Klikitit, who's appointed Alexan his personal enemy for having dared defend h...