"I think this might be my best work yet," -- Robert E Colfax, Author.

Three years and twenty+ novels after my debut series Aeolus Investigations, I'm ready to present a new saga, Mantis. Aeolus was a fun series to write, detailing the adventures of the protagonist, Lexi Stevens as she struggled to understand her place in the interstellar civilization called the Accord. Without her, the Accord would have been wiped out several times over.

My second science fiction series I called Beyond the Divide. Trisha and Gordon meet under unlikely circumstances. Then they join forces to defend the star nations of Known-space from the inimical aliens from beyond the divide. I'll leave it to the imagination of the student to derive where the series title came from.

By anybody's definition, MC Jones -- the main character in Mantis -- is a special woman. After dealing with her father, she sets herself on a mission of ending the lives of evil beings, be they men, women, or aliens. Her self-assigned purpose in life encounters an encumbrance when she comes into contact with people she actually likes. Her father made a huge mistake when he designed and trained her as a cybernetically enhanced assassin.

He died before he learned the full folly of letting a pissed-off assassin loose on the galaxy.

In MC's own words:

My father wasn't pure evil. Yes, he was greedy. And he was definitely cruel. I would go so far as to say he was evil. But pure evil was a level he hadn't yet attained. I know. I've seen it more than once.

My name is Mary Christmas Jones and I'm a cybernetically enhanced assassin. I have many last names, none the one I was born with. I disowned that name, and my father, the day he made me kill Celeste, the poor girl I loved more than life itself. I left his employ that same night, leaving behind a small nuclear device as a parting gift. I doubt he had time to enjoy it. Honestly, blowing him up was expedient but it was also letting him off too easily.

Celeste had left me a parting gift as well. His account numbers. I was just educated enough to use them without getting caught.

There are plenty of other greedy, cruel, evil beings in Human-occupied space. Yes, space is large enough than no one person, even a cybernetic assassin, could make a dent, but I needed a hobby. No more nukes, though. I am more surgical now. I'm sure I took out any number of people with that nuke, people who didn't really deserve to be vaporized. Sometimes I feel bad about that. Assigning them guilt by association doesn't really cut it.

Now, I just need to buy -- or steal -- a ship and recruit a crew.

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• Science Fiction & FantasyScience FictionAdventure
• Literature & FictionAction & AdventureAdventure

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