New York Times bestselling authors Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff are happy to bring you a new book in a new series, in a whole new universe. You will be familiar with Gorg and Paula from their books in Eric Flint's 1632 Ring of Fire series, The Kremlin Games, The Viennese Waltz, The Volga Rules and The Alexander Inheritance. And now they welcome you to the StarWings Universe. The Pamplona sector—long cut off from Old Earth by war, politics, and the vagaries of jump—is slowly, too slowly to notice, slipping into a space-going dark age. Technology and science are being suppressed. The powers that be intend to remain in charge and are too busy sticking their knives in each other’s backs to notice that the short term advantage of demonizing aliens, artificial brains, and genetic engineering are far outweighed by the long term stagnation their paranoia and propaganda is fostering. The artificial brain ship Pandora, her captain, Danny Gold, Checkgok, a Parthian neuter female, John, Jenny, the professors and the odds and sods they pick up as crew don’t know it either. At least not at first. They are just trying to get by. But the evidence mounts, and they are forced to make some hard decisions.

The only thing keeping Jenny Starchild alive is her interface with the Arachne, an artificial brain that keeps Jenny's organs operating and controls a warship. But the situation also makes her powerful, and she knows what she's going to do with her life. She is going to weave a new star nation out of the materials she has at hand: A strand of compassion here, a strand of fierce pride there. The love of community of the alien Parthians woven together with human individuality. The computing and reasoning abilities of artificial brains woven together with the genetically engineered Cybrants. It's going to take all of Jenny's exuberance and all of Arachne's powers, not to mention some luck. But if they can weave this new nation, then billions of people—humans and other sorts of people—will have life, liberty, and a chance to pursue their own happiness in their own way. On the other hand, if Jenny, Arachne, and her human and Parthian allies fail in the task, they're probably all going to be destroyed—and so might whole star systems.

First an apology, this is a space opera not a romance though there are Romance elements in it. The reason for the cursive script on the cover is that I goofed. But it’s a good book either way. Charleen Dreesen is stranded on Casa Verde station without the proper ticket to ship out on an interstellar spaceship. With no berths in the offing, she's looking for any way she can find to make a credit. Then she meets Joey, his sister Darleen, his father Mike and his pet rat Mister Rodent—who are all worse off than she is. Mike's behind in his kickbacks to the local crime boss, and neither he nor the kids have interfaces or much in the way of education. So Charleen's now in bad company as well as stranded and broke. Before you know it, people are trying to kill her. She's left with no choice but to start climbing the ladder of La Causa, the organization that controls crime in the Casa system. And if she's not careful she’ll wind up in politics. The Cordoba and Drake Combines are being challenged by the rising Alliance created by Jenny Starchild and the crew of her starship Arachne. Their control over the Pamplona sector is starting to crack and the Casa system is caught in the middle. Charleen may have to raise the bloody flag of revolution...