Part of Series

The Cruel Stars

Series · 4 books

By Jason Lambright, John Birmingham

The Javan War plunges readers into a war that shatters not only bodies but memories and time itself. Sub-Lieutenant Lucinda Hardy, tethered to a strike team on the enemy warship Jakarta, feels every shot and death through her neural link. But as gigaton blasts tear through space, they rip apart more than fleets of giant warships—they fragment Lucinda's perception of time, unravelling her memories and erasing the line between past and present. Between the chaos of battle, the story pulls readers into Lucinda's past—a corporate dystopia where a young girl loses her father to debt collectors and is forced into a military career for survival. Each moment of combat sends shockwaves through her fractured mind, where the echoes of her brutal childhood merge with the deadly reality she faces. As war dismantles her sense of self, Lucinda Hardy must fight not just to survive but to hold on to the pieces of who she once was.

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Authors

John Birmingham grew up in Ipswich, Queensland and was educated at St Edmunds Christian Brother's College in Ipswich and the University of Queensland in Brisbane. His only stint of full time employment was as a researcher at the Defence Department. After this he returned to Queensland to study law but he did not complete his legal studies, choosing instead to pursue a career as a writer. He currently lives in Brisbane. While a law student he was one of the last people arrested under the state's Anti Street March legislation. Birmingham was convicted of displaying a sheet of paper with the words 'Free Speech' written on it in very small type. The local newspaper carried a photograph of him being frogmarched off to a waiting police paddy wagon. Birmingham has a degree in international relations.