On an icy, barren world, a starship dreams of doom…?

Throughout the galaxy, the reclusive alien race known as The One are incapacitated by terror.

?On the planet Luddeccea, wolf-human hybrid Volka harbors a terrible secret…a secret that must explain her nightmares.?

Trapped on a luxurious asteroid, pleasure ‘bot 6T9 struggles to find purpose—until he receives a message from an Unidentified Caller.

?The worlds of The One, Volka, and 6T9 are about to collide.

The galaxy will be shaken to its core.

?The starship is waking.

Our central worldline monitors many of the adjacent worldlines. Are we behind or ahead of other worldlines technologically? Could people cross over and be a threat? Do they have any technology we could use to stay dominant?

Of all the alternate Earth timelines, only this one had the North American natives survive and flourish. This, despite enduring a vastly superior Alien invasion centuries previously. Two agents sent from the central worldline to investigate this outlier Earth have disappeared. An agent sent by the Central Worldline, despite his apparent youth, and disregard for protocol, is sent to investigate the Outlier Earth for an explanation.

This is a dark tale how one dimension treats another due to the disparity between technologies. It a tell of the slaughter caused by a century of contrived grievances. It is a tale of survival of a romanticized culture that had radically changed due to an earlier invasion and rebellion. How could the diverse people with hundreds of different dialects survive against a world turned against them. Why would a near-immortal man fight a war so he might have romance again like a youth.

"... it's VERY good ... and of course people use their freight mechs to fight!"
- BookTok influencer @bloodfirejeff

"I enjoyed this read so much I’ve immediately bought the next two books!"
- Callum Dunlop, Amazon UK

"It's thoughtful, a little ridiculous in the best way, and has me looking forward to book 2."
- BookTok influencer @X_DG

"I gave 'Belly of Salt' a try in hopes it would scratch the itch 'The Expanse' series left since its conclusion. I got much more than I bargained for ... cannot recommend it enough."
- Cristina Roman, Amazon USA

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War is coming - what would you risk to finally belong?

Episode 1 of the Belly of Salt series.

On the cusp of adulthood, Eva finally finds kinship in the orbital cavalry, where her penchant for violence and her relentless composure are not just accepted, but respected. Nonetheless, she can smell rot in the ranks. She is being ordered to kill people – a lot of people – and she can either ask why, or keep her new and fragile belonging intact, raising toast after toast to victory in the warmth of her barracks.

Meanwhile, Iskander earns a wage by hauling cargo in his robotic freight mech, a two-legged pile of rust and greasy steel that cost every penny he had. Employment, however, is not the same as belonging. Knowing that “real” mech pilots fight in dangerous, glitzy combat tournaments, he must either risk death by fighting in his decrepit mech, or stand aside and hope a steady paycheck overwhelms the immediacy of being alone.

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Belly of Salt is a science fiction series that explores the absurd price of belonging. Eva and Iskander each struggle to shield their small, brittle pieces of happiness from dangers that are far beyond their control – dangers that may include each other.

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Excerpts:
She had thought such fortitude belonged only to history’s strongest, hairiest warriors, whereas Eva had once injured her lower back via a particularly enthusiastic sneeze.
- Book 1, Belly of Salt

She was quiet as Iskander talked, silent in the way glass is silent as it lays on the floor after shattering.
- Book 2, Thread Cutter

Eva’s fingernails bent and then snapped in a fraction of a second, some ripping cleanly off, overwhelmed by the enormity of the deceleration. Her arm was laced through the straps of his gear, and she felt, rather than heard, a wet popping like a bubble in thick syrup, as the joint of one shoulder was torn from its fitted socket.
- Book 3, Barefoot Among Snakes
Read more

One Operator. One Kid. One Mission.

They said it would be a simple job: collect the daughter of a high-profile dignitary and return her to the capital.

But Val Standish knows that no mission survives first contact.

Alone, without support, Standish finds herself up against multiple adversaries, with only her wits and skills to keep her cargo and herself alive.

Winner of the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.

What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award–winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy.

An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind—hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out ages ago. After all this time, there’s no telling how they’ve devolved. Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.

N. K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

Audible narration by Jason Isaacs (Star Trek: Discovery)