Gigaparsec Series by Scott Rhine
Gigaparsec #1
Void Contract
Scott Rhine
Max Culp escaped his low-tech home world by serving in the marines as a medic. Unable to adapt to civilian life as a medical intern, he joined Special Forces to track down the Phib war criminals who caused his recurring nightmares. By the time the final Phib is captured, Max has become an urban legend among the aliens. He isn’t sure how to apply those skills to a new life until someone kidnaps his last surviving friend.
This series continues the story of humanity’s expansion into space 400 years after the Jezebel’s Ladder series left off. Fans of Heinlein, Walter Jon Williams, David Brin, and Babylon 5 should enjoy this action-filled quest to other planets.
**From the Author
Max Culp is a man of his times. He represents the Gigaparsec War, the first armed conflict between members of the great Union of Souls.After the war, he hunts the Phibs whom he watched perpetrate numerous atrocities. Now that the revenge is over, Max puts together a crew of talented misfits of every species. In the tradition of 70's space-exploration fiction, we visit strange, new places and buy things from them, all while wielding blasters. The difference with Star Trek is that traveling five parsecs takes a month instead of a minute. The aliens and technology may appear in dozens of books, but the characters are well-developed, complex, and evolving. Each book in the series is told from the point of view of a different partner in Far-Traveler Unlimited. The last chapter gives us a lead-in to Roz, the chief engineer and pilot of the prototype craft. Her story is book 2, Supergiant. Book 3, Union of Souls, is from the POV of Reuben the Black Ram as he transitions from scoundrel to statesman. The finale is told by a Saurian.
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