Petra Released

The prison world is free. Or is it?A grieving Kane Pythen, exiled on Petra light years from his family, has found a haven among the inmates he aided in a failed escape attempt. But after a devastating attack on their settlement, he must lead a dangerous foray into Bone Tribe territory, in search of a new home before the impending winter finishes them off.Worse, the expedition uncovers a plot to seize control of Petra that could kill millions, including Kane and his friends. The shadowy forces in Farside are on the move, too, intent on eliminating all enemies. And in Ported Space, the powerful Petra Compact is hunting for the explosive prisoner records that were smuggled offworld--which have fallen into the hands of Kane's wife, Tayla . . .The battle for Petra has just begun. Kane and Tayla must brave merciless enemies and unlikely allies to save themselves and all they believe in.Petra Released is the second book in The Prison World Revolt series. Matt wrote his first story-"The Elephant and the Cheese"-when he was eight years old. It was the first time he had ever filled an entire page with writing. To his young mind, that seemed like a major accomplishment. It occurred to him shortly thereafter that writing stories was what he wanted to do with his life.Matt gravitated to science fiction, fantasy, and horror at an early age, too. He discovered Ray Bradbury's "The Fog Horn" in a grade school reader, and read it over and over whenever he got bored in class. (Needless to say, he read it a lot.) Other classics soon followed-Dune and Lord of the Rings and Foundation, the usual suspects. As a boy, he often pretended his bicycle was Shadowfax, and that he was Gandalf, riding like mad for Minas Tirith. Yeah, he was that kind of kid. Half the time, his family and friends didn't know what the hell he was talking about.Matt's story "Alan Smithee Lives in Hell" placed second in the 1997 Science Fiction Writers of Earth Contest. In 1998, he attended Odyssey. The workshop led directly to his first sale-"Black Boxes," in Absolute Magnitude. In 2002, Matt won a Phobos Award for "Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown." He was a 2008 winner in the Writers of the Future Contest. He has since continued to publish in various magazines.Matt lives in Nebraska. He has husked corn only once in his life, and has never been detasseling, so he insists he is not a hick. Petra is a brutal prison world, the final repository for the worst of the worst in all of Ported Space. But it also hides a shattering secret that is about to explode . . .