The Wounded Frontier

When a star thirty-four light-years away vanishes, leaving the infrared signature of a Dyson sphere inexplicably built in one week, Supreme Commander Jack Commer readies the untested Typhoon V for the star Iota Persei, roping in a talented replacement engineer doubtful of Jack's command capabilities, and cajoling a navigator beset by decades-old combat trauma into postponing his retirement for one last risky mission. Meanwhile Jack's previous engineer, who quit the Space Force to become Consort to the Martian Empress, begins to remember that he's a really a spy for the Wounded, a race that kills suns to create spectacular quasar artworks fifteen billion light-years away. Michael D. Smith was raised in the Northeast and the Chicago area, then moved to Texas to attend Rice University, where he began developing as a writer and visual artist. His Jack Commer, Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander Laurie science fiction series are published by Sortmind Press. In addition, Sortmind Press has published Smith's literary novels Sortmind, The Soul Institute, CommWealth, Akard Drearstone, Jump Grenade, Asylum and Mirage, The University of Mars, and Zarreich. Smith's web site, sortmind.com, contains further examples of his novels and visual art, and he muses about writing and art processes at blog.sortmind.com. With the shocking suicide of the Typhoon I, the most powerful military spaceship ever built, the four Commer brothers are reduced to two. After the horrors of the Final War, the evacuation of Earth, and an unexpected conflict with native Martian terrorists, is eldest brother Jack really fit to lead the United System Space Force? Yet despite stress bordering on hysteria he always seems to come up with the proper solution. Shy with women but easy with command as opposed to his passionate, guilt-ridden brother Joe, when promoted to Supreme Commander Jack passes over numerous ambitious admirals and holds onto power for decades with the newest rejuvenation technology. But has he ever really recovered from the responsibility of overseeing forty years of futile time war with the Alpha Centaurians?