Collapse

The Empire is dead! And Captain Josiah Bleys, smuggler and charmer though he may be, is likely to soon follow unless he is willing to at least pretend to be something he loathes: a hero. His "pal" Chief Ragnar Kane, one of the Emperor's finest warriors, likewise harbors no aspirations toward gallantry, just increasing his kill count. Fate, however, has other plans. The mighty, galaxy-spanning Terran Empire is mortally wounded, brought to its knees by a terrifying, intelligent plague from hyperspace. The core worlds are mass graves, and the government lies in ruins. Outlying colonies, suddenly isolated and without support, are on their own. Luck (the bad kind) has both men stuck on the icy mining facility on Cerberus, an installation that won't last long without resupply. Bleys and Kane must mount a daring raid on a neighboring planet to retrieve a legendary scientist in the hopes that he can reconnect them to civilization, or they and everyone else at their frozen outpost are doomed. The trouble is that the scientist isn't exactly willing, nor is he exactly... alive.

Alone in the dark, surrounded by formless monsters... The good news is that Armageddon has plenty of variety, lots of choices on how to die. Short term, there's being devoured by terrifying new alien hybrids, silver-skinned, hulking brutes capable of tearing a man limb from limb. Long term, if Captain Josiah Bleys and his pals can't reopen the jumpgates, there's a good chance of slow and miserable starvation. And then there's the fact that the jumpgates were code-locked for good reason: to stop the spread of the Pestilence. No one knows what may come out if they are reopened, but it's certain to be a Bad Thing. Yesterday, Bleys and his new pals were shooting at each other. For now, they're united against common foes, but who knows how long that will last. Given his druthers for partners at the end of the world, Bleys would have preferred a raven-haired hottie and a bottle of scotch, but a gambler plays the cards he's dealt. This is the sort of hand that takes finesse, audacity, and more than a little luck. With stakes literally the size of the galaxy, it's going to be a real white-knuckler. Experience Book 2 in a space opera thrill ride from award-winning author Matthew P Gilbert. It's perfect for fans of JN Chaney, Andy Peloquin, and the Halo Franchise.

If a place named Zion isn't the right location for humanity's last stand, where is? Legendary final battles are not on Captain Bleys's to-do list, but then, neither was being a hero... Yet here he is, girl and all. Of course, his girl carries a blaster and has been known to dissolve her enemies with acid. They have the big guns and the badass attitudes, not to mention an illegal AI-controlled battle cruiser that technically makes them war criminals. This thing should be a cakewalk, but there's a weasel in the woodpile, a traitor working against them. If Bleys can't out-weasel The Weasel, he and his friends are in real trouble. Meanwhile, more alien hybrids, twisted, insidious controllers, spin out their own plans, spiders looking to enmesh their choice prize. And beneath even that lurks an unspeakable doom that could douse the candle of humanity forever. Don't miss the epic conclusion to the Collapse series. It's perfect for fans of JN Chaney, Andy Peloquin, and the Halo Franchise.