Fictitious

K.B. Wagers is the author of A PALE LIGHT IN THE BLACK (HarperVoyager). It’s a good vibes military space opera that follows the Near Earth Orbital Guard, essentially a spacefaring Coast Guard protecting humanity within our solar system. The Neo-G crew of the Interceptor ship Zuma’s Ghost prepares for the annual Boarding Games — a multi-military competition which carries huge prestige, bragging rights, and useful inter-branch clout. But this tight-knit found family faces destabilization as their lieutenant commander is promoted off the ship, replaced with Maxine Carmichael, a capable but awkward young woman whose family name carries a great deal of influence and baggage. As Max works to gel with the team’s volatile mechanic and conflicted captain, their Neo-G missions uncover a strange pattern of interconnected mysteries — worried smugglers who die suspiciously in military custody, colony ships lost for generations turning up without their suspended animation crews, and corporate intrigues that might just haun