Resolute
Kris Longknife – Resolute
Kris Longknife Series Book #4
Publisher: ACE
Date: October, 2006
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Kris Longknife, who turned her back on her privileged and moneyed upbringing for a career in the Navy, has at long last been given her first independent command – in the very remote system of Chance. For an officer with a reputation for bucking the system, it’s an assignment that’s as much an exile as a promotion.
But where Kris goes, trouble seems to follow – and she isn’t on the job long when she captures pirates sabotaging the buoys that mark the jump points of interstellar travel. The pirates, she soon learns, are hiding something – the location of an uncharted and unpopulated planet of miraculous technology. Technology Kris must ensure never falls into the wrong hands.
After Defiant, I had to write a lighter book. The entire premise of Resolute is Kris getting played. She wanted an independent command in the worst way, so she got the worst in the galaxy. She's a lieutenant, replacing a lieutenant who served in an admiral's billet for thirty years, and retired a lieutenant. That should have been a warning for Kris, but how many young officers bother paying attention to warnings?
I even got to drag the old Patton from The Price of Peace out of moth balls and let it play a central part, first in getting Kris an operational space station, then a fighting ship.
And who could forget Kris tossing a caber in a short cocktail dress and in heels? Okay, yes, she ditched the heels, but not before walking up to the caber.
Kris does her usual to de-escalate a bad situation, only to have it fall apart, leaving her no option but to fight. Yes, I gave Penny a chance for revenge. That was sweet.
And if you haven't seen Star Wars as many times as I have, you may not have gotten the reference to "There is another." "He has a sister." Ha!
Audacious
Kris Longknife – Audacious
Kris Longknife Series Book #5
Publisher: ACE
Date: October 20, 2007
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Tired of being the target of assassins, naval officer Kris Longknife takes leave for some well-earned and well-deserved rest and relaxation on the world of New Eden. But her military status requires her to be on hand at societal functions where she discovers that New Eden isn’t the paradise her superiors were left to believe it was.
Once again, Kris finds herself caught in the crosshairs of unknown enemies who want her dead. Factions, both legitimate and underground, vie for control of the planet. And one major political player is taking strategic advantage of the chaos to unleash a personal vendetta against Kris.
By now, Kris is starting to think for herself. She's also figured out that King Raymond, Grampa Ray to her, has been using her, if not intentionally, then definitely, when the chance arises. Thus, fairly early in the book, she turns to the wardroom and lets them know that their Eden may not be the restful assignment it's been for years. Of course, it won't be. Not with Kris around.
Here, I got to introduce Vicky Peterwald, both an under-loved child and a spoiled brat. She's on a mission to see Kris dead, and will use every feminine wile she has to enlist guys to do just that. She's got a lot of wiles and a lot of volunteers. Fortunately, both she and they are pretty incompetent. Still, Vicky grew on me. Kris is such a good girl. Vicky is only good in bed. I knew there had to be a story there.
Intrepid
Kris Longknife – Intrepid
Kris Longknife Series Book #6
Publisher: ACE
Date: October 16, 2008
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At long last, Kris Longknife’s dream of commanding a warship has come true . . . in a way. The Wasp is the best warship beyond the rim of human space. Actually – it’s the only one, and the contract crew has its own captain. But Kris knows he’ll do what she tells him to when they run into trouble.
Sure enough, while hunting for pirates beyond the Rim, Kris stumbles upon a plan to kill one of the members of the aristocratic Peterwald family. There is no love lost between the Peterwalds and the Longknifes, but Kris cannot look the other way – especially when would-be killers are setting her up as the assassin. Now Kris must lead her crew deep into Peterwald space to save a life and prevent a war between the influential families that could devastate what is left of humanity.
If you haven't noticed it by now, each book seems to be flowing smoothly one from the other. You'd almost think I started with a nice long outline for eight or fourteen books. Sorry, but no. It just doesn’t happen that way. The next book usually only comes to me as an idea as the last book is ending.
At the end of Audacious, Kris is ordered off New Eden, along with the survivors of a company of Marines, a company that just happen to need a company commander, (ah, cough, Jack). The Wasp just happens to be in the neighborhood, and soon Kris has a ship to go exploring.
I just love taking Kris out beyond the borders of humanity. There are so many adventures! Of course, it was also fun to play with Vicky a bit as well. It's bad enough to have your performance evaluated, but to have it done by the person you tried and failed to kill? How humiliating!
Vicky's life is just in tatters. Still, the groundwork was going in for more fun with Vicky.
Undaunted
Kris Longknife – Undaunted
Kris Longknife Series Book #7
Publisher: ACE
Date: October 27, 2009
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Kris Longknife and her crew have just jumped the Wasp into an uncharted system when they encounter an alien death ball pursued by two battlecruisers. After Kris orders an end to the hostilities, the cruisers depart, but the aliens insist on meeting with the leader of the human worlds. They are, they say, on a mission of peace.
Since the leader of the human worlds just happens to be Kris’s grandfather, she is able to arrange the meeting – where the aliens reveal their message. They’ve come to warn of an unidentifiable force that is roaming the galaxy, obliterating everything in its path – a path now directly leading toward human space.
And in order to combat this unknown enemy, the commander of the Wasp will have to assume a very familiar and dangerous role: Kris Longknife, diplomat.
Turning Kris into a diplomat was a lot of fun. I hadn't done that to her so far, and I did have Cara (Abby’s niece) that I hadn't dressed up yet, so, why not have an Iteeche show up? This also let me deconstruct some of the history I had yet to write, and let the kids discover some of what their elders had been up to when they did what they did.
Oh, and Kris's lucky habit of dodging assassins runs out, but when someone else was the assassin's target, I managed to have Kris solve the problem while in a coma. How's that for a heroine?
Redoubtable
Kris Longknife – Redoubtable
Kris Longknife Series Book #8
Publisher: ACE
Date: October 26, 2010
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Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife has precise orders: seek out, engage, and destroy pirates, slavers, and drug lords operating beyond the Rim of human space – without interfering in Peterwald family affairs. Longtime rivals in business and politics, the Longknifes and Peterwalds maintain a precarious détente at best.
Unfortunately, the pirates are acting within Peterwald territory, preying on the millions of refugees suffering there. Taking down thugs is all in a day’s work for Kris’s troops. Feeding the starving masses without government support is the real challenge – especially if Kris is to avoid the appearance of a Longknife takeover of a Peterwald world.
But, when slavers kidnap a twelve-year-old girl, Kris’s mission becomes personal. And if destroying the pirate compound flattens some Peterwald interests – well, to hell with politics.
Some Amazon reviews have complained that Redoubtable is a place holder. I call it a capstone. This is the last book in the first story arc. Kris has gone from a cute puppy boot ensign to a fully competent, if junior, field g
rade officer. Now, she commands a squadron of soldiers, keeping the peace on the frontier. Oh, and she is bumping up against the Greenfeld Empire.
It's a job no one else can handle, so it's Kris's. Still, Kris has not lost her special verve for both life and command. She steps in to fill out the Panic Party when no other woman will take such a servile job, even if she is Senior Officer Present. She learned from General Trouble never to order someone to do something she wouldn't do herself.
Here again, we get to see Vicky. She's learning a few things from Admiral Kratz, as well as Kris.
Daring
Kris Longknife – Daring
Kris Longknife Series Book #9
Publisher: ACE
Date: October 25, 2011
Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife leads a Fleet of Discovery on a reconnaissance of the vast uncharted regions of space. No one, least of all Kris, expects to find an alien starship, certainly not one that comes out firing. Faced with a fight-or-flight situation, Kris fires back, blowing the ship to bits.
Half a universe away from her superiors, facing a possible mutiny from officers insisting on retreat, Kris holds the fate of humanity in her hands as she struggles to determine the extent of the alien threat – and whether to start an interstellar war.
Here is a major break in the story, and if someone wants to, they can start here. I assure you, however, they'll want to go back after Bold and read the first eight stories. For seven books, Kris had a ball being a junior officer, learning, often by making mistakes, but that's what JO's do. However, I couldn't keep her a cute puppy officer forever. With Redoubtable, she showed that she'd learned. Now it was time to show what she's capable of.
Daring is the first time that Kris gets to pick her own assignment. She wants to go see what's out there. Is there a monster hiding under the bed of the galaxy? She wants to find out why Iteeche scouts are going missing. She's ready to do it with just the ships of PatRon 10 that aren't needed on pirate patrol anymore.
However, she's a Longknife. Nobody trusts a Longknife to do just what they say they intend to do. Thus, Kris finds herself being joined by ships from three other alliances, none of which trust her any more than they trust each other. How's that for a fleet command structure?
Again, I felt my way through this by feel, discovering piece after piece of it as I went along, rarely knowing more than a chapter ahead. I'm writing it so I can see what's about to happen. So, of course, you get to see it, too.
That does make for a few problems, though. I had no idea what I was getting into when the three longboats set out to capture reaction gas, so the Wasp could straggle home. It was at the end of a writing day that the longboat with three of my favorite characters got ripped away. I had no idea I'd handed them red shirts when I put them in one launch and gave them the bottom slot.
I spent a long night thinking over what I'd done. I even talked it over with another writer I respect. She eyed me and said, "Your back brain knew exactly what you were doing." With that, their fate was sealed.
Every once in a while, I get a request to have their boat show up, hauled off to somewhere. I'd love to return them, but it just isn't in the story. If no one ever pays the price for all the risks taken by Kris, it isn't a risk.
Of course, by the time this book is finished, just about everyone who followed her out there is dead, so there is that.
Welcome Home/Go Away is an alternate ending to this book. Here we get to see the situation on Wardhaven from Grampa and Gramma Trouble's viewpoint. The ending for Kris is so strange and unbelievable, it needed to be seen from two different perspectives.
Also, this is where Vicky Peterwald's story diverges from Kris's for a while. While Kris goes toward Furious, Vicky began a short story, ah, novella, that became a trilogy which ended up having an extra-short prequel novel.
Kris Longknife's Assassin is an interesting study as well. In theory, it should have been easy, just take all of the scenes from Kris's books with Vicky in them and convert them to Vicky's viewpoint. Ha! You try it. It's not at all easy when Vicky turned out to have blue eyes and blond hair in Audacious and red hair and green eyes later. That got fixed and material went in to fill in Vicky's first days in the Navy. Oh, and we get the first hints that matters are not good for Vicky back at the palace, which might explain all the booms that followed Vicky across the galaxy in Daring. For more, see the Vicky books.
Furious
Kris Longknife – Furious
Kris Longknife Series Book #10
Publisher: ACE
Date: October 30, 2012
Having used unorthodox methods to save a world – and every sentient being on it – Lieutenant Commander Kris Longknife is wanted across the galaxy for crimes against humanity. For her own safety, she’s been assigned to a backwater planet where her Fast Patrol Squadron 127 enforces immigration control and smuggler interdiction.
But Kris is a Longknife and nothing can stop her from getting back to the center of things – not when all hell is breaking loose. Now, she’s on the run, hunted by both military and civilian authorities. And since the civilian authorities happen to be her immediate family, Kris soon finds herself homeless, broke, and on trial for her life on an alien world.
How good is a hero when you strip her of her sword, her armor, not to mention her band of brothers and sisters? How does a hero manage to get back on her feet when she's flat on her back under a huge rock pile? That was the question that Furious asked of Kris. She's helpless and everyone wants her to crawl back into a bottle where they can sit on the cork.
Well, with a little help from her friends, Kris can pop that cork, get out, and take off. I had a ball orchestrating Kris's escape. It was really fun bringing Captain Luna back alive and touring so many of Kris's old haunts. Kris's bloodhound got to be so much fun, he got his own story as well.
Of course, if you've read Dante, the only way out of hell is to go in deeper.
There's a story about the cover to this book. I really wanted them to have Kris in a kimono since she's coming from the Tea Ceremony with the Emperor and his family. Twice, I begged. Some people ask me about how much say writers have over covers. Well, you can see here. None!
Oh, about Nelly in court, big surprise. Of course, the court would want to examine the source of the recordings. Of course, Nelly would speak up. I'd seen enough Law and Order to know the courtroom steps, but they never had someone like Nelly on the stand.
And yes, during Kris's press conference, I was laying the groundwork for the new Wasp. Japanese school kids did give their pennies toward the construction of the battleship Mutsu in the 1920's. It's nice to know history; you can scrape off the serial numbers and reuse it.
And yes, again, at the ending, I did pull something the size of a T-rex out of my top hat. It gave me the chance to reintroduce Rita (from the Jump Universe series) and have a ball with Alwa. I think it has been well worth the stretch.
Defender
Kris Longknife – Defender
Kris Longknife Series Book #11
Publisher: ACE
Date: October 29, 2013
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Kris Longknife is back in the good graces of the brass – and to demonstrate that, they’ve promoted her to Commodore. Now, her mission is to find the home base of the aliens who are plaguing the fringes of the galaxy.
But no mission is simple when your name is Longknife. This time, the complications range from the military to the personal, as Kris finds herself – reluctantly – having to make some command decisions about her future.
There is just so much fun in this book before we have to get down to an impossible defensive situation. Here we say hello to Granny Rita and hello to King Ray, the suitor. Hell no, says Granny, and we're off to the races. Trust a great-grandmother to give a girl a swift kick in her ass and send her off to spend some serious time with the guy she's been bouncing off of but avoiding for the last five years.
In this book, Kris begins to juggle more than a few hat
s. She's got an industrial base to grow, a fleet to command, and relationships with both human colonials and Alwa's birds to keep happy. Oh, and a man to court and wed.
This is one of the most fun books in the series, but, also, the only one likely to earn a soft R-rating if it gets made into a movie.
Tenacious
Kris Longknife – Tenacious
Kris Longknife Series Book #12
Publisher: ACE
Date: October 28, 2014
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There’s no rest for a Longknife, even if you’re a newlywed. Vice Admiral Kris Longknife’s honeymoon gets cancelled when she hears that the space raiders’ home world may have been discovered. Finding where the raiders came from could be the key to saving humanity. If only uncovering their secrets was that easy . . .
As Kris returns home, she ends up tangling with a mutinous crew determined to take off alone. The dissident group leads Kris straight into a new mess – a system filled with strange, deadly enemies poised to wipe out another sentient civilization out of existence. Kris and her squadron are ready to prevent total annihilation, but the mutineers have other plans.
Writing with Mike Shepherd Page 2
