Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Life and Death on Mars

(May 12, 2024 update Huzzah!! the complication with distribution over which I have no control is resolved. Life and Death on Mars is once more available in ebook formats, including Kindle.)

I'm (beyond) delighted to announce the release today of Life and Death on Mars. In terms of scope, it's one of my most ambitious novels ever.

As though landing people safely on Mars weren't daunting enough ...

The Space Race of the Sixties, at the height of the Cold War, had been nail-biting—until the Soviet Union forfeited.

In the thirtiesamid a second Cold WarChina is not about to lose the race to Mars. Nor is the United States. Nor, quite the wildcard, is a secretive cabal drawn from among the world's multi-billionaires. All of them scrambling to launch deep-space missions on a schedule to make the Sixties contest appear lackadaisical.

Competition that could only continue on the Red Planet.

More treacherous still? The rivalries, resentments, and distrust that simmer just beneath the surface within each expedition.

More difficult yet? Survival on that arid, radiation-drenched, all-but-airless planet.

These challenges have somehow fallen into the lap of NASA engineer—and reluctant astronaut—Xander Hopkins.

But the thorniest problem of all? The existential quandary for which neither training nor experience has in any way prepared Xander? Making sense of the seemingly unstoppable plague that has already killed. The plague that seems poised to devastate all life on Mars and another world.

Earth.

This being a commercial announcement, I'll offer links to the print edition and Kindle edition at Amazon. The book will also be available soon—if it isn't already by the time you read this—in other print and ebook venues. If your favorite brick-and-mortar store doesn't have it on the shelf, they'll be happy to place an order (to make it painless for the bookseller, here's the ISBN: 978-1647100889).

Monday, December 4, 2023

The Return of the Inter(stellar)Net

The  long-awaited re-release of the acclaimed three-book InterstellarNet series has (finally) arrived. I like to believe it was worth the wait.

What is the InterstellarNet series? To share a few of my favorite reviews:

"Edward M. Lerner’s InterstellarNet is one of the most original and well-thought-out visions of an interstellar civilization I’ve ever seen." 
— Stanley Schmidt, author of Argonaut

"A wonderfully thought-provoking story… Lerner's world-building and extrapolating are top notch." 
— SFScope

"Faster-than-light travel is such a commonplace convention in SF that we seldom consider the flip side: a universe in which FTL does not exist. In this book … Edward M. Lerner uses such a universe to great effect." 
Analog Science Fiction and Fact

"An exceptional book in an excellent series … If you enjoy a good story on a large scale told by sympathetic characters, read Interstellar Net: Enigma. If you enjoy space opera, space combat, and unlikely heroes saving the earth, you will enjoy this book. If you enjoy mysteries, the futuristic elements will not detract. This is one of the few novels that combine an action mystery with a sweeping science fiction and excels at being both. Get this novel. Whether you read the others or not, it stands alone. Highly recommended." 
Galaxy's Edge

"… Space opera set in an interesting variation of the standard solar civilization. There’s a little bit of military SF, some intrigue, some wondrous revelations, and some gritty conflicts. Fun." 
Critical Mass

"When people talk about good hard SF—rigorously extrapolated but still imbued with the classic sense-of-wonder—they mean the work of Edward M. Lerner, the current master of the craft. InterstellarNet: Enigma is Lerner’s latest gem, and it's up to his usual excellent standards; a winner all around." 
— Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues

"... A well researched hard science fiction series. Building from today's technology into a believable tale of the not-so-distant future of characters, ships and planets, I really enjoyed it." — Abyss & Apex

Oh, I might also mention that InterstellarNet: Origins (the first of the series) incorporates "Creative Destruction," the novelette that brought me my first appearance in a Year's Best anthology. InterstellarNet: Enigma (third and last of the series) incorporates "Championship B'tok"), the novelette that brought me a Hugo Award nomination. InterstellarNet: Enigma as a whole won the inaugural Canopus Award, "honoring excellence in interstellar writing."

This being a commercial announcement, I'll share Amazon Links. In print:

InterstellarNet: Origins

InterstellarNet: New Order

InterstellarNet: Enigma

For the Kindle:

InterstellarNet: Origins

InterstellarNet: New Order

InterstellarNet: Enigma

If you're a brick-and-mortar shopper and you don't happen to find the book(s) of interest on the shelf, just ask the bookseller to order it for you. (She'd much rather do that than have you go elsewhere.) To simplify ordering, here are the ISBNs:

InterstellarNet: Origins: 978-1515458074

InterstellarNet: New Order: 978-1515458081

InterstellarNet: Enigma: 978-1515458098