Bøger af Roger Alan Bonner

The sequel to "Thirds." One of the seven great families- Destuta Fel, well-known for stupidity, brutality, and its hatred of tris - tries to use genetic engineering as a means of oppressing the tris and removing them from Suranan society. This tactic splits the great families and angers the tris. Most of the families believe the tris cannot and will not fight. They are wrong. Biology drives politics, and Surana explodes in protests, violence, assasination, murder, and kidnapping. Funerals become part of the Suranan landscape.

THIRDS is the first of THE NEBULA TALES, a space opera at the juncture of political science, biology, and fantasy. Reaching the Orion Nebula, humans encounter a space-faring society - Surana. Suranans are tri-sexual: there are three genders - males, females, and tris. The biology and interdependence among the three Suranan sexes result in pervasive and deeply seated discrimination against tris. Consequently, tris are excluded from much of polite society and therefore live lives which are often short, brutal, and miserable. On Surana, biology drives politics, violence descends, and Surana threatens to explode.

The civil war between the tris and the oligarchs continues. However, Muriel convinces Jot that the tris cannot defeat a powerful Fel through violence. They devise a non-violent strategy derived from the biological interdependence between tris and Suranans. In this strategy, biology is politics, and persuasion and public relations take the lead. As the strategy gains traction, a still-powerful Destuta becomes desperate and more violent, and the tris begin to suffer losses among the leadership. But the tri strategy fragments the oligarchs and encourages many to seek a peaceful, cooperative resolution. Subsequent betrayal leads to assassination, violently resolving the civil war. The survivors on both sides take their first steps towards mending their society and undertaking reforms designed to encourage peaceful co-existence. The story ends as Surana embarks on massive and widespread cultiural and political change.

RED NIGHT REVENGE is a psychodrama. Amir and Serena, naturalized Americans from Lebanon, lose their only child, Lelah, to a mass shooting at her college. Serena slowly recovers from the shock and grief. But Amir develops and succumbs to a voice in his head, that of The Beast, an angry, vicious entity lusting for revenge against the 'gun people' whom it blames for Lelah's death. As Amir does its bidding, his life is awash in blood, and he will struggle to preserve what has not been lost. This story is for adults; it is not recommended for children, adolescents, or members of the National Rifle Association.

Milky Way Tango launches the Belt Stories - a quest motivated by romance in a space opera setting. Jimmy and Sarah, childhood friends, become lovers before leaving for college. But on the Big Date, they encounter a cruel twist of fate resulting in Jimmy's incarceration at the far end of the Belt. For ten years, he will be the sole occupant of a navigational array near the North American nebula. It is a beautiful, explosive, turbulent neighborhood. However, the annual mortality rate is thirty percent.The likelihood of his surviving the next ten years is close to zero.Sarah is left behind to get on with what remains of her life. She attends a college and tries hard to study. But she must forget Jimmy and the plans they had. That is difficult; for Sarah, all roads lead to Jimmy.For Jimmy, life is simpler - he is determined to survive, which will require all of his will and energy and optimism and resourcefulness.The story continues in Milky Way Boogie and concludes in Milky Way Gala.

Milky Way Boogie follows Milky Way Tango. Jimmy and Sarah have taken separate paths out into the Belt. Jimmy is incarcerated on a navigational array near the North American nebula. Sarah studies at a trade school for space workers and pilots. A thousand light years separate the young lovers.They have chosen an environment of beauty and lethal challenges. Each learns the hard lesson - the Black does not forgive those who know not what they do. They learn to live and work in cold, sterile vacuum. Safety becomes an obsession; the clever use of technology, a savior.Desire for reunion drives their ambitions.But in the Black, the Space Fiend ever lurks. He takes a hand, and the plans and ambitions of Jimmy and Sarah veer hard into a frightening detour.The story continues in Milky Way Gala.

Victimized by technological and human failure, Sarah, on her first voyage as a star ship captain, is stranded in deep space.She desperately wages a war of survival, marshaling every resource and idea to return her ship and her crew to civilization. But as time passes, her resources - her body and mind, her crew, the air on her ship, the food in its holds, the technologies of space travel - dwindle and fail. She is losing the war. Cold, black vacuum - always advancing, never retreating - is closing in.Jimmy, released from prison, is prosperous, a celebrity for his daring rescues. But for all his success, he has pursued a single obsession - finding Sarah, dead or alive.He has failed.He crosses an anniversary of her disappearance and begins to lose hope. She has been missing more than a year. Everyone else believes that Sarah and her crew are dead. Jimmy wonders if they might be right.Hope, tragedy, ingenuity, and courage collide in an explosive ending, concluding the Belt Stories.

Sentinel is a space opera and a meditation on mortality and self-awareness.Pete Wilson, a software engineer, is part of a crew dispatched to an asteroid to build a large telescope array. His main task is to install a master computer to operate and manage the array. In his free time, Pete fantasizes about getting a date with an attractive co-worker. It's been entirely too long.Later, the computer awakens. One might say, it learns to identify its fingers and toes. It learns, what is mine, what is me, and what is neither. Pete becomes its first friend. It acquires a name - Mulligan - and tries to help Pete arrange a date with a suitable woman.A visit from an alien species interrupts Pete Wilson's social endeavors. Six ships emerge from the stars and take positions over large cities. Due to a misunderstanding, a war breaks out and Mulligan learns first-hand what it means to be human and mortal. It learns about life and death and how rare it is to be self-aware. It learns about fortitude and friendship.And it learns that mortality requires courage, which all self-aware entities need because nothing under the sun lasts forever.

The Vote Trader is a socio-science fiction drama. Hector is a financial and business expert, working in gray markets in Brooklyn. His partner, Sarah, is a political operative for a Democratic candidate in the race for Senator from New York. When he learns from her that New York now allows individuals to buy and sell votes in political elections (like buyers and sellers do for corporate securities), his eyes light up, and he smells money. Hector, though apolitical, decides to trade in votes in the election for US Senator from New York. At first, he pursues profit, but hijinks ensue, and his single-minded greed collides with civic responsibility.