The Last Dance

(Hardback)

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At the heart of a mystery unfolding in space, the opposing forces make a treacherous journey between Earth and Mars. In space, mutiny means deaththats why Inspector General Park Yerim is taking her investigation so seriously. The alleged mutineer is Captain Nicolau Aames, whose command of the massive Earth-Mars vessel Aldrin has come under fire. The vast System Initiative says he disobeyed orders, but his crew swears hes in the right. En route to Mars, Park gathers testimony from the Aldrins diverse crew, painting a complex picture of Aamess character: his heroism, his failures, even his personal passions. As the investigation unfolds, Park finds herself in the thrall of powerful interests, each pushing and pulling her in a fiery cosmic dance. Corruption, conflicting loyalties, and clashing accounts make it nearly impossible to see the truth in fifty million miles of darkness, and Park faces danger from every direction. All eyes are on her: one way or another, her findings will have astronomical implications for the Aldrin and the future of space travel.

Author Bio

Martin L. Shoemaker is a writer and programmer. As a kid, he told stories to imaginary friends. He couldnt imagine any career but writing fiction until his algebra teacher said, This is a program. You should write one of these. Fast-forward through thirty years of programming, writing, and teaching. He wrote, but he never submitted anything until his brother-in-law read a chapter and said, Thats not a chapter. Thats a story. Send it in. It was a runner-up for the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award and earned him a lunch with Buzz Aldrin. Programming never did that! Shoemaker hasnt stopped writing since. His novella Murder on the Aldrin Express was reprinted in The Years Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection and in The Years Top Short SF Novels 4. He received the Washington Science Fiction Associations Small Press Award for his Clarkesworld story Today I Am Paul, which continues in Today I Am Carey, published in March 2019. Learn more at http://Shoemaker.Space.