Kindle Edition Download to your Nook (eBook) Download from Apple iTunes (eBook) Download from Smashwords (eBook) Amazon Barnes & Noble.com MPax Category:  Science Fiction Publisher: M. Pax ISBN-10:  B005QB25H4 Type: Fiction Pages: 55 Copyright: October 2011 ISBN-13: 9781465981509 Leda, the last defender of her world, makes the final stand. Space opera. Novelette. Alone. Leda is the last living member of the brigade, the sole defender of her world. War took everyone she knew, leaving her in the company of memories and ghosts. Or is it madness? The siren blares. The enemy is coming. Or is it? The approaching vessel isn't a friendly design, but it answers with the correct code. Leda must figure out whether the arrival is reinforcements or the final assault. In an aging flyer, she ventures out to meet her world's fate, the last stand. Excerpt Chapter One Rrr. Rrrrrr. RrrrRrrrrr. The claxon blasted through the outpost. Leda vaulted onto her feet, reaching for the rings hanging above her bunk. Empty berths above, below and beside hers lined the sloping walls of the dome, their hollow echoes adding to the siren’s cries pulsing over her nerves. Urgent. She readied for duty, the only one answering Baird Defense Station’s call to post, the last soldier standing. One at a time, she plucked off the rings and activated them. When snapped into place, the circlets formed pieces of armor. Feet. Legs. Hips. Torso. Shoulders. Arms. Hands. She held off on the neck piece and helmet, and attached her weaponry next, the holster clicking in a lonely ricochet against the appropriate plates where magnets held it firm. The blaster powered up, priming. Not yet fully awake, Leda stretched, cracking her neck one way then the other, not needing coherent thought to respond as the alarm demanded, grabbing onto things to transform her from guardian caretaker into consummate warrior. She snarled, ready to hit feral and fast, with an unbridled force she had sworn oath to when joining the brigade. A brigade which had contracted to one. To her. Onto the protections shielding her legs and waist she affixed hand grenades, acid gums and cutter arrays. When fully armed, she moved her thick, shoulder-length braid, dark as the depths of space, out of the way and clacked on the band of neck armor. She slung the helmet ring over her holster and whirled toward the stairway to discover what danger threatened her and her world. The air crackled with a buzz of baritone sound and sensation, prickles which strummed in Leda’s ears then along her spine, biting into her wrist and winding their way into her veins. Her head spun and suddenly the station roared with the bluster of the entire brigade springing up. Inert gears freed from an eternal sleep, their phantom boots thundered through the utilitarian corridors. Ducts striped the walls horizontally and energy lines banded them vertically. Stairwells spiraled down into tubular passageways. Very few windows let in the raw sunlight illuminating the defensive outpost every twenty-nine hours. The march of Leda’s fallen unit burst past her. Rugar. Dris. All of the others. The claxon blared louder. Leda blinked. She stood alone, tall and imposing, unspilled tears brightening her sometimes green, sometimes blue eyes, mourning once ago times. ***** Once ago, the brigade packed into all the spaces, jostling Leda and her rings as she struggled into her armor, drumming past her, limbs and shoulders knocking into hers. Her comrades carelessly aimed blasters and hurled insults, attempting to distill the trepidation of meeting a foe armed with overwhelming power and numbers, an enemy none of them had ever seen. The missiles and flyers hurled at Leda and her regiment were known well enough, but not the beings who launched them. “Posterior Cava section, Leda.” The protective armor around her neck made it impossible to nod, so she tapped on the helmet near her ear, but not hard enough to give herself a headache. “I heard, Rugar.” “Call formations. You take Squadron Elseviar. See you when it’s all over.” Her sometimes blue eyes stared at his armor-clad back burdened with weaponry, knowing she would lose him, but she hoped not today. “Dris,” Leda called to a fellow female warrior, “back us up with that cannon.” Leda’s plated hand gestured at the weapon hoisted in a cavalier manner over Dris’s shoulder. “Let’s get it done.” Leda led the charge out the hatch. They threw, they launched, they fired, ducked and rolled in perfect form and yet Elseviar and the other squadrons of Baird Defense Station did not find victory. ***** Over the ensuing decades, the outcome never changed. Defeat after defeat, the brigade dwindled into air. Now only Leda defended the station and the decimated world it orbited, drifting together toward ruin and the abyss.

Fast Pced Excellent Novella
Peggy Bechko, Author. A space-opera you can read in a weekend. Generally I'm a full-blown novel fan and the shorter stuff isn't really for me, but M. Pax, with her approximately 13,000 words, changed my mind.

I downloaded it when I wasn't feeling well and by the next day, felt good enough to decide I needed to be reading something. This was it.

Though her main character spends a lot of time in isolation M. Pax does a great job of invoking all five senses in the reader, of drawing you into the world of this lone solider who's main company is ghost-brigades and memories. Her heroine is wonderfully human and it's easy to identify with her fears, sense of determination and struggle to do what's required of her.

Excellent read and certainly just this side of free at .99 on Kindle and other outlets.

A Superior Read From an Exciting New Author
Doug Bittinger. Semper Audacia is the story of a warrior; the last of her kind, defending her home world via an orbital outpost. The planet's population too has dwindled and is just hanging on. Their ancient foe attacks and the last guardian springs into action accompanied by a battalion of ghosts; the memories of her fallen comrades.

The odds are almost hopeless. Almost. She must try; it's what she does, it's what she is and has been all her life. But then a wrinkle - the enemy battleship transmits a valid "friendly" code even as it's powering up weapons. If the enemy are finally responding to their pleas for peace, attacking the ship would fling her people back into eternal war. If it's a ruse, her people could be exterminated. She chooses a decidedly unconventional solution.

Semper Audacia is Mary Pax's first novella, and it comes on the heels of several short stories, including Plantgirl, Translations, and Small Graces, all of which are delightful reads and are available for free from Smashwords. B&N and iTunes. Mary employs a unique writing style which I would describe as "Literary Sci-Fi". Her economical prose is tight, active, and colorfully descriptive, yet draws upon the reader to participate in the story, not just observe it. It is not the type of reading that you can skim and understand but her writing is so vital that you don't want to skim it; it implores you, like a hot bath, to slide in and immerse yourself in the experience.

Each of the stories she offers contain unique and surprising elements. Semper Audacia contained several moments that caused me to marvel at their uniqueness.

The book itself is very well written and edited. You'll find no amateurish stumbling blocks such as sentence fragments left over from an edit or transposed words that made it past a spell checker but are the wrong word for the context. Punctuation and grammar are - as far as I could tell - flawless. Her characterization and scene setting is clear and vital, but done without a single wasted word. Audacia is a professional grade release from an exciting new author.

Intriguing, fast-paced and vivid
Jade Rey. Though I'm not normally a sci-fi reader, I wanted to branch out a bit and try something different. My friend sent me M. Pax's Plantgirl (free download at [...]) and loved it so I thought I'd give this a try. I was NOT disappointed! Not only did the author do a great job at creating a vivid, dark and intriguing world, but the plot was compelling and fast-paced. Her heroine's struggles between duty and hope were believable and full of emotion. It was a page-turner! I look forward to reading more from M. Pax.