​​​​​​​High Earth is all that remains of human civilization on Earth. It is a city built above the risen oceans, that now completely cover the remnants of our past, and it is where the story begins with the hatching of Asher Reinhart. As is usual, Asher is hatched at an advanced age because humans no longer do anything that takes real effort, like giving birth and raising children. Asher meets his VORA (Virtual Occupant Residency Aid) and starts to learn about how things work in High Earth. It is a fully managed environment where his every need is cared for by all manner of robots and he is free to spend his time with the myriad of virtual experiences and entertainment shows available. Asher instantly becomes captivated by the show Ignis, which follows the events aboard a generational ship of the same name on its way to a distant star. It is reality TV taken to another level and Asher feels an instant attachment to one of the people on the show the first time he sees her, Mission.

Published in 1978, the Hugo and Nebula award winning Dreamsnake was lauded as a feminist reworking of the heroic quest. From the perspective of a reader in the 1990's its a solid blend of fantasy and genetic science set on Earth long after the nuclear holocaust. Snake is a young healer who travels and offers aid by using the venom of her genetically modified serpents. The rarest of them is the dreamsnake Grass who's venom offers a peaceful and painless death to those beyond help. Snake is willing to risk her life to find more dreamsnakes when she learns of an outlaw stronghold that may have some. What she finds is beyond her expectation and the answer to an old biological puzzle.

Much like King Xavier, aka The Immortal, this series just keeps plugging along despite the fact that the plot has reached multiple points where it could have been wrapped up nicely. I can't help but feel that this series is going to keep going until it ends in ruin, but luckily for us that point still hasn't arrived. Book 8, King of the Wastes, centers around the fact that the King has come to the conclusion that the Vanguard Islands are not sustainable. He knows that their recent victories have resulted in a population size that they can no longer provide for, not to mention that the structures that compose the Vanguard Islands are desperately in need of replacement parts that can't be manufactured. They need to expand their reach and a supply chain will need to be set up to allow for scavenging of resources from a much wider area. King Xavier has his eye on establishing an outpost near the Panama Canal in order to provide a means to scavenge both coasts of the Americas, but that idea is not new. It was also tried by his predecessor and it resulted in failure. The difference this time around is that King Xavier has the ability to once again call upon the Hell Divers to risk their lives so humanity can survive

As fans of this series know well, Joe Ledger's psyche was fractured by the traumatic experiences of his youth and he is barely able to keep it together on a good day. That makes him rather ill equipped to handle the devastating events that ended the last book, Rage, and it is obvious that he will never be the same. The question then becomes, what will happen to Joe's mind if he loses the battle that rages within him? And then, what damage will he do to those around him? Those questions and more weigh heavily on the minds of everyone that cares about him, but at the same time they all know that Rogue Team International is not able to stand against their current enemies without Joe Ledger. It is a no-win scenario for everyone involved and the stakes have never been higher.

In the future, humans live side by side with cognizant androids, known as Artificials, and the AI technology that grants them sentience is getting better all the time. These Artificials have free will and there are many humans who oppose their very existence. Kestrel Hathaway is a minister who has just undergone a personal tragedy that has shaken her faith and she now questions what kind of God would allow such things to happen. Just as she is coming to terms with her loss she finds herself involved in a terrorist attack where she lends aid to some of the victims and this plunges her into a world of federal agents and terrorist groups that are odds with each other. The Purists are fighting to prevent the Artificials from becoming more advanced and they feel that they must stop such advancement before it is too late. Wrapped up in this conflict, Kestrel finds herself not only thinking about her own beliefs but also whether advanced Artificials, who struggle with the same insecurities that she does, have a right to the same faith and belief in God that helps her cope.

Paper has lived her whole life in Fill City One so she is quite used to the overpowering smell that has become known as the Everpresent Stink. Fillers like her can never leave and they only dream about living in a place with actual clean air, which means it isn't one of the giant landfills now known as Fill Cities. The mob runs the Fill Cities in a ruthless manner and if you live there then it means that one of your ancestors signed a contract binding them, and their next 8 generations, to life as a Filler. Despite that fact, Fillers still love to watch TV shows about the outside world to see the exotic foods they will never eat and the places they will never go, like Mars. The biggest new TV show is called "You're Going To Mars!" and it is being run by Zach Larson, a tech entrepreneur who is using the show to help fund the first human mission to Mars. With his futuristic version of Willy Wonka's golden tickets, Zach has created a contest that will result in a few lucky winners competing in a reality TV series to win the right to join a crew of trained professionals on this historic space mission. This may all sound pretty cliché but if you are into rooting for the underdog and want a fun sci-fi story that never takes itself too seriously then look no further than "You're Going To Mars!"

Captain Keyes is not the same man he used to be and he has emerged from his captivity placing vengeance above all else. He is also willing to pay any price to get it. None of this is good news for his crew or his allies since the enemy fleet is far larger than they ever imagined. Even so, the real threat to team Keyes is not the enemy fleet itself but rather the Advanced AI that is controlling it. The presence of the AI behind the scenes makes things more complicated for everyone caught up in this mess and that AI is quite capable of out thinking anyone fighting against it. It has been lurking in the background for quite a long time and it planned for this very war long ago when it wrote the original Ixan Prophecies. Using its incredible ability to predict the future the AI put the prophecies into play many years ago and so far they are proving to be quite accurate. Is this a case of the AI predicting the future or are the prophecies themselves a form of manipulation? Free will may be battling destiny in this war but no matter which side you believe in there is no denying that the prophecies have always foretold the destruction of humanity.

Now that the various races are picking sides in the galactic war nothing could be more appropriate than for humanity to start fighting with each other. Dark Tech can no longer be relied upon by the human fleet so that makes Captain Keyes and the Providence a force to be reckoned with. The Providence is bigger and more well armored than any of the newer ships in the human fleet, perhaps even the entire galaxy, and as a Supercarrier class it can carry multiple wings of fighters making it a battle group unto itself. With the support of the alien personnel that he has allowed on board Keyes is plans do what is "right" even if it means fighting against his own race. What makes it all the more complicated is that all of these events were predicted in the Ixan Prophecies and Keyes is starting to believe that those prophecies are more than just religious mumbo jumbo. While he hopes to use what the prophecies predict as a form of military intelligence to help him win this war, he is also concerned that the prophecies could be manipulating him and others into taking actions that will ultimately make them come true. Not good when those prophecies end with the downfall of humanity.

The Six Families made a deal with the Anvarrid invaders. In return for leaving their Fortresses untouched the psychics of the Families would become warriors to guard the Anvarrid. They would share their technology and give up their individual languages. The Families lied and rather than share technology that could be misused they hid it. Also, one promising engineer in each generation was designated the Oathbreaker and taught the language of the Fortress so they could communicate with it. Then the Horn Family discovers a man freezing to death on a glacier within sight of the abandoned Salonen Fortress. A man with no memory, probably a spy sent by a hostile empire, of pure Salonen DNA, and with an instinctive knowledge of engineering. Killing him and burying Salonen would be the safe choice. Or the Horn might risk their independence, the Treaty, and their way of life to recall the technology of the founders and bring Salonen back to life.

The last Joe Ledger series came to a close with the formation of a new agency, Rogue Team International, which replaced the Department of Military Sciences after it fell out of favor with the current administration of the US government. RTI is much smaller than the DMS, but other than new team names and new call signs, it is still playing a similar role protecting the world from the largest and most deadly threats. In theory, RTI should be able to play an even bigger role now that it has no affiliation with any country, but since Mr. Church is still running things and Joe Ledger is still the main operative, the rest of the world isn't so quick to accept RTI's professed neutrality. Nevertheless, RTI is first on the scene when leaked footage appears to show the United States testing a new bio-weapon on the inhabitants of a small North Korean island. A bio-weapon that almost instantly turns anyone it comes into contact with into a rage filled killer...