Ninth Life

The Ballad of Halo Jones meets Becky Chambers' Wayfarers by way of 3:10 to Yuma; a clash of law and lawlessness, storytelling and truth in a headlong romp across the stars. After forty years of wreaking havoc across the galaxy, the outlaw Nine Lives - AKA Former General Gabriella Ortiz - has finally run out of lives. Shot down into a backwater at the system's edge, she is rescued by deputy marshall Havemercy Grey. Hav is a true soul, trying to uphold what is right in the heedless wastes. Hav is determined to see justice done. And Hav could sure use that 20-million bounty... But escorting the most dangerous fugitive in the system across the stars is no easy task, especially when decades of fire and destruction are catching up with her, and every gutspill with a pistol wants that bounty. So when Ortiz offers a deal - to keep them both alive, as long as Hav listens to the stories of Gabi's lives - Hav can't refuse. There's just one catch: everywhere they go, during every brawl and gunfight and explosive escape, people say the same thing - don't let her talk...

Stark Holborn is a novelist, games writer, film reviewer, and the author of Nunslinger and Triggernometry and has worked on games and interactive fiction such as Shadow of Doubt (Colepowered Games) and Mars 2020 (BBC). Stark lives in the South West UK.