Sci-fi/YA
Date Published: January 2
Publisher: St. Martin’s
In the tradition of Star Wars, a galaxy-hopping space adventure about a galactic kingdom bent on control and the young misfit who must find the power within before it’s too late.
Cade Sura holds the future of the galaxy in his hands: the ultimate weapon that will bring total peace. He didn’t ask for it, he doesn’t want it, and there’s no worse choice to wield it in all of space, but if he doesn’t, everyone’s totally screwed. The evil Praxis kingdom is on the cusp of having every star system under its control, and if that happens, there’ll be no contesting their cruel reign. Especially if its fanatical overlord, Ga Halle, manages to capture Cade and snag the all-powerful weapon for herself.
Cade can’t hide from Praxis, and he can’t run from the destiny that’s been shoved into his hands. So he only has one option:
He has to fight.
Cade’s not going to let destiny send him on a suicide run, though. With some help from his friends―rebels and scoundrels alike―Cade’s going to use this weapon to chart a new destiny for the galaxy, and for himself.
He just has to do so before everyone around him discovers that he’s a complete and total fraud.
Blending the space operatics of Star Wars and the swagger of Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Star Renegades is a galaxy-hopping adventure that blasts its way from seedy spacer bars to sacred temples guarded by deadly creatures―all with a cast of misfit characters who have nowhere to go and nothing to lose.
Excerpt
Excerpt
Black
Star Renegades
Prologue
Cade ran.
Warm
blood poured out of his nose and over lips, but he was too distracted to smear
it away. He was running as fast as his legs would take him while his brother
urged him to “keep going, keep going,” even though, soon, there'd be nowhere
left to go. Tristan was older, bigger, and stronger; he could have outpaced
Cade and their pursuers with ease, but he stayed by his brother's side, pushing
him ahead. Cade sucked in shallow gasps of air as he heard his own racing pulse
pounding in his ears. Exhaustion nearly claimed Cade, twice, but Tristan
wrapped his fist around the back of his brother's shirt, keeping him close,
keeping him upright. He wouldn't let them quit, not with the Zeros on their
heels. They'd left their best friend, Mig, behind, having been knocked
unconscious by one of the Zero thugs. Cade knew he'd be fine, though. The Zeros
weren't after Mig.
They
were after Cade and Tristan.
The
brothers followed the narrow, winding path that cut through the back alleys of
the Kyysring outdoor bazaar. Tristan knocked over harvesting bulbs, crates of
dried botho meat, and anything else that might slow down the maniacs chasing
them. Cade cursed their decision to sneak out of the shelter, even though it
was his idea. Mig was aching to get parts for the dasher bike he was trying to
repair, and Cade was itching to break the claustrophobic fever brought on by
the shelter's confinement. Still, it was Tristan's job to talk Cade out of his
dumb ideas, and if he didn't think strolling through a crowded bazaar at midday
was the dumbest of ideas, he might have been experiencing really, really early
senility. Cade and Tristan both had targets on their backs, and until they
could jack a starship that would shoot them to the other side of the galaxy,
the shelter was the only place they were safe.
Cade
tumbled around a corner, a half step behind Tristan's lead, even though they
both knew what they'd find: a dead end. In the halcyon days before a ruthless
gunrunning gang wanted them dead, all of Kyysring was their playground. They
grew up on this planet and knew every inch of its market, inside and out. And
that's why Cade knew being pegged by the Zeros in the bazaar was the worst
thing that could happen. There'd be no escape this time. They'd been able to
outrun the Zeros in the past, outmaneuver them, even outthink them. But the
rabble pursuing them was eight strong, and all they had to do was shed some of
their numbers to block off the few points of egress, and Cade and Tristan would
be bottled in. That's exactly what they did.
“All
right, all right,” Tristan said as he hunched over and cupped his hands
together. “If you jump right when I boost you up, you should be able to reach
the top of the wall and climb over.”
Cade
shoved his brother upright. “Don't be an idiot,” he said, winded. “I'm not
leaving you.”
“You'll
do what I tell you to do,” Tristan snapped, taking a parental tone. “I'm your—”
“You're
my what? Not my dad, Tristan. You're my brother, and we stick togeth—”
“Oy!”
a voice called from behind. Cade and Tristan turned to see four Zeros, led by a
scrawny leader carrying a pair of shock batons, coming their way. “It's
charming, you brothers having a spat over who is more eager to die. That
decision is in the hands of The Zero, not either one of you punks.”
Cade
could almost smell the leader—Qwayg was his name— as he stalked toward them. He
wore a loose-fitting tank top covered by a fur-lined jacket, and he had a
tattoo of an elongated star sloppily applied over his right eye. Everything
about him was coated in sickly grime.
“Leave
my brother,” Tristan said, stepping in front of Cade. “If The Zero wants to
make an example, he can do so with just the one of us. He doesn't need both.”
Qwayg
scoffed. “This isn't a negotiation, kiddo. You're worth more to The Zero alive,
but he'll take you dead all the same. Your parents cost him a lot of money by
attracting Praxis to our planet. And because of that, we have to show what
happens when someone interferes with Zero business.”
“Our
parents didn't bring Praxis here,” Cade spat. “They weren't helping the Kaldorian
uprising—they were aid workers, not freedom fighters. Everyone knows that.”
“Too
bad they aren't around to say so themselves,” Qwayg shrugged. “Or pay the price
themselves. Now—”
The other three Zeros raised their weapons at
Qwayg's signal—another was equipped with a shock baton while the other two were
armed with snub-nosed outpost pistols.
“How's
this going to go?” Qwayg smugly asked.
Cade,
though, was focused less on the threat of four lethal weapons bearing down on
him and more on the strange man who'd entered the alleyway. He was standing a
couple paces behind the Zeros, a three-foot wooden bo staff gripped in his
right hand.
“Let
them go,” the man said, evenly. “Let them go and walk away from here while you
still can.”
Cade
watched Qwayg turn around, slowly, the satisfied grin already disappearing from
his face. “And who's this? Granpappy?”
The
strange man took two steps forward, and Cade studied him in more detail. He was
older than any of the other Zeroes and wore a tight-fitting tunic the color of
sand. His tidy appearance and measured demeanor were, to say the least,
oddities on Kyysring. Same for the weapon. Cade noticed that three immaculate
blades studded the top of his staff, but it was still just a wooden stick with
some sharp edges. While it was nice for this crazy person to intervene on his
and Tristan's behalf, what Cade really hoped was that he could last long enough
in a fight against the Zeros to provide a window for them to escape.
“Those
young men belong to me now, so I'll say this one more time,” the man explained,
“leave them be and get out of here while I'm still willing to let you do so.”
“Do
you have any idea who we are?” Qwayg yelled. “We're emissaries of The Zero!
We're—”
“Poor
choice,” the man said, and in that same instant, he twisted the center of his
staff and it crackled to life. Cycling sparks of raw energy, dark blue and
orange, crowned the top of the staff, contained by the protruding blades.
Capitalizing
on the distraction his fiery staff provided, the man jumped on the offensive.
He swung his weapon around, using the blunt end to knock the outpost pistol out
of the hand of the nearest Zero. He then jabbed the same end of his staff into
the Zero's torso, doubling her over. Cade was about to yell out a warning as
the other pistol-armed Zero trained it on the man, but before a syllable could
slip through Cade's lips, the man grabbed the doubled-over Zero and used her as
a shield against the incoming fire. He then charged forward, still using the
woman for protection, and when he neared the Zero who was shooting at him, he
plunged his staff forward—close enough so the energy could jump from the weapon
onto the man, sending him into a fit of electrified convulsions. Unconscious,
he fell to the ground, and Cade could see the smoke wafting off his body.
The
man dropped the woman and pointed his weapon ahead, waiting for the two
remaining Zeros to make their move.
“This
guy is awesome,” Cade whispered to his brother. Tristan wasn't
listening, though; he was staring at the scene in front of them in wonderment.
Qwayg
tried pushing his last remaining ally forward, toward the man, but he wouldn't
budge. “You know what?” he said as he dropped his baton. “This isn't even worth
it. I'm out.” He kept his arms raised in surrender as he crept by the strange
man, who let the Zero pass.
“You'll
have no such luck with me, granpappy,” Qwayg snarled as he held his batons
forward, their ends pulsing with dull purple energy—nothing compared to his
opponent's crackling weapon. “I've been trained by the very best in close
quarters combat.”
“That's
very nice,” the man said and launched into his attack. He held his staff in a
centermost position, using both the charged and blunt ends to fight off Qwayg's
baton strikes. Qwayg came at the man with fast and varied strikes, but the man,
as far as Cade could tell, defended himself with ease. And the more attacks he
defended, the more ferocious, and frustrated, Qwayg became; he started to grunt
with each swing of his baton while the man remained silent, his face a mask of
impassivity.
Having
tired of toying with Qwayg, the next time he came to attack, the man caught his
batons between his staff; he spun his staff around, disarming Qwayg and then,
in a swift, fluid movement, he swept out Qwayg's legs and knocked him on his
back, hard. Before Qwayg could so much as groan, the man had the charged end of
his weapon pointed just above his face, daring him to move.
“Those
boys are coming with me,” the man said. “Do we have an understanding?”
“The
Zeros don't surrender,” Qwayg grunted. “We are the ruling pow—”
The
man inched his weapon down the slightest bit, and the cycling energy leapt onto
Qwayg's face, frying what few brain cells he actually possessed. By the time
the man pulled his staff back, Qwayg was out cold.
The
man then turned his attention to Cade and Tristan, neither of whom had moved
while the Zeros were being dispatched. Tristan was was still dumbstruck while
Cade was torn between satisfying his curiosity of finding out who this guy was
and wanting to run while he and Tristan maybe had a chance.
“Don't
be afraid,” the man said. “I'm not here to hurt you, either of you.”
“What...who
are you?” Tristan muttered.
The
man twisted his staff once more, and the energy that'd been pulsing at its head
subsided. He walked closer to Cade and Tristan as he slung his weapon over his
back.
“My
name is Jorken, Ser Jorken. I am a Master Rai of the Well. Have you heard of
the Well?”
“Nope,”
Cade sharply replied even though he'd of course heard of the Well. Who hadn't?
Defenders of galactic peace, spiritual warriors, all that stuff. But, Cade
wasn't sold on this Ser Jorken, and he wasn't going to give him what he wanted
so easily. Especially when it seemed that the thing he wanted was him and
Tristan, which was more than a little strange.
“You're
a Master Rai. From the Well,” Tristan said, still spellbound. “And that,” he
continued, craning his neck to espy the weapon strapped to Jorken's back, “is
your shido.”
“Excellent,
you already know much,” Jorken said. “That will serve you well.”
“Serve
us well for what?” Tristan asked.
Jorken
smiled and leaned down so he could directly address both brothers. “For your
training, Tristan Sura. And for your training, Cade Sura. You are to become
Rai, like me, if you choose.”
Cade
and Tristan shared a glance; Tristan was still agape while Cade shrugged at
Jorken's offer. Unlike his brother, tragic events had aged Cade into skeptical
pragmatism. Still, if real, Cade knew abandoning Kyysring for the Well would be
a considerable upgrade. If nothing else, it would be nice to live in a place
where he wasn't chased around by people trying to kill him.
“Does
this mean we'll get to knock the snot out of some Praxis a-holes?” Cade asked.
“You
live up to your reputation for possessing a unique fire,” Jorken said with a
laugh. “But that's not quite how we operate. You'll help people, you'll provide
security, relief, whatever's needed to keep peace and justice alive throughout
the galaxy. Much like your parents, in a way.”
Tristan
looked once more at Cade, and he already knew what his brother was going to
say. “We go together, that's the only way,” Tristan said. “If Cade isn't up for
it, then the discussion ends here.”
All
eyes trained on Cade, who wasted no time getting to the inevitable. “Anywhere
beats this place,” he said. “Let's go.”
“I
had a feeling this would work out just fine,” Jorken said, and he led them
through the alleyway, circumventing the downed Zero thugs as they passed.
They
were passing through the artery leading them to the bazaar, teeming with
people, when Cade broke the silence and their progress.
“Wait,
I want to know something before we get too far,” he said.
“Anything,” Jorken replied.
“Why
us? I mean, of all the people, why did we get chosen for this?”
“It's
simple,” Jorken said, as he backed into the heart of the marketplace, leading
the brothers to follow him. “I believe one of you may be destined to save the
galaxy.”
About the Author
Michael Moreci is a bestselling author who’s the creator of numerous original comics series and has written and collaborated on multiple established properties. His sci-fi trilogy, Roche Limit (Image Comics),is currently in development for television with SyFy, and it was recognized by many publications as being among the best comics of 2015. It’s been called the “sci-fi comic you need to read” by Nerdist and io9, and Paste Magazine named it one of the “50 best sci-fi comics” of all time. Moreci has also written stories for iconic characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Conan the Barbarian.
In 2018, Moreci's debut novel, Black Star Renegades, was released with St. Martin's Press. Drawing inspiration from the space operatics of Star Wars and the swagger of Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Star Renegades is a galaxy-hopping adventure that blasts its way from seedy spacer bars to sacred temples guarded by strange creatures--all with a cast of misfit characters charged with saving the world.
His second novel, The Throwaway—an espionage thriller—is slated for release with Tor in June 2018. A sequel to Black Star Renegades will be released in 2019.
He lives outside Chicago with his wife, two children, and his dog.
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