As the planetoid Thanatos Minor explodes into atoms, a specially-fitted cruiser escapes the mass destruction and hurtles into space only a step ahead of hostile pursuit. On board Trumpet are a handful of bedraggled fugitives from an outlaw world - old enemies suddenly and violently thrown together in a desperate bid for survival. Among this unlikely crew of allies are Morn Hyland, once a UMC cop, now a prisoner to the electrodes implanted in her brain;...

"Irene Wilson knows that a 'no-name invisible something' has settled over her parents' marriage, and she suspects that her glamorous new teacher is to blame. Irene is not alone in her suspicions. In Rattlebone, a Black neighborhood of Kansas City in the segregated 1950s, secrets are hard to keep, and growing up is a community affair. As Irene is initiated into adult passion and loss, her family story takes its place in a tightly woven tapestry of...