Pets In Space is Back with Pets In Space 6! #PetsInSpace

 

Pets in Space® is back for a new year of adventures and, once again, 10% of all pre-orders and first month's profits goes to Hero-Dogs.org! The anthology releases October 5th, 2021 and is now available for preorder!

Join the incredible authors in this year's Pets in Space 6 for another out-of-this-world adventure. This award-winning, USA TODAY Bestselling anthology is packed full of your favorite Pets in Space®. Featuring 11 original, never-before-released stories from some of today's bestselling Science Fiction Romance and Fantasy authors (many who are SFR Brigade members), Pets in Space 6 continues their vital support of Hero-Dogs.org, the non-profit charity that improves quality of life for veterans of the U.S. military and first-responders with disabilities. Don't miss out on this limited-edition anthology before it’s too late!

 

BEHR'S REBEL

Marastin Dow Book 2

by S.E. Smith

With the help of her two innovative pets, a human woman rescues an alien General and becomes part of the revolution he is leading.

 

STAR CRUISE: TIME LOOP

Sectors Romance series

by Veronica Scott

Reliving the same terrible day, Raelyn and her pet are in a race to save the interstellar cruise ship…

 

THE CYBORG WITH NO NAME

by Honey Phillips

Can a rogue robotic horse and a misfit mechanical dog protect a wounded cyborg and a lonely scientist from a vicious new enemy?

 

ESCAPE FROM NOVA NINE

A Central Galactic Concordance Novella

by Carol Van Natta

She's a space pirate with vital information. He's a wanted fugitive with enemies hot on his afterburner. Will their unexpected attraction survive escaping a dangerous asteroid mine in time to avert a war?

 

TRADE SECRETS

The Department of Homeworld Security series

by Cassandra Chandler

She wanted to learn about aliens—and ended up uncovering their secrets!

 

SEE HOW THEY RUN

TriSystems: Smugglers

by JC Hay

Love blossoms in space, but can it survive being dragged back down to ground?

 

SURI'S SURE THING

Kimura Sisters Series

by S.J. Pajonas

In this best-friends-to-lover romance, workaholic Suri would rather be in space than deal with her ex-boyfriend. Will she be able to leave him behind and find love with her best friend instead?

 

THE THUNDER EGG

by Greta van der Rol

Can a freighter captain and an academic outwit their pursuers and get a little alien foundling back where she belongs?

 

WORLDS OF FIRE: METAMORPHOSIS

by Deborah A. Bailey

When an alchemy student is deceived into using her transmutation skills to assist a smuggling ring, will her gargoyle shifter mentor help her expose the criminals or turn her in?

 

STRANDED ON GRZBT

by Melisse Aires

Can a resourceful human trust the alien determined to help her and her companions?

 

ESCAPING KORTH

Before The Fall series

by Kyndra Hatch

An alien interrogator recognizes the human prisoner as his fated mate, leading to danger for both of them.

 

Pre-order here:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0994RRBK2

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1576119274 

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pets-in-space-6-veronica-scott/1139825092?ean=2940162171713

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=wMk3EAAAQBAJ

Kobo Books: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/pets-in-space-6

Books2Read (universal): https://books2read.com/u/mdD57E

Alien Lessons by @LibbyDoyle9

By Libby Doyle 

Imagine you’re a miner in space, digging ore from the bowels of an inhospitable planet. An alien creature is stalking your fellow miners, burning them to a crisp. You’d want to kill it wouldn’t you? Of course, you would. But suppose it turns out you’re the invader?

All you Trekkies out there may recognize this as the plot of the classic Star Trek episode “The Devil in the Dark.”

The alien creature turns out to be a horta, a silicon-based life form. The miners had tunneled into the horta’s egg chamber and were callously destroying her progeny. They didn’t know the nodules they’d found were eggs. To make matters worse, the horta was the last of her kind, charged with tending the eggs until a new generation was born. Thanks to Captain Kirk and Spock, who mind-melded with the creature, the humans were able to learn all this before it was too late for the horta. The miners agreed to safeguard the eggs, and the horta agreed to stop incinerating the miners, even to help them.

“The Devil in the Dark,” is one of my favorite Star Trek episodes. I like its lesson – that our hatred of one another often stems from fear, ignorance, and miscommunication. In fact, one of the reasons I adore science fiction is what alien characters can teach us about ourselves.

Ursula K. LeGuin’s classic 1969 novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, used its alien characters to hold a mirror up to one of the most vexing (and wonderful) aspects of the human condition: gender.

Human male Genly Ai travels to the planet of Winter to entice its inhabitants—the Karhadians—to become part of the Ekumen, a confederation of planets. The Karhadians are a sexless race. To reproduce, they enter kemmer, which is like estrus in animals. At that time, they can turn either male or female depending on who catches their fancy. If they turn female, they can become a mother. If they turn male, they can father a child. After kemmer, they return to complete androgyny.

I love this bit, when Estraven, a Karhadian, asks Genly about women:

“Are they like a different species?”

“No. Yes. No, of course not, not really. But the difference is very important. I suppose the most important thing, the heaviest single factor in one’s life, is whether one’s born male or female. In most societies it determines one’s expectations, activities, outlook, ethics, manners—almost everything. . . . It’s extremely hard to separate the innate differences from the learned ones.”

And this passage isn’t the only one that makes you think. When Genly sends a report back to his superiors, he says: “The fact that everyone between seventeen and thirty-five or so is liable to be . . . ‘tied down to childbearing,’ implies that no one is quite so thoroughly ‘tied down’ here as women, elsewhere, are likely to be – psychologically or physically. Burden and privilege are shared out pretty equally[.]”

What a concept! The book is filled with these nuggets.

Now, you may say to me, Libby, this is the Science Fiction Romance Brigade blog, and you haven’t mentioned a romance yet! But I consider Left Hand to be a love story. Estraven and Genly face extreme hardship together, and love grows. When Estraven enters kemmer, there’s a spark of attraction, but their situation precludes romance. It doesn’t matter. This novel is one of the most profound depictions of love I’ve ever read, and Estraven is a total [expletive deleted] hero. Really, it’s beautiful.

The Left Hand of Darkness also touches on another theme near and dear to my heart, which happens to be where it gets its title. A religion described in the book believes in the unity of all living things, expressed in the precept: “Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light.”

I started writing my own books before I read Left Hand, and I was excited to discover this theme. My own Covalent Seriesfeatures the concept of Balance, the equilibrium of light and darkness, order and entropy, love and hate. I was inspired by yin and yang and covalent bonds, which are formed when two atoms share a pair of electrons to create a stable balance of attractive and repulsive forces. 

The hero of The Covalent Series, the alien warrior Barakiel, derives his power from Balance. His powerful enemies mean he needs his hatred. He needs that energy. Lucky for him, he meets the heroine, Zan O’Gara. She’s his left hand, the light that balances his darkness. He’s good for her, as well. His race, the Covalent, view sex as one of life’s great joys, casual or committed. For them, sex is never, ever a source of shame. Through her alien lover, the human Zan learns to throw off the shame of her past.

That’s why I love science fiction romance as a genre. All those opportunities for our cross-species lovers to learn from one another.

Libby Doyle is the author of The Covalent Series. To learn more, visit libbydoyle.com.