THE BOOKS
By the middle of the twenty-fifth century, Terrans have spread out across the galactic quadrant, settling dozens of worlds. In all this time they have met only one other sentient race, another variety of humans called Neorans.
The Lorrondons are a family of mixed heritage, the result of the marriage of Elisabeth Helsak and Sonen Lorrondon. When the story begins, in 2441, they have been ruling the Bowman Pact, a league of twelve planets, for three generations. It is the madness of Anna Helsak, the Third Chancellor, that precipitates the crisis that begins a catastrophic war-and sets Anna’s own children against her.
The six novels cover twenty years in the lives of the Lorrondon family, through galactic war and its aftermath, a time of fierce battles, conspiracies, new alliances, and the wonder of discovery in a galaxy still largely unexplored. There are also the ordinary things every family faces: Love affairs, births, deaths, small triumphs and failures, separations, quarrels and reconciliations. The seven Lorrondon siblings-Lily, Enrik, Doren, Anden, Rob, Aubrek, and Maria-support each other, help each other, get on each others’ nerves, and occasionally come to blows. But they are bound by ties that are stronger than love, those of blood and shared history.
They are also bound by their family’s long association with Rusorin, the powerful, plainspoken alien, neither Terran nor Neoran, the outsider who is drawn to these people because they represent what she loves most about humans. It is the volatile Rob who becomes her friend, later her lover.
Book One: The Bretton Katt Alliance
Anna Lorrondon Helsak, the half-Terran, half-Neoran Chancellor of the Bowman Pact (a union of twelve planets) abruptly drops her long-standing treaty with the Neoran Confederation.
The alien Rusorin, one of two survivors of a powerful alien race (and Anna’s oldest friend) asks her to reconsider. The Neorans need Anna’s support against their rivals; she herself needs Anna’s help to hunt her mortal enemy, the only other of her people who is still alive. Anna refuses to listen and turns on her friend.
Bewildered and hurt, Rusorin travels to the independent city of Bretton Katt, the Neorans’ last hope for an ally in Terran space. There she finds an ineffectual mayor and a populace hostile to outsiders, Terran or Neoran. Her contact, Geoffrey Slater, a Confederation agent of mixed blood, is dead. The scant clues point to corruption among the Neorans themselves.
Befriended by Rob Lorrondon, Anna’s intense, volatile son, Rusorin discovers that Anna has made a new alliance with Victor Bastian, the ruthless ruler of twenty planets and the Neorans’ sworn enemy. Worse, her old foe is working as Bastian’s agent. Rusorin warns Anna that this will only lead to disaster; again she is rebuffed. Appalled, Rob and his siblings beg their mother to drop this scheme. Against all reason, gripped by some motive only she understands, Anna holds to her plan.
Encouraged, Victor Bastian plans to seize Bretton Katt and attack the Neorans. Desperate, the Brettonese ask the Neorans for help. As the life they’ve always known crumbles, Anna’s children face estrangement from their mother and the prospect of galactic war.
Margaret Garside
Book Two: Nostra Sylvania
The war against Victor Bastian goes badly for the Neorans. They have suffered major defeats in battle and the loss of resources. But if they can free the forest world of Nostra Sylvania from Bastian’s tyranny, the odds will tip in their favor.On arrival, Rusorin, Roben Lorrondon, and their team discover this little planet is more treacherous than they realized. And it isn’t only the forces of Victor Bastian and his minion, Theo Walsam-trying to stop them. For Nostra Sylvania is the home of an ancient power-one capable of dominating the galaxy. And it has little use for humans.
Books Three-Six
The Real Ones
The Rapalak's Enemies
Gabriel Snow
Monsalvat