Book of the month - October 2024

a little bit of space horror

The Settler Chronicles series was supposed to be a trilogy until one day, while out on a walk, the idea for this book popped in my head. Sending my characters out to investigate a failed colony that was a mirror of their own seemed a perfect opportunity to explore some of my favourite space horror ideas.

Abandoned Ships, Hijacked Minds is heavily inspired by the movies Alien and Aliens (two of my favourite movies ever) with my own twists and a tiny hint of romance.

Against the odds, the Thesan colony—Margo’s new home—is starting to thrive.

However the group wasn't the first colony ship sent through the wormhole to settle a new solar system. Two other ships came before, and repeated efforts to communicate with them only return silence.

Margo wants to remain a recluse hiding in her greenhouse away from the other colonists, especially her husband Gary. She wants to keep the side-effects of her last battle with the megalomaniac leader of The Conglomerate to herself. She certainly doesn't want to go traipsing across the solar system in search of the missing colonists.

But nothing ever goes how she wants it to—especially now that they have a space-worthy, if antiquated, ship to investigate what happened to those other colonies.

Reluctantly, she joins an awkward coalition of colonists and former insurgents on a mission to solve the mystery of what happened to the colonies that came before.

In the end, what Margo finds changes everything.

If you’re a free subscriber, use code Oct2024BOOK for a 50% discount on Abandoned Ships, Hijacked Minds over on the store — or subscribe to get free books each month.