Pay Dirt: Dishonest Intentions

Life is tough for many in the Age of Secession, and for some it has become much tougher since the Emperors of House Constantin fell from grace.
 
Iain Briggs is a con-man, along with friends Dominic Gaiman and Marin Todor. They have moved from trick to trick, from planet to star system to intergalactic House since the Red Empire of Mars fell, each scam being bigger than the last.

The rise of the Vindicate Empire offers them their biggest and most dangerous opportunity yet, as this Fifth Empire looks to build landgates and starterminals across the colonised galaxy in every direction. It will revolutionise space travel, allowing trade to pass from one side of the colonised galaxy to another within a day, rather than in years.
 
Constructing a pathway across the stars, they will face the jealousies of leaders, the murderous intent of criminals, the hidden and dangerous motives of pirates, the wrath of the security forces of the nations they are working both for and against. This is the biggest job of all, and if any of them are to escape with their lives, they will have to succeed in a way they could not imagine when they started.
 
Most would see pay dirt as succeeding in one of the biggest construction jobs in mankind’s history. They will see pay dirt as escaping with their lives, from an ever-deepening web of dishonest intentions.

About The Series
Age of Secession wants to entertain, challenge and introduce people to science fiction based on politics, society and real-life concerns, and imaginatively address topics relevant to today whilst telling a gripping story.

Whilst some books come close, very few quite manage to bring the right mix of entertainment with some of the more world-shaking events we experience today. Age of Secession leads the way in showing that you can have a star-spanning operatic drama with some very common human failings and successes with stories not out of place in novels of romance, horror, crime, thriller and suspense, mixing all these genres in the best traditions of imaginative science fiction.

But it also shows that as well as telling a ripping yarn, a gripping story can also deal with serious modern-day issues - such as the strong themes of social inequality and political upheaval amongst others - that ride underneath the plots. Whether you want to just kick back, imagine you were your favourite character and enjoy the tale, or you want to see in these books the reflections of the very real things that happen today, occurred in the past, and might feature in the future, Age of Secession is the series that you want to read.