In the Hall of the Martian King
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
With the soul of thirty-sixth-century humanity at stake, Jak Jinnaka steps in . . . now we’re really in trouble
Jak Jinnaka parlayed his powerful family connections, unearned media fame, and consistent dumb luck into a cushy job as vice procurator of the Martian moon Deimos, an office he precariously maintains alongside his top-secret post as a station chief for Hive Intelligence—two soft jobs for an already rich, handsome, single young man in a fun-loving colonial outpost.
Sadly, when his boss takes a well-deserved vacation, it looks like Jak may actually have to do a little work—keep local trade humming, maintain the Hive’s hegemony, prevent the boss’s pretty teenage niece’s internship from becoming front-page celebrity gossip, and make sure his rambunctious visiting uncle Sib doesn’t cause international incidents among the thousands of prickly petty kingdoms on Mars.
Then, in one of the pettiest kingdoms of all, the lifelog of the man who wrote the Wager—a set of principles that guides all human life in the thirty-sixth century—is discovered, and the race is on for control of the holiest relic in a thousand years, with Jak in the lead and all of the devils and angels of his past howling at his heels.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
To the delight of sci-fi fans, the scoundrel-hero Jak Jinnaka returns for another tale of high adventure, spying, double-crossing and intergalactic mischief. Just when Jak thinks that looking out for his boss's teenaged relative and trying to keep his visiting, infamous uncle from wreaking havoc will be the trickiest tasks he'll have for a while, he is ordered by the Hive intelligence agency to obtain the newly discovered diary of the progenitor of the "Wager" the rules upon which their entire legal, spiritual and ethical system rests. The first problem he encounters is that the people he officially works for want him to steal the diary for them; the second arises when he's commanded to steal it for his ex-lover, the Princess of Greenworld, who has used mind control to make him her sex slave; then several old, dangerous friends become involved. A glance at the chapter headings "A Double-Sided Snipe Hunt"; "A Panty Raid Is Not Standard Procedure" will give readers an idea of the kind of fun they're in for, and Barnes's invented slang ("toktru" means very true or really; "tove" stands for lover or best friend) will keep them grounded in this fun, futuristic realm. With its eccentric characters and jaunty storytelling, Barnes's (A Princess of the Aerie) romp is irresistibly engaging.
