Written by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 32 Kbps

"Closer to DUNE on an epic scale than to any of the Darkover or Pern novels."
—Shiny Book Review (on The Chronicles of Nuala Series)
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On the planet Nuala, the scam that beguiling free-trader Silver has come to join has just been blown to the skies, along with the throne lines of three separate sovereign nations.

The last male heir of one throne line, Sheel Atare, is unprepared to rule, but he's quick to seize allies wherever he can -- like the beautiful and dangerous Silver.

Now Silver has to choose: stick to the scam, or get sucked into the struggle to save Nuala -- and Sheel Atare's life.
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This was just such a lovely discovery of a great space opera book by an author I had only read fantasy (with an alternate history twist) of before.

It's a gripping story centered around two protagonists, one the clever outsider female planning the ultimate heist (for Robin Hood-like purposes furthermore, although Darame certainly wants her own share of the proceeds), and one the very competent, healer-gifted scion of a royal family-equivalent who never expected to be thrust into a role of prominence when a major intrigue is set off, killing most of the available contenders for the throne.

The book introduces outworlder Darame as the major viewpoint character, but Sheel, the ruler-to-be, gets a lot of point-of-view time as well. So do a few major side characters, all of them well defined and interesting as is the world, Nuala, that is the scene for all of this.