Orbital Bebop
A young black lesbian activist reclaims land from a greedy billionaire but struggles to hold peace against a rise of fear-based security culture and a toothache that seems whisper to her. An alien intelligence marvels at the human form, then horrifies at the ugly human condition underneath it. When two childhood friends reunite on different sides of a lunar corporate hierarchy, romance and possibly something more blooms. On Mars, a birthday party is ruined by an interstellar decree yet somehow saved by a tantric sexual experience. In Saturn's orbit a black lesbian scientist trains for interdimensional travel while yearning for a woman she's never met but half-remembers. On the cusp of the Year 3000 millennium a group of dirty clones find community and forgiveness, but at a cost. Orbital Bebop spans both the solar system and the human race in plotting out how societal ills on Earth travel with us while also offering the seeds for how humanity can redeem and heal itself.
Burning Night
On July 4, 1983, Vivian Carter and her NASA crew of seven set off on an audacious double flyby of Venus and Mars, a two-year mission with repurposed Apollo technology that will push their ingenuity and resourcefulness to the limit. Meanwhile, superpower conflicts escalate on Earth, mirrored by a dangerously unstable arms race and battles for valuable mineral resources on the Moon. Full-up lunar military actions and treacherous sneak attacks decimate Vivian's friends, allies and colleagues on both sides of the Iron Curtain and threaten everything she has worked to achieve. Vivian's odyssey is a high adventure that will bring mankind new knowledge and unimagined insights ... just as the risk of worldwide nuclear war has never been greater. Now, on her triumphant return in 1985, Vivian Carter's path inevitably brings her back to where she began: a desperate rescue mission with no NASA support and no safety net, to a dangerous, war-torn Moon where she will be hard pressed to tell friend from foe. In the concluding volume of Alan Smale's highly acclaimed Apollo Rising series ("A nail-biting thriller."-Publishers Weekly) humanity faces a stark choice: a bright new interplanetary future ... or nuclear apocalypse on two worlds.
