The 13th Zookeeper by Bernd Struben

Scattered throughout the stars, mankind long ago lost its connection with Earth's plundered natural wonders. In the most ambitious project ever undertaken, a remote planet is Terraformed to resemble Stone Age Earth and populated with all of the plants and animals of that time, including people. Known as Zooearth, the pristine world is guarded and maintained by a vast fleet of intelligent machines overseen by an elite force of twelve space-based Zookeepers.

Auren Bilder is a hard drinking slacker, appointed to the Zookeepers via his family's powerful political connections. He enjoys his cushy posting until he is caught fraternizing with the natives. Unwilling to return home in disgrace, he escapes to the surface to live among the tribes as a god.

On the other side of the galaxy, a band of slavers stumbles onto a revolutionary biomechanical virus that can spread from human being to computer mainframe. Knowing Zooearth is virtually defenseless without its machines, the slavers plan to infect the entire network, eliminate the twelve Zookeepers, and raid the planet at their leisure.

For all their careful planning the slavers remain unaware of Auren Bilder. The thirteenth Zookeeper hopes to wait out their raid in hiding, unwilling to risk his own life to protect his charges-until he is ultimately forced into action.

With crisp, clean prose and a jet-propelled pace, Bernd Struben's second novel The Thirteenth Zookeeper reads like the author's effort at terraforming the sf field in his own image. Struben has planted his flag, and he's here to stay.

- Jeff Mariotte, author of Cold Black Hearts and The Devil's Bait

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THE CONFEDERATE WAR BONNET
by Jack Shakely

This winner of a 2009 IPPY award moves to Strider Nolan Media for its second printing.

It is 1863, and the United States is in the midst of the Civil War when mixed-blood Jack Gaston is called back from Harvard University to his beloved Creek Nation. He is surprised to find that not only has he been elected to be a chief in the House of Warriors, he has also been conscripted as an officer in the Confederate Army. Gaston soon learns that the Civil War in Indian Territory is more than Confederate against Federal—it is tribe against tribe and family against family.

Gaston takes part in most of the major battles of the brutal and bloody conflict, fighting alongside such great Indian army leaders as Stand Watie, Chilly McIntosh, and George Grayson. In trying to reunite his strife-torn people, Gaston discovers an Indian inside himself he didn't know existed. And among the burnt-out stubble of war, he finds love with the Mexican-Apache nurse Bonita Ochoa.

This little-known corner of the Civil War was played out in the fields of the Creek Nation in what is now eastern Oklahoma. In a rich portrayal of period and place, The Confederate War Bonnet is an evocative historical novel that helps to answer how Indians became involved in the Civil War, why they joined Confederate forces, and how the experience shaped their future in America.

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THE SWORDS OF FAITH by Richard W. Field

WINNER of the Bronze Medal Independent Publisher Book Awards in the category of Historical Military Fiction

FINALIST in the USA Book News Awards for Best Books of 2010 - Historical Fiction

RUNNER-UP in the 2011 International Book Awards - Historical Fiction

“It’s a trap. Don’t they see? We’re all dead.” Christian knight Pierre of Botron knows; his commanders realize it too late.

It is July 1187, and the forces of the Muslim sultan known as Saladin have annihilated the Christian army at the Battle of Hattin, allowing Saladin to achieve his lifelong ambition of recapturing the Holy City of Jerusalem. This sets the stage for the Third Crusade: the confrontation between Saladin and the legendary Christian warrior, King Richard the Lionheart.

Richard, a legendary warrior with a keen military mind, finds his vow to retake Jerusalem complicated by infighting over succession to the English throne, a rivalry with the French king, and a choice between two potential queens. Meanwhile, Saladin struggles to keep his own fractious forces together while remaining true to the noblest principles of Islam.

These events are also portrayed through the eyes of two common men: Pierre of Botron, the Christian knight, was captured at the Battle of Hattin and subjected to the indignity of slavery. He finds himself the property of an Arab trader, Rashid of Yenbo. The relationship between Pierre and Rashid offers the possibility that people of good will can overcome polarizing conflicts. As events build toward the Battle of Jaffa, one of the most well-known conflicts of the Crusades, the fates of the characters depend on the choices they make between the compassionate and fanatical aspects of their faiths.

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POWs AT CHIGGER LAKE
by Jack Shakely

1943. The Allies have captured Tripoli from the Italian forces. The Germans have surrendered at Stalingrad. And the British suddenly find themselves with hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war without the ability to feed and house them.

The solution? Send more than 300,000 German and 50,000 Italian prisoners of war to the United States. Lieutenant Tom Gregory--whose family came from Italy--is assigned the responsibility for opening and running a camp for Italian POWs. The new camp is set smack dab in tiny Weleetka, Oklahoma in a spot named Chigger Lake. Although German prisoners tended to be well-disciplined, the boisterous, fun-loving and decidedly un-soldierly Italians proved another matter entirely.

Equal parts humor, drama and romance are combined in this novel about a little known aspect of America during World War Two, by award-winning author Jack Shakely.

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