Vindicator Series

The Praetorian Guard, elite of the False Emperor, have divided and fought amongst themselves. Those that supported the rebellion thought they had won with the death of the False Emperor, but they could not be more wrong. In the secession that follows, as the revolutionaries that used the Praetorians force them to dissolve, it transpires that some of the participants planned more than just the end of the tyranny. They want their own rule to prosper. Commander James Gavain has inherited command of his own ship, and into the maelstrom of the Dissolution of the Praetorian Guard he struggles to find a new future for his people. Lost and wondering where he is to go, and what he is to do, he is just one of many genetically-engineered creations who find they have destroyed their own reason for existence. In a galaxy where the treacheries of the dead Red Imperium of Mars are giving birth to a whole new host of tyrannies, temporary alliances, and plotting on a Machiavellian and life-changing scale, the abandoned Commander Gavain sells his services to the highest bidder – and in the process finds himself fighting a threat that he helped to create.

Admiral James Gavain is enmeshed in the politics of the post-Dissolution colonised galaxy, an unwilling and reluctant participant. His main concern now is for forging a future for the people under his command, a mercenary company for sale to the highest bidder in a rapidly disintegrating colonial galaxy. As pirates swamp the Eastern Segment, preying on the weak, a pattern begins to emerge. All is not as it seems. Whilst his ships engage on a contract which plunges the mercenary company into a conspiracy far deeper than could be imagined, Ulrik Andryukhin leads the marines on a ground campaign which exposes the darker side of humanity – intolerance for anything that is different. The old enmity between the augmented and the unaugmented is running strong, and genocide is the preferred solution. Balancing the difficulties of a star-spanning conspiracy and the outrage of a friend grieving for a lost lover, Gavain also discovers his newfound ally and supporter Lady Sophia is playing a dangerous game. Married into House Zupanic, famed for their murderous and fatal political machinations, she is looking for power within the young Levitican Union, and vengeance for the assassination of a member of her own House.

The Lord James Gavain has surprised the galaxy with his actions, and is seen very much as a hero. He attempts to build a new nation and a better future, taking in refugees from the many battles and wars throughout the seceding Houses, trading on the mercenary ability of his comrades and what appears to be the advanced technology he has recovered, yet he finds that there is a limit to how honourable one can be and still rule a post-Imperial House. Beset by enemies jealous of his avarice, engaging in the murderous politics of the Levitican Union, he struggles to discover the truth behind the mysterious masters of the Rosicrux. They are about to emerge from the shadows explosively, and in the process, the galaxy will once again feel the wrath of a threat it thought had disappeared for good. The Shadow has arrived, and what he intends for the people of the galaxy is far worse than any of his predecessors visited upon mankind. Gavain is a changed man, but he is about to face yet another life-altering challenge. Ultimately, it is a dire choice. Does he intercede and fight a monster with equally evil and heinous methods, or does he take the moral and ethical approach, and watch his attempt to halt the shadow casting itself over the galaxy fail. Whatever the choice is, it will cost him, and he will never be the same again.

This compilation book contains the first three books in the Age of Secession series, within the Vindicator Trilogy, in full and unabridged. This brings together the novels Dissolution, Rosicrux and Shadow, telling the full story of James Gavain and his Vindicator Mercenary Corporation. The Battle for Mars has been fought and won, and the False Emperor lies shot in the head in the ruins of the Red Palace. The rebellion is over, its purpose apparently complete. Little were the participants to suspect that it was merely the beginning of a whole new age of suffering and strife, as the Red Empire shatters into pieces, and civilisation falls and begin anew. New alliances, treacheries, aspirations and failures shape the future of mankind. The Age of Secession has begun. The Red Empire and the Praetorian Guard are in Dissolution; The Rosicrux are following their secret plans to weaken the new House nations; And the threat of the Shadow is rising, ready to emerge from the darkness beyond the Frontier .....