**AMBYS 2024 WINNER** The Alliance's top galactic terraformer, Pelin Demir, uses state-of-the-art biotech to transform barren rocky planets into lush habitable ecosystems. Seeking escape from a dying Earth and a tragic past, Pelin has devoted a decade to serving the Alliance in the seemingly-endless galactic turf war between post-Earth humans and powerful warrior lifeforms, the Karinja.
Pelin's life of quiet order is thrown into chaos when her Alliance leaders inexplicably force her to train Midori, a surly rookie navigator. When a terraforming mission spirals into a catastrophic Karinja ambush, Pelin discovers the dazzling secret that Midori, and the generals of the Alliance, are desperate to keep hidden.
Forced to navigate deep space, draconian Alliance protocols, and her own turbulent past, Pelin charts a galactic course to protect Midori at all costs from the Karinja assassins hunting her, and from the sinister Alliance generals aiming to use her as a weapon of war. Yet Pelin can't seem to protect herself from her growing feelings towards her abrasive protégé. As the conflict for galactic control reaches a climax, Pelin struggles to keep Midori, and her own heart, safe.
🥇AMBYS 2024 WINNER - SCIENCE FICTION
🥇First Place, Katana Awards 2023, Science Fiction
🥇First Place, Lovely Valentine Awards 2023, Science Fiction
🥇First Place, Gloria Regali Awards 2023, Science Fiction
🥇First Place, Jamboard Awards 2022, Science Fiction
🥇First Place, Hearts Awards 2022, Science Fiction
🥈 Second Place, Aster Awards 2022, Science Fiction
🥇First Place, Star Awards 2022, Science Fiction
🥇First Place, Misfit Awards 2022, Science Fiction
Cover designed by @laylagriffin_
[ONC ROUND ONE WINNER: 4th place] When he discovers his husband has been replaced, an android hunter must find the impostor in time to rescue the man he loves.
SynTracker is one half of a duology of novellas. Both follow the same sequence of events from different PoVs. SynTracker is Ian's tale; BioSynth is Quentin's. Collectively, they're known as Syn.
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Ian Morgan is a man who does the wrong job for the right reasons. Honour-bound to keep the streets safe, Ian is a SynTracker: someone whose job is to hunt down BioSynths - obsolete yet incredibly dangerous synthetic self-aware weapons - and return them to the government, to be reprogrammed and repurposed. It'd be an easier task if they hadn't been programmed to mimic reactions that allow them to pass as humans, complete with tears. Deeply in love with Quentin, his husband of eight years, Ian's home life more than makes up for the work that wears him down.
But a car crash that could have killed Quentin reveals a shocking truth: his husband has been replaced by a BioSynth.
With the impostor on the loose, Ian must now Track it, knowing he needs to comb its memories for any clue regarding Quentin's whereabouts - if he's even alive.
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SynTracker was written for the Open Novella Contest 2021 and is based on prompt #4: You're a weapon, and weapons don't weep. It features a romance between two men.
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ONC Round One Winner: 4th Place
Speculative Fiction Awards, Utopia/Distopia: Runner-Up
R4R Awards, Sci-Fi: 2nd Place