It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here. ‘The Year of Jim Getting Stuff Done’ rolls on with my third book (with my name on the front cover). Back in January I released my first novel, Aether Powered, then in March Troy Lambert and I released The Tao of Trek, my first non-fiction. Now that August is here I’ve got another novel ready to go.

Proxies

Proxies is a Science Fiction novel set in expanded human occupied space. Yes, humans have survived and are putting down roots in lots of systems around this corner of the galaxy. Two things make that possible: FTL travel and FTL communications. Since we can talk to anyone basically instantaneously and we can go anywhere in a reasonable amount of time (a few days) humanity is still knit together pretty well. And we’ve outgrown a few of our more obnoxious ‘teen-age’ traits like war and poverty.

But all is not wine and roses. There are still problems. And Jair Howard has his share. His job is actually to fix problems, and he’s on assignment to fix damage to a FTL relay. While he’s there and checking the logs, he finds evidence of a hacker breaking into the network. But he’s got plenty of time to work on tracing the hacker on the way back since he and his girlfriend, the ship’s pilot, are fighting over the next step in their relationship.

Proxies is available on Amazon as an e-book starting August 13, 2022 and I’ll be at the Nampa Festival of the Arts with paper copies if you want one personally defaced by the author.

Here’s the extended blurb:

Repairman to the Stars!

Maintaining the Faster-Than-Light network kept Jair hopping from star to star. Designing security, repairing hardware, and reviewing logs. He brought along his collection of movies from the dawn of film to fill his downtime. But while repairing a damaged relay around a distant gas giant he found something unusual.

A Bug in the Network?

Traces of a network hack remained in the relay’s logs. Unable to determine where they originated, he traced them to a wide variety of systems: Military, entertainment, traffic control, scientific research, star surveys, and more. But with so many systems attacked, what was the hacker’s real goal?

On a More Personal Note…

Jair’s problems didn’t end there. His girlfriend, Merab, loves her job piloting starships. She also climbs mountains, studies martial arts, and loves Jair. But his refusal to settle down and start a family, with children, is something she wanted to talk about this trip. And that conversation didn’t go well.

A Cast of Thousands!

Jair’s computerized expert systems used personalities copied from ancient movie actors and characters. All five of the Marx Brothers work with him to unravel difficult network problems. It’s not Artificial Intelligence, but it’s as close as he can get.

Trouble Brewing

When Jair’s systems are hacked and all his data from the relay station erased, he’s frightened. But when he’s accused of committing a variety of crimes he flees to avoid arrest. Now he can’t prove his innocence or send a warning.

A Desperate Gamble

Where in the galaxy can they go to prevent humanity from becoming pawns in a high-stakes interstellar conflict? Who can help them fight a hacker holding the network hostage? What could change their views about having children and forming families?