Линда Нагата - Edges

Edges exists in its current form thanks to my freelance editor, Judith Tarr, who fearlessly insisted that an early draft needed a major rethinking. Judy later provided essential editorial input on a near-final draft, Kat Howard provided additional insight, and beta readers Larry Clough and Kristine Smith came to the rescue on short notice. Copyediting was done by Sherwood Smith, via the writers’ cooperative, Book View Café. All of you have my thanks and my gratitude. You tried to steer me in the right direction. All remaining errors and deficiencies are my own.

I also want to acknowledge those readers who spend time with me on Twitter, or visit my blog. Your encouragement and kind words are deeply appreciated. Thank you!

And last but certainly not least, a huge thank you to all those who’ve taken the time to read this book, or others I’ve written. You’re the reason I do this, and I’m deeply grateful for your ongoing support.

Scarred by war. In pursuit of truth.

Army veteran True Brighton left the service when the development of robotic helicopters made her training as a pilot obsolete. Now she works at Requisite Operations, a private military company established by friend and former Special Ops soldier Lincoln Han. ReqOp has embraced the new technologies. Robotics, big data, and artificial intelligence are all tools used to augment the skills of veteran warfighters-for-hire. But the tragedy of war is still measured in human casualties, and when True makes a chance discovery during a rescue mission, old wounds are ripped open. She’s left questioning what she knows of the past, and resolves to pursue the truth, whatever the cost.

The Last Good Man is a powerful, complex, and very human tale.

“A new novel by Linda Nagata is always an event. The Last Good Man pulls us into next month’s headlines with a conviction and energy that makes for an extraordinary tale.”

“…a thrilling novel that lays bare the imminent future of warfare.”

“Nagata is rapidly assuming her place among the greats of military science fiction.”

“ The Last Good Man is a fantastic, lightning-fast thriller that hits all the right notes: an engaging story set in an all-too-plausible future, advanced technology, plenty of action, and fantastic, well-rounded characters.”

“…if you want a novel with pulse-pounding action, in which soldiers square off against the futuristic machines — a novel that you won’t be able to put down once the action heats up — [ The Last Good Man ] delivers with the precision and firepower of a tactical missile…not only a cracking good read, it is a novel driving first, and fast, down the road we are seemingly already set upon.”

“Nagata has devised a thinking-reader’s future-military scenario, a highly qualified adventure in which every thrill comes with a realization of what it costs, what it says about the world that enables it, what it means to fight and kill and face death.”

“If you like your military science fiction grounded in the real and in the probable, this is your book.”

The Nanotech Succession — Before Inverted Frontier, there was the Nanotech Succession. Explore more of this story world in this sequence of stand-alone novels:

Tech-Heaven (prequel)

The Bohr Maker (winner of the 1996 Locus Award for Best First Novel)

Deception Well

Vast

The Red Trilogy

The Red: First Light (Nebula Award nominee and finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award)

The Trials

Going Dark (finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award)

Stories of the Puzzle Lands (gritty dark fantasy)

The Dread Hammer — Book 1: a tale of love, war, murder, marriage, and fate

Hepen the Watcher — Book 2: a tale of exile, rebellion, fidelity, and fire

Other Story Worlds

The Last Good Man

Light and Shadow (a short-fiction collection)

Limit of Vision

Memory (finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award)

Goddesses & Other Stories (a short-fiction collection including the 2000 Nebula Award winner for best novella)

Skye-Object 3270a (young adult/middle grade)

Additional information on all of Linda Nagata’s books, including sample chapters and links to print and ebook versions, can be found at the author’s website: MythicIsland.com.

Linda Nagata’s work has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial awards. She has won the Nebula and is a two-time winner of the Locus award.

Linda is best known for her high-tech science fiction, including the near-future thriller, The Last Good Man , and the Red trilogy, an intersection of artificial intelligence and military fiction. The first book in the trilogy, The Red: First Light , was named as a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2015.

Linda has lived most of her life in Hawaii, where she’s been a writer, a mom, a programmer of database-driven websites, and an independent publisher. She lives with her husband in their long-time home on the island of Maui.

“ Edges runs on a lot of brain power, and it’s an intellectually stimulating read that posits some truly intriguing questions and ethical dilemmas […] While the bulk of Edges is interested in more heady affairs and the nature of mankind’s place in the cosmos, Nagata’s proficiency in writing action beats is certainly on strong and regular display […] as this book ramps up to its dizzying, frenetic climax….”

Edges is “a masterful effort, operating both at a slow burn and with a ratcheting intensity that comes to a stunning climax. Linda Nagata has once again given us a future that dances along a razor’s edge—entertaining, thrilling, humbling… and hopeful, despite the threat, despite the danger, despite the sacrifice.”

“In the imaginary coffee-house of my mind, Nagata’s Succession novels are hanging out with thematic and subgeneric cousins by Neal Asher, Iain M. Banks, Greg Bear, Greg Benford, Greg Egan, Kathleen Ann Goonan, and Robert Reed, discussing the post-human condition, how many nanotechnologies can fit on the head of a pin, the nature and place of sentience in the universe, and whether there is a Long Game in which humankind can play and survive. There’s a portrait of Olaf Stapledon hanging over the mantelpiece, along with a long-barreled raygun. Both are icons of the tradition.”

Published by Mythic Island Press LLC

Kula, Hawaii

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious or are used fictitiously.

Edges

Copyright © 2019 by Linda Nagata.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.