Authors of SFR are always surprising us with something
new. This is certainly true of Jenn
Burke and Kelly Jensen.
They launched a new m/m space opera series this month called Chaos Station. Not only that, they have a spiffy site with handy information
about the series.
CHAOS STATION (Carina Press) is the first book:
“You’re
not real. Felix Ingesson is dead.”
The war with the alien stin is over, but Felix Ingesson has given
up on seeing his lover, Zander Anatolius, ever again. Zander’s military file is
sealed tighter than an airlock. A former prisoner of war, Felix is attempting a
much quieter life keeping his ship, the Chaos, aloft. He almost succeeds, until
Zander walks on board and insists that Felix isn’t real.
A retired, broken super soldier, Zander is reeling from the
aftereffects of his experimental training and wants nothing more than to
disappear and wait for insanity to claim him. Then he sees footage of a friend and ally—a super soldier like
him—murdering an entire security squad with her bare hands and a cold, dead
look in her eyes. He never expected to find Felix, the man he’d thought dead
for years, on the ship he hired to track her down.
Working with Felix to rescue his teammate is a dream come
true…and a nightmare. Zander has no exit strategy that will leave Felix
unscathed—or his own heart unbroken.
Click here to read
the Chapter 1 excerpt.
Book two, LONELY SHORE, will release May 25, 2015.
Enjoy the cover and blurb:
All they can do is live day to day...
Felix Ingesson has returned to his duties as the Chaos's engineer
with Zander Anatolius, his ex-boyfriend-turned-broken-super-soldier, at his
side. Hope means something again. But there's nothing Felix can do to
battle the alien poison flowing through Zander's veins, or his imminent mental
decline. With each passing day, the side effects of Zander’s experimental
training are becoming more difficult to ignore.
When the ruthless Agrius Cartel seeks their revenge—including an
ambush and an attempt to kidnap the Chaos’s crew—Zander is pushed over
the edge. He can no longer hide his symptoms, nor does he want to. But hurting
Felix when he’s not in control of himself is Zander’s worst nightmare—when it
nearly happens, he agrees to seek help. Even if that means trusting the unknown.
As Zander places his life in alien hands, Felix appoints himself
his lover’s keeper. And though he tries to be strong, he can’t ignore the fact
that he might lose Zander…forever this time.
***
Here's the tentative release schedule for the next
three books:
SKIP TRACE - Fall 2015
INVERSION POINT - Early 2016
PHASE SHIFT - Early 2016
And now for my interview with authors Jenn Burke and
Kelly Jensen!
The
Galaxy Express: What was the inspiration for the series?
Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen: Not sure if we had an
inspiration for the series beyond trying to bring together a bunch of elements
that we loved. Science fiction—check! Romance—check! Adventure—check! Poor,
tortured white knights with tarnished armor—er, check!
TGE:
Please tag CHAOS STATION in five words.
J&K: Adventure, lost love, super soldier, space
TGE:
Upon reading the "Extras"
section on the Chaos Station site, I started thinking that STAR TREK fans might
be interested in your series given the variety of alien cultures present. Tell
us about the world you created. What makes it both similar to and different
from other science fiction worlds?
J&K: We wanted to do something a little different
and have a smaller galactic community than what you see in Star Trek and Star
Wars. There are only four known races in the Chaos Station galaxy: humanity,
the friendly ashushk, the warrior stin, and the omniscient Guardians. The
Guardians are a complete mystery—no one knows anything about them, only that
they protect the other races from themselves when necessary, hence the name
“Guardians.” So that makes our galaxy kind of weird, while making it clear that
even though humanity has been a part of the galactic community for about a
century, they really don’t know much.
Another difference in our galaxy is that humanity has
not been terribly successful at finding worlds to colonize. For
extra-terrestrial living, the focus is more on space stations, which are the
backbone of humanity’s expansion into space.
We have way more information on the Extras page on our
site. Check it out.
TGE:
What kinds of heroes can readers expect from your series?
J&K: Damaged and flawed ones. Both Felix and Zed
are dealing with the aftermath of the galactic war and the scars it left on
them physically as well as emotionally. They’re both good men—they’ve just kind
of lost their way. Felix is prickly and keeps everyone at a distance; Zed is an
idealist whose vision of right and wrong has been dimmed.
TGE:
Is there an overarching plot? Should the books be read in order?
J&K: Each book has its own adventure with a
definite ending, but there are plot threads that extend from book to book.
Because of that, readers who read the series in order will probably have a
better experience.
TGE:
How would you describe the heat level in CHAOS STATION?
J&K: Hot. Sexy, but not too sexy. The romance is a
huge part of the story, but so is the science fiction side of things!
TGE:
Rate the action-adventure quotient of CHAOS STATION on a scale of 1-10.
J&K: Let’s say 8. There are fights and gun battles
and intrigue, super soldiers with weird abilities, and kinda-sorta secret
identities.
TGE:
Tell us a bit about your collaborative process.
J&K: We both write one point-of-view character.
Jenn writes the Zed POV scenes and Kelly writes the Felix ones. We both share
Elias’s scenes (he’s the captain of the Chaos and often has a different
perspective on events). Our work is stored on OneDrive, which makes
collaborating so easy.
We’ve each learned to be flexible as we plot and write
and revise. It’s so important to leave your ego at the door when you’re
co-writing.
TGE:
Without going into spoilers, is there a scene of actual chaos in the book?
J&K: Well, there’s one scene where [redacted] and
[redacted] have a big [redacted]. That was pretty chaotic.
TGE:
Where can readers find you?
Chaos
Station series information
Website: www.chaosstation.com
Jenn
Burke
Website: www.jennburke.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeralibu
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeralibu
Kelly
Jensen
Website: www.kellyjensenwrites.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kmkjensen
***
Ms. Burke and Ms. Jensen, thanks for your time, and
for your art.
Joyfully yours,
Heather