PRAISE FOR T. JACKSON KING "I sometimes think a writer's greatest virtues are persistence and endurance, and it seems as if you have them."-Roger Zelazny, Hugo and Nebula Award winner. "Congratulations on the long overdue story collection, Tom What I find most terrific is your range of topics and styles. You have always been an explorer."-David Brin, Hugo and Nebula Award winner. EXOTIC AND ECLECTIC SHORT STORIES Wonder at the choice presented to an Oregon jazz singer who is offered the greatest gig of her life--if only she will choose to sing for Judgment Day. Discover just what the attraction of Earth might be for Alien ship captains. Consider what America might have been like if concentration camps had been set up for HIV/AIDS sufferers. Experience the wonder of an America where science and technology are failing as Earth magic becomes real. Explore the horrific consequences of removing an ancient archaeological artifact and putting it on display in Berlin's Pergamum Museum. Marvel at the macabre suffering one couple hidden away in an ancient Swiss castle will endure for their art. Ponder whether cannibalism of another thinking species is a reasonable choice for survival. Find out what happens when people work as migrant laborers under distant stars and leave behind orphaned children. Experience the dangers of travel between the stars where gravity's tug brings with it the tides of fear. See how interstellar employment may come down to being a hired gun.

Jax Cochrane is a teen facing the unknown in the star system Nilong, the place where her parents and two other couples have decided to "retire" from scavenging among Alien ruins. She, her boyfriend Nagai, her ship sister Jioni and formal Hitori are four teens who have never seen a planet nor Aliens. They know only Ship life. But now, in Nilong, the four of them are discovering what life is like in a place ruled by the wolf-like Alish'Tak aliens. Their parents are the Memory Singers who combine singing ancient Earth songs with personal memories of Earth via the memorynet device, in the family's space cabaret that orbits the planet Storet.

But Jax has a history of rebellion against rules. Even though she knows nothing of planets or Aliens, she is determined to explore, to meet Aliens, to determine the course of her life herself. But can stubbornness save her when the Alish'Tak demand to own her? Can she survive on a planet, when all her life has been aboard ship? And can she build a connection with the young Alish'Tak male who helps her escape to the wilderness?

She may find the answers in space and down-planet, if she can just outwit the Aliens and environment long enough to grow up.

Reviewing "Little Brother's World" in "Analog," Don Sakers wrote: "T. Jackson King is doing his part to further the great conversation of science fiction."

"From Scavenger to Justice seeker, his courage shakes his world..."

Little Brother had survived as an orphan on the colony planet Mother's World by following two very firm rules in his scavenging through the Alor City trash dump: First, you grabbed anything edible before the valuables. Second, you never talked to the garbage. But then the Pube girl Sally talked to him--and he talked back, even though she was tied up "garbage" deposited in the dump.

To make matters worse, Sally was not your everyday garbage person. She was a Breed, a person with a finely tailored genetic code whose geneflesh was very, very valuable on a world of rigid castes, hard choices, and little sympathy for those who questioned the rules. And keeping secret Sally's genetic heritage took more than a robe with long sleeves to hide the GeneCode tattoo on her wrist.

For rather than be happy with a full belly and a warm place to sleep, Sally questioned the way of Mother's World, and her questioning drew unwanted attention. Before Little Brother knew it, they were both on the run to escape the deadly attention of the Church of Flesh and the assassin of Sally's parents.

Little Brother discovered that, in rescuing Sally, he had begun a quest to learn why he alone had been born without the GeneCode tattoo that set one's status, job, and destiny. That quest would lead him to a truth that some on his world would kill to keep secret--and the lives of two young people count for nothing in the Game of Power. But Little Brother has a Talent stronger than hatred or power, a Talent linked to his birth without a GeneCode tattoo. It is a Talent that might help both of them survive....