Overview
Conscripted to fight in the War of the Southern Sky, Yoni Kestenbaum was plucked away from his home in the Morlock Reach by the Royal Nixonian Galactic Imperium when he was just eighteen. Now, after ten brutal years of war and ten only moderately less brutal years in Imperial law enforcement, Yoni returns to the Reach as a Royal Constabulary Deputy Marshal. He assumes he's been assigned the posting as punishment for showing more integrity than loyalty. He soon discovers the real reason - because no one else wanted the job. The Morlock Reach is at the edge of the Imperium, home to both despised non-human species and disfavored human cultures. They form the rural peasantry and the industrial proletariat of the empire. The Imperium calls them ""Morlocks,"" a term pilfered from The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. That's the politest thing they call them. The rest is unprintable. The Reach is full of deposits of the ore, energy crystals, and quantum quartz that fuel the empire's expansion. Everyone gets rich off this bounty -- except the Morlocks, who extract it from the Reach's planets, moons, and asteroids under the most dangerous conditions. They say you can't go home again. Finding himself in a place both familiar and unwelcoming, Yoni thinks that might be true. The Morlocks don't know if they can trust him. The Imperial authorities don't know if they can control him. Yoni discovers the only person on whom he can rely is his artificially-constructed personal assistant. And he's not sure she even likes him that much. Yoni just wants to uphold the law without upholding the empire's tyranny. Easier said than done.
Full Product Details
Author: Peter Ullian
Publisher: Swamp Angel Press
Imprint: Swamp Angel Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.40cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.358kg
ISBN: 9781735247632
ISBN 10: 1735247634
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 30 April 2026
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Temporarily unavailable
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Reviews
Critical Acclaim for the Work of Peter Ullian: ""A cross between David Mamet and the Marx Brothers.""The Cleveland Plain Dealer""Quirky, crackling prose.""The Village Voice""Singularly satisfying.""The New York Times ""Without apology. Taut, absorbing. Great style and crisp wit.""Variety
Author Information
Peter Ullian is the author of the novels The Last Electric House and The Republic of Broken Places, both from Swamp Angel Press. His full-length collection of short stories, Pulp & Circumstance, made the Amazon bestseller lists in the categories of ""Historical Fiction Short Stories"" and ""Jewish Historical Fiction."" The 2019-2020 Poet Laureate of Beacon, New York, his poetry has been published in anthologies and periodicals and collected in The Fevered-Dream Crimes of Pulp-Fiction Poets and Other Love Stories: New and Collected Poems (Lion in Autumn Music Publishing), and the chapbook Secret Histories & Exobiologies (Poet's Haven). His short stories have been published in Cemetery Dance Magazine, Frontier Tales Magazine, and the DAW Books Anthology Star Colonies. His work for the stage has been produced off-Broadway, regionally, and internationally, and directed by theatre artists such as Harold Prince. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Rhysling Award. He has received awards from the Kennedy Center and production grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his family.
