It was her last chance: Amber Bierce had nothing left except her sister and two tickets on Earth’s first colony-ship. She entered her Sleeper with a five-year contract and the promise of a better life, but awakened in wreckage on an unknown world. For the survivors, there is no rescue, no way home and no hope until they are found by Meoraq—a holy warrior more deadly than any hungering beast on this hostile new world... but whose eyes show a different sort of hunger when he looks at her.

It was his last year of freedom: Uyane Meoraq is a Sword of Sheul, God’s own instrument of judgment, victor of hundreds of trials, with a conqueror’s rights over all men. Or at least he was until his father’s death. Now, without divine intervention, he will be forced to assume stewardship over House Uyane and lose the life he has always known. At the legendary temple of Xi’Matezh, Meoraq hopes to find the deliverance he seeks, but the humans he encounters on his pilgrimage may prove too great a test even for him... especially the one called Amber, behind whose monstrous appearance burns a woman’s heart unlike any he has ever known.

The U-10 is a survival kit you might not survive using. Activated by unreadable cards, it could create a can of soup — or an explosive grenade that looks like a can of soup. The U-10 is a guessing game of life or death.

A top-secret paramilitary agency wants the U-10 and its gadgets, the guy who has the U-10 wants to keep it, and the alien who lost the U-10 wants it back. A death squad is dispatched to retrieve the U-10 and will stop at nothing, including the destruction of Earth, to accomplish their mission.

Using the U-10 to heal battle wounds produces unexpected results. What good is a U-10 survival kit that has just three options? (A) Saves you. (B) Kills you. (C) Turns you into an alien?