Faith

By John Love

Moby Dick meets Duel in John Love’s debut novel of Space Opera and Military Science Fiction.

Faith is the name humanity has given to the unknown, seemingly invincible alien ship that has begun to harass the newly emergent Commonwealth. 300 years earlier, the same ship destroyed the Sakhran Empire, allowing the Commonwealth to expand its sphere of influence. But now Faith has returned.

The ship is as devastating as before, and its attacks leave some Commonwealth solar systems in chaos. Eventually it reaches Sakhra, now an important Commonwealth possession, and it seems like history is about to repeat itself. But this time, something is waiting: an Outsider, one of the Commonwealth’s ultimate warships.

Outsiders are almost as alien as Faith — instruments of the Commonwealth, outside all normal command structures. Slender silver ships, full of functionality: drives and weapons and sentience cores, bionics and electronics, packed to almost dwarf-star density. And crewed by people of unusual abilities, often sociopaths or psychopaths. Outsiders were conceived in back alleys, built and launched in secret, and commissioned without ceremony.

Faith continues to destroy the Commonwealth’s regular spacecraft and planetary defenses. With each new engagement, the Kafkaesque enemy reveals a new set of abilities. One system away from Earth, the Outsider ship Charles Manson makes a stand. Commander Foord waits with his crew of Miscreants and sociopath, hoping to accomplish what no other human has been able to do… to destroy Faith.