Having recently opened up this space to guest posters, here’s our first one. K. Pimpinella is here to tell us why she loves The Edge Series by Andria Stone.

And it’s interesting. When I came up with the idea for this guest series, I thought people would come on and talk about all the books that I already know and love. And with the first one, K. introduced me to something that I wasn’t even aware of. And that’s excellent. Because that’s one of the great things about the genre these days. There’s just so much of it. It’s a far cry from when I was a teen, hanging out at the bookstore, sucking up whatever they managed to get on the shelf that month.

If you would like to do a similar guest post about a science fiction book that you love, the instructions on how to apply are here.

Before I move on and turn things over, let me introduce K. Pimpinella.

K. Pimpinella is an author, former Trooper with the RCAC Queen’s York Rangers, and lifelong fan of science fiction; she also studied space sciences at university. Working as a paramedic for 20yrs and past volunteer work with Global Medics in Cambodia has given her invaluable experience to draw from as she writes her action/adventure, soft-military, sci-fi time travel series: The Time Rangers. She lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband and two dogs.

You can find her here:
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Here’s what she has to say about The Edge Trilogy, by Andria Stone (Edge of the Future/Edge of the Stars/Edge of the Rings)

Strap in for a wild ride with team MAVREK as they fight off cyborgs, clones and deceptive villains across the galaxy in an attempt to save humanity!

‘The Edge Trilogy’ isn’t literary. It doesn’t promise to fix your real world problems or force you to deep dive down the rabbit hole of your psyche. It makes you want to stand up and cheer for the good guys! It’s a fast-paced, engaging and often humorous sci-fi, military trilogy that provides great escapism. And I believe this is what Stone intended, and what she wholeheartedly exceeded at accomplishing.

 We need escapism more than ever right now, and ‘The Edge Trilogy’ by Stone, brings it in full force. I was not stuck in my house lamenting my job or finances, or if the pandemic lockdowns would ever end when I read this trilogy. I was out travelling to other planets, getting swept up in intrigue, action, and a cool aesthetic of a future that made me smile. I jumped right into this military, sci-fi, techno-thriller trilogy and got lost in a world of action, humour and complex characters within the first few pages. It never let up as the arcing plot progressed throughout the series, with each novel providing more background and insight into the main characters as they fought to save humanity.

I’m a sucker for a buddy-cop dynamic, so I loved the interaction between Mark and Axel (main protagonists) as they learned to work together. Some may call it a trope, but it’s a trope I love when action and tension are riddled with off-the-cuff remarks and witty banter. Something else Stone used to her advantage, was how she changed who the protector was, or wing-man as she called it, in each story. The relationship between Mark and Axel is ever shifting, yet they find a way to work together and eventually become like brothers. It didn’t feel forced as they bonded over adversity and painful experiences, with each character building respect of the other as they learned, and learned how to understand and appreciate, each other’s trauma.

Alongside these heroic characters, ‘The Edge Trilogy’ also depicts cool tech. Cool ships. Cool costumes. Okay, so if you want to be stealth, leather is definitely not the way to go, but it did present a pleasant aesthetic in my mind as I read. And that’s what I wanted when I picked up this series. Something fun, fantastic and fast-paced. And that’s definitely what I got.

Don’t get me wrong, the series isn’t all fun and games. There are serious undertones spread throughout the series like human trafficking and genetic manipulation, but that’s what made it a good thriller. The plot was interesting, there were twists, villains were despicable and protagonists were flawed, and although the action slowed a bit in the middle section of  Edge of the Future (book #1 in the series), the thriller aspect of the story kept it moving forward at a clipped pace.

 Although insurance scams are not the plot, when I finished Edge of the Stars, I was reminded of the TV show ‘Leverage’ with how it handled the dynamics amongst its quirky team-members as they fought off bad guys. With ‘The Edge Trilogy’, you have your cybers, your soldiers and your thinkers, that all come together with their individual expertise and experiences to create team MAVREK. A team that is well financed, well equipped and well backed by both private and military assets, but it doesn’t give the story the feel of over contrived or coincidental. I feel like Stone incorporated these resources into the novel so that the actual story and characters could take precedence. And she did a wonderful job.

Okay! Michael here. Thanks for that, K. That series sounds great. I love Leverage (shout out to creator, John Rogers) and a book that gives that feel is right up my alley. The way you describe the military SF with humor that doesn’t try to change the world, but is just a ton of fun, reminds me a bit of The Expeditionary Force Series, by my friend Craig Alanson.

Let me tell you a bit about Pimpinella’s book. Nexus Point is the first book in her Time Rangers series.

Late in the twenty-second century, teams of Time Rangers travel back in history to capture Time Runners, renegade time travellers who endanger the future by chaning the psat. Kai Sawyer, son of a rear admiral who was a founding member of the Time Ranger unit, is a Spawn, a genetically enhanced human with powerful strength and abilities. But despite his advantages, he carries the burden of his father’s cold and calculated plans for Kai’s future.

As Kai rises throught the ranks to become the Time Rangers’ youngest commander ever, he must constantly prove himself to fend off percpetions, even from his own team, that nepotism is behind his meteoric rise. But when Kai and his team are sent to seventeenth-century France to capture a sadistic Time Runner altering the arc of medical advances, Kai finds his considerable strengths used against him. And he fears that he might be a pawn in a dark scheme concocted by mysterious forces even he can’t defeat.

You can purchase Nexus Point at the following locations: (Note, I always recommend that you buy directly from the publisher or one of the indie bookstores if possible and it’s within your means.)

Friesen Press
Blue Heron Books (local indie store in Uxbridge, ON, Canada)
SpaceCowboy Books/Bookshop.org
Amazon (US)
Amazon (Canada)
Barnes & Noble/Nook
Audible

Tags: Pimpinella, Science Fiction