The Thief of Chaos: A Tale of Seduction, Betrayal and Dark Magic (The Deck of Chaos) by J.L Doty

The thief, his lover the harlot, plus the witch and her apprentice. Jaxon is the disinherited son of an impoverished nobleman. The prostitute Maelleen is his beautiful lover. The Witch who rules Val d'Ossa and her apprentice Venessta need Jax's skills as a thief, and have taken them both captive to ensure his cooperation. Jax and Maelleen must navigate the politics of Val d'Ossa's High Noble Houses, where lies and deceit drip from every tongue, seduction is a mere means to an end, and betrayal is the norm. What is Jax's connection to the ancient figurine they all covet? Can Jax and Maelleen survive the machinations of their betters? If they fail, death will be preferable to the fate that awaits them. The paths of chaos lead only to damnation.

A Hymn for the Dying by J.L. Doty

SPSFC

For many the dying part is hard. For some the living part is harder. At sixteen years of age, Mathius’s life is focused on scrounging bits of food in the midst of a five-way civil war on the planet Novalis III. Two government factions and three rebel factions are all hell-bent on killing one another, and the civilian population is caught in the middle. If Mathius doesn’t find food, he and his father, mother and sister will go hungry for the day, a not unusual occurrence. Mathius must also avoid the rebel factions, who frequently kidnap young boys and force them to become soldiers. Will the Commonwealth of Allied Systems intervene? And what of the Blacksword Regiment, the elite soldiers of the Commonwealth Security Corps? Will they sweep in and make everything right? And the Kelk Supremacy, a race of strange humans with blood-red eyes, and pale bluish-white skin? They're perfectly human, and yet they are not. Why does Mathius keep seeing signs that the Kelk are somehow involved in the unrest? A gripping saga of war and redemption. Order it now.