The Silent Fringe: Phantom Traveller Book Two by R J Theodore

Chipped Cup

After Ehli inadvertently exiles herself to the extra-dimensional realm known as dimspace, she discovers a planet full of iscillian who are scheduled for the same life she recently escaped. Can she save more of her people from that fate without losing her ship, her freedom, or her life? The suspenseful sequel to The Bantam is here! An engineering failure has left Ehli stranded between the layers of reality. Her only companion is BEETL—a scarab drone programmed to terminate any iscillian who endangers the ship. Ehli definitely qualifies. She must repair the ship’s disabled gate drive to free them from dimspace. But once she does, will she be free to search for her homeworld, or will BEETL’s deadly protocols activate the moment she fails to set course for an impound dock? When Ehli inadvertently involves another iscillian in her trouble, it’s not just her own life she’s risking. The rebellious engineer must solve both moral and technical quandaries before she destroys another crew.

Cast Off (Book Three of the Peridot Shift) by R J Theodore

Chipped Cup

With the very survival of Peridot at stake, the crew of Fortune’s Storm sets upon a quest to reclaim pieces of the planet’s trapped soul before they can be seized by those who would sacrifice everything and everyone in their race for power over everything. The final entry in the Peridot Shift series is here! Praise for Cast Off and the Peridot Shift: “R J Theodore does a truly masterful job of heightening tension over the three books and bringing it to a satisfying conclusion.” — Emmie Mears, author of the Stonebreaker series “I had so much fun reading Cast Off! As a writer, I was freaking out over how Theodore handled the ensemble cast: I love that the world feels big and fleshed out, but familiar characters also run into each other in such organic ways. There’s an element of serendipity that the author pulls off so well. Cast Off feels like a masterclass in how to handle an ensemble cast. I love how the various factions overlap and separate in unexpected ways. The crew of the Not If We Don’t Get Caught was heaps of fun, and Hankirk is the kind of antagonist that I love to hate. When his comeuppance arrived my only coherent words were, “Holy shit, yes, he deserved that”; the rest of my mental capacity was taken up by gleeful screaming.” — Dominique Dickey, author of “Civilian Assumptions” (Lightspeed Magazine) “I can’t stop thinking about the world of Flotsam. Science-fiction, alchemy, and airships. It’s magic.” — Mary Robinette Kowal “Take a pinch of Jim Butcher’s Aeronaut’s Windlass, add a dash of Treasure Planet, some vivid imagery from Avatar, a generous helping of banter from Firefly, and you might have an idea of the feeling this story left me with. Rich language and imagery blend with a complex world, a story told with humor and heart, that left me breathless and wrung out. I want to know what’s in store next for this crew and their already shattered world.” — Ronda “A thrilling conclusion that rights wrongs both within the story and healing from historical ones, definitely a romp that will stay with me and a go-to recommendation for folks looking for a queer adventure expertly navigating the lines between science fiction and fantasy.” — Jo Ladzinski, Jo Writes Fantasy

Underway: The Phantom Travelogues by R J Theodore

Chipped Cup

Jayess chronicles the strange worlds visited by Harrow’s Tusk in this illustrated travelogue. “Dimspace, a realm shrouded in mystery and promise. Our ship’s gate drive hurls us between star systems, careening between random pinpricks of light faster than light itself can travel. We journey steadily toward the region of the galaxy whence we came, one calculated leap at a time. Each waypoint system offers unique wonders, phenomena, and life to explore, observe, and chronicle. We are seeking our own people, our culture, and our history but it is my goal that, when we reach our destination, we will have our own history to share…” As the Harrow’s Tusk carries them across a galaxy toward a home world they’ve never seen, iscillian sisters Jayess and Sothree record the worlds they visit, through journaling and illustration. Every encounter brings them one step closer to discovering themselves and who they are meant to be. Eleven log entries are paired with original full color illustrations.

Salvage (Book Two of the Peridot Shift) by R J Theodore

Chipped Cup

A crew of salvagers plot to expose the evil dealings of Peridot’s enemies, but to protect their secrets, those enemies will destroy the crew and everything and everyone they hope to save. Peridot is headed for its second cataclysm. War has broken ancient alliances, sealed borders, and locked down the skies. The Five, Peridot’s alchemist gods, have seen one of their number die and another fall in their efforts to protect their world from invaders beyond the stars. Defeated and diminished, they have ceased to answer the prayers of their people and have left the rapidly unraveling world to fend for itself. Talis and the orphaned crew of the lost airship Wind Sabre have a plan to set things to rights, but they’re stranded on a rock far from the heart of the conflict. When an old enemy comes and offers them a ship and a path forward, it comes with strings that will pull them further from the home they are so desperate to save. Can Talis and her crew chart a course through hostile skies, shifting allegiances, and subverted governments before the true enemies of Peridot claim a power that can destroy the world once and for all? Praise for The Peridot Shift series: “Combining the best elements of steampunk and space opera, placed in a lavishly detailed and imagined world, Flotsam will hold you firmly till the final page.” — Cat Rambo “Flotsam sucked me in and wouldn’t let me go. R J Theodore is a fresh voice who will soon be on your must-read list!” — Jennifer Foehner Wells “I can’t stop thinking about the world of Flotsam. Science-fiction, alchemy, and airships. It’s magic.” — Mary Robinette Kowal “Take a pinch of Jim Butcher’s Aeronaut’s Windlass, add a dash of Treasure Planet, some vivid imagery from Avatar, a generous helping of banter from Firefly, and you might have an idea of the feeling this story left me with. Rich language and imagery blend with a complex world, a story told with humor and heart, that left me breathless and wrung out. I want to know what’s in store next for this crew and their already shattered world.” — Ronda “Peridot is a fascinating, fractured world that truly comes to life on the page; it’s remarkable that Theodore manages to establish the world and its cultures and races so well straight off the bat. And as if that isn’t enough, she introduces an alien race and culture into the mix, juggling them all with aplomb.” — Alan Brenik “The worldbuilding is incredibly epic for a newly minted author and hints at uncovering even more as this series evolves.” — Koeur “1,000% here for the merger of scifi steampunk with fantasy. This is exactly the sort of thing someone who grew up on underappreciated masterpieces like Treasure Planet craves!” — Jenna R, NetGalley Reviewer

Flotsam (Book One of the Peridot Shift) by R J Theodore

Chipped Cup

A scrappy group of outsiders take a job to salvage some old ring from Peridot’s gravity-caught garbage layer, and land squarely in the middle of a plot to take over (and possibly destroy) what’s left of the already tormented planet. Captain Talis just wants to keep her airship crew from starving, and maybe scrape up enough cash for some badly needed repairs. When an anonymous client offers a small fortune to root through a pile of atmospheric wreckage, it seems like an easy payday. The job yields an ancient ring, a forbidden secret, and a host of deadly enemies. Now on the run from cultists with powerful allies, Talis needs to unload the ring as quickly as possible. Her desperate search for a buyer and the fallout from her discovery leads to a planetary battle between a secret society, alien forces, and even the gods themselves. Talis and her crew have just one desperate chance to make things right before their potential big score destroys them all. Praise for Flotsam: “Combining the best elements of steampunk and space opera, placed in a lavishly detailed and imagined world, Flotsam will hold you firmly till the final page.” — Cat Rambo “Flotsam sucked me in and wouldn’t let me go. R J Theodore is a fresh voice who will soon be on your must-read list!” — Jennifer Foehner Wells “I can’t stop thinking about the world of Flotsam. Science-fiction, alchemy, and airships. It’s magic.” — Mary Robinette Kowal “Take a pinch of Jim Butcher’s Aeronaut’s Windlass, add a dash of Treasure Planet, some vivid imagery from Avatar, a generous helping of banter from Firefly, and you might have an idea of the feeling this story left me with. Rich language and imagery blend with a complex world, a story told with humor and heart, that left me breathless and wrung out. I want to know what’s in store next for this crew and their already shattered world.” — Ronda “Peridot is a fascinating, fractured world that truly comes to life on the page; it’s remarkable that Theodore manages to establish the world and its cultures and races so well straight off the bat. And as if that isn’t enough, she introduces an alien race and culture into the mix, juggling them all with aplomb.” — Alan Brenik “The worldbuilding is incredibly epic for a newly minted author and hints at uncovering even more as this series evolves.” — Koeur

The Bantam: Phantom Traveller Book One by R J Theodore

Chipped Cup

When one of Ehli’s bantam sisters turns up dead, she tries to figure out what happened before she’s blamed for the murder, and before the real killer strikes again. Ehli is an Iscillian, designed in a lab to serve as a bantam, a ship custodian for a merchant crew. She imagines no future beyond the care of her starship and the quiet hours between ships spent painting in her quarters. But when she discovers a vague clue that undermines the once clear purpose of her existence, the satisfaction she once found in her simple routine dissolves into an unsettling, deadly obsession to learn the truth. Her job is to put the needs of her ship and its crew before her own, but every step she takes to investigate her origins—and that of all Iscillian bantams across the galaxy—takes her further from the life she knew and deeper into danger. But Ehli can’t ignore what she’s learned. She must know what secrets have been kept from her, and she’s willing to risk everything to uncover them. THE BANTAM transports you to a distant corner of space, introduces you to the most adorable invertebrate you’ve ever met, and sets up a mystery to propel Ehli forward into a new life of exploration and adventure.