Hello, my friends.
Here it is at long, long last, the end of my Yrden Chronicle series -- A Dangerous Species -- the book that was supposed to be a standalone novel, but which ended up as Book 10. In it you will find the answers to many questions that you may have had whilst reading the other books in the series.
Colleen Yrden and her Alliance have finally won the war against the Damarg Empire, and her people have captured her bète noir, Korsh. Now, at last, she can find out what happened to her husband, Clay, and the others that Korsh and his pirates took from her ship, Blue Powder, all those years ago -- as well as people from other ships. And then she and Brian can execute the monster who caused all the trouble for her, for Pelgraff, for the human worlds.
However, Korsh has one final card to play, and he plays it, forcing Colleen to endure the unendurable if she wants the answer to the one question that has plagued her.
A Dangerous Species holds the answer. Get it today and discover that answer and the answers for other questions which you have been waiting for.
History:
Twenty-some years ago, I thought of a what-if with respect to certain events in our history. The idea stuck and I played with it for some time before finally beginning to write A Dangerous Species, which would not take place on Earth, but in a Universe that I created. It would become a stand-alone science fiction book. Yeah, right. I had only written a few pages when I had a thought. It might work better if I had a civil war on a planet to begin the story. And, thus, I stopped work on it and wrote the "prequel", Pelgraff, which told the story of a soldier in that war, but introduced the main character of my series, Colleen Yrden. Thus, I had a two-book series on my hands. Nice thought but nothing is ever that easy.
But, Pelgraff (a shiny object or squirrel) contained other shiny objects that took me off-course. A throw-away line had me writing a short story about one of the ancestors of the Yrdens, one Jaswinder Saroya and that short story eventually became the novel, Courtesan, which took place 450 years earlier. The success of that book led me to the four books of the Not With a Whimper group. Then, I returned to A Dangerous Species for a moment or two before deciding that I needed an origin story for Colleen. That became the true Book 1, Trading for the Stars. Fine, now could I please finish with the series, get back to that first book? No. You see, in Pelgraff I had given Colleen a loyal bodyguard, and he wasn't in Book 1 at all. Also, I had told the story of how her husband had been taken by the pirate Korsh, and I hadn't dealt with that. Thus came Books 2 and 3, Trading for a Dream and One Trade Too Many.
Fine. I now had caught up to Pelgraff ... or had I? No, that book had also mentioned that Colleen had spent time on the planet New Brittain. Great. So, I had one more novel to write, which would encompass the civil war, this time from the viewpoint of Colleen, but starting from before and ending after. That became Trading for War. Pelgraff now became Book 5, and now I could finally write A Dangerous Species ... or could I?
No. I became aware of a plot-hole. I needed to fix that, and a what-if idea for another stand-alone novel that I'd previously toyed with could be incorporated. Yes, good. Book 6, Trading in Secrets came into being, followed by another squirrel that I could shoe-horn into the series Book 7, Partisan of Pelgraff.
Whilst all this was going on, I continued writing in A Dangerous Species, but couldn't finish it, because it needed the information that came from the preceding books. But now I could finish it? No, because book 6 had left a bit of another plot-hole that needed to be filled, and book 7 needed a sequel to finish off the story of McLean -- the soldier from Book 5. Thus I needed two more books before I could finally tackle the one that had started it all. Back to Pelgraff and Trading Allegiances did the job for me. And, yes, now at long, long last I could finish the series.
And, finally, you have A Dangerous Species before you, and the series has come to an end -- as has this post. (Be thankful that I didn't mention the other squirrels that popped up during the course of writing the series and the novels that they spawned.)
I hope you enjoy A Dangerous Species, and that it will serve as a fit ending to what began so long ago. Now can I rest?
Thank you for staying with me to the end.
D.A. Boulter.
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