Operation Grendel

It's the war story he's dreamed of. But the battle may cost him his mind.

Military journalist Raymin Dahl thinks he's finally getting the story of a lifetime. Secret peace talks on a remote tropical moon are about to surrender five colonized worlds--and six hundred million civilians--to a ruthless enemy.

But when his commanding officer, Captain Ansell Sterling, is fatally wounded before the negotiations can begin, Dahl can no longer just report on the mission. He's ordered to complete it. With help from the AI embedded in Sterling's comms bracelet, Dahl must impersonate his commander--a Marine Corps hero and psychological operations expert.

However, Sterling's AI may be luring him to surrender more than he realizes. And the mission Corporal Dahl thinks he's running isn't the only operation underway.

Daniel Schwabauer, MA, is a lifelong reader of speculative fiction. His professional work includes stage plays, radio scripts, short stories, newspaper columns, comic books, and telescripting. Daniel's middle-grade fantasy series, The Legends of Tira-Nor, has received numerous awards, including the 2005 Ben Franklin Award for Best New Voice in Children's Literature and the 2008 Eric Hoffer Award.He studied science fiction under science-fiction-great James Gunn before graduating from Kansas University's master's program in Creative Writing in 1995. He lives in Olathe, Kansas, with his wife and dog.