A Bar Room Brawl on Ganymede

Blood Empire, Book 0.5

By: Robert Scanlon

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

A gambling debt gone wrong - and a pirate captain on the trail of her father's killer.

Desperate to close a black-market helium-three deal, India "Indy" Jackson arrives on Ganymede already in dispute with the Jovian Mafia. She needs money to track down who killed her father, but her ship's pilot suddenly disappears, and Indy is left to her own devices to deal with her shady contact. Everything comes to a head in one of Ganymede's sleaziest districts, and she is faced with a choice: find her pilot and close the deal, or cut her losses and flee to safety. Indy never was one to run away.

Discover one of Indy Jackson's early escapades on her journey to Galactic infamy!

A Blood Empire prequel novella.

©2021 Robert Scanlon (P)2021 Podium Audio

Not usually a fan of the novella...

Because it's like eating an appetizer for dinner, I'm not usually a fan of the novella. However, I took a chance &, while hungry for more, it was definitely tasty!

Great Intro to Scanlon, a very sharp writer

Take a chance on this quick totally standalone story. A great lead character (female) and very sharp writing by a real pro who has a real vocabulary and careful editing. True sci-fi. Refreshing!

Fun ride

I’m not really into gangster/mafia types of stories - yet this short story kept my interest. Yes, there’re some stereotypical characters but I enjoyed the underlying sci-fi theme. I look forward to listening to some of the follow up books

Novella gone right

Good Novella. Allowed for enough engagement and back story with the main character that you get drawn in. I loved that the female lead was NOT sexualized. Her uniqueness was discussed, but not her looks. Bravo

Boring bar room brawl

Short novellas can still be entertaining and effective, but this one was surprisingly dull for the premise of a kickass Captain hunting her father’s killer and mixing it up with bounty hunters and riff raff. The problem is both in the writing and narration. The writing takes us through acts without details on character descriptions, settings, or backstories beyond the Captain being a redhead and her father being dead. The dialogue is matter of fact, without any vibrancy, humor, or emotion. The narration was robotic and not at all befitting what should be a pulpy space romp. In the end, the story did not live up to the promise of its title.