Lightning Strike: Book One (Skolian Empire/Ruby Dynasty 1)

Tina Pulivok is returning home one night to her tough Los Angeles neighborhood when she is saved from local thugs by a man who seems lost -- an understatement, as he and his advanced Jag ship arrived from a distant galaxy, a different timeline and an alternate universe. As Tina struggles to understand Althor, this strange, attractive man with golden, metallic-looking skin and other variations from Earth humans -- she and Althor find themselves the targets of a manhunt by police and by the military, who have captured the damaged starship.

From memories of her childhood in a Mayan village, to the streets of Los Angeles, to a military base and a chance to reach the stars, Tina comes alive as an astute, sympathetic narrator, facing life and tough choices with courage, wit and compassion.

Part of Asaro's highly acclaimed Skolian Empire/Ruby Dynasty series which SF Chronicle called "One of the major series in the genre, which Booklist found "in many ways as compelling as Dune, if not more so", LIGHTNING STRIKE, Book I is an expanded and revised version (along with LIGHTNING STRIKE, Book II) of her novel CATCH THE LIGHTNING.

LIGHTNING STRIKE, Book II, will be available in Fall 2014

"Physicist Asaro combines hard speculative science and first-rate storytelling."
- Booklist

"Readers seeking the harmonious meld of hard SF's rigor and human chemistry's heat should read Catherine Asaro's fiction."
- SciFi Weekly

"Asaro's portrait of interstellar intrigue, weird socio-political customs and galactic history has come to approach the neighborhood of such classics as Frank Herbert's DUNE series."
- SciFi.com

€œAsaro, who€s a physicist, offers an intelligent exploration of possible links between telepathy and quantum physics and informs many of the scenes between lovers with power and tenderness.€
- Publishers Weekly

€œHard science fiction fans can rejoice€"the next superstar is here.€
- Romantic Times

On PRIMARY INVERSION:

€œAn unusually masterful first novel. Physicist Asaro combines hard speculative science and first-rate storytelling€¦ One of the best SF first novels in years."
- Booklist

€œFast, smart, speculative and full of theorizing about faster-than-light drive, PRIMARY INVERSION is a stellar debut.€
- Los Angeles Daily News

€œHard science fiction fans can rejoice€"the next superstar is here.€
- Romantic Times

On the Skolian Empire series:
"One of the major series in the genre."
- SF Chronicle

"Asaro's Skolian saga is now nearly as long and in many ways as compelling as DUNE, if not more so."
- Booklist

"Catherine Asaro brings the feel of science back into science fiction."
- Donald M. Kingsbury, author of COURTSHIP RITE and PSYCHOHISTORICAL CRISES.

"Known for her brilliance at combining science, adventure and riveting characterization, Catherine Asaro breaks new territory..."
- Mary Jo Putney, New York Times bestselling author of THE WILD CHILD and THE RAKE

"Sound characterization, straightforward plotting, abundant world building detail, and almost as much humor."
- Booklist

"Thoughtful and imaginative..."
- Diana Gabaldon

On CATCH THE LIGHTNING

€œCATCH THE LIGHTNING is space adventure for the 21st century€¦ This book crackles with ideas.€
- Nancy Kress, Nebula Award winner

€œCatherine Asaro keeps the wonders tumbling along at the level of sheer delight.€
- Absolute Magnitude

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