Prison Planet (Book 3 of The Rim Confederacy) by Jim Rudnick

Release date:  September 28, 2015

Subgenre: Space opera, military science fiction

About Prison Planet:

After a failed planetary rebellion, the rebel leader and his men are all given life sentences on Halberd, the RIM Confederacy prison planet and sent to the maximum island penitentiary—a prison that has never had a successful escape.

And under his Admirals orders, Captain Tanner Scott has also been sent to do RIM Navy duty on the planet with the mission to give up his alcoholism dependency. While he knows that this is what is expected of him by the Admiral, he finds it more difficult to do that he’d ever imagined.

Tanner meets a woman—the sister of the rebel leader and while he falls in love with her, he is not sure that the feeling is mutual. Yet he tries to straighten out his life and his drinking but instead he is faced with the choice of a lifetime—love or death.

Against incredible odds in the middle of a prison planet escape, he makes his choice . . . and more than his own life depends upon that choice . . . forever changing the future of the RIM! 

Excerpt:

The Marwick shuttle was at what some might call low-level altitude but others might call dangerous. Above the waves, yes….but not by more than 50 feet and Lt. Hendricks, the pilot was focused on nothing but the sea ahead of him. The rest of the Away team watched in silence as the shuttle cruised at more than a mile per second, leaving a furrow behind them in the as a wake never seen before. With a blue sky, the deep ocean blue and the white wake furrow behind them, it was a trip in duo-tones for sure, Tanner thought. He’d requested this low level flight as it was something no one as far as he knew had ever done. Even the three Provost guards who accompanied the Away team to look after the convict were staring out the large shuttle view-ports at nothing but ocean, whitecaps and all.

   “On my home world, Captain” Lt. Rizzo said, “we have a sport called boarding, where you ride a wave coming into shore or behind a boat and it’s tons of fun. Well, till you remember that if you’re dumped off the wave near shore, that they make sandpaper outta sand, Sir” he said and unconsciously rubbed his left thigh and hip.

   “Something I’m sure, you did over and over, right Rizzo” Lt. Elliot chuckled and rose from his seat pretending to balance on just such a board which got a few cheers from the rest of the team and even Radisson, the new Ensign was up on top of his seat boarding the shuttle herself.

   “Settle down,” the XO said and that got the group back into their seats, and he eyes Radisson a bit to let him know that kind of shenanigans was frowned upon. Least it should be…

   As they cruised across the ocean, it became apparent even at this speed that the number of islands was very low at least on this heading. They never had to avert their course to go around any and they only saw a line of islands in the distance to port once. At more than 3,600 mph, they were moving quite quickly and in a little less than two hours a line of islands appeared ahead.

   “Slow, Lt. Hendricks,” we don’t wanna cause any issues on arrival,” the XO noted and Tanner nodded in agreement.

   “Aye, XO….wilco” Hendricks said and they slowed noticeably as the line of low lying islands came more into view. Once volcanoes had risen here from the ocean floor to breach the waters and slowly build landmass, Tanner could see evidence of that easily. But it had been a long time ago, as the volcanic cones were now all worn down with green vegetation that went right to the summit. One of the islands though still had a taller mountainous peak and as it came more into view, one could see the power grids coming up and out of the crater that marked the volcano itself.

   “Power generation is volcanic, XO?” Tanner queried and sipped again at his plas coffee cup, sweetened with the one thing he liked more than everything else…"

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About Jim Rudnick:

Being a youngster in the 1950's meant that I was a voracious reader in what has been called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. That meant that for me, my heroes were not on the hockey rink or gridiron - but instead in my local Library where at 12 I had a full Adult card (thanks Dad!) and took out more than 5 books a week.

Everyone from Heinlein, Norton, Leiber, Pohl, Anderson, Simak, Asimov, Brackett, Van Vogt and more....I fell in love with and eventually owned Ace Doubles of my own. While I never knew who wrote the Tom Corbett - Space Cadet series, I fell in love with them and they had a place of honor on my own bookcase too!

With that kind of an introduction to Science Fiction, it's no wonder that when got my writing work done, I turned my own fictional side of my brain to writing same. It's one thing I know to write - and a totally different matter to release same to the world - something that I've just started to work on....suffice it to say my own works are rooted in that Golden Age and it's that era that I'd like to one day be known as a teensy contributor to in some small way…

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