Vividly imaginative, yet believably real, LJ Cohen’s novels and short stories satisfy. She lists them as YA, but I find them just as entertaining for those of us no longer in our teens. What I especially like about Lisa’s work is that, despite the fact that she does not hedge on reality, she never lets hope die. In my opinion, anyone who likes science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism will immensely enjoy Lisa’s work. — D. L. Keur
Lisa Janice (LJ) Cohen is a poet, novelist, blogger, local food enthusiast, Doctor Who fan, and relentless optimist. Lisa lives just outside of Boston with her family, two dogs (only one of which actually ever listens to her) and the occasional international student. When not doing battle with a stubborn Jack Russell Terrier mix, Lisa can be found writing, which looks a lot like daydreaming. She writes SF, Fantasy, and YA novels under the name LJ Cohen. You can find LJ Cohen blogging here or visit her website, http://www.ljcohen.net/.
Halcyone Space Series (YA Science Fiction) Buy the Series $20.95
DERELICT is book 1 of the Halcyone Space series of science fiction space opera adventures. ITHAKA RISING, book 2, DREADNOUGHT AND SHUTTLE, book 3, and PARALLAX, book 4, A STAR IN THE VOID, book 5
A kindle bestseller upon its release in 2014, DERELICT has been described as: “. . .not the usual YA. Nor is it the usual space opera. While some of the characters are military, they’re not the heroes. In the second book, in fact, it becomes pretty clear that the Commonwealth, the interplanetary government, is no benign Federation, that there are serious cracks within society, and history has been… sanitised.
A diverse cast, real consequences to physical injury, no easy fixes, realistic character arcs. . . . ”
–Mike Reeves-McMillan, reviewer, author, blogger
Derelict
Halcyone Space, book 1
$0.99 (Available in eBook, audio, and paperback)
Read the award-winning story that started the Halcyone Space series.
When Rosalen Maldonado tinkers with the derelict freighter, she’s just hoping to prove she deserves a scholarship to University. She certainly doesn’t count on waking the ship’s damaged AI or having three stowaways, Micah Rotherwood and brothers Jem and Barre Durbin, along for the ride. They all have their private reasons for hiding aboard and lives they are seeking to escape, but if the accidental crew can’t work together and learn to trust each other, they’ll die together, victims of a computer that doesn’t realize the war ended decades before any of them were even born.
Ithaka Rising
Halcyone Space, book 2
$4.99 (Available in eBook, audio, and paperback)
Welcome to the universe of Halcyone Space. . .
After a reckless young computer programmer resurrects the damaged AI on a long dormant freighter, she and her accidental crew blunder into a galactic conspiracy forty years in the making.
A derelict ship and a splintered crew are not the rewards Ro had hoped for when she helped disrupt her father’s weapons smuggling operation. But with the responsibilities of full citizenship and limited resources, she’s forced to take her father’s place as chief engineer on Daedalus station while she and Barre try to repair their damaged freighter, Halcyone. When Barre’s brother Jem disappears, Barre and Ro race to find him before he sells his future and risks his mind for a black market neural implant. But locating The Underworld along with its rogue planet Ithaka has political consequences far beyond what Halcyone’s crew imagine, pitting Jem’s life against deadly secrets from a war that should have ended forty years ago.
Dreadnought And Shuttle
Halcyone Space, book 3
$4.99 (Available in eBook and paperback)
When a reckless young computer programmer resurrects the damaged AI on a long dormant freighter, she and her accidental crew expose explosive secrets from a war they were taught ended decades ago.
Welcome to the universe of Halcyone Space.
Charged with protecting Ithaka and its covert rebellion from discovery, Ro and the members of Halcyone’s crew learn to lead double lives within the Commonwealth. Their plans to hide in plain sight disintegrate when Alain Maldonado — Ro’s father — returns seeking revenge and takes a hostage to ensure their cooperation. As the former shipmates track Maldonado down, each course they plot endangers the life of his hostage, threatens to reveal Ithaka, and uncovers conspiracies that could brand them all traitors.
Parallax
Halcyone Space, book 4
$4.99 (Available in eBook and paperback)
After a reckless young computer programmer resurrects the damaged AI on a long dormant freighter, she and her accidental crew blunder into a galactic conspiracy forty years in the making.
Welcome to the universe of Halcyone Space.
In the aftermath of the Ferryman’s death and Lieutenant Commander Gutierrez’s injuries, Ithaka has lost its most loyal protectors. The Commonwealth is coming dangerously close to discovering the lost planet’s location and crushing its lingering rebellion. As Ro and her crew fall under suspicion of harboring Ithaka’s secrets, they race to unlock Ro’s father’s trove of encrypted data in order to find leverage against the rebellion’s enemies.
But knowledge brings new threats and Halcyone’s crew is drawn more deeply into a conspiracy that threatens to destroy Ithaka and reignite a galactic war when they uncover the hidden power brokers who have been quietly manipulating the Commonwealth for decades.
A Star in the Void
Halcyone Space Book 5
$4.99 (Available in eBook and paperback)
Control the wormholes, control the galaxy.
For over fifty years, the Commonwealth’s lock on wormhole transit has enabled the military government to keep its grip on commerce, travel, and the community in diaspora off Earth. But everything changed once Ro Maldonado resurrected the damaged AI on a derelict spaceship. When she and her accidental passengers aboard Halcyone stumbled upon a hidden planet and Ada May, its brilliant but reclusive leader, they became entangled with her covert resistance.
But behind the scenes of the Commonwealth lurks an even bigger enemy: the Reaction Chamber, a powerful shadow organization of politicians, business moguls, and crime cartels that has co-opted and infiltrated all levels of the government. The Chamber knows Halcyone is the key to finding and eliminating the resistance. And as people close to Ro and her companions disappear or die, it’s clear their enemies are closing in fast.
When May vanishes through an impossible wormhole, taking the leader of the Reaction Chamber with her, she abruptly shatters a decades-old stalemate. Now Halcyone and her crew must decode May’s revolutionary wormhole technology and locate the missing scientist before the Reaction Chamber obliterates the resistance and exploits its resources to seize complete control of the cosmos.
This is the culmination of the series that began with DERELICT, a kindle best seller and award winning science fiction novel.
Fantasy and Other Works by LJ Cohen
Changling’s Choice series Buy the Series $8.98
The Between (Book 1)
$3.99 (Available in eBook and paperback)
This is not Shakespeare’s Oberon and Titania. And Lydia has no desire to be their chosen one. Welcome to the subtle war between overt and covert magic, where every choice has consequences. THE BETWEEN, Changeling’s Choice book 1: a modern take on the myths of Faerie.
High school senior, Lydia Hawthorne, is less than grateful when Oberon has her snatched from the mortal world and she finds out she’s actually Fae. And not just any Fae, but a trueborn with enough inherent magic to tip the balance between Oberon and Titania’s warring Bright and Shadow courts.
But that’s their game and she doesn’t want to play by their rules. Together with Clive Barrow, a Bright Court Fae with embarrassing family ties to the mortal world, Lydia fights to regain her old life, fueling her magic with the very human power of love and loss, challenging the essential nature of Faerie itself.
The Between is book 1 of the Changeling’s Choice series. Lydia’s story continues in Time and Tithe, also available.
Time and Tithe
(Book 2)
$4.99 (Available in eBook and paperback)
Only months after her victory over Oberon and Titania, everything Lydia thought she’d accomplished is unraveling: Faerie is falling into decay, the Fae are restless, and Taylor—the baby sister she sacrificed everything for—has grown up without her.
When Taylor tumbles out of the ordinary world and into Faerie, she discovers that Aeon, her imaginary childhood friend, is all too real. He is a powerful Fae, trapped in a maze of vengeance, memory, and madness. His unleashed power threatens to free Oberon and Titania and reignite the war Lydia had ended.
The sisters, now nearly strangers to one another, must figure out how to keep Aeon from destroying Faerie and safeguard the mortal world, all without sacrificing the Fae who was once friend to them both.
The long-awaited sequel to The Between, Time and Tithe also can be read as a stand-alone story of the world of the Fae.
Future Tense
$3.99 (Available in eBook and paperback)
In the ten years since his parents died in a fire he predicted but couldn’t prevent, seventeen year old Matt is trying to stay out of trouble, biding his time until he graduates and ages out of foster care. All he wants is for the world to leave him alone so he won’t be tortured by seeing someone’s future he’s powerless to change anyway. But his plans for keeping himself aloof fail when he interrupts a vicious attack on Amara, a girl he recognizes from school. Despite his best attempts to push her away, he can’t ignore the connection they’ve formed. That’s when glimpses of Amara’s dangerous future start to invade the present — a future he fears is his fault. Now Matt has something to lose again . . . and something to fight for.
Stranger Worlds Than These
Short Story Anthology
$0.99 (Available in eBook only)
A collection of 7 original short stories of science fiction and fantasy from LJ Cohen.