Jo Graham is the author of twenty-seven books and three online games. Best known for her historical fantasy novels Black Ships and Stealing Fire, and her tie-in novels for MGM's popular Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: SG-1 series, she has been a Locus Award finalist, an Amazon Top Choice, a Spectrum Award finalist, a Romantic Times Top Pick in historical fiction and a Lambda Literary Award and Rainbow Award nominee for bisexual fiction. With Melissa Scott, she is the author of five books in the Order of the Air series, a historical fantasy series set in the 1920s and 30s. She is also the author of three pagan spirituality books. She lives in North Carolina with her partner and is the mother of two daughters.

Sounding Dark by Jo Graham

Sounding Dark is a legend, a ghost ship missing two hundred years. Now it may be the only hope for the pirate republic of Eresh to stand against the mighty Calpurnian Navy. In the wake of a terrible defeat, Adelita Massacre, the Steel Captain, knows that their days are numbered without a miracle.

Bister is the only survivor of the defeat, a Tainted smuggler and fixer from the interdicted world of Inanna. Found alive, adrift in a spacesuit hours after its air supply should have run out, her survival is a literal miracle. Has the Lady of the Void herself chosen Bister to free her from imprisonment?

Now Adelita, Bister, Bister's lover Griffin, and the mysterious Navigator must find Sounding Dark and her ancient weaponry if they hope to protect Eresh from the Calpurnian attack. But Sounding Dark will not give up her secrets easily….

 

REVIEWS

  • "Faith, luck, and grit propel this ambitious space opera from Graham (Black Ships). // Graham amps up the action, constructs a rich mythology of gods, cultures, and societies, and develops evocative characters that will make readers cheer. This pure sci-fi escape proves a fresh experience for fans who are tired of clichés."

    – Publishers Weekly

  • "Sounding Dark is tremendously exciting space opera. // It's the sort of book you stay up far too late finishing, and then go back to re-read so that you can savor the details. The thing that's hard to express how well Sounding Dark blends solid technical SF // with deep myths. // Jo Graham makes both aspects utterly believable and equally crucial to the story. //...you can feel the depth of history without it being overdone."

    – Melissa Scott, legendary pioneering SFF author of more than thirty novels, winner of multiple genre awards

  • "Jo Graham's space opera is a richly imagined narrative which uses its spectrum of relatable heroes who face overwhelming odds with drive, determination, grit, and most powerfully of all, hope. Sounding Dark uses these heroes to buttress a story on multiple levels: a fight against an interstellar tyranny, a search for the meaning of an unexpected survival against all reason, and the story of a lost, ancient connection to a Mystery reforged. With its inventive use of Sumerian motifs in its intriguing worldbuilding, Sounding Dark soars to reach a liminal place on the boundaries of science fiction and myth."

    – Paul Weimer, SFF book reviewer and Hugo finalist
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Something moved in the darkness, a shape that eclipsed the distant stars. Bister was reminded of nothing so much as a vast sea reptile, one of the leviathans that hunted the deep seas of Inanna, left alone by anyone with any sense these last two hundred years. She glanced at the readouts over Griff's shoulder. "That's…four times the size of a Calpurnian capital ship," she said quietly.

"Just about," Griff said.

"I have never seen anything of that design," Adelita said. "Where is its propulsion? I don't see any thrusters or drive pods or maneuvering jets of any kind."

"Is it just drifting?" Bister asked. It was incredibly beautiful. Up close, there was no attempt to hide it at all. Instead of the normal blacks and grays of starships, it was painted a lambent, sparkling green, shading from deep emerald on what she supposed was its dorsal surface to almost gold below. Adelita was right, she thought. There were no thrusters, nothing that suggested that any sort of propulsion fired. It simply held a slow and steady course.

"It's on momentum alone," Griff said. "Out this far even atomic friction is practically negligible."

"So it could have been on this course a long time?" Bister asked.

"Theoretically, centuries," Griff said.

"But we know it is not centuries because Sounding Dark has been seen all over the system on courses that are not this one," Adelita said.

The Navigator smiled. "And so you're sure it's Sounding Dark?"

"Unless you happen to have another ancient ghost ship?" Adelita snapped.

The Navigator held up their hands. "Peace, my friend!"

"It's Sounding Dark," Bister said. She could feel the murmur of ions along its sides like wind against her face, as though it were indeed some great beast that nuzzled up to her. How could it shine so after so long? How could it be so beautiful? "The question is how we get aboard."