The Rediscovery series starts with The Man From Empire, a reverse rabbit hole – an advance human follows an inter-dimensional gate to Earth in search of a terrorist.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FDLKNXU
Books2Read link: https://www.books2read.com/u/4AwOxJ (Books2Read is basically the rest of the online book sellers of the world all together under one umbrella, including library services so you can request your local library to get it)
The story is told through the eyes of Graciela Juarez (Grace), a 28 year old re-entry college student most of the way through her biochemistry degree. Grace lives in Riverside, California and is the youngest daughter of a family that is third generation American, her grandparents having immigrated before it was illegal. They are Americans of Mexican descent. Her father is a math teacher, her mother is a homemaker; both in their early 70s.
The new arrival is Osh Scimtar di Baryan (ScOsh), oldest surviving son and something of a disappointment to his very important father. He is approximately 14,000 Earth years old – everybody lives longer where he’s from, many live indefinitely – and he’s one of those so talented.
A very long way away, there is an immense empire of humans. The short story is a little over 4000 years ago, there was a successful rebellion that tore the Empire apart and almost ended the human race for at least the third time. But enough survivors from the previous regime managed to piece the Empiire back together again without the critical flaw that enabled the rebellion. There are even former rebels in the current government, but some other former rebels hiding on Earth managed a strike against one of the core Imperial worlds, killing millions, and that’s why ScOsh is here – to find the rebels hiding among eight billion humans on Earth.
The second book (A Guardian From Earth) is Grace spending some time in the Empire, learning to use some new abilities she acquired during one of the confrontations with the rebels; that it happens confirms that Earth is of the same human stock as the Empire, as those mutations were created in the Empire during its early stages. She discovers a report ScOsh made outlining some major issues coming to a head on Earth but the Empire specifically plans NOT to intervene, and Grace formulates a plan to try and defuse or defray the damages – by introducing dogs and cats to the Empire, which has no real equivalent, in order to make enough money to enable her to supply the resources she thinks Earth lacks.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FQTL7XY
Books2Read link: https://www.books2read.com/u/b5MvQ7
We meet Asto Scimtar di Baryan (ScAsto) fairly early in the second book. He’s just below the age of adulthood initially, but when he achieves his majority, his grandmother Helene di Scimtar gives Grace a light push in his direction. After a whirlwind romance, they are married, but Asto has his own duties; it falls almost entirely on Grace to carry out her plan.
The third book (Empire and Earth) begins when Grace realizes there are more enemies lined up than she initially thought, and therefore she needs help, so she recruits a group of people also interested in trading dogs. However, the cover is blown off their operations on Earth, while things start sliding downhill sooner than she hoped, capping in a nuclear exchange between China and Russia, which is enough to motivate the Empire to intervene, when its leaders had intended to sit back and pick up the pieces. But Grace for her part realizes Earth can never again be ‘home’ to her, so she leaves for the Empire.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HX6XEE8
Books2Read link: https://www.books2read.com/u/mdN7Gl
The final book of the series (Working the Trenches) was an afterthought. While the first three are a tight trilogy, conceived and written almost together and with almost no gap between, this takes place several years later, at a time when Asto is being relieved of his first job so he can join the Imperial military for the first of what is likely to be a lifelong series of time spent in and out of the military. Grace realizes that the Empire has also earned her loyalty, she wants to earn full citizenship, and being associated with the Scimtars, she may decide government office is something she wants to do someday. Since nobody gets government office without prior military service, joining at the same time as Asto makes sense. They go through basic training together, and it isn’t long after before they’re offered opportunity to join the Merlon’s Eyes, a group of covert spies using the cover of human embassies to gather information in order to avoid wars that can be avoided.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NYH3K08
Books2Read link: https://www.books2read.com/u/4jwA1o
There is also an omnibus edition of all four. The print version had to go to 10 point in order to fit, so be advised it’s a little smaller than I’d like, but it’s priced at about the cost of 2.5 books, so you’ll save substantially if you buy them all here:
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZFF14Q1
Books2Read link: https://books2read.com/b/bPRGxY
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