Koban - Paperback

by Stephen W. Bennett (Author)

We colonized over seven hundred planets in 200 years. Humankind enjoyed the benefits of unlimited expansion and the end of wars. We even disbanded our military.Then the Krall found us.The Krall have used thousands of years of combat to select the genes of the strongest and fastest warriors for breeding. They are a species determined to rule the galaxy, through death, destruction, and domination of every opponent.Ruthlessly, they tested captured humans on a savage planet called Koban. The choice faced was simple for the prisoners: Prove humans can produce fighters again, or be exterminated now.The aliens are only part of the captive's problem. Left to die, the captives must survive Koban's high gravity and superfast animals, with organic superconductor nerves. The huge tiger-like rippers are predators too fast even for armed Krall to face. The human solution, with the help of a ship full of captive bio scientists is genetic: If you can't beat them as you are, become more like a ripper.The Krall will discover more than one species can bypass natural selection.

Author Biography

I was born in 1942, so I'm an autumn rather than a spring chicken. I live outside of Tampa, Florida with my fabulous wife Anita, and one remaining son at home, Montana. I have three older boys, Mark, Gary, and Anthony, all of whom have married and presented us with terrific grandchildren. I read hundreds of books by the science fiction greats growing up, and thousands of fair to not so greats in dual novel paperbacks and magazines. My education gravitated to science, starting out as a physics major and my depression era folks told me I'd never make a living as a theoretical physicist (probably right, and Cosmology wasn't a career field then), so I moved to Electronics Engineering. I did most of that in the aerospace field for MacDonnell Douglas Corp, in St. Louis, Mo. I worked on the F4 Phantom project, and briefly on Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), before the fickle fates of government finance forced contract cancelations. I devoted (read: I was drafted into) two years' service for the US Army from 1965 to 1967. A great two years, and the Army, caring not a whit for my electronics background, offered this draftee a job as an Air Traffic Controller. Cool! After discharge I spent a short time back at MacDonnell Douglas before the contract reductions laid me off, and was hired by Emerson Electric (1968), working on the design of a neat heads-up fire control system for the Army's new Cheyenne Helicopter (to be a 270-knot hybrid fixed wing/rotor craft). Never heard of it? The fickle fates of Army finance is why this time, plus Lockheed didn't keep the airframe part from crashing and burning at a crucial point in development. I taught Electronics for about eighteen months (near starvation wages after the high pay), and finally decided to try my hand at actually supporting my family again. I hired on with the Federal Aviation Administration as an Air Traffic Controller in 1970. Thanks Army! I spent exactly forty years in federal service, deciding in 1979 to use my technical background to work on writing features for the software of the FAA's Terminal Automation Systems (for 28 of those 40 years). Retired, I now work as a consultant/contractor for the FAA, supporting a software feature I helped create. I finally decided to try my hand at writing what I love to read, Science Fiction. My Koban series is doing very well. I hope you enjoy the books. Steve Bennett