Books with author R. J. MacDonald

Welcome to Kluskey's spacer hangout. Here, spacers swap yarns of ghost ships, space monsters, the weird and wonderful and the downright daft.The five little men who walk into Kluskey’s are no ordinary customers. They are Shantaitha, monks from the planet Gide, making an epic journey across human space. On the way, they would like Kluskey Burgers. (A 3,800 word short story).

Little Beaver s search for a friend he thinks he hears across a pond is perfect for every child who's ever felt lonely."Children old enough to long for friends of their own will nestle right into this appealing story....Ideal for reading aloud at the beginning of the school year of during camp sessions, when there's a little bit of Little Beaver in every kid." -- Booklist"Perfect for little ones at quiet-time or bedtime." -- Publishers Weekly "Enchanting." -- The New York Times Book Review

Skipper Alex von Strada is one of the Fleet’s highest achieving officers, commanding the corvette Minnow with a company of eccentric officers and last-chance crew sent to him for rehab. The updated 2nd Edition includes the free first chapter of Fourth Fleet Irregulars Book 2: Karadon.After a PR disaster has activists and media storming the Admiralty gates, First Lord Dix Harangay sends Minnow out on a makework patrol. Inspector Mako Ireson goes with them to investigate what’s really going on. Mako has never been on a starship before. He can’t tell port from starboard, doesn’t know what the 0-G sign means at freefall hatchways, and may need to change his underwear after the launch.Nobody is expecting that the “mission zero” they've been sent on will turn into a real operation. When it does, the Minnow’s crew has to rise to the challenge and justify their skipper’s faith in them.This is the first mission of the legendary Fourth Fleet Irregulars, the unit you send for when you need a miracle.For Mako Ireson, it will be the adventure of a lifetime.

In The Chill a distraught young man hires private investigator Lew Archer to track down his runaway bride. But no sooner has he found Dolly Kincaid than Archer finds himself entangled in two murders, one twenty years old, the other so recent that the blood is still wet. What ensues is a detective novel of nerve-racking suspense, desperately believable characters, and one of the most intricate plots ever spun by an American crime writer.

The author of How to Cook from A-Z disproves the myth of British navy culinary misconduct in “a work of serious history that is a delight to read” (British Food in America). This celebration of the Georgian sailor’s diet reveals how the navy’s administrators fed a fleet of more than 150,000 men, in ships that were often at sea for months on end and that had no recourse to either refrigeration or canning. Contrary to the prevailing image of rotten meat and weevily biscuits, their diet was a surprisingly hearty mixture of beer, brandy, salt beef and pork, peas, butter, cheese, hard biscuit, and the exotic sounding lobscouse, not to mention the Malaga raisins, oranges, lemons, figs, dates, and pumpkins which were available to ships on far-distant stations. In fact, by 1800 the British fleet had largely eradicated scurvy and other dietary disorders. While this scholarly work contains much of value to the historian, the author’s popular touch makes this an enthralling story for anyone with an interest in life at sea in the age of sail. “Overall this is an excellent examination of this crucial aspect of British naval power, and I’m certainly going to try out some of the recipes.” —HistoryOfWar.org

Discover a world where losing a video game has terrible consequences.Jake Wingfoot is Dybsy, the legendary gamer and esports champion. He has earned the fear and respect of clans and guilds throughout the world, but nothing has prepared him for the Singe, where humanity is fighting a secret war -- a video-game war.The Singe is under attack by an enemy known only as Nemesis, defended by the elite soldiers of Vector Academy. But Nemesis is winning, and the Academy needs a new plan and a new weapon. Enter Dybsy...When the Academy reveals the Singe and recruits Dybsy into the war, he must train in neuro-combat and learn to fight within his team of gamer misfits. If he can't, the enemy will conquer the Singe and humanity will fall -- and worse, Dybsy might never game again.

Spend the day with Adventure Girl Kat Auton. History is being made today with the launch of the Friendship, the most advanced ship ever seen in human space. It will be crewed by chethari, quarians and humans from across the League and Allianzi, and will soon be heading out on its first missions. Kat, the youngest member of the Friendship's media team, is reporting on the build up to the big event; front stage, back stage, all the atmosphere as it happens. But it is going to be a much bigger day than even Kat is expecting.

In The Chill a distraught young man hires private investigator Lew Archer to track down his runaway bride. But no sooner has he found Dolly Kincaid than Archer finds himself entangled in two murders, one twenty years old, the other so recent that the blood is still wet. What ensues is a detective novel of nerve-racking suspense, desperately believable characters, and one of the most intricate plots ever spun by an American crime writer.

A story of family. A story of war.As if having her home planet destroyed was not enough, Grace Grey must contend with a possible new threat – from her very rescuers!Ever since she was a child Grace Grey has had strange abilities, and now they are coming to light. Abilities that her brother and her parents have been trying to hide, both from her and the government. It was possible she would have gone her entire life on a remote world without noticing – until alien war threatened her peaceful planet.After her parents are killed and her home overrun by a bug-like alien species, Grace and her brother are extracted as civilian refugees by an elite team known as the Hellhounds.With the lunar warp gate destroyed, Grace finds herself on an eighteen-month journey to the rim of the system as they flee the alien menace. With her brother James locked away in medical stasis, the only people left to watch over her are the very Hellhounds she was told to avoid. But do they really have her best interests at heart? Or are they not as sinister as James had wanted her to believe?She is left to face all of these questions on her own, without her family’s guidance and shelter, in the midst of the evacuation efforts off of her burning world. And when an offer to join the Hellhounds is presented, she has to make a life changing decision.You may also enjoy Ghost Divide, the adventure of an average space marine in the Ghost League universe

In the void between worlds armored warriors clash with a vicious, horrific alien race intent on destroying the human species. Fleets collide in a war of technology, humanity struggling to keep pace with the newest developments in space warfare. Deploying the best in exoarmored soldiery, equipped with every form of weaponry possible, the human race struggles to survive in this new conflict. Giants on the battlefield, the Riders, Titans, and Hellhounds race across the galaxy to defend humanity from the vicious and evil bug like scarabs.But Griffin Locke and Marie Cutter have no exoarmor. Nor do they have jetpacks. No energy swords, concussion hammers, or augmented genes. They are UPAF space marines, armed with only a standard issue rifle and their wits. How do a handful of soldiers make it through the battle of the ages, caught between an alien enemy and their own commanders? When everything is out to kill them these unlikely few survive, only to learn an unsettling truth about themselves. Enjoy the first installment of Locke's adventures, set in the universe of Rex Seven: Hellhounds!

Skipper Alex von Strada is one of the Fleet’s highest achieving officers, commanding the corvette Minnow with a company of eccentric officers and last-chance crew sent to him for rehab. When journalist Jerome Tandenki calls the Admiralty PR office to find out what’s going on with a story he’s heard about the Minnow, the clueless Harles Hollis tells him it is top level classified. As the biggest PR disaster in Fleet history explodes in their faces, the Admiralty finds that nobody will believe their explanation. With activists and media storming the Admiralty gates, First Lord Dix Harangay sends Minnow out on a makework patrol in the hope of calming the situation down. Inspector Mako Ireson goes along to investigate what's really going on. Mako has never been on a starship before. He can’t tell port from starboard and doesn’t know what the 0-G sign means at freefall hatchways, but the Minnow has good coffee so he's happy to head out into deep space with them. As the Minnow responds to such urgent distress calls from other ships as “we’re running low on sugar”, and stops for shoreleave at a cold and stinking slimeworld, nobody is expecting that the “mission zero” they’ve been sent on will turn into a real operation. When it does, the Minnow’s crew has to rise to the challenge as they face overwhelming odds. This is the first mission of the legendary Fourth Fleet Irregulars; the people you send for when you need a miracle. For Mako Ireson, it will be the adventure of a lifetime.