Ken Pence Books In Order

Publication Order of LUX and the New TECH Books

Publication Order of Outlier Earth Books

Publication Order of Outlier Mage Books

Publication Order of Trade World Books

Publication Order of Trade World Universe Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Ken Pence
Ken Pence, PhD, is a professor of engineering at Vanderbilt University. He is a retired captain from the Metro Nashville Police Department where he served 31 years (16 of which was on SWAT) and has taught military and police in Europe (Germany, France, Northern Ireland, and England) and US in confrontation management skills.

Ken has researched sniper shot location for DARPA, acoustic sensors to protect African elephant herd and inexpensive magnetic levitation.

“Manual Interpretation” is the first novel in the “Trade World” series and was released in 2010. Rett never expected to get rescued and then attacked by some primitive during a test flight. Andrew never expected he’d save an alien and almost destroy his whole planet as a result of what he learned. Earth did not get to pick their representative for a planet-wide treaty and then be threatened by an alien confederation.

Surely the planet could not defend itself. Surely they could not have had contact with others, from off-planet, before now, however what was this backwater planet doing with a fleet of ships, advanced navigation systems and some galactic class trading facility with personnel that spoke every single one of the major galactic languages. All of the species got it wrong.

“At First Thought” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2011. Robert Thales is just an otherwise unremarkable cop in a midsized city, and is developing this ability to read minds. The ability gets him promoted from a report writing car to his own solo car in a high crime area. His work in the high crime area gets him notice, but not in a good way. Reading minds helps him out in his love life, with reservations.

The city’s economy teeters along everywhere but where illicit drug sales and adult businesses are concerned. Criminals cannot launder their illicit cash quickly enough and the business leaders cannot get the loans that they need. Financing the new convention center needs billions in municipal bonds and this need is the cause of a political takeover.

Our formerly unremarkable cop gets tossed into the middle of this scheme. Everybody is attempting to get Thales out of this picture. How can he possibly get the Feds to prosecute a case nobody wants, and do something in just a month? Injured and out of work, and hounded by hired goons, he might not even live long enough to perfect his talents.

“Hypersonic” is the first novel in the “Lux” series and was released in 2022. Lux Blakely is a preteen son of a NASA scientist that is working on top-secret Government Projects, is not held back by dogma and accepted scientific theory. His experiments in gravimetric research and the expanding capability of a nascent AI, both cause Lux to get observed more closely by several Government agencies.

He finds a way to use magnetic fields for propulsion however he needs money. He and Prissy, his friend, come up with a way to use his dad’s developing AI in order to raise money through social media. Lux attempts to get out of high school and into college while just nine years old. Prissy and Lux take DeepFake videos to a whole new level and make so much money doing it. The US military and intelligence community is not all that amused though.

“The Pod” is the second novel in the “Lux” series and was released in 2022. Lux buys this survivalist’s homestead in order to pursue advanced testing however the prejudices and egos of professors hinder his research as they just want to wrest control of his technology. Lux is able to make this alliance with this branch of the military to relieve pressure from his illegal test flights.

Prissy continues expanding Lummi’s influence and increases her fame and their collective wealth. How could a person from a DeepFake video perform a live concert or even get arrested. What happens when a DeepFake personality becomes real? How is the military going to start using his tech?

“Force Field” is the third novel in the “Lux” series and was released in 2022. Lux is at Georgia Tech finishing up his Aeronautical Engineering degree. His dad starts supporting him again however he’s beginning to get notice a bit too widely outside of his peers. He must hire a 24/7 security team. The Israeli intelligence operatives, who were alerted by Professor Helmann are the first to arrive. SpaceX gets interested once Lux attempts to obtain some spacesuits suitable for extravehicular activity in vacuum.

Lux begins flying frequently and upgrades SpaceX rocket shells with some ‘Blakely’ thrusters. Chinese operatives try to obtain the tech by any means possible and will not quit. The DeepFake video personality, Lummi, has now reached ‘popstar’ status and gets pressured to give live international concerts of her music. The DeepFake videos produced by his AI, Anna, keep improving and produce income in order to fund his research. Lux puts in his application for a PhD, in their AeroAstro to investigate odd field effects from his discovery. The mystery of this ‘effect’ is starting to unravel.

“Outlier Mage” is the first novel in the “Outlier Mage” series and was released in 2024. Lee had expertise in different sciences and 24th century technology because of learning machines which could transfer an expert’s knowledge. He had the most recent high tech weapons. He’d acquired the latest protective equipment. Lee was just sixteen and got his great-grandpa’s AI, Anna in order to find him a planet which had magic. His AI hacked this portal to take him there directly. He may have bitten off far more than he could chew.

The planet that Anna had found was called Trace or something similar in the local language. The language wasn’t a known language and dialect. There weren’t any electromagnetic transmissions, however Anna had recorded groups and individuals flying without any apparatus and the civilization appeared fairly advanced with vibrant trade and fairly large cities. These tiny surveillance drones noticed some odd phenomenon all around the planet. Individuals showed up to make things happen while using odd words and some weird arm movements. It seemed to be magic. Thus starts the story of the Lee’s travel on the planet, Trace, as the Outlier Mage.