M.F. Lerma Books In Order

Publication Order of Slip Runner Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

M.F. Lerma is an American author of science fiction books best known for his Slip Runner series. A recovering engineer from the commercial world, Lerma began writing books to fill the void, as does whisky, coffee, and plenty of memes. He is a member of the Renegade Facebook group, where he makes several appearances to share his contribution to the writing industry.

The Slip Runner is an M.F. Lerma series written with J.N. Chaney to create brilliant science fiction books you will never read. Even though the cover might give off the vibes of military science fiction, The Slip Runner is an entirely different case. We are introduced to Cole Riker; he is 26 years when he starts his prison sentence. He was once a drug runner transporting an illegal drug known as Fade. The authorities finally caught up with him and sentenced him to spend some heavy prison time. Fortunately, he was arrested by the Alliance forces, which was better than getting arrested by the Sarkon Empire. The Alliance resulted from a Sarkon Empire, the Union, and a band of Renegades from Earth commanded by Jace Hughes. Jace created a threat or an alliance between his renegades, the Sakon empire, and the Union. The Alliance was a formidable force that stood together against other celestials in a war that resulted in millions of deaths.

Cole Riker was once a Renegade; as to be expected, he would never spend the rest of his life behind bars in some penal colony. A day after his imprisonment, he gets a notice that he has a visitor. The visitor’s name was Rigby, who immediately made Cole an irresistible offer that couldn’t be turned down. During the celestial war, there had massive destruction on both sides. Since the fight happened in space between different planets, the remaining floating junk in space was falling onto planets and making space navigation impossible.
Additionally, this space junk other celestials had left behind was high technology stuff that the formed Alliance could repurpose into valuable devices and weapons. The slip runners were paid according to the amount of junk they collected and sent to the depots for repurposing. If by any chance they found the celestial tech, the resulting pay would be massive, but the chances of finding such tech were very slim as most of the tech debris had been picked over.

This is where Cole gets the irresistible offer. He will be a slip runner for the next half a decade, his work only collecting space junk in areas where they tell him to and turning it in for processing. He is given a daily quota, and his sentence gets shorter once each quota is met. On the other hand, failure to meet his quota will result in the lengthening of his prison sentence, and if he’s not productive enough, he will be sent back to prison. Cole loves space travel but doesn’t like being commanded, and despite this, he takes the offer, and they give him back his ship, the Nebulous.

After five years, we discover that Cole has made progress toward finishing his sentence. In the meanwhile, he has recruited a crew member named Deacon Smith. Although he is an engineer and an assessor, Deacon is not a criminal and is required for anybody transporting Celestial debris. He can distinguish what Heavenly from what is not. He is compensated with a percentage, and the Alliance has to authorize his employment. After spending four years together, they were getting along rather well. Yet, there was one more agreement with which Cole wasn’t pleased. His ship’s AI was a sophisticated AI deployed by the Alliance to track his every move. An artificial intelligence so severe, egotistical, non-human entity that Cole despised but had to accept. The AI was the judge in matters relevant to Riker’s sentence, though he could instruct it to do specific tasks. For four years ago, the pair had been engaged in a dispute.

Riker receives word that a new, unexplored sector is opening up. There might be valuable celestial debris or technology drifting in space around or possibly on this planet. Riker must identify a method to enter this new sector immediately. The Alliance gave select Slip Runners with the right contacts a week’s early start on investigating the region. Riker did not have connections of this scale, but his Parole Officer was changed. Camilla Abernathy was his new Parole Officer, and she was unique! She handled Cole Riker like a human, not only as another felon. Nonetheless, she gave him no slack, but she did have connections, many entanglements, all the way back to Jace Hughes.

So, Riker ultimately receives clearance to enter an uncleansed region of space. He learns that with luck and the correct assortment of rubbish and other items related to Celestial technology, he might be able to have his sentence significantly reduced or canceled. But things did not go so smoothly at first. In this industry, he competes with Silas Eckert. Mr. Eckert, who was also a thief but had completed his term, always monitored Riker and frequently stole the same items that Riker was pursuing.

Nevertheless, Riker did not believe Eckert was aware of this new sector. Therefore, this scenario was ruled out. Cole Riker’s situation was improving, but the world they were sent to acquire items from shut down the Nebulous as they attempted to land. Some signal emanated from the planet, which wasn’t supposed to be there. So, it becomes Cole’s duty to locate and eliminate its source.

In Dark Peace, the second book in the Slip Runner series, Cole is given a new ship by the Alliance as his ship undergoes repairs. He is supposed to find the home world of his alien friend Gray who can’t remember his universe. Soon Cole and his crew are ejected from a self-destructing slip tunnel and find themselves in another galaxy with no hope of returning to their homes. But that’s not until something unexpected happens. One of earth’s lost ships adrift in a sector never mapped. To their surprise, they discover survivors. Getting back on track should be easy as convincing the 2000 years-lost crew to fire up their ship’s engine and set a path to the nearest star system. Unknown to Cole and his team, there is something evil about the lost seed ship.