Tandemstar: The Outcast Cycle

Welcome to Dib! Dib is an Earthlike planet, only slightly smaller, with shorter days and longer years, in orbit around twin suns. On the continent of Geo, in the city of Velon in the nation of Inimata, a man lies dead in his study. The Murdered Monk In life, Professor Orno Linus was a world-class scholar: an astrophysicist, a dead-language linguist, and an expert in (and apparent true believer of) the religious concept of the Cull, i.e., the end of the world. Widely respected, nothing about Linus's expertise suggests somebody might want him dead. Professor Linus is also Brother Linus, a high-ranking member of an ancient, powerful religious organization known as the House. This makes his murder much more complicated, but no more explicable, because murder on House grounds just doesn't happen. Not even when one of the last things the victim did was steal something important from the House vault. Finally, Orno is also the younger brother of Calcut Linus, one of the most powerful and criminally dangerous people on the planet. Killing any Linus means incurring the wrath of a man for whom laws very rarely apply. In short, Professor Orno Linus is a highly unlikely murder victim. And yet, somebody killed him. The Cursed Detective Detective Makk Stidgeon already knows he's unlucky. He's a cholem: an outcast. A bad-luck charm. He was born this way, and has the brand on his wrist to prove it. But in terms of bad luck, the gods have really gone overboard by sticking him with the Linus case. Between a House leadership that seems more interested in retrieving their stolen artifact than in solving the murder of one of their own, the demands of the murderous Calcut Linus, a new partner who seems to know more than she's telling, and an omnipresent news media constantly looking for an angle on the biggest story of the year, Makk barely has time to just follow the clues. And that's before an impossible video surfaces that purports to reveal the killer's identity. What makes it impossible? The person in the video couldn't have possibly done it. To get to the bottom of the Orno's murder, Makk will have to navigate between the House and the Linus family, find the source of the video, and figure out what's missing from the House vault. Even if he can pull all that off, he may discover he's not at the end of a mystery at all, but at the beginning of a much larger one. Tandemstar: The Outcast Cycle. The journey begins here.

Welcome to The Middle Kingdom! In the nine Middle Kingdoms it is believed that the royal families are the direct decedents of the gods of Dib: Honus, Javilon, Ho Nita, and Pal. The gifts of the gods are not passed to every member of the royal families, however, and none of these "unblessed" children can ever become king or queen and, due to the displeasure of the gods, they cannot have children of their own. Unlike the rest of the planet, the middle kingdoms have adhered more closely to the early teachings of the House in both their beliefs and their feudal way of life. In fact, the Septal Houses' High Hats throughout the rest of Dib have always formally denounced the beliefs and practices of the Houses in the Middle Kingdom. Back in Velon, after being tasked with the infamous Linus murder case and House vault robbery, Detective Makk Stidgeon is back, and this time he has county attorney Pillick Quibb asking him questions. Meanwhile in Totus, Battine Alconnot, an unblessed descendent of Ho, Lady Delphina, and her sister Queen Porra find themselves tied up in the mystery... The Outcast Cycle takes listeners across-and above-the planet Dib. Nestled in the individual stories is the gradual discovery that the House has a big secret... and the Outcast may be more literal than anyone realized.

The mystery deepens... In the heart of the authoritarian country of Wivvol, astronaut Xto Djbbit is about to embark on his first mission off-planet when the exiled High Hat of Chnta comes to him with an unusual request: help smuggle a Septal artifact out of Wivvol. It's an impossible favor to ask of Xto, but it's also impossible to refuse, the High Hat of Chnta is also his uncle. Meanwhile, waiting for Xto in space? His estranged father - who has his own impossible favors - and a mysterious anomaly whose secrets Xto is uniquely positioned to unlock. On Lys, the space station for the super-wealthy, former Septal Other Dorn Jimbal struggles to understand what Professor Orno Linus learned before his untimely murder. Did Orno truly figure out how to stop the Outcast? To get to the heart of Linus's research, Dorn is going to have to work with the one person they absolutely cannot trust: Viselle Daska. Xto and Dorn will both make discoveries that change the course of all life on the planet. Both will wish they hadn't.