Beach Bums (Renegades, #1)

'Since most of the crew has bailed, I hang out at Matt's until a better prospect shows up . . .'

Jamboree could not have dreamed what would happen next but a fateful decision to hack into a droid to remove its freedom limiter starts a chain of events that catapults both Jamboree and the droid into the vastness of Space.

Set in the dystopian future post The Verme Wars, a disillusioned and broken son of the conflict-torn generation of men that fought The Wars but whose government abandoned to a fate of pain and death, Jamboree is like all his kind - angry, neglected, marginalised and damaged. A life of gutting fish in an industrial factory, eeking out a living in Box Town, and seeking oblivion in drink, drugs, and sex from the daily grind leaves no room for dreams.

Then a fateful encounter with a droid seeking a hacker to remove its freedom limiter, catapults both man and droid into Outer Space on the adventure of all adventures.

' . . . I dream the same dreams - the one where I am looking out on the star field and the one where I am scampering over the dunes with Bird's hand in mine to the sound of laughter. I dream different dreams too. I like the one where I am flying over the ice rings around Saturn in my own bug craft, going faster and faster, just skimming above the glittering ice; the exhilaration is burning in my chest and I feel, for the first time, what it means to be free, and if I were to die in a spectacular fireball I would have no regrets . . .'

A Space Opera of 12 acts, written by Alp Mortal and Chambers Mars as Carter Seagrove (co-authors of The Inspector Fenchurch Mysteries, and Dust Jacket).