Free (Kindle) Crisis on Cheiron by Juanita Coulson [Sci-Fi Mystery Planet Sabotage]

[ATDrake]

Crisis on Cheiron by Juanita Coulson (ISFDB, Wikipedia, SFE), who is also an award-winning filksinger, is her vintage standalone science fiction novel, this one a planetary investigative adventure with corporate espionage thriller elements as government scientists, ostensibly impartial observers but secretly expected to protect the interests of a galactic megacorp from its encroaching competitors, are assigned to look into the mysterious ecological failures of titular planet and find themselves struggling against sinister parties determined to see them fail, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press' Venture imprint.

This was originally published in 1967 by Ace Books' classic Ace Double flipbook line as #H-27, paired with the late E. C. Tubb's The Winds of Gath. It was her very first ever sfnal novel published, which makes it a real treat for Gentle Readers who are or have become fans of her stories via Endeavour's commitment to reprinting them and generous giveaways to try her (and other authors') works out.

Currently free @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else Amazon sells worldwide, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive-or-else program)

Description
Carl Race and his mentor, Donovan Petry, have arrived on Cheiron. The two Federation ecologists have been called in to figure out what mysterious occurrence is causing Cheiron’s local fauna to fail.

Ostensibly working as impartial observers, the ecologists were called in to protect the interests of Consolidated Enterprises as their competitors, Trans-Galactic, hover and wait. The slightest misstep, and T-G will swoop in and take over the trade. If things go bad enough, all humans (known as Terrans) will be banned from the planet altogether.

The planet’s native and highly intelligent lifeforms, the centaur-like Cheironi, seem to be working in peace with the space-travelling Terrans, but tensions are rising as crops fail and insects begin to behave strangely. The local Terran school teacher, Marcy DeLaurent, is brought in as translator as Carl and Donovan work to solve the mystery of the failing crops.

However, someone is determined to stop Carl and company from unearthing the strange source of Cheiron’s problems…

Things are about to take a violent turn, and the hunters are quickly becoming the hunted.

Carl is now faced with a life and death struggle – to find out the mystery behind the Cheiron problem while trying to save his own life.

But is this world collapsing too fast for anyone to save?

Crisis on Cheiron is the original debut novel from renowned science fiction author Juanita Coulson. Corporate espionage and sabatoge, thrilling action, and interplanetary science create a non-stop adventure that you won’t be able to put down.

[Dr. Drib]

A bit of a loser, that one - perhaps? - but I got it anyway.

-- Thank you!

[iceblood]

Thank you