A Dark Culling by Jonathan Staten

An imprisoned mercenary takes on a slate-cleaning mission that lands him at the center of a galactic conspiracy in A Dark Culling by Jonathan Staten, a gripping mash-up of crime thriller and science fiction. Rick Dawson has been slowly shaving years off his murder sentence by handling hits and unsavory tasks for the Warden of the Ceris Max prison, but a high-end hunt for the enigmatic Imogen Rivera offers him a shot at actual freedom. However, a revelatory change of heart shifts Rick’s loyalty to a more worthy cause, setting this antihero squarely against the sinister powers that still hold the chain around his neck. A breakneck sci-fi thriller stacked with fistfights, shootouts, narrow escapes, and the boundless creativity of a sprawling alien world, this gritty read deftly crosses genre lines, offering a stellar combination of character depth, intense action, and innovative world-building.