Koban Universe 2: Have Genes, Will Travel - Stephen W Bennett

Written by Stephen W Bennett
Read by Eric Michael Summerer
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 64 Kbps

This novel is derived from the Koban Series, but isn’t an extension of that. It can be listened to as a standalone novel, because how the Kobani human variant came to exist is explained in a short description in the front (skip that if you know). Then a prologue propels you into this sci-fi cowboy in space story.
For over a hundred years, Chisholm, a Rim World colony, has produced beef for most of Human Space, raising vast herds of a breed of Giant Longhorns. Things are changing, and land reform is demanded by small ranchers and farmers, placing restrictions on the existing open range policy. The wealthy large ranchers will stop this, any way they can, to preserve their profits. Passions are high and the opposing sides have turned violent.
Ethan, a gene-modified Kobani, travels to Chisholm with his sister, Kit, seeking a high-risk employment opportunity in the growing Range War, where raids and murders have wiped out entire families. Gunmen and killers are in demand by both sides, with premiums paid for greater lethality, so using their contact telepathic ability, Ethan and his deadly sister Kit, chose a side. They’ll face a hundred hired guns, the outcome deciding who will control the future of Chisholm. Powerful men are determined to block reforms by driving off or killing those opposed to them, and adamant reformers will meet violence with violence.
Hired by one side in the conflict, an unexpected betrayal strikes down Ethan, and he vanishes. Kit goes on a rampage, terrorizing anyone with knowledge, to discover what happened to him, and dismembered bodies accumulate as she searches for her brother. Knowing telepathically exactly what evil an individual has committed isn’t admissible in courts there, or heeded by corrupt sheriffs. However, possessing the truth is ample motivation for ignoring the law to Kit, and she summons help from home. In a final bloody confrontation, with deaths on both sides, a solution that only those from Koban could produce is achieved.