Earth-born 17-year-old Carr Luka is a promising zero gravity boxer living on Valtego Space Station. Despite a recent loss, he’s surged back with a huge win and everything appears to be going Carr’s way: His contract to stay on the station and continue fighting is renewed, and he is given the opportunity to further his career with some big matches. He is even assigned a brandhelm to market his career, and half–Martian Risha and Carr are soon falling in love. Zeroboxing regulations bar genetically modified individuals from competition, and Carr’s belief in his ability to succeed based solely on his athleticism and hard work is rocked when he learns that his “natural” gifts are actually the results of in-utero modifications he knew nothing about. Threatened with blackmail by the man who convinced his mother to have the procedure, Carr’s personal ethical dilemma comes to a head at the same time that interspecies tension flares between Martians and Terrans. Present day issues of illegal performance enhancement and sports icon marketing fit seamlessly into this richly imagined futuristic science fiction arena. (Age 14 and older)

A rising star in the weightless combat sport of zeroboxing, Carr “the Raptor” Luka dreams of winning the championship title. Recognizing his talent, the Zero Gravity Fighting Association assigns Risha, an ambitious and beautiful Martian colonist, to be his brandhelm––a personal marketing strategist. It isn’t long before she’s made Carr into a popular celebrity and stolen his heart along the way. As his fame grows, Carr becomes an inspirational hero on Earth, a once-great planet that’s fallen into the shadow of its more prosperous colonies. But when Carr discovers a far-reaching criminal scheme, he becomes the keeper of a devastating secret. Not only will his choices put everything he cares about in jeopardy, but they may also spill the violence from the sports arena into the solar system.