Today marks the return to bookshelves of a speculative fiction legend: Katharine Kerr is back!
Her newest book, HAZE, follows a down-and-out former space pilot with an uncanny ability to navigate the faster-than-light trade lanes in space. I was so impressed not only by her storytelling prowess and incredibly damaged characters seeking redemption, but also how she weaves astrophysics into the narrative in an easy to understand and accurate way. Bravissimo!
Here’s the plot:
Once, Dan flew amongst the stars as a decorated Fleet Officer. Now destitute, he sleeps on the streets of Gleam, trading his body for a drug called Haze that dulls the pain of what he’s lost with nothing left to his name but a battered knife, a damaged mind, and a past he can’t escape. But he is given a rare second chance when former comrades track him down and make an offer that he never expected.
Across the galaxy, the invisible lanes of faster-than-light travel—the shunts—are beginning to fail. One has already vanished without warning. If the rest collapse, entire civilizations will be cut off, stranded, and left to die. The Fleet needs someone who can read the hyperspace currents like no one else. Someone like Dan. But bringing him back into the fold won’t be easy—and keeping him alive may be even harder.
Thrown together with a crew of misfits and old friends carrying wounds of their own, Dan boards a disguised merchant ship on a secret mission to uncover the truth. What they find will challenge everything they believe—about the shunts, about the Fleet, and each other. And through it all, Dan must battle the addiction that nearly destroyed him… and still might.
Haze is a bold, character-driven space adventure that blends high-stakes intrigue with raw emotional depth. Gritty, moving, and impossible to put down, it’s a story of redemption, found family, and the fragile ties that hold the stars—and ourselves—together.
Purchase the ebook and audiobook today, and then, for a rare treat, on November 11th a special hardcover edition featuring a bonus short story in the world of Haze, as well as illustrations, will be available. Perfect for collectors and fans of this book. The second book of the duology, Zyon, appears in 2026.
