A Hymn for the Dying: The Kelk Conflict: Annihilation - The Blacksword Regiment

Praise for JL Doty's Sci-Fi:

• "An excellent military SF novel, part Hornblower, part Wiggins. It had me from the first page and held on for the rest of them."-KEVIN J. ANDERSON, NEW YORK TIMES-BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS on OF TREASONS BORN
• "A roller coaster ride of a story which is one of the best books I've read in years."-SFFWORLD on A CHOICE OF TREASONS

At sixteen years of age, Mathius's life is focused on scrounging bits of food in the midst of a five-way civil war on the planet Novalis III. Two government factions and three rebel factions are all hell-bent on killing one another, and the civilian population is caught in the middle. If Mathius doesn't find food, he and his father, mother and sister will go hungry for the day, a not unusual occurrence. Mathius must also avoid the rebel factions, who frequently kidnap young boys and force them to become soldiers.

Will the Commonwealth of Allied Systems intervene? And what of the Blacksword Regiment, the elite soldiers of the Commonwealth Security Corps? Will they sweep in and make everything right?

And the Kelk Supremacy, a race of strange humans with blood-red eyes, and pale bluish-white skin? They're perfectly human, and yet they are not. Why does Mathius keep seeing signs that the Kelk are somehow involved in the unrest?