Skeen Series by Jo Clayton

This fast-paced, gritty space adventure introduces the unforgettable Skeen, a hard-edged heroine and intergalactic thief trapped in an unknown universe.   Jo Clayton, creator of the popular Diadem Saga, introduces a delightfully unforgettable new character—a tough, sexy, futuristic tomb raider Lara Croft with issues—and sets her loose in a wild and woolly galaxy of dastardly villains, alien shape-shifters, and all manner of strange sentient life-forms... moreThis fast-paced, gritty space adventure introduces the unforgettable Skeen, a hard-edged heroine and intergalactic thief trapped in an unknown universe.   Jo Clayton, creator of the popular Diadem Saga, introduces a delightfully unforgettable new character—a tough, sexy, futuristic tomb raider Lara Croft with issues—and sets her loose in a wild and woolly galaxy of dastardly villains, alien shape-shifters, and all manner of strange sentient life-forms.   Skeen is a bandit and a rogue, a master thief wanted throughout myriad solar systems for plundering the rare antiquities of countless alien civilizations while always keeping one rocket ship–length ahead of the intergalactic law. A “rooner” with a dark past, she now finds herself penniless and abandoned on a miserable backwater planet, at the tail end of a string of very bad luck, with no option except to follow unreliable rumors to a supposed fortune in gems hidden among ancient ruins. What she finds instead is a gateway into another world—and a universe of trouble.   Now, trapped in a strange new reality with no way out, Skeen must find the key to reopening the portal, and that will entail making contact with the mysterious aliens who created the interdimensional passageway. But the enigmatic Ykx vanished eons ago, and finding representatives of a highly advanced and possibly extinct extraterrestrial race is not going to be easy for the silver-tongued lone wolf outlaw. It doesn’t help that Skeen’s entourage keeps expanding by leaps and bounds with unwanted hangers-on whose interference could end up damning her to an eternity in nowhere.   The first book in a thrilling trilogy featuring the inimitable Skeen, Skeen’s Leap cements Clayton’s well-deserved reputation as one of the premier purveyors of science fantasy, alongside Andre Norton, C. J. Cherryh, and Marion Zimmer Bradley. Wry, witty, and wondrously inventive, featuring a colorful cast of delightful and deliciously weird alien types, it is a space opera romp guaranteed to transport genre aficionados to new and wondrous worlds. less

Trapped in an alternate dimension, the tough and self-confident Skeen confronts slavers, monsters, and alien assassins in a fast-paced space adventure... moreTrapped in an alternate dimension, the tough and self-confident Skeen confronts slavers, monsters, and alien assassins in a fast-paced space adventure.   Skeen is back! Sexy space pilot and larcenous scoundrel—a tomb raider who could give Lara Croft a serious run for her money—the tough, cunning, and seductive master thief takes on a series of Herculean trials in her attempts to escape an alternate dimension in a witty and wonderful hybrid of science fiction and fantasy, space opera and quest adventure, that will enthrall fans of Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey, and Alan Dean Foster.   A fugitive “rooner” wanted by law enforcers throughout the known universe, Skeen has grit, cunning, and a closet full of more skeletons than a suburban cemetery. Now, the intergalactic outlaw is stuck in a dimension that is not her own, surrounded by a small mob of new friends and followers representing the eight different races that inadvertently stumbled into Mistommerk over the centuries. Each member of the motley entourage shares the same goal: to find a way out through the elusive Stranger’s Gate.   Their road to a possible exit is twisted and dangerous, with all sorts of nastiness waiting around every turn, from hired killers to bizarre ravenous beasts to the terrible shape-shifting Sea Min. Skeen is proving to be a most wily, brave, and determined, if reluctant, leader. But with a confusing plethora of portals leading to numerous strange dimensions and worlds overlapping other worlds, she may be hard pressed to find the right way back—even if she does somehow manage to survive.   A masterwork of ingenious world-building and wild invention, beloved science fiction author Jo Clayton’s Skeen’s Return is a welcome return to the delightfully bizarre universe and alien life-forms so brilliantly imagined in Skeen’s Leap, the first volume in an enthralling trilogy featuring one of the most endearingly outrageous heroines in contemporary speculative fiction. less

A space outlaw must rescue the remnants of an ancient alien race—before her galaxy explodes—in the conclusion to an action-packed science fiction trilogy... moreA space outlaw must rescue the remnants of an ancient alien race—before her galaxy explodes—in the conclusion to an action-packed science fiction trilogy.   An unrepentant scoundrel and collector of priceless alien artifacts and treasures—like a tomb raider Lara Croft with issues and a spaceship, or a female Indiana Jones with a looser moral code—the inimitable Skeen makes her final appearance in a thrilling galaxy-hopping adventure that blends science fiction and quest fantasy in the finest Andre Norton tradition, inserting a healthy dose of Terry Pratchett Discworld wackiness for good measure.   After stumbling through a one-way dimensional gate constructed eons earlier by the enigmatic and nearly extinct Ykx, Skeen has finally found her way off Mistommerk. Despite numerous trials and great turmoil, Skeen is at long last free, with a ship and crew that includes her new friends, shapeshifter Timka and Ykx keyholder Lipitero..   But freedom always has a price, and Skeen must pay for her deliverance. She’ll have to make her way through a treacherous galaxy to locate the planet Rallen—which may or may not actually exist—gather up any remaining Ykx she happens to find there, and bring them back to Mistommerk before the gate closes permanently.   Their journey is about to take Skeen and her crewmates through some of the nastiest corners of a particularly nasty galaxy and towards an inevitable confrontation with the war vessels of a powerful and distinctly unfriendly Empire. But the biggest threat of all is the solar system itself: Its sun is about to go supernova, which could result in a very explosive finale indeed for Skeen and her space-going misadventures.   With her exciting, ingenious, and wildly entertaining Skeen’s Search, author Jo Clayton offers a fitting and supremely satisfying climax to her thrilling outer space saga, as one of the most uniquely endearing rogues in the history of speculative fiction takes her final bow with a grand flourish. less