Michael Kring Books in Order

Michael Kring is an American science fiction writer born in Texas on May 27, 1952. Public reference works also give his full name as Michael Kalan Kring, but the books themselves were published under the shorter Michael Kring byline.

His recorded fiction bibliography is small but memorable for readers who enjoy compact, fast-moving space adventure. It consists of two novels, both published by Leisure Books at the start of the 1980s: The Space Mavericks in 1980 and Children of the Night in 1981.

That was the whole run.

Kring entered print with The Space Mavericks, a space opera about Fripp Enos and Kohn Tarkosz, two freelance cargo haulers who get swept into a much larger conflict. The story starts with a rescue and a pursuit, then opens out into distant worlds, suspicious officials, dangerous travel, and the remains of an older civilization.

Fripp and Kohn are working pilots, not polished military heroes. They make a living moving freight, take risks when trouble finds them, and keep going when the people in power would rather see them disappear. Fripp also carries unusual physical abilities and later acquires a mysterious ring, giving the series an extra thread of strange technology and buried history alongside its chases and fights.

The books keep the pace up.

Children of the Night continues their travels on the planet Vespers, where the two men investigate the ring's origins. Their search brings them into a struggle between the dictator Haics and the underground people known as the Children of the Night. An ancient ship hidden in coal and a subterranean society make the second novel feel bigger in scope while keeping Fripp and Kohn at the center.

The series was planned to continue beyond those two books. Its wider story points toward a destination that Fripp and Kohn never reach on the page, because the intended conclusion was not published after difficulties at Leisure Books. That unfinished shape is part of the series' history, and it explains why the second novel leaves room for more travel and discoveries.

Available biographical information about Kring concentrates almost entirely on these novels, rather than on his childhood, work outside writing, or later life. What remains is a short early-1980s science fiction series built around independent spacefarers, corrupt authority, odd worlds, and an ancient mystery that keeps pulling its heroes onward. For readers who like their science fiction direct, lively, and a little rough around the edges, his two-book run offers a quick trip into that kind of adventure.