The Space Mavericks Books in Order

The Space Mavericks is a two-book science fiction series about Fripp Enos and Kohn Tarkosz, independent cargo haulers trying to make their way through a busy and dangerous interstellar setting. They are working pilots rather than soldiers or official agents, which means they tend to meet trouble from the outside, then have to improvise their way through it.

The first book, The Space Mavericks, begins when Fripp and Kohn become involved in the rescue of a kidnapped young woman. That act puts them in the sights of Central, a powerful governing force whose officials are more interested in protecting their own interests than in treating the pair fairly. The story moves from world to world as the two friends flee pursuit and look for a way out.

Then an old mystery enters the picture.

During their travels, Fripp discovers a strange ring among the ruins of a long-vanished civilization. The ring has unusual powers, and it gives the series an ongoing thread beyond its immediate chase plot. Fripp's own altered abilities, including physical changes he can call on in a fight, add another piece to the pulpy, high-energy setup.

The second novel, Children of the Night, sends Fripp and Kohn to Vespers while they search for the source of the ring. Instead of a quick stop, they find a world split by dictatorship and rebellion. Haics rules through force, while the Children of the Night resist him, and the two spacefarers are pulled into a conflict neither of them planned to join.

Vespers has secrets of its own.

A subterranean people and an ancient spaceship buried in coal widen the story's sense of scale. The series mixes spaceships and interplanetary travel with lost technology, political pressure, and mysteries left behind by earlier civilizations. It is straightforward space opera, with quick-moving danger and a pair of leads who would usually rather be back at work than caught in someone else's war.

Read the books in order. The Space Mavericks introduces Fripp, Kohn, Central, and the ring, while Children of the Night builds directly on that discovery. The planned larger arc was never completed, so the series remains a short, unfinished journey, but the two novels still work as a linked run of adventures.