Friday Reading Day - Ardulum: Third Don by J. S. Fields

Warning: there may, possibly, be a teensy bit of geeking out prior to this reading. All the important blurby/ linky/ rafflecopter drawing bits down below!

The Ardulum Series
Author Name: J.S. Fields
Publisher: Ninestar Press
Format: Paperback, eBook, Audio
Average Word Count: 95K
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow
  
Series Blurb:
 
The Ardulum series blends space opera and hard science into a story about two women persistently bound to their past, and a sentient planet determined to shape their future.
 
Ardulum: First Don (book one)
The planet that vanishes. The planet that sleeps.
 
When Ardulum first appeared, the inhabitants brought agriculture, art and interstellar technology to the Neek people before vanishing back into space. Two hundred years later, Neek has joined the Charted Systems, a group of planets bound together through commerce and wormhole routes, where violence is nonexistent and technology has been built around the malleability of cellulose.
 
When the tramp transport Mercy’s Pledge accidentally stumbles into an armed confrontation between the Charted System sheriffs and an unknown species, the crew learns the high cost of peace—the enslavement and genetic manipulation of the Ardulan people. Now a young Neek, outcast from her world for refusal to worship ancient Ardulans as gods, must reconcile her planet’s religion with the slave child whom she has chosen to protect—a child whose ability to manipulate cellulose is reminiscent of the ancient myths of Ardulum. But protecting the child comes at a cost—the cultural destruction of her world and the deaths of billions of Charted System inhabitants.
 
Ardulum: Second Don (book two)

The Charted Systems are in pieces. Mercy’s Pledge is destroyed, and her captain dead. With no homes to return to, the remaining crew set off on a journey to find the mythical planet of Ardulum—a planet where Emn might find her people and Neek the answers she’s long sought. Finding the planet, however, brings a host of uncomfortable truths about Ardulum’s vision for the galaxy, and Neek’s role in a religion that refuses to release her. Neek must balance her planet’s past and the unchecked power of the Ardulans with a budding relationship and a surprising revelation about her own genealogy.
 
Ardulum: Third Don (book three)
 
The planet wakes.
 
Atalant is torn between two worlds. In uncharted space, head of a sentient planet, the new eld of Ardulum now leads the religion she once rejected. Emn is by her side, but the Mmnnuggl war brewing in the Charted Systems, threatening her homeworld of Neek, cannot be ignored. Atalant must return to the planet that exiled her in order to lead the resistance. She must return home a god, a hypocrite, a liar in gold robes, and decide whether to thrust her unwilling people into the truth of Ardulum, or play the role she has been handed and never see her family, or her world, again.

​Book One Buy Links:
Amazon
Nine Star Press
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Audio buy link coming soon!!
 
Book Two Buy Links:
Amazon
Ninestar Press
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
 
Book Three Buy Links:
https://ninestarpress.com/product/ardulum-third-don/
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1948608
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ardulum-Third-Don-J-S-Fields-ebook/dp/B07D7GCD81/

Giveaway:
 
J.S. Fields is giving away an eBook copy of books one and two, AND a special collector's edition First Don enamel pin to one lucky winner, via Rafflecopter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

​Author Bio:
 
J.S. Fields (@Galactoglucoman) is a scientist who has perhaps spent too much time around organic solvents. She enjoys roller derby, woodturning, making chainmail by hand, and cultivating fungi in the backs of minivans. Nonbinary, but prefers female pronouns.
 
Fields has lived in Thailand, Ireland, Canada, USA, and spent extensive time in many more places. Her current research takes her to the Peruvian Amazon rainforest each summer, where she traumatizes students with machetes and tangarana ants while looking for rare pigmenting fungi. She lives with her partner and child, and a very fabulous lionhead rabbit named Merlin.
 
Author Website: http://www.jsfieldsbooks.com
Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/Galactoglucoman
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16484795.J_S_Fields
Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/j-s-fields/