Stefan Vucak books in order

Life at University was never meant to be like this!

Larry Krafter, a young anthropologist, ends up discovering a human skull while on a mission to recover the bone.

Rather than receiving credit that would lead to the launch of a new review of human evolution, the entrenched establishment interests instead seeks to diminish him and his discovery; even to the point of hiring a hitman.

With his girlfriend kidnapped, a hired killer after him and a framed murder case on his neck, Krafter resolves to wash all of the establishment’s dirty linen in public.

This is a collection of science fiction stories by Stefan Vučak: stories that explore things out of the ordinary.

Fulfillment: Once every year, females seek out males—with catastrophic consequences for the males.

Even the Gods Cry: The gods were real to primitive Earth inhabitants, presenting law and dishing out punishment, acting as though they didn’t fight among themselves.

Hunger: Some men and women take energy from their victims in order to survive. One woman however takes too much.

Ice Maidens: Never did he believe in witches or devils, up until he encountered one, leaving his soul in peril.

Twilight: Dying wasn’t all that’s cracked up to be, and being a ghost wasn’t such a bad thing, until Turner made a terrible mistake.

“Nash Bannon found out just how tough it is to be a lifeliner, especially when everyone is against them.”

Lifeliners are ordinary people…well almost. They are smarter, live longer and have the ability to draw energy from other people.

Scientists suggest that the rising sterility and intensely stressful Western living has prompted the rise of lifeliners, and in ten generations’ time, the homo renata will replace the homo sapiens.

Oppressive laws, protest marches, riots and attacks directed towards the lifeliners however makes life nearly impossible for them.

Nash Bannon, a lifeliner living in Australia, thought he had it all figured out, until he met Cariana Foster.

But the young lifeliner girl, who he thought they could have a future together, betrays him; shattering his heart.

What if the person who is supposed to give advice acts in isolation, bringing the United States on the verge of a deadly war with Iran, assumedly to protect Israel’s security?

The United Nations and America are not in a position to do anything as Iran expands its nuclear program, due to the actions of Namir Bethan, Director of Metsada.

But former Army Colonel, Matan Irian, devises a simple yet destructive plan: sabotage their own refinery complex in Texas City, doctor proof that implicates Iran, then use it as an excuse to retaliate.

The ingenious plan works to a treat, and the President deploys two carrier battle groups off Iran’s coast in earnest preparation for the attack.

Matan Irian however mistakenly leaves behind a small piece of evidence that incriminates Israel, enraging the United States government that now turns against Israel; demanding that they recognize Palestinian as a State of their own.

The Secretary of State, while conducting negotiations with North Korean, comes to learn that the CIA is discretely funding a faction group to overthrow the Supreme Leader; immediately prompting President Walters to fire the CIA Director.

Meanwhile in the Yellow Sea, the United States and South Korea undertake their annual joint naval exercises when North Korean strikes against an American destroyer. But Admiral Pacino’s son, who was conducting of the exercise, dies having sustained severe injuries.

Pacino’s plane crashes on his way to Washington for a hearing after his flight is sabotaged, but he survives the crash.

The hearing would later reveal the inhumane treatment of veterans by the government and the military, forcing the Navy to award Pacino with administrative punishment in lieu of a general court-martial—as a way of limiting political damage.

One person, while gigging in his backyard in East Jerusalem, unearths a tomb containing two ossuaries that dates back to centuries.

One has a strange orange crystal the size of a smartphone that he ends up selling to an antiquities dealer, who passes it to a gem merchant in Tel Aviv.

The merchant however accidentally scratches it, yet the scratch mysteriously disappears. Upon taking a close look with a low level laser light, the crystal turns into a perfect mirror.

Dr. Morrison, an accomplished solar panel businessman and mineral collector, ends up with the winning bid for the crystal during an auction.

But Morrison’s newest collection attracts interest from China’s Second Bureau, Israeli’s Mossad and the United States administration; all of whom want to retrieve it.

Father Paulini Garbaldi, a Vatican Secret Archives researcher, claims to have found a first century papyrus that suggests Jesus was John the Baptist’s disciple and the second Messiah. Shocked, he sends the papyrus to a close friend in Boston for verification.

When The Entity, the secret service unit at the Vatican, makes the realization, they send an assassin to Boston to recover the tractate; fearing that Garbaldi may publish it.

True to their cause of murdering to protect its secret, the assassin recovers the papyrus after executing Garbaldi, but missed Tom Meecham; an FBI agent who Garbaldi had told everything.

The FBI will face off with The Entity, even as Harvard publishes the papyrus text for the whole world to see.

Keung Yeng, Chairman of the Standing Committee, with the help of his friend Chen Teng, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, mastermind a plan to send a nuclear attack submarine to La Palma.

This is meant to stir the Cumbre Vieja Volcano’s western flank, triggering a powerful tsunami that would completely wipe out the American eastern seaboard; bringing the country to its knees.

The mission works, albeit to little effect, as the tsunami doesn’t cause much damage.

Thomas Meecham, an FBI Special Agent in Charge, is positioned to lead a team tasked with carrying out investigations into the potential terrorist attack.

Should the American government trace evidence of the unprovoked attack back to China, the repercussion will be dire!

“The Four Suns, a backwater system in the Deklan Oligarchy, hides a sinister plot to destabilize the Serrll Combine.”

Terrllss-rr, a Second Scout in the Serrll Combine Scout Fleet, is posted as an aide to an Envoy sent to Elexi—the capital world of the Four Suns.

Assigned by the Serrll government, his job is to make findings on the allegations of slavery on Anulus.

Terr ends up buying Alasi, just one of the many boys taken into slavery to fulfill the labor needs of Anulus, as proof of the illegal slavery.

But his ship is ambushed on the way back, forcing him to flee in the deep desert world of Anar’on.

Desperate to regain his memory after a series of shocking events, Terr confront the gods of Death, and ends up possessing more that he had bargained for.

“In a bid to spread their political influence within the Serrll Combine, the Sargon Directorate and the Palean Union unite forces.”

Sargon and the Paleans need to increase the number of star systems they occupy in order to get the extra seat in the ruling Executive Council that they so yearn for. Pizgor, an independent system, is potentially their ultimate prize given that it has five systems.

But Pizgor doesn’t easily give into Sargon and the Paleans attempted piracy and political intimidation unleashed through raiders, as they petition the Serrll General Assembly to neutralize the raiders sent by their suitors.

Terrllss-rr, a Second Scout, is bestowed with the responsibility of finding the raider base and proving that they indeed work on account of the Palean Union.

His mission looks complete when the political fallout against Sargon and the Paleans seems to jeopardize the merger, but it only marks the beginning of a bigger struggle.

Archaeologist Lauren Hopkins, while working on an isolated dig, comes across an extraterrestrial craft that is buried in an ancient Comalcalco Mayan pyramid.

She thinks she has finally made a name for herself with the shocking discovery, but the new knowledge instead throws Earth into a social, political and religious crisis; sparking a worldwide collision, for whichever nation seizes the alien technology potentially controls the world.

There is however some beauty in the midst of all this turmoil, as Lauren falls in love with Bill Faroway; a member of the UN scientific team dispatched to study the alien ship.

Meanwhile, the Serrll Combine, a conglomeration of 247 star systems, sends newly promoted First Scout Terrllss-rr on a mission to earth to destroy the craft and possibly avert a deadly war.

But Terr and Lauren are shot in a moment of insanity that leaves the latter on the verge of dying.

The two however find themselves going to the moon, where Terr now faces disciplinary action for bringing the humans to the Serrll Base.

First Scout Terrllss-rr is not only relieved because he has safely returned Lauren Hopking and Bill Faroway to Earth, but also because it has given him some time away; by and large because memories of the mission to destroy the old scoutship found at Comalcalco still haunt him.

Terr and his Wanderer brother Dharaklin are presented with a new task of infiltrating an Askaran raider operation thought to be involved with the AUP Provision Committee—responsible for raids on Pizgor systems.

Everything seems to be going right for Terr while on the mission, up until his cover is blown; putting Dharaklin in grave danger.

To free themselves, both Terr and his brother must raise the hand of Death!

"After the fall of Lemos, the devastating scheme by Sargon and the Paleans to seize Pizgor’s five systems that would enable them to merge, collapses."

Tanard, the renegade Fleet officer and mastermind of the raids against Pizgor shipping, is apprehended by First Scout Terrllss-rr and held in captivity for two years. While Tanard is on his way to a prison planet, a Palean splinter faction devises an escape plan for him, so that he can continue pushing for the merger.

Meanwhile, Terr is awestruck when he crosses paths with a woman named Teena while on a routine debrief. The emptiness that he never knew he had is suddenly filled by a delicious yet dangerous prospect of love.

But Teena becomes furious when she learns that he wields the hand of Death; one that he has used to interrogate raiders.

Terr now has the impractical task of retaining Teena’s love in the shadow of Death, while also capturing a renegade Fleet officer.

Upon returning to Taltair to inform his boss Anabb Karr that he no longer wants to be sent on killing missions, Terr is shocked at the news that he and Dharaklin, his Wanderer brother, are bound for Salina to meet an Orieli Technic Union delegation.

Teena isn’t impressed by the news, as his continued absence is taking a toll on their relationship.

Betrayal by Dharaklin sees Terr regain consciousness at Houston’s LBJ Space Center after an accident that occured while he was conducting a training flight.

Having escaped and subsequently rescued from U.S. security forces that were hot on his pursuit, Terr is on a mission to rescue Teena who has been kidnapped by Dhar.

Hateful and full of vengeance, First Scout Terrllss-rr pursues his brother Dharaklin to Anar’on while on his desperate mission to rescue Teena.

He manages to rescue her at the Wanderer world, but Terr’s mission is far from complete, as he will stop at nothing to ensure his brother pays for sabotaging his ship.

When they finally come face-to-face in the Saffal desert, Terr fails to use his power to destroy his brother, having promised Teena that he wouldn't do so.

When danger threatens to completely destroy the Serrll worlds, the two brothers unite and step up against face the Kran menace.

Terr, along with Teena and his Wanderer brother Dharaklin, head for a cultural exchange mission at the Orieli Technic Union.

Teena is however caught up in a terrible Kran attack right at the edge of the Moanar Nebula; one that that destroys three outposts protecting a gateway to Orieli space.

Whereas Terr’s ship isn’t completely destroyed, having been rescued by the Fernai, Kran’s ancient enemy, the aliens are doing everthing hey can to avoid a galactic war.

In this eighth and final installation of the Shadow Gods Saga series, Terr prepares for one last epic battle with the Kran.