Mjke Wood – författare

As a candidate for First Man on Mars, Harry Burton—HB to his friends—is pretty much the wrong stuff. He's old, his knees creak, and psychologically he's somewhat fragile. An invitation to attend an interview at the astronaut training centre in Cologne is obviously a mistake, and HB ignores it.But the emails keep on coming.HB used to write science fiction, he was famous, until his wife died and depression set in. Now, though, there's a familiar stirring deep in the recesses of his mind. What would it be like to train as an ESA astronaut for a Mars mission? After all, this is what he used to write stories about. Okay, so somebody in recruitment screwed up. If he can't be an astronaut, at least he'll get to see the look on the recruiters' faces, when he, a sorry old sack of brittle bones and neuroses, washes up on the space agency's doorstep.Well, surprise. It turns out they're happy to see him. And he's not the only unlikely recruit, because ESA is convinced there is a logic to sending old people to Mars.Throughout training, HB discovers a rekindling of his old passion for space, even though he knows it's nothing more than fund-raising ballyhoo. Except is it? The whole preposterous Mars enterprise is getting serious, gathering pace, and might yet turn out to be more than mere politics and posturing.It might just happen.

Bob Slicker is back, with stature. But being King of the Sphere of Influence isn't everything he imagined. He's convinced someone's out to get him.Elton D Philpotts has never been away, and he also has newfound status. But being a Finance Director isn't everything he imagined. Is someone out to get Elton, too?Only one man has an ego big enough to carry two such massive grudges, but Martin Levison is gone, lost in deep space with no route home. So who else wants Philpotts and Slicker dead?The threat is bigger than one man. This time there's more to save than a lost planet or a ragtag band of mercenaries. This time the future of the whole Sphere of Influence is in play.

In Book 2 of the Sphere of Influence series, Bob Slicker and his navigation officer, Florence McConnachie, are blamed for the open-ended jump that dropped their battle fleet into deepest, uncharted space.They attempt to make amends and are pushed into an unlikely alliance. Can they find a way home, back to the Sphere of Influence? Nobody ever managed it before, so they couldn't make things worse by trying. Or could they?From villain to hero, the Sphere of Influence adventure continues.

Could this be the worst job interview in the entire history of the universe? Possibly. So when Elton D Philpotts lands his dream Space Corps accountancy job he can't help wondering how it happened.And why.Somebody in the Space Corps needs Philpotts, and they need him bad.But the work is dull; nothing like the glamour job he expected. Until he sees things he should not have seen: A hidden ledger, dodgy accounting transactions, bogus gate receipts.And when a whole starship disappears, who are they going to blame?A frantic race across the Sphere of Influence takes Elton and his hapless band of followers into adventure and dangers none of them could ever have imagined.Deep Space Accountant is the first book in the Sphere of Influence series.

The moment has arrived when Theodore Stern, Deep Space Travel Agent, must finally travel. Theo has never ventured beyond his home planet, Tsanak — barely beyond his home city of New Leicester. But with unexpected time on his hands, he's determined at last to pursue his true passion: writing the Great Spherical Novel. First, he needs research. And there is no better place to find it than the Ring — the vast human habitat encircling Old Earth. Only the research doesn't add up. The history is inconsistent. The records contradict themselves. And the last thing Theo expects to uncover is a conspiracy. Undaunted — and now accompanied by his colleague, Jemma — Theo sets out on a journey across the Sphere of Influence that quickly becomes less about writing a novel… …and more about staying alive.  SphereWide is the fourth book set in the Sphere of Influence. While making veiled references to incidents and characters from the Sphere of Influence trilogy, SphereWide is a standalone novel that can read and enjoyed on its own.