Have Genes, Will Travel (Koban Universe #2)

This book can be read as a standalone novel because how the Kobani human variant came to exist is explained on one page. A prologue then propels you into this action filled, often funny Sci-Fi Cowboy in Space story.

For over a hundred years Chisholm, a Rim World colony, has produced beef for most of Human Space, raising vast herds of a breed of giant longhorns. Things are changing, as land reform is demanded by small ranchers and farmers, placing restrictions on the existing open range policy. The wealthy large ranchers will stop this by any means, to preserve their profits. Passions are high and the opposing sides have turned violent and deadly.

Ethan, a gene-modified Kobani, travels to Chisholm with his sassy sister, Kit, seeking a high-risk employment opportunity in the growing Range War, where raids and murders have wiped out entire families. Gunmen and killers are in demand by both sides, with premiums paid for greater lethality. Using their direct contact telepathic ability, Ethan and his unusual sister Kit, chose a side. They’ll face a hundred hired guns, the outcome deciding who will control the future of Chisholm. Powerful men are determined to block reforms by driving off or killing those opposed to the status quo, and adamant reformers will meet violence with violence.

Hired by one side in the conflict, an unexpected betrayal strikes down Ethan, and he vanishes. Kit goes on a rampage, terrorizing anyone with knowledge, to discover what happened to him, and mangled bodies accumulate as she searches for her brother. Knowing telepathically exactly what evil an individual has committed isn’t admissible in courts there, or heeded by corrupt sheriffs. However, possessing the truth is ample motivation for ignoring the law to Kit, and she summons help. In a final bloody confrontation, with deaths on both sides, a solution that only those from Koban could produce is achieved.