One man can make—or break—Earth's iron grip on its galactic colonies: Stone Chalmers. Spy. Assassin. Earth's top operative.

On the newly-rediscovered colony world of New Moravia, an Earth operative is murdered. Stone's mission: journey through an artificial wormhole to the planet. Find the perpetrators. And terminate them.

Going undercover, with a cover persona overlaid on his mind and genetic markers tweaked inside his cells, Stone expects an easy mission.

But on encountering shadowy, powerful men and dangerous women, Stone discovers more than a plot that killed a fellow operative. A conspiracy plans a powerful blow against Earth's control of the planet.

A blow that will kill tens of thousands of colonists.

A blow supported by treacherous forces inside the government of Earth.

Join Stone on a distant planet in a headlong race against the clock in this, the first adventure in his complete four-novel series.

"[A] thriller-style science fiction tale that's a quick and fun
read.... A good start to a promising series." - Sfreader.com

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Want to learn more about science fiction author Raymund Eich? Here's a
Q&A to tell you more about this distinctive voice in new science
fiction.

First off: Raymund Eich. Am I spelling it correctly? And how do you
pronounce it?

That's the correct spelling. My immigrant parents split the difference
between the Anglo-French Raymond and the German Raimund.

My last name is pronounced with a long-i vowel sound, like both
syllables in Einstein. The preferred consonant sound is a sh. Overall,
one syllable, eye-sh.

Tough to pronounce, and also tough to spell. I've seen Elch, Einch,
Etch, Eitch, Iech, Eric, and Erich. The misspellings used to bother me,
but I've grown philosophical about them.

What are some of your publishing credits?

I've had short stories published in Analog science fiction and fact
magazine and the sci fi anthology Surviving Tomorrow. And over a dozen
novels and six short story collections are available as ebooks and
paperback books, and some also as audiobooks.

What's The Progress of Mankind and the rest of the Stone Chalmers
series about?

As a kid, I thought the James Bond movies with Sean Connery were one of
the coolest things ever. Even if they're dated, they're still a lot of
fun. Scheming villains, femmes fatale, going into the enemy stronghold
and blowing everything up. I wanted to capture some of that pulp action
in this series.

But I also had some deeper issues to explore. When does a strong
government become a tyranny? How can an oppressed group resist? And
unlike James Bond, Stone Chalmers changes as a result of his adventures.
He's a different man by the end of book 4 than you'll meet in this
book.

We should read the Stone Chalmers series in order?

I recommend it. The order is The Progress of Mankind, The Greater
Glory of God, To All High Emprise Consecrated, and In Public
Convocation Assembled.

Final question. Science fiction, sci fi, SF, speculative fiction, or
spec fic?

Is it an adventure on future Earth, an exploration of a distant planet,
a discovery beyond the limits of human knowledge, or a journey across
deep space? Then I'll read it. The genre fiction label doesn't matter.