Today is the release day for The Autarch’s Heir, the fourth book in Jo Graham’s space adventure series The Calpurnian Wars. One of the great things about this series is that each of the books stands on its own. Characters recur — The Autarch’s Heir includes the elder daughters of House Melian on Menaechmi, who played a supporting role in the previous novel Fortune’s Favor — but you don’t need to have read the previous books to enjoy any of the others. Instead, each novel focuses on one world and one culture to build up a vision of the overarching universe of the story, one that features gods and genetic science in equal measure.

The Autarch’s Heir takes us to Lono, the industrial world long ago conquered by Calpurnia and now the location of much of Calpurnian industry. But Lono’s original settlers were opposed to too much technology, and resentment simmers among the apparently controlled population. Into this volatile mix comes con man Bel Alan, hired to pass himself off as the natural son of the assassinated Calpurnian autarch Iulus, erstwhile ruler of Lono, so that he can steal the priceless Solaste Crown.

But other factions want the Crown, the Lonoi Resistance is once again plotting rebellion, and the Autarch’s successor is facing at attack by a rival Calpurnian faction. And the priestess who hired him wants to restore the lost Lonoi monarchy — if her gods agree.

Bel Alan isn’t sure he believe in either princes or gods. But this simple job is about to plunge Lono into a bloody civil war, and it’s possible that the only way to stop it is to find someone who can wear that crown. And that’s a bigger game than he ever wanted to play…

The Autarch’s Heir is available now in ebook and trade paperback. Cover art is again by the fabulous Eleni Tsami.