Deadeye and the Gravedigger

A cowardly space-mining crew hand. A rusting barge that thinks it's a cowboy homestead. One very good reason not to be a hero.

Wilbur Grubb failed the company safety exam by being too sensible, so naturally the company hired him anyway. Now he's aboard the CFV Sweetwater, a decaying deep-space strip-mining barge where "authentic frontier living" is mandatory, quarterly high-noon duels count as team-building, the drawling ship's AI mistakes his terror for wisdom, and the last crew hand died doing what he loved. Wilbur has exactly one ambition: do not die.

That's about to get difficult. The barge is behind quota. A corporate auditor is aboard, deciding whether it's cheaper scrapped, crew included. And the captain's plan to save everyone is the kind that gets everyone killed. Wilbur's plan is simpler. Hide. Run. Read the safety handbook nobody else has opened. It isn't heroic. It shouldn't work.

It keeps working.

Deadeye and the Widowmaker is a dry, warm, wickedly funny satire in the tradition of Terry Pratchett, Red Dwarf, and Douglas Adams: a story about the comforting lies corporations tell while the future rusts, and the quiet, inconvenient wisdom of the one man who just wants everybody to stop trying to die. If you like your science fiction with a skeptical narrator, a sympathetic loser, and a laugh on every page, sign on with the Sweetwater.

Book 1 of How to Die Gracefully, a five-book comic space-opera series. Best read in order, beginning here. You'll want the rest.

Perfect for fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Grant Naylor's Red Dwarf novels, John Scalzi's Redshirts, and Barry J. Hutchison's Space Team.