Excerpt from The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The remote kept staring at her, chewing with his mouth open, while she weighed her options. She could take him out, and potentially get caught. She could report him, but he might do a lot of damage while she waited for Verdance security to act -- if they acted at all. Either way, she'd be forced to spend decades rebalancing the local environment. No matter what she did, there would be trouble, so she might as well mitigate it.

She tried again, using her calmest voice. "Listen. This isn't a debate. You need to get off this land."

"No can do, Ranger Destry Thomas. Best be on your way. My compliments to you on the well-stocked forest, though. This meal is just like the ones our ancestors ate during Earth's Pleistocene." The remote stretched his lips in a badly-executed attempt at a smile. "Here on the savannahs where our species was born, I can experience evolution firsthand. The only thing that would make it more authentic would be some nice moose jerky."

The anger rising through her chest finally found her tongue. "This is not a savannah, you pus licker. It's boreal forest."

With one fluid motion, she slipped her gun from its holster, spun it up, and shot the remote between the eyes. Charter's data stream stuttered and stopped as he crumpled. Killing was always a last resort for an ERT ranger, but this controller was using his remote to threaten Whistle, and that could not stand. Destry signaled her friend and he trotted through prairie grass to the still-smoking fire. "We're going to be here for a while," she said.

Excerpted from The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz. Copyright © 2023 by Annalee Newitz. Excerpted by permission of Tor Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.