Broken Slate

Taken from his family’s merchant ship at the age of fourteen, Martin Eduardo endured years in the brutal contract labor system on the planet Julian. Now a contract rebellion brews.

The precarious – and emotionally costly – safety Martin had found with his seventh contract holder is put at risk by another holder, Jeno Lord Harper, who seeks to use Martin for his own aims. Years in the system have demonstrated what happens to contracts who fight back; Martin knows resistance will prove dangerous.

As the contract labor uprising gains momentum, and as he grows more acquainted with those involved in the rebellion, Martin begins to suspect that, although the consequences of disobedience are grim – even fatal – the consequences of obedience might be worse.

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“This deft dissection of a mind under siege from an oppressive social system is tense and compelling. I couldn’t put it down till I hit the last page.”

- Cat Rambo, Endeavor Award-nominated author of Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight

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“Broken Slate is unexpectedly engrossing, with enough strength of character at its core to drag one along its richly carved path of violence, sex, submission, and rebellion. Martin is a compelling character, whose palpable determination not to be crushed by systemic cruelty and harsh circumstance leaves one looking forward to more of his story.”

- Camille Alexa, Endeavor Award-nominated author of Push of the Sky

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“One of Jennings’s strengths is the nuanced way she weaves her characters, not entirely noble but not entire villainous either. They are complex people who have both conscious and unconscious biases, which is important for a novel like Broken Slate.”

- Author Charles Tan