Synopsis "White Hot Grape (in English)"
In this sequel to "Grapeshot and Demons", Captain Rodney Wyckham, Royal Navy, has built a trading center on the planet he's renamed Freeport. Alien merchants from distant systems come to his walled city, Port Wyckham, looking for trading opportunities in newly accessible worlds, and alien tourists flock to the various taverns that have made the town an intergalactic Las Vegas. But peaceful commerce and tourism is threatened by his old nemesis, Admiral Jarvis, who shows up with a French fleet aligned with the monstrous Draesh, the planet's previous owners. With help from the local human natives and their deadly effective fireballs, Wyckham emerges victorious, only to be attacked again by a British fleet demanding colonization rights for the British Empire. But the massive fleet, led by none other than the Duke of Wellington, the conqueror of Napoleon, is unprepared for battling Wyckham's alien allies, and the planet survives as an independent oasis of peace and free trade for aliens and humans alike. As in the first book, there's historically authentic action aplenty, tavern scenes reminiscent of the bar scene in Star Wars, many new and comical alien species, and wild amorous interactions with the holographic Fireflies. Just like the first book, this is one crazy, exciting, insanely creative story that will leave intrigued readers shaking their heads at what they've just read and looking for more.
