From Publishers Weekly
Rich in detail and surprising incident, Connell's SF debut takes a grim look at the twisted machinery of collective government and the individual spirit often at odds with ruling political systems. When an assassination attempt on a mining colony in a distant universe forces retired bodyguard Horrocks on a search for the colony's leader (aka "the king") and his Ringers (mechanical look-alikes), he begins to question the system of life that he's fighting to protect. People take precedence over mechanical marvels in this intense drama. Married and expecting a child, Horrocks is the perfect character through which to explore the ambiguous moral issues involved in leadership and big-business exploitation. Struggle for identity and self-sacrifice are just a few of the powerful stories beneath an action-packed surface plot that provokes as it dazzles. Featuring shattered characters whose souls are as dirtied as their deteriorated surroundings, Connell's novel boldly challenges the rigid moral conservatism so often found in traditional space opera, and is sure to both please and anger readers of this particular subgenre. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Book Description
A science fiction transcends the genre and stands with the best new American novels of this decade. The central character is Horrocks, a man determined to preserve a way of life that is horrifying, yet which he is afraid to lose.

From the Inside Flap
Long Live the Kings! Once a bodyguard for the king of the Io colony, Horrocks now toils in one of the brimstone moon’s orbiting Furnaces—a network of processing stations that harvest power from Io’s continuous volcanic eruptions. Horrocks’ new job is rough and unglamorous but with his wife expecting their first child, he wants nothing more to do with the kill-or-be-killed life of a king’s bodyguard. Horrocks’ hopes for a stable future are shattered when an assassination attempt kills one of the King’s sons and forces the King himself into hiding. Civil war looms as many factions compete for control of the leaderless colony. Called back into service by the Queen, Horrocks agrees to spearhead the King’s rescue. Now Horrocks must track down the Ringers, a new breed of bodyguard surgically altered to mimic the King, who all vanished moments after the attempted assassination. To make matters worse, Horrocks’ wife insists on joining the hunt, plunging herself and their unborn child into the kind of do-or-die danger Horrocks had worked so hard to keep them from. Horrocks’ quest to restore his king will cost him more than even he could predict as he struggles to find the real prize hidden among the… COUNTERFEIT KINGS

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Adam Connell's debut novel, a down-and-dirty game of deep-space hide-and-seek entitled Counterfeit Kings, is the antithesis of space opera. There are no majestic armadas, no epic battles, no clearly defined heroes or villains, just ruthless pawns in a deadly chess game searching for a lost king before the defecation hits the rotating oscillator.

After a failed assassination attempt, the leader of a Jovian mining colony -- John Kingston, a.k.a. the King -- disappears, throwing thousands of lives into chaos. The queen must find her husband before 20 days elapse, or else he'll be declared dead, and his kingdom -- along with all the invaluable mines -- will be up for grabs. Other groups with far less philanthropic motives are interested in finding the King as well: a cultlike legion of the King's allegedly illegitimate children (known as the Bastards) wants to find their supposed father and force him to share his wealth, and a competing mining company led by a sadist named Rouen wants the King dead. Complicating matters are the King's doppelgängers -- Ringers -- surgically altered men that look exactly like him.

Reminiscent of the characters in Alfred Bester's classic The Stars My Destination, Connell's characters are flawed, cynical, witty -- and totally obsessed with their own twisted objectives. While it may be pretentious to compare a debut novel to a Bester masterwork, Counterfeit Kings is a surprisingly elaborate and undeniably entertaining story with gritty characters that will stay with the reader for a long, long time. Here's one new Adam Connell fan who can't wait to see what this promising new author does next. Paul Goat Allen

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Once a bodyguard for the king of the Io colony, Horrocks now toils in one of the brimstone moon's orbiting Furnaces - a network of processing stations that harvest power from Io's continuous volcanic eruptions. Horrocks new job is rough and unglamorous, but with his wife expecting their first child he wants nothing more to do with the kill-or-be-killed life of a king's bodyguard." "Horrocks' hopes for a stable future are shattered when an assassination attempt kills one of the king's sons and forces the king himself into hiding. Civil war looms as many factions compete for control of the leaderless colony." Called back into service by the queen, Horrocks agrees to spearhead the king's rescue. That means tracking down the Ringers, a new breed of bodyguard surgically altered to mimic the king. To make matters worse, Horrocks' wife insists on joining the hunt, plunging herself and their unborn child into the kind of do-or-die danger Horrocks has worked so hard to avoid. Horrocks' quest to restore his king will cost him more than even he could predict, as he struggles to find the real prize hidden among the... Counterfeit Kings.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly