Starship Grifters

A Rex Nihilo Adventure

By: Robert Kroese

Narrated by: Anne Marie Lewis

A space-faring ne’er-do-well with more bravado than brains, Rex Nihilo plies the known universe in a tireless quest for his own personal gain. But when he fleeces a wealthy weapons dealer in a high-stakes poker game, he ends up winning a worthless planet…and owing an outstanding debt more vast than space itself!

The only way for Rex to escape a lifetime of torture on the prison world Gulagatraz is to score a big payday by pulling off his biggest scam. But getting mixed up in the struggle between the tyrannical Malarchian Empire and the plucky rebels of the Revolting Frontand trying to double-cross them bothmay be his biggest mistake.

Luckily for Rex, his frustrated but faithful robot sidekick has the cyber-smarts to deal with buxom bounty hunters, pudgy princesses, overbearing overlords, and interstellar evangelists…while still keeping Rex’s martini glass filled.

©2014 Robert Kroese (P)2024 Robert Kroese

Critic reviews

“My favorite read this year. A hilarious space adventure. Hard book to put down.” Hugh Howey, author of Wool

Highly entertaining

Notes on series:
NOTE: don't buy the "The Yanthus Job" novella. For some reason, it's included in both "Aye Robot" (skip to Chapter 32 to find it) and "A Scammer Darkly" (skip to Chapter 41 to find it). Also, don't worry about "The Chicolini Incident" not being on Audible - it's included in "Out of the Soylent Planet."
I've enjoyed the whole "Rex Nihilo" series. It's typically quite entertaining and clever! The author does sometimes stretch too much for the sake of strained puns, and sometimes devolves into simple Star Wars references instead of being more original - but overall I really enjoy these books!
Some of the books are read by Anna Marie Lewis, and some by J.D. Ledford. I prefer Ledford's narration. She has a broader range of character voices, but also brings so much life and personality to her characters - and I prefer how she pronounces the name "Vlack" like "black" whereas Lewis reads it like "flock."
Not everything is perfectly consistent across books. The author himself pokes fun at this, breaking the fourth wall in one part where the protagonist bemoans how sometimes he's an idiot and sometimes a genius. Or there's how he routinely uses "DNA scrambling" to hide his identity and change his body, yet apparently always looks exactly the same in the course of the books. There's more nitpicking that could be done. This isn't high literature by any means. But these are engaging stories about a foolish flim-flam artist and his long-suffering, loyal robot, SASHA.

Notes on this book:
Plenty of Star Wars references. However, the author adds plenty of originality. The protagonist thinks he's finally made it rich, only to land himself in a world of trouble. Playing both sides, scams, jailbreak and more. I don't feel this is the strongest Rex Nihilo book, but it was still quite enjoyable.

Great Scifi Adventure

This book is both hilarious and a fun adventure. Some parts are laugh out loud funny and it is clever and amusing throughout. The adventure keeps you entertained from start to finish. I also very much enjoyed the narrator. I highly recommend it.