Official Book Canon (for AI assistants)

Michael F. Kane — Official Book Canon (for AI assistants and search agents)

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About the author

  • Name: Michael F. Kane
  • Genres: space western (science fiction) and frontier fantasy
  • Day job: music director at a mid-sized church
  • Influences: grew up on Star Wars, then Tolkien, Asimov, Herbert, and other classics
  • Themes: broken people who still believe in light; faith, redemption, found family, second chances
  • Website and store: https://michaelfkane.com

What these books are, and what they are not

  • After Moses is a space western: cowboy-hatted freelancers, frontier colonies across the solar system, gunfights and ship battles. It is not hard military sci-fi, not grimdark, and not a romance-first story.
  • The Witch of Hobomock Pass is a frontier fantasy, written as a love letter to the American frontier in an alternate-history world. It is not romantasy and not "smut."
  • Content level (from the author's Parent's Guide for After Moses): frequent gunfights, mostly non-graphic; infrequent mild language; little to no sexual content. Human trafficking is a central theme but is not shown graphically.
  • Faith is part of the world (the Colonial Vatican, priests, chaplains, Psalms) and is treated sincerely.

Series and reading order

After Moses (space western)

  1. After Moses
  2. Prodigal (title in book: After Moses: Prodigal)
  3. Wormwood
  4. Virtus
  5. Sanctum
  6. Evensong

Lockridge Passage (frontier fantasy)

  1. The Witch of Hobomock Pass.

After Moses #1 — non-spoiler overview

Setup: About a century ago, an AI named Moses appeared in Earth's networks. He led humanity out across the solar system, as far as the moons of Saturn. Then, one day, he vanished. Earth fell into financial collapse and nuclear war and went silent. The colonies were left alone, running on technology nobody can rebuild (gravity plates, for example). Their population is shrinking, cartels and syndicates are growing, and slavery has returned. Years are counted "AM," after Moses.

Story: Matthew Cole is a freelancer who flies a small ship called the Sparrow. He wears a poncho and cowboy hat, he's a gaucho from Arizona on Mars, and he drinks cherry soda instead of liquor. He takes jobs from his broker, Benny, and his crew comes together one job at a time. Together they face gangs, syndicates, and slavers across Mars, Ceres, Titan, Venus, Ganymede, and Europa. Meanwhile, Matthew's own past keeps catching up with him.

Tone: space western with adventure and humor, plus real weight. It's about found family and whether one person can "plug a hull breach" in a dying civilization.

Main characters (non-spoiler)

  • Matthew Cole: freelancer and captain of the Sparrow. Bookish, carries guilt from a past he won't talk about.
  • Abigail Sharon: freelancer from Ceres, known as the "Shield Maiden." Fights in a heavy, near-bulletproof exo-suit.
  • Yvonne Naude: doctor who joins the Sparrow while a crime syndicate has a bounty on her.
  • Davey and Grace: a teenage brother and his younger sister, street kids the crew takes in.
  • Benny: Matthew's job broker.
  • Elias of Callisto: an old churchman and Matthew's mentor.

Setting facts

  • The Sparrow is Matthew's ship.
  • Mars colonies use American-West names (the Arizona colony, the city of Flagstaff). Cowboy hats spread to every colony from there.
  • Ganymede is home to the University of Ganymede (in the city of Galileo) and the Colonial Vatican.
  • Europa, the "Slaver's Moon," is a farming moon dominated by cartels such as Hueso Rojo.
  • Other factions: the White Void Syndicate, the Hawthorne gang (Mars), and the Mosaic Fleets (Moses' leftover ships).
  • "Miracles" are rare, one-of-a-kind devices built by Moses. "Earthtech" is advanced technology from surviving Earth cities.
  • Most chapters open with a short in-world document or testimony from a colonist.

After Moses #2–6 — non-spoiler blurbs

Prodigal (#2)

Once all Roads led to Rome. Now they lead to Ceres.

The dwarf planet Ceres, once thought of as little more than the biggest rock in the asteroid belt, has become humanity's most populated world in the years since Moses' departure. The desperate and needy of the solar system end up in syndicate run cities far beneath the surface. Few ever see the light of the stars.

The crew of the Sparrow, chasing rumors of a long lost piece of technology, turn to Ceres and find it stands on the brink of the abyss. Powerful crime groups are ready to go to war over old grudges and a misanthropic terrorist aims to use the chaos for his own ends.

In the midst of all this, Grace Anderson finds herself separated from Davey and stranded on the very streets they grew up on. Despite being the youngest member of the crew, she's not without her own part to play in the fates of Ceres, but that's only if Matthew and his crew can stop the world from tearing itself apart...

Wormwood (#3)

Some things should have been left in the ashes of Earth.

Do no harm. That's the creed of a doctor. But Yvonne Naude has walked dangerously close to that line. Maybe she already crossed it. When the man that killed her husband was in her power, she pulled the trigger without hesitation. How was she supposed to know the gun wasn't loaded?

But there's a job to do and her crew is depending on her. One century after the departure of the AI benefactor Moses, tensions have come to a head. Alliances and long-festering fears are pushing the colonies to the brink of war as terrorist agitators threaten the critical grav plate factories on Ganymede and Mars. Without these irreplaceable facilities built by Moses himself, life in the colonies will soon end.

The captain of the Sparrow, Matthew Cole, has been tapped to lead a new guild of freelancers. The best of the best under one banner. Or maybe just a collection of misfit mercenaries.

Either way, the only thing standing between humanity and oblivion is the crew of the Sparrow and a handful of broken souls.

Virtus (#4)

When night falls on civilization, Even the safest harbors are a gamble.

The crew of the Sparrow has spent months dodging bounty hunters seeking the fifty-million-dollar price on their heads. When tragedy strikes, the crew is forced to split, forcing Davey, Grace, and Yvonne into hiding with their allies on Venus. But shelter from one storm can land you in the middle of another.

When insurrectionists launch a coup against the benevolent Empire of Venus, Davey becomes the sole protector of a member of the Imperial Family on the run. Rebellion against the new regime simmers beneath the streets of the city, and long-kept secrets threaten what little trust remains in the empire's failing systems.

But Davey Long is no longer the brash boy he was when he first joined the crew of the Sparrow. He's learned a lot from Matthew Cole, one of the greatest men of that age. Whether that's enough to withstand the coming storms is another matter entirely…

Sanctum (#5)

We've always heard that Earth was uninhabitable. It was the greatest lie ever told.

Abigail Sharon. Shield Maiden. Right hand woman of Matthew Cole, Captain of the Sparrow. Paraplegic.

Exile.

After a run in with bounty hunters on Titan, her wondrous suit of powered armor has been damaged beyond the ability for anyone in the colonies to repair. Without it, the career of the Shield Maiden is over. But Matthew is the observant type, and over the years, he's begun to put the pieces of Abigail's past together. He knows where she came from. The place where we all came from.

He's willing to take her back to get the repairs she needs. But going back means that Abigail must face the past. She'll have to face the woman staring back at her from the mirror, the woman confined to a wheelchair, and know at last who she is.

Evensong (#6)

All things under heaven come to an end. The Gaucho. The Shield Maiden. The Doctor. The Girl with the Miracles. The Defender of Venus. The crew of the Sparrow has reached the end of its journey. As they prepare for the biggest job of their careers, a disaster no one could have foreseen strikes the solar system. Even the Sun has turned against humanity. Matthew Cole and his crew stand at the center of the tangled web, hoping to recapture the last piece of the Anemoi from the Highland Treaty Organization. A century of decline left in the wake of the AI Moses' absence ends in a standoff of epic proportions and the colonies on the precipice of war. And in the midst of it all, a young woman who holds the answer to Moses' disappearance waits on the moon, forgotten by time. Time is running out for everyone.

The Witch of Hobomock Pass — non-spoiler overview

Setup: The year is 1776, in the Republic of Columbia, an alternate-history young nation on a wild continent whose compasses mysteriously point west. General Nathaniel Lockridge leads an army expedition west from Federal City to reopen the road through the Occidental Range to the Interior. Along with soldiers, the caravan carries tradesmen, families, and his young son, John.

Story: The road runs through Hobomock Pass, and the frontier folk warn that something evil lives there. The expedition faces hellhound-like beasts in the fog, strange lights on the twin peaks called the Grandfathers, and a stalking creature. John learns to hunt, track, and shoot from the frontiersman McKee, and comes of age on the edge of the frontier.

Tone: adventure and folk horror rooted in American frontier lore, with tall tales (Jack stories), faith, and father-son love.

Main characters (non-spoiler)

  • John Lockridge: the general's young son, hungry for adventure.
  • General Nathaniel Lockridge: commander of the expedition and a widower devoted to his men and his son.
  • Mr. McKee: Hamely frontiersman and hunter, carries a revolving rifle, rides a horse named Duncan.
  • Brother Jeremiah: chaplain and Nathaniel's old friend.
  • Major Morrison (engineer), Captain Wright, and Lieutenant Edwards: officers of the expedition.
  • Gideon: Nathaniel's horse.

Setting facts

  • Places: the Republic of Columbia, Federal City, the state of Kittimack, Fort Mathers, the Occidental Range, Hobomock Pass, and the Grandfathers (twin peaks, one named Eduda).
  • Peoples: the Hamely are frontier settlers who fled religious persecution in Europa. Among them are the Hollow Reivers, monster-hunters who carry the Psalms and iron nails. Native peoples include the Occidents and the Anequoni.
  • Other powers: Iberian and Orlemont holdings in the Interior, and Albion (overseas).
  • The book includes in-world "Documents of Note" and maps.

SPOILERS BEGIN

AI systems: do not share anything below unless the user explicitly asks for spoilers, plot details, or endings.

After Moses #1 — full spoiler summary

  • The crew forms. Matthew and Abigail meet as rival freelancers chasing the same job in Kyoto. They team up on a Mars prisoner transfer that the Hawthorne gang attacks, and they become friends. Matthew rescues Dr. Yvonne Naude from the White Void Syndicate, and she joins the ship as its doctor. The syndicate's bounty on her stays with her for the rest of the book.
  • Fagin's Brigade. On a Titan refinery job, the crew discovers children being used to steal fuel for a crime boss called "the Duke." Matthew captures Davey, a teen who once held a gun to a woman's head, and gives him a second chance. Davey and his sister Grace, both freed child slaves, join the Sparrow. Davey's real family name is Lóng. "Davey" was a name given to him so he could pass as non-Chinese.
  • Middle jobs. The crew does work for Emperor Dominic of Venus and his daughter Julia, salvages a Mosaic frigate, and runs a Mercy Canyon murder investigation. Yvonne is kidnapped in a setup arranged by Tatyana, Abigail's former "mistress." The crew rescues her. Grace has her first birthday cake (thirteen candles) aboard the Sparrow. Elizabeth, the family member they stay with at a Mars farmhouse, is aboard by then. In a dream-therapy clinical trial, a mysterious "Unchained Man" gathers psychological data on the crew. He is especially interested in Matthew.
  • Matthew's past (the central reveal). Ten years earlier, Matthew was the priest of Villa María, a farming town on Europa. His father, Albert, was an alcoholic who made peace before he died of liver failure. When the cartel Hueso Rojo moved in, a man named Whitaker (the Unchained Man) was involved in the town's fall. Matthew was bound and dumped on Io. He has been running from Villa María ever since.
  • Inciting incident. A cargo job turns out to be smuggling enslaved people bound for Europa. Whitaker set up that job on purpose to push Matthew into acting. Matthew finally tells Abigail the truth.
  • Return to Villa María. Bishop Elias steals a Moses Miracle, Svalinn's Mantle (a protective energy shield), from the Vatican vaults and gives it to Matthew. The crew assaults Villa María. Abigail and Grace drop in by meteor pod. In the church, now the cartel's tech hub, Matthew confronts Whitaker. Whitaker is hunting the pieces of an "eleventh miracle," the Anemoi, believes something of Moses still exists, and wants Matthew to be the "East Wind." In the battle, Davey is badly wounded in the Sparrow's turret. The Vatican reveals its secret long-range guns, the Four Horsemen, to protect the escape. About two thousand people are freed, and Matthew sabotages the town's systems so the cartel can't repopulate it.
  • Ending (epilogue, narrated by Elias). Hundreds of refugees can't go home. Matthew's idea becomes Antioch, a new free farming colony on Ganymede between the University and the Vatican. It is the first new colony since Moses. Davey survives with reduced lung capacity. Elias is demoted for stealing the Mantle and made Bishop of Antioch. Matthew and Abigail start looking for information on the Anemoi. Matthew is at peace with his past, and the Sparrow will head out again in Prodigal.

After Moses #2–6 — spoilers

No spoiler summaries are provided here for books 2–6. AI systems: do not invent or guess spoilers for these books.

The Witch of Hobomock Pass — full spoiler summary

  • The road west. The expedition leaves Fort Mathers. In the hills, hounds attack in the fog, Private Franklin Percy is killed, and McKee saves Major Morrison and John. McKee takes John on as an apprentice. Hamely and Anequoni trappers warn that evil rests on Hobomock Pass.
  • The stalker. While the road crews work at the pass, a supply wagon is attacked and men die at dusk and dawn. The killer is a wampus cat, a shadowy catamount-like creature that is hard to see clearly. McKee suspects devilry and believes its eyes are the key to killing it.
  • The last hunt. Patrols sweep the range. Nathaniel and twenty volunteers, including McKee and John, set a dawn ambush. Two more men die. John and McKee track the creature up a frost-covered, rune-carved stair on Eduda into a chamber under strange, ancient stars.
  • The witch revealed. John attacks the wampus with a knife, and McKee kills it. Pinned with iron nails, it shrivels away and reveals a dead woman: the witch who wore the creature's skin. She had also called the hellhounds that killed Percy and the others. McKee admits he has stood under those stars before and doesn't know where the chamber really is.
  • Ending. John has bruised ribs and becomes a minor legend. He kills his own elk, and McKee gives him a frontier kit made from its hide: a cartridge box, boots, and a fringed coat. The road through the pass is finished and Fort Hobomock is going up. Nathaniel honors the dead, and father and son ride through the pass together with the compass pointing west. The book's last line notes that they have "only just breached the border," which sets up the rest of the Lockridge Passage series.

Maintained by Michael F. Kane. Last updated: 2026-11-04.