Children No More — Mark L. Van Name

No child should ever be a soldier.

Jon Moore knew that better than most, having learned to fight to survive before he'd hit puberty. So when a former comrade, Alissa Lim, asks for his help in rescuing a group of children pressed into service by rebels on a planet no one cares to save, he agrees. Only later does he realize he's signed up to do far more than he'd ever imagined.

Jon's commitment hurtles him and Lobo, the hyper-intelligent assault vehicle who is his only real friend, into confrontations with the horrors the children have experienced and with a dark chapter from his past. The mission grows ever more complicated as they deal with:

· An assault on a rebel fortress deep in the jungle

· A government whose full agenda is never clear

· A woman Jon once loved and who still loves him -- but who will sacrifice anything for her cause

· The best con man they've ever known

· And, toughest of all, their own demons, as we learn for the first time what happened after his home planet's government yanked Jon's sister out of his life

Jon and Lobo rush straight into the darkness at the heart of humanity to save a group of child soldiers -- and then face an even tougher challenge:

When we've trained our children to kill, what do we do with them when the fighting is over?