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The Water Bear: Book One of the Water Bear Trilogy
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 21 2026
Pages: 424
Weight: 1.24
Height: 0.86 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The Water Bear
The year is 2075. The people of Earth have been prevented from destroying their own planet. While protestors burn cars in the street, Ophelia Box - Scottish, a historian, entirely the wrong person for the job - is recruited into a covert peacekeeping unit whose mission is to prevent a genocide.
The problem is the genocide is in the past.
Her companions are soldiers of the Po, the special forces of the human galaxy. Their clever and deceptive ship is called the Water Bear.
A long time ago... he began, and Box could see the children were rapt. They were sat in a semicircle, with the debutantes in front of the fire, and the robot Chance on the other side. Somehow, the cold had receded, and they were all sitting comfortably.
...in a place called the Real, on a planet called Earth, I fought a mechanical spider.
A story about soldiers: not how they kill, but what they protect, and what they are forced to become.
One thing soldiers struggle to find is peace, Dr. Box. We do rough work sometimes. Rough on the people who do it. Rough on the people who have it done to them.
Space opera of epic scale. Kaleidoscopic in structure, literary in ambition, breakneck in pace.
Perfect for fans of Iain M. Banks, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ann Leckie, and China Miéville.
Praise for The Water Bear:
At once absolutely bonkers and perfectly wonderful.
This book blends science, fiction, dream-like realities, and a beguiling sense of intrigue.
I can't recall a science fiction novel in which so many characters created a lasting impression on me.
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