Ex-god Royal has a bone to pick with the human race. In his previous form, charismatic Royal and his surly partner Moon all but saved the forty worlds of the Collectorate from destruction. Their reward? Desert exile on Azteca to live as humans. No public gratitude. History rewritten. Seriously. Doesn't anyone respect a god? Royal and Moon intend to leave their meager existence behind someday and recapture the old glory (random galactic chaos), but building an interstellar criminal network requires millions of credits. Assassinating the enemies of the Collectorate's paranoid President pays well, yet the jobs are few. Circumstance brings them to the tiny town of Desperido, where life - and a world of secrets - plays out beneath the desert's red dust. Royal, ever the shape-shifting visionary (narcissist, some might say) conjures an exciting new path forward. First, the former deities will have to deal with enemies in their midst as well as the Horax, one of the planet's most powerful criminal syndicates. Prepare for a wild ride with a healthy dose of snark in the opening stanza of a five-book serial, "Gods and Assassins." Pistols draw, rifles blast, traitors abound, conspiracies arise, wormholes open, and whiskey flows.