The bastard legion: book 1, paperback/gavin g. smith

High octane SF adventure with Smiths trademark twist Jamie Sawyer An exceptional talent Peter F Hamilton Four hundred years in the future, the most dangerous criminals are kept in suspended animation aboard prison ships and ``rehabilitated`` in a shared virtual reality environment.

But Miska Corbin, a thief and hacker with a background in black ops, has stolen one of these ships, the Hangmans Daughter , and made it her own.

Controlled by explosive collars and trained in virtual reality by the electronic ghost of a dead marine sergeant, the thieves, gangsters, murderers, and worse are transformed into Miskas own private indentured army: the Bastard Legion.

Are the mercenaries just for fun and profit, or does Miska have a hidden purpose connected to her covert past?.