A 17th-century alchemist confronts modern science with unintended and amusing results. Another sparkling addition to the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire alternate history series created by Eric Flint.

SCIENCE AND MEDICINE VS. FLIM-FLAMMERY

Thomas "the Great Stoner" Stone once performed miraculous surgery upon Phillip Theophrastus Gribbleflotz, the World’s Greatest Alchemist, using his bare hands, no anesthesia, producing no pain, and leaving no scar. It would have been wonderful if it was real.

But Dr. Tom Stone, the face of modern medicine, has been engaging in fake treatments—bringing all modern medicine into question. Phillip, who has learned a thing or two about actual science from those up-time elopers from Grantville, West Virginia, decides to go to Padua and turn his problems into Tom Stone's problems.

Meanwhile, the wily Bernardo Ponzi has assembled a team to support his evangelical touring roadshow featuring a light show, faith healing and yet more psychic surgery. Now Gribbleflotz and Stone are on a collision course with the Magnificent Ponzi, who has moved beyond showmanlike fakery to causing actual harm to many people. It’s time for Gribbleflotz and Stone to resolve their differences, debunk one of history’s greatest bunko artists, and save the reputation of modern science and medicine from ruin!

Essays by space scientists and engineers on the coolest ways and means to get humanity to the stars along with stories by an all-star assortment of talespinners abounding with Hugo and Nebula award winners: Ben Bova, Mike Resnick, Jack McDevitt, Michael Bishop, Sarah A. Hoyt and more.

Some humans may be content staying in one place, but many of us are curious about what’s beyond the next village, the next ocean, the next horizon. Are there others like us out there? How will we reach them?

Wonderful questions. Now get ready for some highly informative and entertaining answers.

Download the comprehensive Teacher’s Guide here.

UNTANGLE THE PAST TO SAVE THE FUTURE. A NEW NOVEL IN THE WORLD OF THE BEST-SELLING THE GORDIAN PROTOCOL

TIME IS RUNNING OUT

Agent Raibert Kaminski and the crew of the Transtemporal Vehicle Kleio have made a shocking discovery out in the unknown reaches of the multiverse. They've stumbled across a temporal implosion that has claimed two whole universes, and neither Raibert nor his crew can figure out what caused this calamity other than it had something to do with reckless time travel.

The Kleio speeds back to their home universe of SysGov with this dire report, but an audacious plan is put into effect before they arrive. Old colleagues of Raibert's from the Antiquities Rescue Trust, together with a version of Samuel Pepys transplanted from the 17th century into the 30th, have proposed an expedition into the past. Their goal? To branch the timeline by preventing the Plague of Justinian, one of the worst pandemics in human history.

Meanwhile, SysGov's multiverse neighbor, the xenophobic Admin, is stirring. While their ambassadors put on a friendly show, the Admin is amassing a fleet of advanced, heavily armed time machines with SysGov firmly in the crosshairs.

Time is running out for Raibert and his team. But the crew of the Kleio won't go down without a fight, no matter where—or when—the threat to their home comes from.

MEN IN BLACK AT THE REN FAIRE!

John Rast went to the Ren Faire looking for a fight. Well, a simulated fight, with blunt swords and safety equipment. But when his final opponent turns into a living, fire-breathing dragon, John finds himself in the fight of his life. It’s John or nothing stopping a disaster in its tracks—and the only real weapon at hand is his mom’s Volvo. So John decides to let it roll . . .

And that's when destiny comes to call. John is spirited away to the well-hidden base of Knight Watch, the organization that stands between humanity and the real nasties the rest of the world doesn’t know about.

Knight Watch would be John’s dream job—except for the storm goddess that destroys his parents’ house, the abandoned mall replete with too much dead, and the Fetch that aims to make John’s domain a final resting place. All this has John’s putative allies in the Knight Watch worried that John is the one bringing bad things into multiple worlds. John and his reluctant teammates have to figure out who, or what, is pulling the strings before all of Knight Watch falls prey to a well-concealed puppetmaster and far worse things enter this world.

A BRILLIANT BLEND OF MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE-LEVEL SPECULATIVE WONDER BY A WORKING SPACE SCIENTIST!

NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT

Humanity has finally made it to the stars. Colony worlds thrive and there is general peace among the settled systems. Until now. Matte black ships of an advanced design appear in colonial systems. Their drives and weapons are not extremely advanced beyond their Terran counterparts—just superior enough to be utterly devastating. Colonies and their populations are obliterated. Once settled worlds are rendered radioactive wastelands. Earth herself lies defenseless before the marauding enemy.

DEFEND THE SKIES OF EARTH

Standing against the invasion are British Space Navy Captain Winslow Price and Anika Ahuja of the Indian Space Forces. Compatriots. Fierce competitors. Former lovers. They are the best of the best when it comes to military starship captains. Now they are on a quest that will plumb the scientific wells of existence itself, where the primordial knot of spacetime may be unraveling. Price and Ahuja are sworn to do whatever it takes to defend Earth and humanity from ultimate obliteration by an enemy that will not even speak its name. Even if it pushes each to the brink of life and death in battle. Even if it leads each beyond space and time—and to edge of ultimate possibility!

TAKE THE BATTLE TO THE STARS

SPACE BATTLES AND GRIT FROM MASTER OF STARFARING ADVENTURE AND MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION DAVE BARA, AUTHOR OF THE LIGHTSHIP CHRONICLES SERIES.

REDEMPTION AT TRINITY

The Rim rebellion was glorious—and doomed from the start. Brilliant Rim Confederation Navy space ship captain Jared Clement scuttled his career and professional life by joining the rebels against the overwhelming force of the 5 Suns Alliance. The rebel cause was just. That didn’t matter. Ten years later, Clement regrets nothing, but would prefer to be left alone to his thoughts and drink. But a new chance to command a ship of incredible potential is thrust in his lap—humanity’s first truly faster-than-light vessel. The destination: Trinity, a newly discovered star system where strange signs of possible spacefarers may lead to humanity’s first alien encounter. Or to interstellar war. Humanity is on the brink of a new age, and everything depends on one crusty star ship captain, his gritty crew, and the Beauregard, a ship that was never meant to wage war turned into a weapon-bristling battleship that will either propel humanity to ultimate destruction—or into a new starfaring age of exploration and conflict. And along the way, a noble lost cause—one Captain Jared Clement—may finally get his revenge. And find his redemption.

NEW ENTRY IN THE LANDMARK LIADEN UNIVERSE® SERIES

The only bridge between past and future is a leap of faith.

Pursued by enemies, exiled Liaden clan Korval is settling into a new base on backworld Surebleak. Moving is expensive, as is war, and Korval is strapped for cash. Delm Korval has therefore instructed Master Trader Shan yos'Galan to design and implement new trade routes, quickly.

But this is no easy task. Dutiful Passage is targeted by Korval's enemies, denied docking at respectable ports, and cheated at those less respectable. Struggling to recuperate from an attack on his life, while managing daughter Padi’s emerging psychic talents, Shan is running out of options—and time. His quest to establish the all-important trade route puts him at odds with his lifemate, while doubting crew desert the ship. Facing the prospect of failure, Shan accepts the assistance of chancy allies and turns the Passage toward a port only just emerging from Rostov's Dust and awash with strange energies.

Without trade, Clan Korval will starve. Will a trader's leap of faith save everything—or doom all?

TALES OF THE WAR THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

What if the United States had gone to war with the Soviet Union? What if these rival superpowers had fought on land, sea, air, and the astral plane? What if the Soviets and Americans had struggled for dominion across parallel dimensions or on the surface of the moon? How would the world have changed? What wonders would have been unveiled? What terrors would have haunted mankind from those dark and dismal dimensions? Come closer, peer through a glass darkly, and discover the horrifying alternative visions of World War III from some of today’s greatest minds in science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Includes new stories by David Drake, Brad R. Torgersen, Mike Resnick, Sarah A. Hoyt, and many more!

NEW FICTION AND CLASSICS OF THE GENRE COLLECTED BY THE EDITORIAL TEAM BEHIND SPACE PIONEERS AND OVERRULED!

SPACE PIRATES!

Words that conjure up rousing tales of adventure, derring-do, brave heroes battling the scurvy vermin of the galaxy. Those vermin have taken to pillaging cargo ships and, even worse, space liners, relieving the helpless passengers of their valuables, and worse with the comely women passengers, then spacing the lot—unless one or more of the aforementioned brave heroes arrive in the nick of time, and turn the tables, making the spaceways safe again for the innocent and helpless. On the other hand, perhaps the pirate captain is a woman, and it’s the comely male passengers who need rescuing. And on the third hand (we’re talking space pirates here, possibly aliens with four or more arms), perhaps those ships traversing the interstellar void are not so innocent, and the pirates, fighting an evil despotic star empire and defending the freedom of the space lanes, are the good guys and gals. The possibilities are many, and the daring exploits set the blood racing in the veins of any reader with even a trace of buccaneering spirit in their hidden self.

So board a battered but spaceworthy fighting starship with such star-spanning and award-winning crewmates as Robert Silverberg, Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, Larry Niven, Fritz Leiber, and Sarah A. Hoyt, plus James H. Schmitz, James Blish, Gregory Benford, and more, and set sail—er, thrusters—for a universe of freebooting adventure!

NEW EPIC FANTASY FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR CHARLES E. GANNON. A young man must face dangers from without and within—and question everything he believes to be true.

Since boyhood, Druadaen expected he’d ascend to the command of an elite legion and become the leader his father predicted he would be. However, fate had something different in store.

Assigned instead to a small group of outriders tasked with watching nearby kingdoms, Druadaen discovers that the world beyond his homeland is riddled with impossibilities. How do humanoid raiders, known as the Bent, suffer staggering losses and yet return as a vast horde every decade? How do multi-ton dragons fly? How have fossils formed in a world which sacrists insist has existed for only ten millennia?

Determined to solve these mysteries, Druadaen journeys into the dank warrens of the Bent, seeks out a dragon’s lair, and ventures into long-buried ruins in search of ancient scrolls. But, whereas legends tell of heroes who encounter their greatest perils during just such forays into the unknown, Druadaen’s most lethal enemies might lurk in even more unusual places:

The temples and council chambers of his own homeland.

ALL-NEW STORIES TAKE THE WILD, WILD WEST TO THE FINAL FRONTIER

An actual wagon train to space?

Gunslinging cowpokes riding in rickety rocketships?

What isn’t possible when you mix science fiction and Westerns?

The final frontier ain’t so final in these 12 tales of space exploration and adventure: each a timeless yarn told around the warm glow of a nuclear reactor just before it goes supernova. There’s a story for everyone who’s ever dreamed of traveling the stars.

From the lone stranger who flies into town to help a widow and her daughter to the alien rancher trying to pose as human, they are familiar, yet with completely new twists. Take the pair of mercenaries who sign on to stop a mining camp insurrection only to discover they might be on the wrong side of the revolution, or the prospector who finds the strike of a lifetime but ends up stranded on a barren moon without hope of rescue. And if that’s not enough to catch your fancy, then how about a cloned Doc Holliday making his way in a future where both sickness and gambling are ancient history?

Assembled inside are the biggest names in science fiction, taking you to the farthest reaches of the galaxy like they’ve never done before. Elizabeth Moon, Alan Dean Foster, Jane Lindskold, and Wil McCarthy are some of the exciting yarn-spinners inside. So get ready to hit the hyper-thrusters as you set course for adventure, mystery, romance, and two-lasergun slinging action!

Featuring Elizabeth Moon, Alan Dean Foster, Jane Lindskold, Wil McCarthy, Gini Koch, Martin Shoemaker, Cat Rambo with J.R. Martin, Alastair Mayer, Alex Shvartsman, Patrick Swenson, and Michael L. Haspil. Edited by David Boop (Straight Outta Tombstone).

Unleash the Fury!

Zhikotse. Shallingsport. Louvain. Sacred fields of battle on far-flung worlds where warriors of the Imperial Cadre spent blood and lives defending human civilization. Alicia DeVries was there; she led the charge. Her reward Betrayal by a deceitful empire. Retirement to obscurity.

Now Alicia is the only survivor of a brutal attack on her frontier-world family. Not since the mighty Achilles has the ancient spirit of the Fury Tisiphone taken up residence inside a human being. But not since Achilles has a warrior so skilled, so implacable, and possessing so much battle sense sprung up among the mass of humankind. Hero of the Empire. Holder of the Banner of Terra.

There is a blood price to be paid. The Fury has awakened.

An elite warrior in a line stretching to the U.S. Marines of old Earth is born and comes into her power in a mega-novel of heroism and adventure by multiple New York Times best-seller David Weber, creator of the Honor Harrington saga!

Praise for David Weber

"[P]acks enough punch to blast a starship to smithereens."
—Publishers Weekly on David Weber's mega-selling "Honorverse" series.

"Weber's descriptions of space combat remain magnificent."
—Sci-Fi Weekly

THE BATTLE FOR THE NEW WORLD IS A FIGHT TO THE FINISH! A NEW RING OF FIRE NOVEL BY BEST-SELLING WRITING TEAM ERIC FLINT AND CHARLES E. GANNON

A New Day in the New World

It’s 1637 in the Caribbean. Commander Eddie Cantrell and his ally and friend Admiral Martin Tromp start it off with some nasty surprises for Spain, whose centuries-long exploitation and rapine of the New World has run unchecked. Until now.

Yet life goes on in the Caribbean. Relationships among the allied Dutch, Swedes, Germans, up-timers, and even Irish mercenaries continue to evolve and deepen. New friendships must be forged with the native peoples, who will not only shape the colonists’ future in the Caribbean, but will also decide whether they will be given access to a Louisiana oilfield that could change the balance of power.

But for now, the only oil Imperial Spain knows about is the crude pouring out of the Allies’ pumps on Trinidad—which threatens its interests in both the New and the Old Worlds. So, following in the footsteps of the conquistadors, the empire’s commanders are resolved to show that they do not take threats lightly or lying down. Indeed, their historical reaction is to respond with overwhelming—and often genocidal—force.

The battle for the New World has not merely begun; it is a fight to the finish.

DRAGON AWARD–NOMINATED SERIES. New entry in the Witchy War series, blending alternate history, Appalachian Folklore, and epic fantasy.

Sarah Calhoun has taken her father’s throne and ascended into her goddess’s presence in Unfallen Eden as her father never did.

And Sarah Calhoun is dying.

Her uncle Thomas Penn isn’t done with her. Armed with new powers conferred upon him by the Necromancer and with new allies won via his impending marriage, Penn aims to remove Sarah from her throne—and from the world of the living. In the meantime, Sarah has fallen out with one of her best allies. Against Sarah’s advice, her brother Nathaniel heads into Imperial Philadelphia with the reckless and likely impossible aim of healing the Emperor Thomas.

On the shores of the northern seas, agents of Franklin’s Conventicle with an unlikely connection to the Emperor struggle to win allies among the pole-dwelling giants, who are torn between seizing land covertly from the Firstborn of the Ohio and entering the war openly on the side of Simon Sword. In the west, the Heron King rides an explosive storm into war, crushing the mortal kingdoms in his path and bearing down on Sarah’s Cahokia.

To survive—and to gain the strength she needs to fight this impossible war—Sarah must unite the Moundbuilder kings to enact an ancient rite that will propel her beyond mortality. To do so, she must not only win over doubters among the Firstborn kings, but she must also beat back a rebellion among the Handmaids of her goddess—for there are some of the goddess’s priestesses who long for the dark days of human sacrifice, and who are willing to throw Sarah herself upon the altar.

THE NEW WORLD FALLS INTO THE RING OF FIRE. All new stories set in the Ring of Fire series, edited by New York Times best-selling series creator Eric Flint.

Europe, 1632. It is a time of upheaval and great change. But none so great as when an unexplained temporal and spatial phenomenon known as the Ring of Fire transports the blue collar town of Grantville, West Virginia, smack dab in the middle of the Thirty Years War. When the dust settles, it becomes clear that the town of Grantville isn't going anywhere, and the can-do Americans of the twenty-first century begin altering the course of history forever.

It is now five years later, and the effects of the Ring of Fire reach from the Old World to the New. But the course of exploration and colonization will look much different than it did in our timeline. The French bought the English possessions in North America way back in 1633, but have never done much with the uncivilized backwater. Until the new king of France, Gaston I, decides that it's time to seize the territory and establish French control over it.

Here then, a new anthology, edited by Ring of Fire series creator Eric Flint, chronicling the exploits of the citizens of Grantville, their allies, and their enemies, as they venture forth onto a new continent.

This short novel plus 7 bonus stories in the Ring of Fire!

NEW STORIES IN THE GRAND SPACE FANTASY TRADITION!

SCIENCE FICTION? FANTASY? IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR BOTH?

The distant future—like the distant past—is a place of myths, of legends, and of great heroes. Cyborg knights battle extraterrestrial demons to rescue a peaceful village. A young girl unlocks an ancient power to protect her world from offworld colonists. Here are stories not where magic is science, but with magic and science. Not knights and castles, but knights and starships. Wizards and ray guns. Swords and planets.

In D.J. Butler’s “Power and Prestige,” a pair of two-bit mercenaries are hired to solve a murder in a labyrinth beneath a crumbling city at the end of time. A young knight must face down an alien menace and awaken the power within in R.R. Virdi’s “A Knight Luminary,” and in “Saving the Emperor” Simon R. Green takes us deep into the Imperial City of Virimonde . . . and offers a glimpse at how the Deathstalker clan rose to power and fame.

Plus tales from Tim Akers, Jessica Cluess, Hinkley Correia, L.J. Hachmeister, Susan R. Matthews, T.C. McCarthy, Jody Lynn Nye, Tom Toner . . . plus a new world from Warhammer 40,000 author Peter Fehervari, and a new chapter in the Sun Eater saga from Christopher Ruocchio.

Contributors:
Tim Akers
D.J. Butler
Jessica Cluess
Hinkley Correia
Peter Fehervari
Simon R. Green
L.J. Hachmeister
Susan R. Matthews
T.C. McCarthy
Jody Lynn Nye
Christopher Ruocchio
Tom Toner
R.R. Virdi

A Liaden Universe^® Novel

Each person shall provide his clan of origin with a child of his blood, who will be raised by the clan and belong to the clan. And this shall be Law for every person of every clan . . .

Master trader Er Thom knows the local custom of Liaden is to be matched with a proper bride, and provide his prominent clan Korval with an heir. Yet his heart is immersed in another universe, influenced by another culture, and lost to a woman not of his world. And to take a Terran wife such as scholar Anne Davis is to risk his honor and reputation. But when he discovers that their brief encounter years before has resulted in the birth of a child, even more is at stake than anyone imagined. Now, an interstellar scandal has erupted, a bitter war between two families—galaxies apart—has begun, and the only hope for Er Thom and Anne is a sacrifice neither is prepared to make . . .

"I READ UNTIL MY HANDS FROZE... One of the never-failing joys of [Local Custom] is the crisp language, the well-turned phrases, the very exciting action, not to mention the confrontation of two vastly different cultures."
—Anne McCaffrey

"I was mesmerized, awed, and totally entertained. I am hooked by the Liaden world. Bravo!" —Mary Balogh

"Lee and Miller strike space opera gold" —Robin Wayne Bailey

TO SAVE THE GALAXY, A DEAD HERO MUST RISE AGAIN! NEWLY REVISED AND EXPANDED NOVEL SET IN THE TRAVELLER UNIVERSE FROM LEGENDARY GAME DESIGNER MARC MILLER

Jonathan Bland is a Decider, empowered by the Emperor himself to deal with the inevitable crises of an empire. In the service of the Empire, he has killed more people than anyone in the history of Humanity, to save a hundred times as many. He died centuries ago, but they reactivate his recorded personality whenever a new threat appears. When the crisis is over, they expect he will meekly return to oblivion.

He has other ideas.

The chronicle of Bland reveals secrets of the history of the star-spanning Third Imperium and spans 400 years from early Imperium (about year 300) through the mid-post Civil War period (about year 700) touching known and unknown events you may have encountered in your own reading of the Imperium: everyday events, political intrigue, deadly dangers, Arbellatra, Capital, Encyclopediopolis, the Karand's Palace, and a Tigress-class Dreadnought.

If you know the Traveller science-fiction role-playing game, then some of this is already familiar; if not, no matter—this story introduces the vast human-dominated interstellar empire of the far future in ways only the designer and chronicler of this particular universe can.

AWARD-WINNING AND BEST-SELLING AUTHORS CONTRIBUTE NEW STORIES: All-new fiction from Dragon Award winner and New York Times best-selling author David Weber, Dragon Award nominee D.J. Butler, best seller Jody Lynn Nye, indie best sellers Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey, and more. Also featuring an introduction by multi-award-winning and New York Times best-selling author Larry Correia.

It is 2185 CE. Humans now live throughout the Solar System, but their most ambitious adventure is about to begin. The starship Victoria will carry over 10,000 colonists to a new world outside the solar system. The larger-than-life exploits of those colonists will become legendary. The colonists will build a new civilization, and the actions of a few individuals will become famous—and infamous—forever marking their new colony with the Founder Effect.

Contributors:
Larry Correia
Mark H. Wandrey
Les Johnson
Christopher L. Smith
David Weber
Daniel M. Hoyt
Brad R. Torgersen
Monalisa Foster
Sarah A. Hoyt
Chris Kennedy
Vivienne Raper
Jody Lynn Nye
Brent M. Roeder
Catherine L. Smith
Philip Wohlrab
D.J. Butler

A relic of humanity’s violent past, this old weapon stands ready for the Emperor to wield.

The Galactic Imperium of the Myriad Worlds slumps into centuries of decadent peace enabled by a flood of advanced technology from the mysterious nonhuman “Shapers.” Among the great Families, only the once-mighty clan of Sinclair-Maru remembers the maxims of the warrior Emperor, Yung I, ready to defend the Imperium from any threat.

Stubbornly clinging to the Honor Code, Family prodigy Saef Sinclair-Maru finds himself in command of an outmoded, under-equipped frigate of the Imperial Fleet. With spies and assassins on every side, trusting only in his considerable skill and the bizarre competence of his companion, Inga, Saef must complete his mission, restore the greatness of his Family, and uncover the chilling plot meant to extinguish humanity’s light from the galaxy.

A CLASSIC NOVEL IN THE PIRATE PLANETS SERIES FROM SF MASTER ANNE MCCAFFREY AND ELIZABETH MOON

The fate of the galaxy is placed in the hands of Lunzie, who discovers the true nature of three friends: Fordeliton, who is dying of a mysterious poison; Dupaynil, who is exiled; and Aygar, who tries to prove himself.

TIME TRAVEL ALTERNATE HISTORY FROM A MASTER. A new tale of time-displaced persons fighting for their lives in the ancient world, from 1632 and Boundary series creator Eric Flint.

It’s been more than a year since the cruise ship Queen of the Sea was transported in time and space to the ancient Mediterranean not long after the death of Alexander the Great.

Captain Lars Floden and the other “Ship People” are trying to plant the seeds of modern civilization. It’s not an easy task, to put it mildly, even if they have a tacit alliance with the co-regents of Alexander’s empire, his widow Roxane, and Eurydice, the wife of his half-brother.

For they have plenty of enemies, too. Cassander is using every foul means available to turn Macedonia and Greece into his own empire. The brutal general Antigonus One-Eye is doing the same in Mesopotamia. And Ptolemy, the cleverest of them all, is expanding his Egyptian realm to the Red Sea.

Things aren’t any easier in the colony that passengers from the cruise ship founded on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. President Allen Wiley is trying to build a twenty-first century democratic nation, but the people he has to work with aren’t the most suitable for the task: oldsters from the future, local tribesmen, and third-century BCE immigrants from Europe and Africa.

War, religious strife, assassinations, espionage, poisonings and other murders—and a fair amount of love, too—all mix together with the Ship People's knowledge from the twenty-first century to form a new weaving of the fates. Hopefully, that will lead to a bright new future. If it doesn't kill everyone first.

BUILD-A-BEAR WORKSHOP MEETS JURASSIC PARK WHEN A NEWLY GRADUATED GENETIC ENGINEER GOES TO WORK FOR A COMPANY THAT AIMS TO PRODUCE CUSTOM-MADE DRAGONS

Noah Parker, a newly minted Ph.D., is thrilled to land a dream job at Reptilian Corp., the hottest tech company in the American Southwest. He’s eager to put his genetic engineering expertise to use designing new lines of Reptilian’s feature product: living, breathing dragons.

Although highly specialized dragons have been used for industrial purposes for years, Reptilian is desperate to crack the general retail market. By creating a dragon that can be the perfect family pet, Reptilian hopes to put a dragon into every home.

While Noah’s research may help Reptilian create truly domesticated dragons, Noah has a secret goal. With his access to the company’s equipment and resources, Noah plans to slip changes into the dragons’ genetic code, bending the company’s products to another purpose entirely . . .

A CLASSIC OF HARD SF FROM WIL MCCARTHY. Back in print and just as relevant as ever! Exploring what the economics of abundance will really look like.

Humanity has conquered the Solar System. What’s more, death itself has been vanquished. Wellstone—programmable matter—insures that no one need ever die, or indeed, age past adulthood. But for the children of immortal parents, life remains a constant state of arrested development. And a prince shall remain a prince forever, never inheriting the throne. So what is a minor royal to do?

Bascal Edward de Towaji Lutui is tired of his parents—the Queen of Sol and her consort—treating his complaints as so much teenage whining. Exiled to a “summer camp” on a planette, where he will be out of his royal mother’s hair, he decides to do something about his lot in life. Along with his fellow malcontents, he manages to make an improbable spaceship and set out for the far reaches of the colonized space. With hijacked weapons and programmable matter at their disposal, Bascal Edward de Towaji Lutui and his companions are set to prove themselves a force to be reckoned with.

Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans.

STORYTELLING ON AN EPIC SCALE

For more than thirty years, the Liaden Universe® novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have captivated readers with their unique blend of action adventure, science fiction, and interpersonal relationships. In addition to twenty-one novels (and counting), Lee and Miller have written dozens of shorter works based in the Liaden Universe®, featuring the strong characterization, detailed worldbuilding, wit, and derring-do that readers of the series adore.

Sure to delight longtime fans and newcomers alike, these tales highlight why the nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados, with amazing settings, strong characterizations, compelling romance, and edge-of-the-chair action in stories that range from cosmic to comic.

NEW FANTASY FROM BEST-SELLING AUTHOR JANE LINDSKOLD

Instead of mentors, they got monsters . . .

That’s what Xerak, Vereez, and Grunwold think when three strange creatures shimmer into being within the circle of Hettua Shrine. Their conclusion is reasonable enough. After all, they’ve never seen humans before.

As for Margaret Blake, Peg Gallegos, and Tessa Brown—more usually known as Meg, Peg, and Teg—they’re equally astonished but, oddly enough, better prepared. Age and experience have accustomed them to surprises. A widely varied course of reading material has intellectually prepared them for the idea that other worlds, even worlds where people with traits more commonly ascribed to “animals” may exist.

Then there is the mysterious verse that Teg speaks as they arrive, words that seem to indicate that the Shrine must have been at least partially responding to the request made of it.

Despite doubts on all sides, the three unlikely mentors join forces with the three young “inquisitors” and venture out into the world Peg dubs “Over Where.” First they must find the Library of the Sapphire Wind, destroyed years before.

Will they find answers there, or is this only the first stage in their search?

THRILLING SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURE FROM BEST-SELLING AUTHORS LARRY CORREIA AND JOHN BROWN

The Heart of a Warrior

Once, Jackson Rook was a war hero. Raised from boyhood to pilot an exosuit mech, he’d fought gallantly for the rebellion against the Collectivists. But that was a long time ago, on a world very far away.

Now, Jackson Rook is a criminal, a smuggler on board the Multipurpose Supply Vehicle Tar Heel. His latest mission: steal a top-of-the-line mech called the Citadel and deliver it to the far-flung planet Swindle, a world so hostile even the air will kill you. The client: a man known only as the Warlord. Rook has been in the smuggling business long enough to know that it’s best to take the money and not ask questions. But Rook cannot stand by and watch as the Warlord runs roughshod over the citizens of Swindle, the way the Collectivists did on his homeworld. For all his mercenary ways, Rook is not a pirate. And deep within the smuggler, the heart of a warrior still beats.

A YOUNG GIRL MUST INFILTRATE THE HOME WORLD OF HUMANITY'S GREATEST ENEMIES. New space opera from former CIA weapons expert T.C. McCarthy.

San Kyarr is a noviate within a secretive holy order tasked by Fleet to infiltrate the home world of mankind’s most dangerous enemy: the Sommen. If caught, her mission could bring war to Earth—long before its forces are ready.

When a competing faction within Fleet learns of the clandestine assignment and sends her own brother to destroy her, San is set on a journey toward destinies far greater than she ever imagined. As she evolves into a mysterious woman with the powers to send and receive quantum messages, she achieves humanity’s most unattainable dream of instantaneous interstellar communication.

NEW STORIES OF FUTURE WARFARE FROM THE HOTTEST NAMES IN SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND HORROR

TALES OF THE WAR BEYOND THE NEXT

What if there were a war after Armageddon? How would the survivors emerging from World War III’s radioactive slag heaps fight in this conflict? Would they wage it with sticks and stones . . . and sorcery? Or would they use more refined weapons, elevating lawfare to an art and unleashing bureaucratic nightmares worse than death? Would they struggle against themselves or inter-dimensional invaders? What horrors from the desolate darkness might slither into the light? Wipe away the ashes of civilization and peer into a pit of atomic glass to witness the haunting visions of World War IV from today’s greatest minds in science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Contributors include:
Jonathan Maberry
Steven Barnes
D.J. Butler
Brad R. Torgersen
Martin L. Shoemaker
T.C. McCarthy
Eric James Stone
Stephen Lawson
Freddy Costello and Michael Z. Williamson
Laird Barron
Nick Mamatas
Brian Trent
Erica L. Satifka
Kevin Andrew Murphy
Maurice Broaddus and Rodney Carlstrom
David VonAllmen
Deborah A. Wolf
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Julie Frost
Weston Ochse
John Langan

A NEW NOVEL IN JOHN RINGO'S BEST-SELLING BLACK TIDE RISING SERIES BY NEBULA- AND DRAGON AWARD–NOMINATED AUTHOR CHARLES E. GANNON

It was supposed to be fun. Six teenagers and their British captain aboard the ketch Crosscurrent Voyager, headed on a senior year summer cruise to excitement and adventure. Then the world as they knew it ended.

A plague spread throughout the globe, killing millions and turning the survivors into cannibalistic rage monsters—zombies, in so many words. Only by putting aside their differences were the young crew able to survive.

Now, they seek others like them, those fortunate souls who have made it through the zombie apocalypse. After all, maybe it's not the end of the world so long as GPS can help survivors navigate deadly terrain, to link up, and maybe—just maybe—ensure the continuation of the human race.

But the Earth’s GPS systems are failing. It falls to those aboard the Crosscurrent Voyager to keep the unthinkable from happening. In order to do so, they must traverse dangerous seas to a European Space Agency complex in French Guiana.

And thousands of infected stand in the way.

If they succeed, humankind has a chance of rebuilding. If they fail, humanity may well be at the end of its journey.

EVEN GHOSTS NEED HELP FROM A CUNNING MAN. A new novel in the Cunning Man series from Dragon Award-nominated author D.J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey.

Hiram and his son Michael are dowsing a well in Eastern Utah when they hear a cry of help from the ghost of a small boy, torn to pieces by wild animals. Before they can even begin to look into that tragedy, however, a prosperous local rancher is murdered right before their eyes.

In an attempt to both help the ghost and find the killer, Hiram and Michael must navigate an eccentric cast of characters that includes failed bank robbers, a seductive fortune-teller, an inept sheriff, a crazy prospector, and a preacher with an apocalyptic grudge against the Roosevelt administration.

The mystery, however, isn’t just in the hearts of men. There’s an astrological puzzle that Michael, now his father’s apprentice, must solve. Meanwhile, the murderer is moving slowly against Hiram and Michael, forcing them into a trap from which there is no escape.

NEW FANTASY FROM BEST-SELLING AUTHOR JANE LINDSKOLD

Can it get any stranger? Absolutely!

When Peg, Meg, and Teg were first summoned Over Where, vast and varied life experience (along with wide reading choices) helped them adjust to a world where they were the only humans, magic was real, ships could fly, and reincarnation was a confirmed fact.

In the company of the “inquisitors,” Xerak, Grunwold, and Vereez, the three newly appointed mentors rediscovered the Library of the Sapphire Wind, and, within it, revelations that transformed the young people’s pasts into a vast tangle of lies and half-truths.

But there are still questions to be answered. Before they are done, Meg the retired librarian, Teg the archeologist-turned-mage, and the multi-talented, ever surprising Peg will deal with kidnappings, betrayal, arcane artifacts, romantic intrigues, and the inescapable reality that past lives cast long shadows.

Together, the three mentors and their young allies will uncover the startling truth about what lies on the other side of the Aurora Borealis Bridge—a truth that holds the secret of Over Where, and that will change all their lives forever.

NEW AND CLASSIC STORIES OF TIME TRAVEL MILITARY SF

BATTLEZONE: ETERNITY

Once, military actions were entirely two dimensional, confined to the surface of land and sea, but then submarines and aircraft added a third dimension, vastly extended by spaceflight. Now, consider that if time travel is possible, the fourth dimension of time opens up new possibilities for combat, necessitating new defenses, new strategies and tactics. A battle that was once decisively won might be refought, or a narrow victory might be subtly tilted to the other side. Never mind the history books, they’re only works in progress. There might be even more than four dimensions involved, if parallel universes and alternate realities exist and can be accessed. Imagine a universe where Rome never fell and its troops want to do something about our universe, where it did fall. Or another where more recent wars turned out very differently. Battle is a recurrent motif in the Earth of this universe, and would alternate realities be different or all too similar, with the tune the same, but different lyrics. Supplying the lyrics for spacetime combat in these pages is an all-star general staff including Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson, Fritz Leiber, John C. Wright, H. Beam Piper and more. It’s zero hour, in whatever time stream, so grab your time-appropriate weapon, be it sword or ray blaster, buckle on your general issue timeporter belt, and follow the Time Troopers into action across strange aeons!

A NEW NOVEL OF REAL SF FROM WIL McCARTHY

Space: a tycoon's playground. From a space station full of women to a monastery on the Moon, from a Martian reality-TV contest to a solar shade large enough to cool the Earth, the dreams of a handful of trillionaires dictate the future of humanity. Outside the reach of Earthly law and with the vast resources of the inner solar system at their disposal, the “Four Horsemen” do exactly as they please.

The governments of Earth are not amused; an international team of elite military women, masquerading as space colonists, are set to infiltrate and neutralize the largest and most dangerous project in human history. But nothing is that simple when rich men control the sky, as everyone involved is about to discover.

NEW ENTRY IN THE BEST-SELLING RING OF FIRE SERIES FROM NEBULA AND DRAGON AWARD NOMINEE CHARLES E. GANNON AND ROBERT WATERS

Domingos Fernandes Calabar started out as a military advisor for the Portuguese in Brazil. But to his superiors, he was still nothing more than a mameluco, a man of mixed blood. Until, that is, the Dutch arrived and he switched sides. Then the Portuguese had a new label for him: “traitorous dog.”

But when Dutch admiral Maarten Tromp arrives, having barely survived the disastrous Battle of Dunkirk, Calabar’s job changes again. Now he has to help engineer a swift Dutch exodus to a safer place before word of Tromp’s defeat reaches Spanish ears. Partnered with the Sephardic pirate Moses Cohen Henriques, the two aid the battered Dutch fleet by striking at the Portuguese and Spanish, both on land and sea. Until, that is, Calabar learns that bitter personal enemies have grabbed his family, put them in chains, and sold them to a slaveship bound for the Spanish Main.

Calabar must now choose: continue to help the Dutch, or save his wife and children? Tromp and other strong allies want to put an end to slavery, too, but their strategies and timetable are measured in months and years. Calabar doesn’t have that kind of time and can’t rely on their methods. The struggle to recover his family, and to free the millions more suffering in shackles, is one he must win in his own way and on his own terms. Because ultimately, this is not just  Calabar’s fight.

This is Calabar’s war.