The Naplian Empire’s war of expansion against the Grand Alliance has taken a turn for the worse.

With vital serjaum fuel reserves wiped out by a surprise attack, Admiral Daviont of the III Corps makes a long, desperate journey to the fringes of Terran space for a massive undeveloped source of serjaum—the Baedecker Star System. But his action does not go unnoticed. Their mortal enemies, the Briddarri, send their own task force to intercept.

At Baedecker Four, starfighter pilot and governor’s son Taggart “Tag” Wester has his hands full steering clear of his wing commander’s wrath. When an emergency call unearths a dangerous foe from the past, he’s put to a test unlike any he’s ever faced—one of courage, and leadership. The time for bucking the rules and chasing the horizon has come to an end.

Elden Selva is on a mission to restore power to the defeated Northern Alliance, by retrieving the remains of Truppen cybernetic soldiers. He has only his father’s legacy as consul to drive him in his deceit, but the bond with a friend he thought he’d never see again complicates his motivations. What he finds on the dusty plains of Baedecker Four is far more than he anticipated, and the ensuing conflict changes both him and the woman he loves.

For the Truppen are not gone. The last remnants of the Northern Alliance await reactivation, quiet in the depths of space, and their release will trigger a new kind of conflict.

The invaders and defenders collide in a struggle that will not only shape their lives, but have dire consequences for the entire galaxy.

Empires will conquer, and kingdoms will fall. Heroes will rise and nightmares will be forged.

It all begins at Baedecker.

Attending your first convention as a professional writer? Don’t know what opportunities are out there for you? How do you get invited? How do you approach editors? How do you deal with fans who love your book and those who haven’t read it yet? Jody Lynn Nye and Bill Fawcett have answers to the questions you don’t even know you have. From how to approach a convention committee to how to handle yourself on panels and signings, this book will give you an expert’s perspective on how to make the most of a convention.

Mike Resnick wrote 59 Ask Bwana columns for the multiple Hugo nominee Speculations in the 1990s. He has expanded and updated his answers in this new column, as well as including a few brand-new Ask Bwana columns he recently ran on his website. The field has changed enormously, especially in the area of electronic publishing, and this new version addresses problems that didn’t even exist the first time around.

In Clockwork Angels, #1 bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and legendary Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart created a fabulous, adventurous steampunk world in a novel to accompany the smash Rush concept album of the same name. It was a world of airships and alchemy, clockwork carnivals, pirates, lost cities, a rigid Watchmaker who controlled every aspect of life, and his nemesis, the ruthless and violent Anarchist who wanted to destroy it all.

Anderson and Peart have returned to their colourful creation to explore the places and the characters that still have a hold on their imagination. Marinda Peake is a woman with a quiet, perfect life in a small village; she long ago gave up on her dreams and ambitions to take care of her ailing father, an alchemist and an inventor. When he dies, he gives Marinda a mysterious inheritance: a blank book that she must fill with other people’s stories — and ultimately her own.

Clockwork Lives is a steampunk Canterbury Tales, and much more, as Marinda strives to change her life from a mere “sentence or two” to a true epic.

Grim Tales of the Brothers Kollin is a collection of five stories written by the Prometheus Award winning duo. It includes two alt histories, one dark fantasy, and one hard SF. Three of the stories were written during the down time between the brother’s Unincorporated universe novels and one, Teach Your Children Well, was written after—continuing a thread begun in their second novel. Look for The Unincorporated Man to soon to be a major motion picture.