Target:  Smelly the Telepath!

Smelly.  Hermit by necessity.  The world’s most receptive telepath.   But now sinister forces within the government are after Smelly for their own nefarious purposes, and only empathetic journalist Russel Walker, with the aid a mysterious former spook who may not have Smelly’s best interest at heart, can stop them!

The sequel to the touching and creepy Very Bad Deaths, another spell-binding thriller and tome of wisdom from master storyteller (and Nebula and three-time Hugo-Award-winner), Spider Robinson!

“An inside-out crime tale with a warm and friendly aura…humanistic entertainment.�
— AudioFile on Spider Robinson’s Very Bad Deaths.

In Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff's "Poor Little Rich Girls," we follow the continuing adventures of the teenage tycoons begun by Huff in "The Sewing Circle" (Gazette #1) and "Other People's Money" (Gazette #3). The focus in this story, however, is on the younger siblings—the so-called Barbie Consortium—and their down-timer associates and enemies.

Jose Clavell's "Magdeburg Marines" and Ernest Lutz and John Zeek's "Elizabeth" depict the early days of two military units after the Ring of Fire: a reborn U.S. Marine Corps trying to adapt to new circumstances, and the First Railway Company, formed to provide logistics using a combination of up-time and down-time methods and technology.

David Carrico's "Heavy Metal Music" continues the story of the interaction between up-time and down-time musicians that he began in last issue's "The Sound of Music."

In other stories:

—A German craftsman blackballed by guild masters gets a new start in Karen Bergstralh's "One Man's Junk."

—Grantville has to deal with the tragic accidental deaths of several high school graduates in Kerryn Offord's "The Class of '34."

—In Virginia DeMarce's "'Til We Meet Again," a widowed up-timer responds to her husband's death by joining the faculty in the newly-established women's college in Quedlinburg.

—Julie Sims' ex-boyfriend finds a new romance in Russ Rittgers' "Chip's Christmas Gift."

—in Dan Robinson's "Dice's Drawings," an American retiree finds a new life and maybe a new love in seventeenth century Germany.

The fourth volume of the Gazette also contains factual articles dealing with the development of an oil industry, advances in textile and garment manufacture, possible uses of biodiesel technology, and differing views on the prospects of creating a machine gun using the resources and technology available after the Ring of Fire.

The Spider:  Master of Men!

Before there was Batman, before Peter Parker’s alter ego got the bug to slip on a mask, one Dark Avenger reigned supreme:  the Spider!   With sardonic wit and fanatical drive, the Spider faces down a literally faceless master villain, stops skyscrapers from melting, and corrals a mind-controlling madman. Let the Spider rise again:  a pulp legend forever!

Three no-holds-barred pulp blockbusters by one of the greatest story-spinners of all time, the inimitable Norvell Page.

“I suppose I've read about 40 Spiders, one after another, much the way some pop amphetamines . . . If I was a pulp novel, I'd be entitled Slave of the Spider!�
—Doc Savage author and famed pulp historian, Will Murray.

THIS TIME, IT'S PERSONAL

VX is not a good way to die. So when the President of the United States gets confirmed intelligence that a shipload of the stuff is headed for Florida, he orders that every stop be pulled out. Including bringing in his ultimate weapon: The Kildar.

Heart-sick over the deaths of so many of his followers, former SEAL Mike Harmon, hero of Ghost, Kildar, Choosers of the Stain and Unto the Breach, decides to sit this one out. WMDs headed for the U.S. no longer matter to the newest in an ancient line of mercenary leaders.

But when his best friend and intel specialist both are seriously wounded in an ambush aimed at him, the Kildar gets his gameface on. The terrorists will learn to fear the Ghost all over again.

Set in the Bahamas and Florida, A Deeper Blue is a fast-moving thriller that starts off at a rocket pace and never slows down. The novel proves once again the adage that sometimes it takes bad people to do good things. Fortunately, Mike Harmon is a very bad man.

". . . a complete adrenaline rush, filled with nonstop, kick-ass action and hair-raising suspense." —Richard Marcinko

"Ringo surpasses himself in his latest Kildar novel [Unto the Breach]. . . attains a terrible beauty not unlike that of the Norse Eddas." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This is definitely vintage Ringo, and fans of the prolific writer of action tales will be gratified." —Booklist

In Virginia DeMarce's witty and touching "Pastor Kastenmayers Revenge", a Lutheran pastor gets even with the American who eloped with his daughter by scheming to gain new adherents through eight separate arranged marriages between Lutheran down-timers and American up-timers.

In other stories:

The same teenagers who launched the sewing machine industry in Volume 1 move on to conquer the financial world, in Gorg Huffs "Other Peoples Money";

Francis Turners "Hobsons Choice" tells the tale of the personal and theological impact of the Ring of Fire on rambunctious students and barmaids in the university town of Cambridge, England;

in Eva Muschs "If the Demons Will Sleep", a woman terrorized by the notorious Hungarian countess Bartholdy finds peace and sanctuary in Grantville;

in Wood Hughes "Hell Fighters", a Benedictine monk confronts an inferno and finds his orders new calling;

in David Carricos "The Sound of Music" and Enrico Toros continuing "Euterpe", Grantville becomes a magnet drawing Europes most ambitious young musicians;

and Danita Ewing concludes the short novel An Invisible War, which began in Volume 2.

The third volume of the Gazette also contain factual articles exploring such topics as the centrality of iron to the industrial revolution, the prospects for the mechanization of agriculture in the 17th century, and the logic behind the adoption of the Struve-Reardon Gun as the basic weapon of the USEs infantry.

TWO WOLVES IN A GALAXY OF LARGER PREDATORS

Jon Moore: nanotech-enhanced solider-of-fortune.

Battlewagon Lobo: A.I.-equipped intelligence and weapons platform (think: a fortress on wheels) of enormous destructive potential.

Two very dangerous wolves in a galaxy of deadly corporate and paramilitary predators. But Moore has grown weary of the killing and just once he'd like to finish a job without leaving a trail of blood behind him. Not going to happen. Not on a pristine planet called Macken, where two gigantic corporations vie for control of the local jump gate and access to the riches of an undeveloped world. Dealing with a kidnapping and extortion scheme is only the beginning for Moore and Lobo. Next they must survive an enormous bounty placed on Moore's head long enough to rescue yet again the young woman they accidentally delivered into the wrong hands. But with the help of an old lover and under-the-table support from the mercenary outfit that made him, Moore just might beat the odds, save the girl, and get out of this one a little richer and one step closer to making it back to the strange world of his origin.

One Jump Ahead: the first novel in the Jon & Lobo series

"Just when I was thinking science fiction might be over, Mark Van Name proves that there are still smart, exciting, emotional sci-fi stories to be told. "
—Orson Scott Card

"Holy Squidlets, Batman! One Jump Ahead is like well-aged white lightning: it goes down smooth then delivers a kick that knocks you on the floor. I want to kidnap Mark Van Name and steal his brain. I also want an illegal, souped-up racing ray. Mark's going to be the guy to beat in the race to the top of SFdom."
—John Ringo

"Hard real science smoothly blended into action that blazes like a pinball from one exotic setting to another. This one is very, very good."
—David Drake

"One Jump Ahead is the sort of—dare I say it —old-fashioned SF adventure tale that I dote on. Mark Van Name's headlong pace of story-telling reminds me a lot of Keith Laumer, in fact. He's one of the very few modern authors I've seen who can manage that."
—Eric Flint

"One Jump Ahead is alive with fast-paced action, wild ideas, and characters to root for. A joy to read."
—Jack McDevitt

Astounding Tales! (Also Amazing and Astonishing!)

Tell the truth: you flat-out love science fiction and fantasy. Time travel. Space opera. Alternate history. Doesn't matter. What you love is the story. The great idea. The adventure and action. That good old-fashioned science fiction staple, the Sense of Wonder.

We know exactly how you feel. Here's the best of the best: new science fiction tales told by the likes of David Drake, Gregory Benford, Gene Wolfe, Esther Friesner, Mike Resnick, John Barnes, and L. E. Modesitt, Jr. The list of award-winning story-tellers and brilliant new talent goes on and on. More important: here are stories that grip you. Transport you. Expand your universe. Make you late for important appointments like bedtime and supper!

Edited by New York Times best-seller and creator of the hugely-popular "Ring of Fire" series, Eric Flint, a master story-teller in his own right, these tales are all taken from the e-pages of Jim Baen's Universe, the new standard in science fiction storytelling created and inspired by publisher and editor Jim Baen, whose nose for a great story made him a science fiction legend!

"[T]he story comes first and foremost." — Eric Flint, Jim Baen's Universe Editor-in-Chief

Top-selling writers and brilliant newcomers,
from one of the hottest on-line SF magazines,
edited by a New York Times bestselling author

IN A WORLD GONE WRONG,
PRAY FOR DELIVERANCE

They called the village "Deliverance," for that was what it seemed to be to the group of refugees who stumbled across it. Mysteriously deserted, untouched by war or pestilence, the village seemed to welcome the survivors of the great Collapse. In their desperation no one thought it odd that the village was both empty and picture-perfect. Or that the nearby forest, "The Wilderness," was so strangely impenetrable. And anyway, they figured, if they left the Wilderness strictly alone it would return the favor.

As the village's previous occupants could have told them, they were wrong about that last part . . .

JUST MAKE SURE YOU CAN AFFORD THE (MIS)STAKES....

In the early part of the 21st Century disaster struck—an experiment on an orbiting station went wrong—bad wrong. The Accident almost destroyed the universe, and ripples in time washed over the Earth. Like the plagues of an earlier millennium, Earth was depopulated, and then it rebuilt. And the people of the post-disaster world learned that things were going to be a little different. They'd be able to travel into the past, utilizing remnant time strings. It took brave pioneers to map the time string gates. It turns out that if you aren't extremely careful, you can zap yourself out of existence with a careless jump. So elaborate rules are evolved, and Time Travel stations have become big business.

But wild and wooly pioneers aren't the most likely people to follow rules. And for Skeeter Jackson, one of TT 86's wooliest residents, scamming is a way of life. A man's got to follow his calling—but it just may get him in trouble. And then he'll be raking in the