East of the Sun and West of the Moon

(Ooorcs In Spaaace)

Swords, Sex, and Rockets!

Paradise falls. Humanity is thrown back to an age of steel and blood. Now the fuel that powers the "changed" world is up for grabs in an orbiting spacecraft. With only days to plan, rough and ready paladin Herzer Herrick must assemble a team of expert warriors capable of both seat-of-the-pants engineering and hand-to-hand combat in space. In the meantime, Herzer must face his own demons as he waits for his emotionally-scarred fianc to recover and finally bed him. And if that's not enough, there's a horde of "changed" orcs and goblins who are intent on delivering the power above to their totalitarian masters below. This is one space race free humanity cannot afford to lose!

Multiple New York Times and USA Today best-seller John Ringo delivers another rousing entry in his "Council Wars" saga!

"Marvelous!"
— David Weber

"If Tom Clancy were writing SF, it would read much like John Ringo."
—Philadelphia Weekly Press

Cover art by Kurt Miller

Hardcover

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, May 2006

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-10: 1-4165-2059-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-2059-7

A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com

Electronic version by Baen Books
https://www.baen.com

Dedication

To Miriam.
For reminding me how to laugh.
And, as always, for Captain Tammara Long
You fly with the angels now.

Acknowledgements

I'd like to thank, as usual, Travis (Doc Travis) Taylor for help in technical aspects of this book. Notably, for straightening me out on some fairly simple aspects of orbital mechanics and reentry. I'd also like to thank Timothy (Uncle Timmy) Bolgeo for correcting my numerous mistakes in electrical design. I'd also like to thank Patrick Vanner for saving me from making various technical mistakes as well as for the suggestion to use shuttles. As usual, any mistakes that are left are mine and not theirs.