The Avatar XPRIZE is designed to drive the exponential innovations needed to make General Purpose Avatars an everyday reality. The development of “avatar” technology—the fusion of human awareness consciousness with remote robotic bodies—offers breathtaking advances in medicine, culture, work, transportation, education and imagination.

The transformational potential of avatars is endless—and who better to illustrate the possibilities than some of the most insightful science fiction writers working in the field today?

Imagine a group of remote spectators traveling along remotely during a rigorous mountain climbing expedition. Or a severely injured athlete able to play his favorite sport vicariously through another body. Or a comatose woman using an avatar to interact with her family and the outside world, even though her body is failing. Or a skilled operative using an avatar on a dangerous search and rescue operation. Or medical specialists using avatar bodies to enter hot zones that no vulnerable human can breach.

These fourteen tales by premier science fiction authors explore the wondrous possibilities of avatar technology—and they still only scratch the surface. Read these stories and let your own imagination roam!

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2018.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

Arcane America

A new world. New magic. New history.

After Halley’s Comet was destroyed in a magical battle in 1759, the backlash separated the entire New World from the Old in an event known as The Sundering. Now isolated from the rest of the globe, America has become a very different place, where magic works and history has been changed forever.

It is 1803—a new 1803. Young Meriwether Lewis, footloose and intrigued, goes to hear a lecture in St. Louis by the venerated old wizard Benjamin Franklin. Franklin’s talk is disrupted by the attack of a winged fire-breathing beast, much like legends from Lewis’s own Welsh heritage. In the aftermath, Franklin tells the young man that he knows of a great, growing evil that lurks in the uncharted Arcane Territories west of the Mississippi.

Using his own vast fortune, Franklin commissions Lewis and his own talented partner William Clark to embark on a remarkable voyage of exploration, to meet and document the indigenous tribes, to find a route all the way to the Pacific Ocean—and perhaps beyond the magical veil to Europe again—and to stop the growing evil that is filling the American West. For while the Sundering separated the rest of the world and granted the original colonists unexpected magical gifts, sorcery inspired by native legends has also been ignited. And the Arcane Territories may hold unparalleled dangers for the expedition, both natural and magical.

Accompanied by the brilliant shape-shifting sorceress Sacajawea, Lewis and Clark set off on an unparalleled adventure across a landscape that no European has ever seen.

Arcane America

A new world. New magic. New history.

After Halley’s Comet was destroyed in a magical battle in 1759, the backlash separated the entire New World from the Old in an event known as The Sundering. Now isolated from the rest of the globe, America has become a very different place, where magic works and history has been changed forever.

It is 1803—a new 1803. Young Meriwether Lewis, footloose and intrigued, goes to hear a lecture in St. Louis by the venerated old wizard Benjamin Franklin. Franklin’s talk is disrupted by the attack of a winged fire-breathing beast, much like legends from Lewis’s own Welsh heritage. In the aftermath, Franklin tells the young man that he knows of a great, growing evil that lurks in the uncharted Arcane Territories west of the Mississippi.

Using his own vast fortune, Franklin commissions Lewis and his own talented partner William Clark to embark on a remarkable voyage of exploration, to meet and document the indigenous tribes, to find a route all the way to the Pacific Ocean—and perhaps beyond the magical veil to Europe again—and to stop the growing evil that is filling the American West. For while the Sundering separated the rest of the world and granted the original colonists unexpected magical gifts, sorcery inspired by native legends has also been ignited. And the Arcane Territories may hold unparalleled dangers for the expedition, both natural and magical.

Accompanied by the brilliant shape-shifting sorceress Sacajawea, Lewis and Clark set off on an unparalleled adventure across a landscape that no European has ever seen.

Combat Command: The Omega Rebellion

by Troy Denning

Oblivion

by Steve White and Charles E. Gannon

1635: The Wars for the Rhine

by Anette Pedersen

Uncharted

by Kevin J. Anderson and Sarah A. Hoyt

A Hymn Before Battle, Second Edition

by John Ringo

Combat Command: Lord of Lances

by Mark Acres

Echoes of Honor

by David Weber

Monster Hunter Siege

by Larry Correia

Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., faces his most fowl case yet, when a flock of murderous feral chickens terrorizes the Unnatural Quarter. Also in the caseload, Dan deals with a sinister spokesman for Monster Chow Industries, a serial-killer demon from the Fifth Pit of Hell, an evil gang dealing in black-market blood supplies led by the nefarious Ma Hemoglobin, a ghost fighting a hostile takeover in a chain of blood bars, a spreading contamination that drives vampires berserk, and a cute little vampire girl who may, or may not, be his daughter.

With his ghost girlfriend Sheyenne, his bleeding-heart human lawyer partner Robin, and his Best Human Friend Officer Toby McGoohan, Dan Shamble is ready to solve the case. The feathers will fly as he goes face-to-beak with the evil peckers.

Frank Herbert’s magnificent Dune saga sprawls across countless planets and tens of millennia. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have written thirteen international bestselling novels set in this epic universe. But the wealth of material leaves many side tales or interesting ideas that can be told, hors d’oeuvres to accompany the exotic main course.

Sometimes, a short story is exactly what’s needed.

Tales of Dune collects eight of Herbert and Anderson’s Dune short stories, ranging from the period of the Butlerian Jihad, to the time of young Paul Atreides, to a story set during the events of the novel Dune, to the very end of Frank Herbert’s future history.

These are the missing pieces in the epic of Dune.

Back from the Dead,
Back on the Case

Meet Dan Chambeaux—a.k.a. Dan Shamble—zombie detective, a persistent hardboiled gumshoe (or maybe that’s something more sinister on the bottom of his shoe …)

Even being murdered doesn’t keep a good detective down, and in the Unnatural Quarter—inhabited by ghosts, vampires, werewolves, mummies, and all sorts of creatures that go bump (or thud!) in the night—a zombie P.I. fits right in. Dan Shamble solves a string of madcap cases with his ghost girlfriend Sheyenne, his Best Human Friend Officer Toby McGoohan, and his firebrand lawyer partner Robin Deyer.

And first on the list: finding out who murdered him.

This Zomnibus contains the complete first Dan Shamble novel, Death Warmed Over, plus the seven individual cases showcased in the collection Working Stiff, together in one volume. It’s a perfect way to dig up the dirt on a lot of things that would rather stay buried.

Dan Shamble puts the PI in RIP.

In the Unnatural Quarter, golems slave away in sweatshops, necromancers sell black-market trinkets to tourists, and the dead rise up — to work the night shift. But zombie detective Dan Shamble is no ordinary working stiff. When a local senator and his goons picket a ghostly production of Shakespeare in the Dark — condemning the troupe’s “unnatural” lifestyles — Dan smells something rotten. And if something smells rotten to a zombie, you’re in serious trouble… Before his way of life, er, death, is destroyed, Dan wants answers. Along the way he needs to provide security for a mummified madame, defend a mixed-race couple (he’s a vampire, she’s a werewolf) from housing discrimination, and save his favorite watering hole, the Goblin Tavern, from drying up. Throw in a hairy hitman, a necro-maniac, and a bank robber who walks through walls, and Dan Shamble’s plate is full. Maybe this time, the zombie detective has bitten off more than he can chew…

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.

The Prequel to the Saga of Shadows and the Hugo nominee The Dark Between the Stars

Return to the epic universe of Kevin J. Anderson’s breathtaking, bestselling Saga of Seven Suns and Saga of Shadows. Nine years have passed since the end of the titanic Elemental War, and the human race is still picking up the pieces. The Terran Hanseatic League has become the Confederation, and King Peter and Queen Estarra work to heal wounds among the factions of humanity, as well as with the alien Ildiran Empire.

Trade Minister Rlinda Kett seeks to reestablish contact with lost human colonies that have vanished in the chaos, and she travels to a planet called Happiness, site of an isolated neo-Amish colony where the treacherous Prince Daniel was exiled. As a civil war brews among the Roamer clans over the old ways versus new business methods, some brave clans venture back to skymining again, harvesting the restless clouds of huge gas giant planets—where the threat of the devastating hydrogue aliens always looms …

Six adrenalin junkies who call themselves the Daredevils Club hold the fate of the world in their hands. In an ancient undersea cavern, one of them, oil man Frik Van Alman, discovers a set of stones that are unlike anything else on Earth. Fitted together, the stones form an object that promises limitless free energy for the world.

After a terrified scientist scatters the pieces, the club members race to retrieve them. Each knows that whoever reassembles the unique device will have unlimited power at his or her fingertips. Can anyone be trusted?

In a thrilling adventure that stretches from deep beneath the Caribbean to the penthouses of Las Vegas, friend battles friend for control of the Artifact.

International bestseller Anderson has created many extensive fictional universes, ranging from sweeping galactic empires to complex steampunk fantasies, to humorous monster-filled cities. He has become known for his skill in worldbuilding.

In Worldbuilding: From Small Towns to Entire Universes he describes his techniques in creating a rich fictional setting, leading writers through the countless questions and topics one must consider. Whether it’s geography, climate, politics, economics, society, religion, science, arts, or history, all of these ingredients form the basis for a believable setting for your story to unfold.

Extinction is not permanent. Not anymore.

Multi-millionaire researcher Alex Pierce has developed cutting-edge genetic techniques to extract viable DNA from preserved samples of breathtaking species that humans have erased from the Earth. From passenger pigeons and Tasmanian tigers, to Pleistocene dire wolves and sabretooths … even the humble dodo.

The cornerstone of Alex’s dream is to resurrect the woolly mammoth. Majestic and massive, these creatures no longer roam the world, driven to extinction by ancient hunters. At his isolated Pleistocene Ranch in the wilds of Montana, Alex has actually bred the very first mammoth to walk the Earth in 10,000 years.

But there are those who believe what is extinct should remain extinct, and that any tampering goes against the laws of nature. And their fervor may be far stronger than Alex’s dreams.

Mammoth Dawn is the original acclaimed novella written by New York Times bestseller and Hugo and Nebula Award nominee Kevin J. Anderson and multiple Hugo and Nebula winner Gregory Benford; this volume also includes their detailed chapter-by-chapter treatment of the full novel the two authors originally envisioned, as well as a non-fiction overview of current scientific attempts to clone mammoths—a reality that may be much closer than you think.

Some lives can be summed up in a sentence or two.

Other lives are epics.

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 colorful creation to explore the places and the characters that still have a hold on their imagination. Clockwork Lives is a steampunk Canterbury Tales, and much more. “The Bookseller’s Tale” is the first tale to be released.

A humorous fantasy tale. An evil wizard has turned the entire royal family into frogs and set them loose in the marshes, and only a kiss can restore them to their natural forms . . . but there are so many frogs, and so much swamp, who is willing to kiss them all?

A hilarious horror rocker from New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and Grammy winner Janis Ian. Greatest hits—back from the dead! A famous one-hit-wonder rock star might think his career is over (being dead, for starters), but a group of obsessive fans has other ideas.

Clockwork Angels is a steampunk fantasy adventure—and an innovative multimedia feast!

Based on a story and lyrics by legendary drummer Neil Peart, Clockwork Angels became the worldwide bestselling concept album by Rush and was developed into a New York Times bestselling and award-winning novel by Kevin J. Anderson.

Anderson and Peart, working with comics artist Nick Robles, brought the epic tale to a visual canvas, a six-issue graphic novel published by BOOM! Studios. Clockwork Angels: The Comic Scripts pulls aside the creative curtain, showing the original scripts, panel by panel, interactions between author and artist, as well as all the secret “Easter eggs”

TARGETS ARE LOCKED!

Five short novels by five masters of military SF capture the excitement, and hell, of fantastic future war—on and off the battlefield. Stories of terrifying monsters, dangerous aliens and staggering cosmic dreadnaughts march alongside far-flung courtroom dramas and cautionary tales involving man and his devices.

Michael A. Stackpole—The Star Tigers are commandeered by a powerful alien overseer on a covert mission to a world long abandoned by an ancient species. There, the ruins of a forgotten war will tip the balance of their war, unless the Star Tigers can prevent it.

Sarah A. Hoyt—Lucius Dante Maximilian Keeva is a well-respected leader of the Usaian Revolution, but treason in the ranks can cost him everything that makes life worth living—unless he takes justice into his own hands and breaks every military regulation in its pursuit.

Doug Dandridge—Faced with an enemy more than two hundred times her own size, Cinda Klerk has two options: hide, and let it destroy the planet she is supposed to protect, or find a way to even the odds and kill the enemy, even at the cost of her ship and crew.

Eytan Kollin and Dani Kollin—As the Unincorporated War envelops the entire solar system, a father must come to the rescue of a daughter he never raised. But he'll have to convince her to save herself first.

Kevin J. Anderson—In the war against an alien menace, Earth’s greatest military commanders risk themselves on the front lines, but with an escape hatch: If the situation goes terribly wrong, they can switch places with a safe soldier far from the battlefield. But the cannon-fodder volunteers don’t consider that such a good deal.

Set your cross-hairs on the Target Zone.

In shock and grief the last remnants of the human race watched from space as the holocaust of war raged across the face of the Earth. Now the future rested in the hands of three fragile space colonies: Aguinaldo—The Philippine L-5 colony whose brilliant biochemist had engineered a limitless supply of food. Kibalchich—The Soviet space exploration platform that harbored a deadly secret. Orbitech 1—The American space factory whose superstrong weavewire could be a lifeline to link the colonies—or a cutting-edge weapon of destruction.

As allies, they could unite to rebuild a better world. As enemies, they could destroy mankind’s last hope for survival. Lifeline by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason.