W200004 April 2000 Monthly Baen Bundle

Forge of the Elders

by L. Neil Smith

Telzey Amberdon

by James H. Schmitz
edited by Eric Flint

The Reformer

by S. M. Stirling and David Drake

The Compleat McAndrew

by Charles Sheffield

Capitalist Monsters from Outer Space!

Just when the 21st century thought it was safe to throw Marxism on the ash heap of history once and for all, a worldwide economic collapse suddenly made freedom seem less desirable than security, and the Total State turned out to be the comeback kid. In the US, where the power elite had long shown heartfelt affection for collectivism and making the trains (nationalized, of course) run on time, communism had a second coming. Which meant that Earth was now the Red Planet. The few holdouts and counterrevolutionaries would be dealt with in good time.

Of course, collectivization only made the worldwide depression worse. But then the People's Astronomers noticed an asteroid with unusual spectrographic properties, seemingly a treasure trove of valuable minerals that might rejuvenate the Earth's economy. So three aged NASA shuttles were pulled out of mothballs. crewed by a team of handpicked misfits whom no one would miss, and sent to the asteroid.

However, someone else was there first, under an airtight canopy made by genetically engineered trees. And they weren't human, even if they were from Earth. The Elders were "nautiloids," like intelligent giant squids in Volkswagen-sized shells, from a parallel universe where they were Earth's dominant species. Worst of all, they were CAPITALISTS!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Writing in the libertarian tradition of Robert A. Heinlein, L. Neil Smith may be the most widely-published and prolific living libertarian author in the world, with over 20 books to his credit, two of them winners of the Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian Fiction: The Probability Broach and Pallas. He has also published numerous short stories and articles, has contributed gags to such comic strips as "Ziggy" and "Frank and Ernest," and has lectured annually in the Colorado State University Physics Department on the physics of alternative realities. He attended the same university 1964-69, majoring in philosophy and psychology. He has served as a reserve police officer for the city of Fort Collins, Colorado, is a skilled competitive shooter, and is a Life Member of the National Rifle Association. Smith was born in Denver, Colorado on May 12, 1946 to an Air Force family, which led to his growing up all over North America. A highly prophetic author, his writings have predicted, among other things, the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the internet as we now know it, and the digital watch. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wife Cathy, his daughter Rylla, and two cats, Amber and Ambrose.

THE BRAIN OF AN EINSTEIN —
THE MIND OF AN ENGINEER

Presenting the space adventures of Arthur Morton McAndrew, space-time expert and scientist extraordinaire, and his long-suffering companion, spaceship skipper Jeanie Roker. Jeanie first met McAndrew on a routine run to Titan and quickly learned he was a genius of the caliber of Newton or Einstein. When McAndrew invented a space drive that let frail humans survive hundreds of gravities of acceleration, he disappeared while testing it, and Jeanie had to find him, using a trail of cryptic messages he had left behind.

That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, in spite of the gray hairs that Jeanie began accumulating as a result of McAndrew's impractical nature and his talent for getting himself into trouble with much more practical villains, such as ...

A mass-murderer of several million people

A highly-placed government official whose life McAndrew saved,
but in an embarrassing way, and who consequently wants to kill
both him and Jeanie

The ruler of a slower-than-light spaceship that left Earth a long time ago, giving it time to develop some very strange customs by the time McAndrew and Jeanie visited it. And there are still more adventures of this spacegoing odd couple in The Compleat McAndrew.

"Like Arthur C. Clarke and Greg Bear . . . brilliantly balanced seesaw between enormous concept and lifesize characterisation." —The London Times

by James H. Schmitz

MEET TELZEY AMBERDON 
-SHE'S NOBODY'S TOY

Telzey Amberdon was only in her teens when she discovered that she was a telepath. Not only a telepath, but a xenotelepath, able to communicate mentally not just with humans, but with alien intelligences. And she turned out to be one of the most powerful telepaths in the history of the galactic civilization called the Hub.

First she had to deal with an alien race that humans hadn't realized were intelligent, and who were about to eliminate those troublesome humans who thought they were colonizing an uninhabited world. Then, she had to fend off the secret psi agents of the Psychological Corps who took a dim view of any telepath, let alone one with Telzey's powers, operating outside of their control. Next, she stumbled across a telepathic serial killer, who used an unstoppable predator, under his mental control, to hunt and kill his victims-and Telzey was to be the catch of the day.

It was fortunate for the human race that she survived, since she next found herself in the middle of a secret war between two hidden races of genetically engineered humans. They called it the "Lion Game," and they made the mistake of thinking that in this clash of predators, Telzey was just a harmless kitten. But when the dust settled, Telzey would be the only one purring....

"Take my advice and buy TWO copies of this book! You'll want to lend it to friends and (trust me on this: I have years of experience to back up the observation) once people get their hands on a Schmitz book, they don't let go!"  —Janet Kagan, Hugo-Winner and author of Uhura's Song

ON THIS PLANET,
HUMANS HAD FORGOTTEN
THEIR HERITAGE—
UNTIL IT CAME
LOOKING FOR THEM!

After the collapse of the galactic Web, civilizations crumbled and chaos reigned on thousands of planets. Only on planet Bellevue was there a difference. There, a Fleet Battle Computer named Center had survived from the old civilization. When it found Raj Whitehall, the man who could execute its plan for reviving human civilization, he and Center started Bellevue back on the road leading to the stars; and when Bellevue reached that goal, Center sent copies of itself and Raj to the thousands of worlds still waiting for the light of civilization to dawn.

On Hafardine, civilization had fallen further than most. That men came from the stars was not even a rumor of memory in Adrian Gellert's day. The Empire of Vanbret spread across the lands in a sterile splendor that could only end in another collapse, more ignominious and complete than the first. Adrian Gellert was a philosopher, a Student of the Grove. His greatest desire was a life of contemplation in the service of wisdom . . . until he touched the 'holy relic' that contained the disincarnate minds of Raj Whitehall and Center. On that day, Adrian's search for wisdom would lead him to a life of action, from the law-courts of Vanbret to the pirate cities of the Archipelago and battlefields bloodier than any in the history he'd learned. The prize was the future of humanity.

REPORTS OF MY DEATH HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED . . .

The People's Republic of Haven made a tiny mistake when it announced the execution of Honor Harrington. It seemed safe enough. After all, they knew she was already dead.

Unfortunately, they were wrong. Now Honor has escaped from the prison planet called Hell and returned to the Manticoran Alliance with a few friends. Almost half a million of them, to be precise . . . including some who know what really happened when the Committee of Public Safety seized power in the PRH.

Honor's return from the dead comes at a critical time, providing a huge, much-needed lift for the Allies' morale, for the war is rapidly entering a decisive phase. Both sides believe that victory lies within their grasp at last, but dangers no one could foresee await them both.

New weapons, new strategies, new tactics, spies, diplomacy, and assassination. ... All are coming into deadly focus, and Honor Harrington, the woman the newsies call "the Salamander," once more finds herself at the heart of them all.

But this time, the furnace may be too furious for even a salamander to survive.

By Popular Demand,
the Most Popular Starship
Commander of All

First Time in Hardcover!

It can no longer be denied: David Weber is The Next Big Name. Hordes of fans have been bombarding our website and your stores with demands for more! more! more! David Weber. And then they started complaining about the first five Honor Harrington novels being available only in paperback. It seems that after the ninth or tenth time they reread the books, they start falling apart. The customer is always right, at least about Honor Harrington, and in February 1999 we offered a special limited collector's hardcover edition of On Basilisk Station. The response was successful, to say the least, and we followed up with a hardcover edition of Field of Dishonor, and now present Honor of the Queen, again in a special hardcover edition with a pictorial binding, and at a special paperback-sized price.

"Old-fashioned space opera is alive and well [in] David Weber's The Honor of the Queen. . . ."
—Science Fiction Age

"The Honor of the Queen . . . is worth shouting about. . . . I want more!"
—Philadelphia Weekly Press

"In terms of space combat, I think David Weber may be the best writer around . . . a top-notch read."
—FosFax

GOD WILLS IT!

It all started with a Viking raid: When he is captured and forced into slavery, Aillil the Irishman must pretend to be a priest or die. Better to be a high-value priest than a low-value corpse, he thinks, and so it happens that a failed novitiate (he loved women too well) is taken up by Norway's first Christian lord, Erling Skjalgsson to bring the Word to his people.

Ironically, though "Father"Aillil is as phony as a three-dollar psalm, he and he alone must convert a fiercely pagan people to the gentle teachings of Christ—and they don't want to hear about it. Nor do their "gods," who are all too real, and all too liable to do something horrible to those disturbing their divine peace.

It's going to take a miracle for Aillil to succeed, or even survive, but fortunately God (the one true God, not those pagan demon creatures) is on his side. . . .

"... many fierce battles, both •with men and with sendings from the other gods ... a Norse saga wrapped in a hair shirt . . . introspective and bloody. . . ." —VOYA

"The book is not for spiritual sissies . . . rowdy action and a realistic look at the human and spiritual costs of religious and cultural conversion." —Florida Today

Settle Back for a Hot One:
IT'S RIPPING TIME

When terrorists gun down Jenna Caddrick's fiancee, the only daughter of Senator John Caddrick is trapped in a desperate struggle to stay alive. With a pack of killers on her trail, Jenna plunges through Shangri-La Station's time touring gates-and lands in London of 1888, just in time to meet Jack the Ripper.

And Skeeter Jackson, newly reformed con artist, finds himself caught up in the biggest mystery of the century. All Skeeter has to do is find the Senator's missing daughter, track down lanira Cassandra's kidnappers, stop a cult of killers and survive Ripping Time ...

Praise for Time Scout:

"Engaging, fast moving, historically literate, and filled with Asprin's expertise on the techniques and philosophy of personal combat, this is first-class action sf." —Booklist

"The characters ... are appealing and their adventures exciting and plausible." —Science Fiction Chronicle

W200002 February 2000 Monthly Baen Bundle

1632

by Eric Flint

A Boy and His Tank

by Leo Frankowski

Hokas Pokas!

by Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson

The Other World

by Mercedes Lackey, Mark Shepherd and Holly Lisle

They're Baaaack!

When a human thinks he's Napoleon Bonaparte, it's time to get out a straitjacket. But when a Hoka thinks he's Napoleon Bonaparte, you'd better believe it! Particularly since there'll be hundreds of other Hokas around who know for a fact that they're the French army, mon amis, even if they're on another planet light years away from Earth, and the forces they're facing aren't the British but very nasty warlike aliens who by all reason should be expected to make mincemeat out of the Hokas.

But when it comes to Hokas, reason does not compute.

These friendly, fuzzy aliens who resemble large teddy bears have a very vivid imagination and have never quite grasped the difference between human fiction and reality, or (in the present case), between past history and the much later and rather different present. Always bet on the Hokas. Even when a young lad and his Hoka tutor find themselves stuck on a planet where they seem to be scheduled to fulfill an ancient (and lethal) prophecy that neither of them had ever heard of until now, Hokas as usual find that reality is merely optional and the good guys—and bears—always win, quicker than you can say

". . . the funniest s-f ever written."
-A Reader's Guide to Science Fiction

"You aren't apt to find a more gleeful book of S-F."
—The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

"I'll bet you can't read just one."
—Philadelphia Weekly Press

AND THE STREETS WERE MADE OF GOLD. . . .

He Was a Rugged, Hardened Combat Veteran Who Had
Gone to Hell and Back—in Virtual Reality! Now He Had to
Face the Real Thing.. .

The planet New Kashubia started out as a gas giant, but when its sun went supernova, lighter elements were blasted into space. All that was left was a ball of heavy metals, heated to 8,000 degrees. As it cooled, tungsten solidified first at the surface, and layers of other metals continued down to a ball of mercury at the center. The sun meanwhile evolved into a pulsar with a deadly beam of radiation that baked the planet's surface. The New Kashuhians lived inside the planet, in tunnels drilled in a thousand foot thick layer of solid gold.

Still without carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, or even dirt, the colonists were the poorest people in the universe.

But when they combined virtual reality with tank warfare, giving their warriors symbiosis with their intelligent tanks, neither war nor the galaxy would ever be the same. Not to mention sex...

"When I teach science fiction, I use Frankowski's books as an example of how to do it right." —Gene Wolfe

". . . the action is gripping, and there are plenty of novel twists and ironic moments." —Locus

"A Boy and His Tank is a literate military adventure laced with political allegory—and a great deal of fun." —Starlog

"... a likeable adventure story . . . [with] appeal to general readers as well as those drawn specifically to military SF." —Science Fiction Chronicle

The Ultimate Y2K Glitch....

1632 In the year 1632 in northern Germany a reasonable person might conclude that things couldn't get much worse. There was no food. Disease was rampant. For over a decade religious war had ravaged the land and the people. Catholic and Protestant armies marched and countermarched across the northern plains, laying waste the cities and slaughtering everywhere. In many rural areas population plummeted toward zero. Only the aristocrats remained relatively unscathed; for the peasants, death was a mercy.

2000 Things are going OK in Grantville, West Virginia. The mines are working, the buck are plentiful (it's deer season) and everybody attending the wedding of Mike Stearn's sister (including the entire membership of the local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America, which Mike leads) is having a good time.

THEN, EVERYTHING CHANGED....

When the dust settles, Mike leads a small group of armed miners to find out what's going on. Out past the edge of town Grantville's asphalt road is cut, as with a sword. On the other side, a scene out of Hell; a man nailed to a farmhouse door, his wife and daughter Iying screaming in muck at the center of a ring of attentive men in steel vests. Faced with this, Mike and his friends don't have to ask who to shoot.

At that moment Freedom and Justice, American style, are introduced to the middle of The Thirty Years War.

Download the comprehensive Teacher’s Guide here.

W200001 January 2000 Monthly Baen Bundle

The Apocalypse Troll

by David Weber

Eagle Against the Stars

by Steve White

Firefight Y2K

by Dean Ing

Dragonne's Eg

by Mary Brown

There he was in his sailboat in the middle of the Atlantic, all alone and loving it. Well, there was a U.S. Navy carrier group on his southern horizon, but he was a Navy guy himself, so he didn't mind. Then came the UFOs, hurtling in from the Outer Black to overfly the carriers at Mach 17. Their impossible aerobatics were bad enough—but then they started shooting at each other. And at the Navy. With nukes. Little ones at first, but winding up with a 500 megatonner at 90 miles that fried every piece of electronics within line-of-sight.

Richard Ashton thought he was just a ringside observer to these now over-the-horizon events. Until the crippled alien lifeboat came drifting down and homed in on his sailboat; suddenly he has his hands full of an unconscious, critically wounded and impossibly human alien warrior who also happens to be a gorgeous female.

That's when things got interesting.

"... a particular delight, offering nonstop action that's both well executed and emotionally satisfying." —Publishers Weekly

"It's a rollicking fun tale that's impossible to put down." —Philadelphia Weekly Press

"... the best work (Weber] has done ... the rewards are ample ... recommended...." —Starlog

KELYN OF KETURA

Daughter of a legendary warrior who left the mountains before she was born. Brave. Strong. Tempered by her struggle to survive in the hostile, craggy Keturan mountains. And plagued by moments of enormous and puzzling clumsiness.

"Find your father," the local wisewoman tells her. "To find your true self, find the Wolverine."

Angered by his abandonment, Kelyn doesn't care about her father—but the lure of adventure in the Out Lands calls to her, just as it called to the Wolverine before her, and she accepts the challenge.

New languages, new weapons. Magic. Witch hunts. The treacheries of civilization. She doesn't know just how much of a challenge it'll be.

"Move over, Xena! The adventures of Kelyn the Wolverine's daughter are a pure joy to read. Kelyn is a barbarian with a heart of gold under her studded leather breastplate, and a quarterstaff that can wreak havoc on any that dare to challenge her—the fight scenes are some of the best I've ever devoured."
—A.C. Crispin, author of V, Sarek, the "Starbridge" Series, etc

"Kelyn is a fine addition to the growing pantheon of tough, competent, realistic fantasy heroines. I'd sit down over a beer with her anyday!"
—Jennifer Roberson

THE ALIENS PLAYED BY THE RULES. THEIR RULES.

When the Lokaron suddenly appeared in the skies of Earth, America was enjoying victory in the off-and-on war that had occupied most of the 20th century. That's why they chose America to occupy and use as their puppet in dominating the planet. We were already set up to do it; now we would do it for them.

Not that they were evil; they just insisted that we trade with them. By their rules, rules backed up by irresistible weapons. In terms of those rules, they would even play fair—but in the long run, if they didn't own something, it would be because they didn't want it.

At first we tried to fight, but just as the Japanese, the Chinese, the Hindus and all the rest had learned, when the ones with the guns say "Let's trade!" they really mean 'Trade or bleed." And so you trade—even if you won't have a country—or a planet—left when the last round is played out.

But worms turn, and just as had the Europeans a century ago, the Lokaron were going to learn a lesson from their victims, a lesson that they weren't going to like one bit....

Eagle Against the Stars

"Highly recommended ... exciting extraterrestrial battle scenes served up with a measure of thought and science." —Kliatt

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE Armor will be self-repairing . . . Killer hornets will be bred to attack only the enemy . . . The forerunners of tunneling combat vehicles already exist. . . Manned aircraft could actually dodge laser beams of orbital platforms . . . Shoulder-fired rockets will be launched without heat or flash . . . Crews of space cruisers will be nested inside fuel pellets for protection . . . NOW DUCK! Publisher's Note: Firefight Y2K is a millennial Edition of Firefight 2000, with authorial retrospectives plus two chapters from the author's The Chernobyl Syndrome on how to survive the coming festivities.

W199912 December 1999 Monthly Baen Bundle

Change of Command

Rules of Engagement

by Elizabeth Moon

Once a Hero

by Elizabeth Moon

Minds Machines and Evolution

by James P. Hogan