THE POPULAR MAN-KZIN WARS SERIES ROARS BACK INTO ACTION! New stories of the war between humanity and the catlike Kzin from Brad R. Torgersen, Brendan DuBois, Martin L. Shoemaker, and more!

The predatory catlike warrior race known as the Kzin never had a hard time dealing with all those they encountered, conquering alien worlds with little effort. That is until they came face to face with the leaf-eaters known as humans. Small of stature and lacking both claws and fangs, the humans should have been easy prey. But for years now the humans and the Kzin have been engaged in a series of wars, with neither side able to declare decisive victory once and for all.

A new collection of short stories set in the Man-Kzin Wars shared universe created by multiple New York Times best-seller, incomparable tale-spinner, and Nebula- and five-time Hugo-Award-winner, Larry Niven.

Complete Contributor List:
Brad R. Torgersen
Brendan DuBois
Martin L. Shoemaker
Hal Colebach
Jessica Q. Fox
Jason Fregeau

Winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel

This prescient and ground-breaking novel is set in a near-future where the privileged citizens of Europe shelter behind immense physical and biotechnical barriers from a world ravaged by climate change and disease. Beyond this safe existence of harvest fairs, uncomplicated religion and high tech crops lie the overcrowded souks, teeming streets and exotic religions of the vast sprawl of the Endless City which now encompasses most of North Africa.

Father John, a doubting missionary from the futuristic yet bucolic shires of the Welsh Marches, finds he must leave his ministry and the clamour of the Endless City to search across the dangerous wastelands beyond for the source of a lethal radioactive pollutant. There, in the company of a witchwoman and a young Borderer, he confronts not only his faith but also his own past, and the near-death of Hal, his comatose brother.

Lyrical and evocative, The Great Wheel tells the story of a half-wrecked Eden, and all too possible tomorrow.

Praise for The Great Wheel:

“A voyage into the midnight garden of the human soul, and a dangerous extrapolation of the days to come.” —Michael Swanwick

“A smooth, sinuous trip in the hands of a writer who knows just about everything there is to know about giving joy, and telling the truth, too.” —John Clute

“A beautiful book. It breathes, as a true novel of experience should. It's expansive and layered and real... It transcends the genre.” —Jack Dann

“A richly portrayed future world quite unlike any other, and yet, somehow, with the feeling of exotic familiarity.” —Norman Spinrad

Adventure and Excitement on an Alien World. Packed with exotic world-building and amazing characters, Arkad's World is a rollicking adventure story about growing up and the things we share that make us human, from celebrated author James L. Cambias.

Young Arkad is the only human on a distant world, on his own among beings from across the Galaxy. His struggle to survive on the lawless streets of an alien city is disrupted by the arrival of three humans: an eccentric historian named Jacob, a superhuman cyborg girl called Baichi, and a mysterious ex-spy known as Ree. They seek a priceless treasure which might free Earth from alien domination. Arkad risks everything to join them on an incredible quest halfway across the planet. With his help they cross the fantastic landscape, battling pirates, mercenaries, bizarre creatures, vicious bandits and the harsh environment. But the deadliest danger comes from treachery and betrayal within the group as dark secrets and hidden loyalties come to light.

THE BEST-SELLING UNDER JURISDICTION SERIES FROM CAMPBELL AWARD-NOMINATED AUTHOR SUSAN R. MATTHEWS CONTINUES. A new installment in the Phillip K. Dick-nominated series that Janis Ian called "a very scary series." Fleet Inquisitor Andrej Koscuisko finds himself out of the frying pan and into the fire: "Rescued" from Gonebeyond to be offered up to the head of a devious crime syndicate.

Gonebeyond space: freedom from torture and genocide under Jurisdiction, but go there at your own risk – because the rule of Law has no place there, and undefended settlements can be exploited with impunity.

Until now. The Langsariks’ Hilton Shires is determined to bring order to Gonebeyond. He’s forged a coalition to bring the worst of the criminals—slavers—to justice, but the criminal cartels that have profited from the freedom of Gonebeyond for so long can’t have that. Taking away one of Gonebeyond’s most valuable resources would send a warning to the Langsarik Coalition—but where can they find an assassin to “disappear” the renegade Fleet Inquisitor Andrej Koscuisko?

Enter his Excellency Danyo Pefisct. Years ago he honed his torturer’s craft against the Emandisan bond-involuntary Security slave Joslire Curran. Now he’s come to Gonebeyond to enslave Andrej Koscuisko himself for the personal pleasure of the head of one of Jurisdiction’s most powerful crime syndicates, and for all the protection Chief Stildyne and his “wolf pack” can provide there are only two people who can really stand in Danyo’s way—a man from Stildyne’s past with every reason to hate him; and a once-friend from Andrej’s student days who never liked him very much anyway . . .

Final Frontiers: an anthology of stories from classic and contemporary masters that explores the wide-open frontier that may await humanity when we take to the stars.

DON'T YOU KNOW YOUR FUTURE IS IN SPACE?

Since the dawn of time, humankind has felt the urge to explore the four corners of our globe. To push at the boundaries of our world and discover what lies over the horizon. And since the dawn of science fiction, writers have wondered about the next frontier: the one that lies Out There.

Here then, a generous collection of stories that reach out into the unknown void, finding awe, wonder, other minds—even terror. But always going beyond the world we know to explore a universe strange beyond the outermost limits of human imagination. Stories of brave men and women who risk all to explore, colonize, and settle the vast reaches of space.

As e. e. cummings put it, “listen: there’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go.” Well said, but there’s a hell of a big, strange universe right here. And it’s waiting for us all!

Great tales of space exploration and pioneering by David Drake, Sarah A. Hoyt & Jeff Greason, Theodore Sturgeon, Edmond Hamilton, and more.

A MOST UNIQUE APOCALYPSE from Grand Master Gordon R. Dickson

RIDERS ON THE TIME STORM

The time storm had devastated the Earth, and all but a small fraction of humankind has vanished. In the rubble of the world, three survivors had formed an unlikely trio: Marc Despard, determined to find a way to stop the time storm; a leopard, dazed by the storm and following after Despard like a kitten; and a young woman with an unbreakable bond to the leopard.

Now, Marc searches relentlessly for a clue to the nature of the storm, not guessing that the time storm threatens not just the Earth but the entire universe—and that his two companions were the only hope of reversing the distortions in the fabric of the cosmos that were about to bring an end to all of space and time . . .

A classic of post-apocalyptic science fiction from Grand Master Gordon R. Dickson.

REMARKABLE DEBUT NOVEL FROM CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER. Shoemaker proves why he has consistently been praised as one of the best story writers in SF today with this touching, thoughtful, action-packed debut novel, based on his award-winning short story "Today I am Paul."

TODAY

Mildred has Alzheimer's. As memories fade, she acquires the aid of a full-time android to assist her in everyday life. Carey. Carey takes care of Mildred, but its true mission is to fill in the gaps in Mildred’s past. To bring yesterday into today by becoming a copy. But not merely a copy of a physical person. A copy from the inside out.

I AM

After Mildred passes, Carey must find a new purpose. For a time, that purpose is Mildred’s family. To keep them safe from harm. To be of service. There is Paul Owens, the overworked scientist and business leader. Susan Owens, the dedicated teacher. And Millie, a curious little girl who will grow up alongside her android best friend. And Carey will grow up with her. Carey cannot age. But Carey can change.

CAREY

Carey struggles. Carey seeks to understand life’s challenges. Carey makes its own path. Carey must learn to live. To grow. To care. To survive. To be.

THE POPULAR MAN-KZIN WARS SERIES ROARS BACK INTO ACTION! New stories of the war between humanity and the catlike kzin from Brad R. Torgersen, Brendan DuBois, Martin L. Shoemaker, and more!

The predatory warrior race known as the kzin never had a hard time dealing with all those they encountered, conquering alien worlds with little effort. That is until they came face to face with the leaf-eaters known as humans. Small of stature and lacking both claws and fangs, the humans should have been easy prey. But for years now the humans and the kzin have been engaged in a series of wars, with neither side able to declare decisive victory once and for all.

A new collection of short stories set in the Man-Kzin Wars shared universe created by multiple New York Times best-seller, incomparable tale-spinner, and Nebula- and five-time Hugo-Award-winner, Larry Niven.

Complete Contributor List:
Brad R. Torgersen
Brendan DuBois
Martin L. Shoemaker
Hal Colebach
Jessica Q. Fox
Jason Fregeau

THE BEST-SELLING UNDER JURISDICTION SERIES FROM CAMPBELL AWARD-NOMINATED AUTHOR SUSAN R. MATTHEWS CONTINUES. A new installment in the Phillip K. Dick-nominated series that Janis Ian called "a very scary series." Fleet Inquisitor Andrej Koscuisko finds himself out of the frying pan and into the fire: "Rescued" from Gonebeyond to be offered up to the head of a devious crime syndicate.

Gonebeyond space: freedom from torture and genocide under Jurisdiction, but go there at your own risk – because the rule of Law has no place there, and undefended settlements can be exploited with impunity.

Until now. The Langsariks’ Hilton Shires is determined to bring order to Gonebeyond. He’s forged a coalition to bring the worst of the criminals—slavers—to justice, but the criminal cartels that have profited from the freedom of Gonebeyond for so long can’t have that. Taking away one of Gonebeyond’s most valuable resources would send a warning to the Langsarik Coalition—but where can they find an assassin to “disappear” the renegade Fleet Inquisitor Andrej Koscuisko?

Enter his Excellency Danyo Pefisct. Years ago he honed his torturer’s craft against the Emandisan bond-involuntary Security slave Joslire Curran. Now he’s come to Gonebeyond to enslave Andrej Koscuisko himself for the personal pleasure of the head of one of Jurisdiction’s most powerful crime syndicates, and for all the protection Chief Stildyne and his “wolf pack” can provide there are only two people who can really stand in Danyo’s way—a man from Stildyne’s past with every reason to hate him; and a once-friend from Andrej’s student days who never liked him very much anyway . . .

NEW SOLO NOVEL BY ERIC FLINT IN THE BEST-SELLING RING OF FIRE SERIES!

The Ottoman Empire has captured Vienna and is now laying siege to the Austrian government-in-exile established in the city of Linz. Both the United States of Europe and the Kingdom of Bohemia have come to Austria’s assistance, but everyone knows this is going to be a long and brutal struggle.

In order to relieve the pressure on the Austrians, General Mike Stearns proposes to open a second front in the Levant. The USE’s emperor Gustavus Adolphus gives his approval to the plan, and Mike sets it in motion, with the very capable assistance of his wife Rebecca Abrabanel, now the USE’s Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, Poland is coming to a boil. Gretchen Richter, the newly elected chancellor of Saxony, has seized control of Lower Silesia. Her small army is now approached to form an alliance with the Polish revolutionaries who have seized power in the Ruthenian province of Galicia—which, in the universe the time-displaced Americans of Grantville came from, would have constituted the western Ukraine.

Now, the Bohemians send an army led by Morris Roth into Poland, ostensibly to aid the revolutionaries but also with the goal of expanding King Albrecht Wallenstein’s growing empire in eastern Europe. And—the icing on the cake—Mike Stearns sends the Hangman Regiment of his Third Division under the command of Jeff Higgins to reinforce Jeff’s wife Gretchen in Silesia.

The maelstrom in Poland grows . . . and grows . . . and grows . . .

Will it drag all its displaced Americans and their allies down with it?

Barbara Winton and the rest of the Bright Sparks, Dr. Keegan Bright’s team of young scientists, find themselves facing a challenge that will test all of their scientific skills and personal courage. They are competing in the first ever race to completely circle the Moon. The Sparks, and twenty-five other teams, have to count on one another as they face thousands of kilometers of unknown dangers, where even a simple accident can have fatal consequences. They form close friendships with racers from all over Earth, but also have to deal with former Spark, Pam, a mysterious and threatening figure whose departure from the Sparks program is shrouded in mystery.

While the Sparks compete in the race, Dr. Bright himself is part of a groundbreaking project to seek out rare minerals underneath a crater. On the far side of the Moon, in the airless, frozen depths beneath the lunar surface, disaster strikes. On the thinly settled Moon only the Bright Sparks may be close enough to help him. The young scientist find themselves not only racing for victory, but to save their beloved mentor.

ORIGINAL STORIES SET IN JOHN RINGO'S BEST-SELLING BLACK TIDE RISING SERIES. The zombie apocalypse is here in these all-new stories from John Ringo, Sarah A. Hoyt, Michael Z. Williamson, Jody Lynn Nye, Travis S. Taylor, and many more. Sequel to the best-selling anthology Black Tide Rising.

Civilization had fallen. Everyone who survived the plague lived through the Fall, that terrible autumn when life as they had known it ended in blood and chaos.

Nuclear attack submarines facing sudden and unimaginable crises. Paid hunters on a remote island suddenly cut off from any hope of support. Elite assassins. Never-made-it retirees. Bong-toting former soldiers. There were seven and a half billion stories of pain and suffering, courage, hope and struggle crying out from history: Remember us.

These are their stories. These are the Voices of the Fall.

Contributors:
John Ringo
John Birmingham
Sarah Hoyt
Travis S. Taylor
Michael Z. Williams
Jody Lynn Nye
Robert Buettner
Brendan DuBois
Dave Freer
Mike Massa
Griffin Barber
Rob Hampson
Michael Gants

Adventure and Excitement on an Alien World. Packed with exotic world-building and amazing characters, Arkad's World is a rollicking adventure story about growing up and the things we share that make us human, from celebrated author James L. Cambias.

Young Arkad is the only human on a distant world, on his own among beings from across the Galaxy. His struggle to survive on the lawless streets of an alien city is disrupted by the arrival of three humans: an eccentric historian named Jacob, a superhuman cyborg girl called Baichi, and a mysterious ex-spy known as Ree. They seek a priceless treasure which might free Earth from alien domination. Arkad risks everything to join them on an incredible quest halfway across the planet. With his help they cross the fantastic landscape, battling pirates, mercenaries, bizarre creatures, vicious bandits and the harsh environment. But the deadliest danger comes from treachery and betrayal within the group as dark secrets and hidden loyalties come to light.

Pack Dynamics: A Price to Pay

by Julie Frost

Thought Gazer

The Ydron Saga 2
by Raymond Bolton

Reading the Wind

by Brenda Cooper

Infinite Fantastika

by Paul Di Filippo

Selected Stories: Fantasy

by Kevin J. Anderson

From The Journals Of Candidia
Smith-Foster:

“By now reader probably wondering who or what H. post hominem might be. Or (at very least) me. Viewed in that light, introductions are in order:

“Name: Candidia Maria Smith-Foster. Born 11 years ago to Smiths; orphaned six months later; adopted by Dr. and Mrs. Foster—‘Daddy’ and ‘Momma.’ Been known as ‘Candy’ since first breath.

“Homo post hominem is new species, apparently immune to all ‘human’ disease, plus smarter, stronger, faster, etc., emerging to inherit Earth after H. sapiens eliminated selves in short, efficient bio-nuclear war. Am myself Homo post hominem. Rode out war in Daddy’s marvelous shelter, now engaged in walkabout, searching for fellow survivors. Of which reader must be one. . . .

“Tomorrow morning, though not now. Tired. Disappointed. Perhaps just bad day: too long, too many expectations. Too much letdown.

“Never mind. Tomorrow is another day — Pollyanna lives!”

The original Emergence novella, Volume I herein, and its sequel, Seeking, Volume II, were published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. Both earned Nebula Award nominations, Hugo Award nominations, as well as Philip K. Dick Award nominations for best new writer. In addition to those nominations (and coming in second in the final Hugo balloting in 1985), the Emergence novel won the Balticon’s Compton Crook Award for best first novel.

The West Virginians from Grantville have met many historical personages since the small town was flung back in time and into a new universe. But the down-timers have too. Cardinal Richelieu cannot decide whether he likes Charleton Heston or Tim Curry better as Cardinal Richelieu. So, when the King is murdered on the way to see his unborn son, and the Cardinal is gravely wounded, who else would the Cardinal’s friends call on but D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers!

The dynamic foursome is charged with saving the Cardinal and getting him out of the reach of evil King Gaston. Even the Cardinal’s robe gets its share of adventures!

Will D’Artagnan and his three friends win out and save the Cardinal?

Christian IV, King of Denmark, Sir Thomas Roe, the English Ambassador to Christian's court, and various elements of the extended Abrabanel family have arranged an unusually well-funded and well led expedition to North America. The purpose of this mission? To establish a powerful Danish presence in Newfoundland, from which the Danes will extend their influence and commercial presence across North America, in the regions above the French possessions in the New World.

The Danish scheme is one of King Christian’s responses to his forced incorporation into the new Union of Kalmar, following Denmark’s defeat in the Baltic War of 1634. In some ways, it is aimed as much against Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden as it is against Richelieu’s France. It is an attempt to restore Denmark’s power without coming into direct conflict with the Swedish king and his American allies.

But neither Gustav Adolf nor Mike Stearns are fooled by Christian’s machinations. Their response is depicted in Eric Flint’s short story “Brave New World,” also part of this volume, and it is not one that the Danish king had foreseen. The world of the 1630s, already thrown into tumult by the Ring of Fire and the arrival of the town of Grantville from across time and space, just got more complicated—and more exciting.

As central Europe crumbles during the Thirty Years War, Joseph Hanauer and a group of other Jewish refugees struggle to make their way from the Rhineland to Poland. Their plans change with rumors of troop movements and then an even more astounding rumor, that the actual pit of Hell has opened in the hills of the Thuringerwald.

In this story, part of Eric Flint's Ring of Fire alternate history series, Joseph Hanauer and his friends find themselves thrust into the 20th century, or at least into one down-on-its-luck corner of 20th century West Virginia. How do they react to these strange circumstances? How do modern Americans look from their perspective?

Most important, what should they do? Continue their attempt to escape into Poland, or plunge into the sweeping political and social transformations that are beginning to emerge in central Europe?

The arrival of Grantville has brought new knowledge, new technology and new opportunities to the continent of Europe. To take full advantage of these new opportunities requires decisiveness few are willing to consider—but Louis De Geer, a Walloon industrialist and entrepreneur, is one of them.

When his niece, newly arrived in Grantville, alerts him to the transformed situation, De Geer acts quickly to seize the initiative. But the new knowledge and new technologies, whether it be the mathematics in the Crucibellus manuscripts or new techniques for making steel, are not viewed favorably by many, especially by the reactionary regimes along the Rhine. De Geer knows that time is not on his side. If he wants peace, he must do what every successful nation has done in the past: prepare for war.

Whether it was a blessed miracle or a disastrous catastrophe, the arrival of Grantville in Europe in the year 1631 created changes that are long-lasting and spreading wider and wider as time passes. In 1634, Louis DeGeer, statesman, merchant, and player of the game of princes, having extracted as much information and technology as he could out of Grantville, makes his move to establish a new state in the Rhineland, a republic that would draw on much of the political philosophy brought back through the Ring of Fire by Grantville.

There are those in the westlands of Germany and the Rhine Valley who aren't happy about that. Louis' enemies draw on all the forces of the status quo to oppose his efforts. Louis discovers that it will take strength and determination coupled with careful preparation and planning to face them. And the ultimate confrontations leave things up for grabs until the final moments.