In January of 2011 we started posting free teacher's guides to some of our titles suitable for young adults. This is a compilation of Reading Guides for 2013. The books covered so far are: Robert Conroy's Rising Sun, Sarah Hoyt's A Few Good Men, and Wen Spencer's Eight Million Gods.

We'll be collecting these guides, and future planned guides for reader's groups, in this free Ebook at the Baen Free Library.

As new guides are made available, they'll be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves).

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.

Two classic Robert A. Heinlein novels in one volume, with an all‑new introduction by Mark L. Van Name, author of the Jon and Lobo military SF series.

The Man Who Sold the Moon: D. D. Harriman is a billionaire with a dream: the dream of space for all mankind. The method? Anything that works.  Maybe, in fact, Harriman goes too far.  But he will give us the stars…

Orphans of the Sky: Hugh had been taught that, according to the ancient sacred writings, the Ship was on a voyage to faraway Centaurus.  But he also understood that this must be allegory for a voyage to spiritual perfection.  After all, the real world was only metal corridors and nothing else, right?  And then Hugh begins to suspect the truth. . .

Two all‑time classics from seven‑time Hugo winner and Dean of Science Fiction, Robert A. Heinlein.

Download the comprehensive Teacher’s Guide here.

Listen to the Robert A. Heinlein Roundtable Discussion 2 here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

Pirates of the Caribbean meets times traveling heroes and godlike aliens. Sequel to Sunset of the Gods and Blood of Heroes.

Special operations officer Jason Thanou of the Temporal Regulatory Authority must once again plunge into Old Earth's blood‑drenched past to combat the plots of the Transhumanist underground to subvert that past and create a secret history leading up to the fulfillment of their mad dream of transforming humanity into a race of gods and monsters.

Jason and his companions travel to the seventeenth century encounter the real pirates of the Caribbean—including a beautiful she‑pirate who turns out to be Transhumanist renegade. To Jason's horror, he also learns that the Teloi aliens who were the grim reality behind the pagan pantheons of antiquity—aliens Jason believed he'd successfully destroyed—are still active, and aiding the Transhumanists in founding an unspeakable cult. What's more, these are a different—and far more dangerous—breed of Teloi than before.

  Jason must somehow thwart the plans of the sinister allies while at the same time preventing reality itself from falling into chaos. In the end he finds himself venturing into space with a totally unexpected ally: Henry Morgan.

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

Gritty urban fantasy adventure set in an alternate noir 1930s, Book Three in the Grimnoir chronicles.

Only a handful of people in the world know that mankind's magic comes from a living creature, and it is a refugee from another universe. The Power showed up here in the 1850s because it was running from something. Now it is 1933, and the Power's hiding place has been discovered by a killer.

It is a predator that eats magic and leaves destroyed worlds in its wake. Earth is next.

Former private eye, Jake Sullivan, knows the score. The problem is hardly anyone believes him. The world's most capable Active, Faye Vierra, could back him up, but she is hiding from the forces that think she is too dangerous to let live. So Jake has put together a ragtag crew of airship pirates and Grimnoir knights, and set out on a suicide mission to stop the predator before it is too late.

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

Now with new Content by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Theo Waitley has lived all her young life on Delgado, a Safe World that is home to one of the galaxy's premier institutions of higher learning. Both Theo's mother, Kamele, and Kamele's onagrata Jen Sar Kiladi, are professors at the university, and they all live comfortably together, just like they have for all of Theo's life, in Jen Sar's house at the outskirts of town.

Suddenly, though, Theo's life changes. Kamele leaves Jen Sar and moves herself and Theo back into faculty housing, which is not what Theo is used to. Once settled back inside the Wall, Kamele becomes embroiled in faculty politics, and is appointed sub-chair of her department. Meanwhile, Theo, who has a notation in her file indicating that she is "physically challenged" has a series of misadventures, including pulling her best friend down on the belt-ride to class, and hurting a team mate during a scavage game.

With notes piling up in her file, Theo only wants to go "home," to the house in the suburbs, and have everything just like it used to be.

Then, Kamele uncovers evidence of possible dishonest scholarship inside of her department. In order to clear the department, she and a team of senior professors must go off-world to perform a forensic document search. Theo hopes this will mean that she'll be left in the care of the man she calls "Father," Professor Kiladi, and is horrified to learn that Kamele means to bring Theo with her!

Thirty‑three shorter tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time in two mega‑volumes.  Seventeen tales to start with in Volume One!

The nationally best‑selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world‑building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge‑of‑the‑chair action.

Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe® with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore. 

Listen to the authors discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

Now with a new Afterword by Eric Flint
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.

Listen to the author discuss the book here or here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

Book One of the Cobra Rebellion Saga, and a new entry in New York Times #1 best seller Timothy Zahn's legendary Cobra series.

Cobras: technologically‑enhanced warriors bred to fight an alien menace no ordinary human can withstand. At the center of action on Cobra world Aventine: the legendary Moreau clan. In times of war, the Cobras are necessary, yet in times of peace they are often reviled by those they have saved. Now the Cobras have resisted a second invasion of the alien Troft forces, and forced the Troft to a stalemate ‑‑ and even converted some thoughtful Troft into uneasy allies against their kin.

Yet all is not well in the human sector of the galaxy. A supposed sister empire, the Dominion of Man, threatens the Cobra worlds with what is, in effect, enslavement, as it moves to consolidate power over all the Cobra worlds. The plan on Aventine: to extort from the Moreau family the location of the home planet of a mysterious human ally that may be more powerful than the Dominion: the Qasaman empire.

Meanwhile, Cobra Merrick Moreau is on a secret mission of his own to a world of humans enslaved by Troft masters. It is a world of barbaric cruelty where human are slave chattel to Troft gamblers. There the Troft force whole villages, even children, into life and death struggles served up for Troft entertainment.

But the totalitarian Dominion of Man and the Troft game‑masters are in for a rude surprise: Cobras are not merely technological marvels. They are far more. For within each Cobra, bred by close family ties and hard testing in battle, there beats the heart of a warrior and the burning conviction that a Cobra will be slave to no one. Rebellion is at hand, and once again, Cobras lead the fight for freedom.

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

A contemporary fantasy of mystery and death as American expats battle Japanese gods and monsters to retrieve an ancient artifact that can destroy the world.

On Saturday afternoon, Nikki Delany thought, "George Wilson, in the kitchen, with a blender." By dinner, she had killed George and posted his gory murder to her blog. The next day, she put on her mourning clothes and went out to meet her best friend for lunch to discuss finding a replacement for her love interest.

Nikki is a horror novelist. Her choice of career is dictated by an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that forces her to write stories of death and destruction. She can't control it, doesn't understand it, but can use it to make money anywhere in the world. Currently "anywhere" is in Japan, hiding from her mother who sees Nikki's OCD as proof she's mentally unstable. Nikki's fragile peace starts to fall apart when the police arrest her for the murder of an American expatriate. Someone killed him with a blender.

Reality starts to unravel around Nikki. She's attacked by a raccoon in a business suit. After a series of blackouts, she’s accompanied by a boy that no one else can see, a boy who claims to be a god. Is she really being pursued by Japanese myths—or is she simply going insane?

What Nikki does know for sure is that the bodies are piling up, her mother has arrived in Japan to lock her up for the rest of her life—and her novels always end with everyone dead.

Download the comprehensive Teacher’s Guide here.

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

Sequel to Threshold, Book Three in the best-selling Boundary series.

An exploratory mission to Mars and beyond begets a rush to gain control of advanced alien technology—even if it leads to an interplanetary war.

Stranded on Europa: Madeline Fathom miraculously crash lands the crippled Nebula Storm on Europa with the surviving crewmembers of an ill-fated EU vessel landing nearby. Help is most definitely not on the way. Escaping a trap of mysterious alien technology—then using it to her advantage—is Madeline's only chance to escape a very frosty demise on a very lonely moon.

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

Two legendary Andre Norton SF adventure novels in one omni volume.

Here Abide Monsters: On a world where parallel and alternate universes intersect Celtic faery folk, modern humans, and inhabitants of a distant future share the planet's surface. There are also aliens in flying saucers which are capturing and enslaving new arrivals who fall through the "gates." One group of new arrivals meets a protector, a man who calls himself the Herald. He promises safety—but in exchange, he requires a piece of their souls in payment.

Yurth Burden: Two races share Zacar: the plains dwelling Raski and the mountain dwelling telepaths, the Yurth. The two are often in contention along their borders, and terrible war periodically breaks out between them. When a young Yurth woman goes on her coming of age vision quest, one young Raski warrior follows her—and together they discover a secret that will surely unbalance their world and may change Zacar forever.

Now with a new Afterword by David Drake
A Friendship Forged in Hell!

Daniel Leary is a lieutenant in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy with no money and no prospects since he quarreled with his ruthless, politically powerful father.

Adele Mundy is a scholar with no money and no prospects since her family was massacred for conspiring against the Government of Cinnabar.

Kostroma is a wealthy planet which depends on diplomacy to stay independent in a galaxy whose two great powers, Cinnabar and the Alliance, battle for supremacy.

In a few hours, diplomacy is going to fail Kostroma. Daniel, Adele, and the scratch crew they gather aren't much to stand in the way of a powerful invasion fleet, but just possibly they're enough.

Men and women who hold courage cheap and honor more dear than life itself face impossible odds in a novel of color, intrigue and slashing action. From the corridors of a treason-ridden palace through the perils of unknown seas and hellish jungles to a final blazlng climax in space, the heroes never bow and the action never flags.

They have nothing on their side but each other—and heaven help whatever tries to stand in their way!

Stirring SF adventure from master storytellers Sharon Lee and Steve Miller—#16 in the award-winning Liaden Universe® saga. Space ships, action, adventure—all tied together with a strong dollop of romance and clan intrigue—make this a compelling series for a wide range of readers, from romance to military SF lovers.

The kompani see none as an enemy, and yet few as friend. The kompani exist in many places, living quietly in the shadows, thriving off the bounty that others have no wit to secure, nor skill to defend. Their private history is unwritten; their recall rooted in dance and dream. The Clan Korval is in many ways the opposite of the kompani. The interstellar trading clan is wealthy in enemies, fortunate in friends. Korval protects itself with vigor, and teaches even its youngest children the art of war.

And when representatives of Clan Korval arrive on the planet Surebleak where the kompani has lived, secret and aloof, the lives of three people intersect— Kezzi, apprentice to the kompani's grandmother; Syl Vor, Clan Korval's youngest warrior; and Rys, a man without a world, or a past.

Necessity's Child is a standalone adventure in the popular and exciting Liaden Universe®.

Two best-selling novels of science fiction adventure from the People saga of legendary storyteller Andre Norton together for the first time.

Iron Cage: Johnny has always loved and been protected by the People, the bearlike inhabitants on the planet he calls home. But when a star ship arrives carrying Johnny's original species, humans—humans who seek to exploit the People for their own ends—Johnny is forced to choose between loyalty to the creatures he considers his family, and the need to reconnect with his long lost heritage.

Breed to Come: On a distant future Earth, humans have polluted the planet and departed, leaving their pets behind to inherit a blasted world. But from that devastated past, a new breed of intelligence arises: the catlike People. Now humans return and the People are in no mood to deal once again with the "demons" who abandoned them to fate so long ago.

Sequel to time travel thriller Blood of the Heroes.

Jason Thanou: a time traveler with a burning mission. When the gods of ancient Greece proved to be not only monstrously real, but totally alien—and poised to dominate humanity forever—Jason took care of the situation, at least in Minoan Crete. Now he's got what looks like a normal assignment: to lead a time traveling expedition of scholars to the battle of Marathon and record for the benefit of future historians the magnificent stand of Greece's hoplite warriors against Persian invaders.

But the Olympians are not done with their attempt to dominate humanity. Now the god Pan is afoot in Greece—a creature who may have the power to turn ancient Athens away from her budding democracy and toward a corrupt future on an Earth dominated by twisted humans and evil alien forces. But not if Jason can discover Pan's secret, thwart a conspiracy that stretches for millennia— and save the birthplace of democracy from the corruption of the gods.

It is the summer of 1942 and what our historians have called the Incredible Victory in the Battle of Midway has become a horrendous disaster in this world. Two of America’s handful of carriers in the Pacific have blundered into a Japanese submarine picket line and have been sunk, while a third is destroyed the next day. The United States has only one carrier remaining in the Pacific against nine Japanese, while the ragtag remnants of U.S. battleships – an armada still reeling from the defeat at Pearl Harbor – are in even worse shape.

Now the Pacific belongs to the Japanese. And it doesn’t stop there, as Japan has thrust her sword in to the hilt. Alaska is invaded. Hawaii is under blockade. The Panama Canal is nearly plugged. Worst of all, the West Coast of America is ripe for destruction as bombers of the Empire of the Sun bombard west coast American cities at will.

Despite these disasters, the U.S. begins to fight back. Limited counterattacks are made and a grand plan is put forth to lure the Japanese into an ambush that could restore the balance in the Pacific and give the forces of freedom a fighting chance once more.

About Rising Sun:
“Conroy extrapolates a new and militarily plausible direction for WWII . . . A thrilling adventure.”—Booklist

Download the comprehensive Teacher’s Guide here.

Second entry in a new young adult series by New York Times best seller David Weber, and the prequel to the hugely popular Honor Harrington adult science fiction saga.

Fire in the forest—and a cry for help from a trapped and desperate alien mother! Unfortunately, this is one cry no human can hear. Stephanie Harrington, precocious fourteen-year-old Provisional Forest Ranger on the planet Sphinx, knows something is wrong from the uneasy emotion that is flooding into her from her treecat friend, Climbs Quickly. But though Stephanie's alien comrade shares a tight bond with his two legs, he cannot communicate directly to her the anguished call from one of his people.

Still, their strong and direct bond of feeling may be enough. Stephanie and fellow ranger Karl Zivonik respond to Climbs Quickly's rising waves of distress. Fire season on the pioneer world of Sphinx has begun. But there are those who want to use the natural cycle of the planet for personal gain—and to get rid of the one obstacle that stands in the way of acquiring even greater land and power on Sphinx: the native treecats.

Now it's up to Stephanie and Climbs Quickly, along with their friends, family, and allies to prevent disaster and injustice from befalling a treecat clan. But in the process Stephanie must be certain to preserve the greatest secret of all. It is the knowledge that the treecats of Sphinx are not merely pets or servants, but are highly intelligent in their own right—that they are a species fully deserving of rights, respect, and freedom. And keeping the secret that will allow the treecats time to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with humankind.

It all begins with the friendship of a girl and her treecat.

Download the comprehensive Teacher’s Guide here.

Lexile Score: 1000

#15 in the multiple best-selling Ring of Fire Series.

It's springtime in the Eternal City, 1635. But it's no Roman holiday for uptimer Frank Stone and his pregnant downtime wife, Giovanna. They're in the clutches of would be Pope Cardinal Borgia, with the real Pope—Urban VIII—on the run with the renegade embassy of uptime Ambassador Sharon Nichols and her swashbuckling downtime husband, Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Up to their necks in papal assassins, power politics, murder, and mayhem, the uptimers and their spouses need help and they need it quickly.

Special rescue teams—including Harry Lefferts and his infamous Wrecking Crew—converge on Rome to extract Frank and Gia. And an uptime airplane is on its way to spirit the Pope to safety before Borgia's assassins can find him. It seems that everything is going to work out just fine in sunny Italy.

Until, that is, everything goes wrong. Now, whether they are prisoners in Rome or renegades protecting a pope on the run, it's up to the rough and ready can do attitude of Grantville natives to once again escape the clutches of aristocratic skullduggery and ring in freedom for a war torn land.

#5 from Baen in the award-winning Liaden Universe® saga. Space ships, action, adventure—all tied together with a strong dollop of romance and intrigue.

First Class courier pilot Theo Waitley was already known as a nexus of violence—and then she inherited the precarious captaincy of a mysterious self-aware ship. Now she has a trade route to run for Clan Korval while she convinces the near mythic ghost ship Bechimo—and herself—that she wants to commit herself as the human side to their immensely powerful symbiosis. While her former lover battles a nano-virus that’s eating him alive, Theo is challenged to rescue hundreds of stranded pilots and crewmen from an explosive situation in near orbit around a suddenly hostile planet. Lovers, enemies, an ex-roomie, and a jealous spaceship are all in peril as Theo wields power that no one in the universe is sure of, especially her.

Two bestselling novels of science fiction adventure set in the Forerunner universe from legendary storyteller Andre Norton together for the first time.

Ice Crown:
Roane, a young archaeologist, makes planetfall on a previously off-limits world where the inhabitants have been implanted with false memories and conditioned to obey their oligarchic masters. Now Roane must fight to save the enslaved populace and her own inner essence by locating a powerful artifact that could bring new freedom to a planet locked in slavery.

Brother to Shadows:
Jofre, a young initiate to the assassin’s guild in a far future world, is betrayed and cast out by a corrupt nemesis. To save himself, Jofre must team with a crafty reptilian alien ally to find the hidden hoard of Forerunner technology and go forth and to find his destiny beyond the stars.