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 2023.

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.

Black Box by Sean CW Korsgaard

The Quail Runs by D.J. Butler

Awakenings by Patrick Chiles

The Last Temptation of the Outsider by Simon R. Green

The Witch, the Woods, and the Elf Queen by Gregory Frost

The Insomniac by Brad Zeiger

A Lesson to Those Who Survive by D.J. Butler

Requiem - An Honor Harrington Story by David Carrico

HIGH STAKES ADVENTURE AS TWO FRIENDS FIGHT THEIR WAY ACROSS A STRANGE WORLD IN A FAR-FLUNG FUTURE

Sometimes, the real enemies are the friends we make along the way.

An encounter with an old friend becomes tragically fatal, and Indrajit and Fix set out on a high-stakes, high-adrenaline quest across the ancient city of Kish to bring their friend back to life. At each step, the complications and the enemies alike pile up. The mysterious necromancers, the Vin Dalu priests, bind the heroes on an errand that sends them shuttling from one thieves’ guild to the next, pitting Indrajit and Fix against the deadly House of Knives and embroiling them in a plot by the giant, wasplike Kattak to take dire revenge on Kish and all its great houses.

Can the heroes save their friend? Can Indrajit and Fix survive? Will Kish itself fall?

Salvage Right

by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Between Princesses and Other Jobs

by D.J. Butler

Live Free or Die, Second Edition

by John Ringo

The Icarus Plot

by Timothy Zahn

Trouble Walked In

by Mike Kupari

ROBOSOLDIERS: Thank You for Your Servos

edited by Stephen Lawson

Bane of the Dead

by Jacob Holo

Throne of the Dead

by Jacob Holo

THEY WANT TO RESCUE DAMSELS IN DISTRESS. THEY HAVE TO PAY THE BILLS.

The continuing adventures of Indrajit and Fix.

WELCOME TO KISH

Indrajit and Fix are the founding partners of the Protagonists, a jobber company in Kish. Since the seven great families of Kish farm out all tasks they and the city need doing, a jobber might one day unblock a well; the next, man a tollgate for the fair; and on the third, hunt down a murderer on the loose, all in a corrupt old city that isn’t so much governed as kept barely in bounds.

Indrajit is a poet of a dying race, looking for his successor. Fix is a failed monk, pining for his lost love. They’re swordsmen and thinkers, heroes in their hearts and in their deeds. They also recover stolen documents, unravel financial fraud, escort shipwrecked diplomats, and hunt in the ruins beneath the city for missing academics. Meanwhile, the criminals they investigate, rival jobbers, sorcerers, spies, assassins, and other mysterious parties get more and more reason to want the Protagonists dead.

Welcome to Kish.

The Weltall File

by David Weber and Jacob Holo

Rhymer

by Gregory Frost

Ascendant: Star-Spangled Squadron, The Graphic Novel

by Alexander Macris, David Campiti, and William Macris

Time Troopers

edited by Hank Davis & Christopher Ruocchio

Fair Trade

by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Abbott in Darkness

by D.J. Butler

Fermi's Question

by John Cramer

THEY WANT TO RESCUE DAMSELS IN DISTRESS. THEY HAVE TO PAY THE BILLS.

The continuing adventures of Indrajit and Fix.

WELCOME TO KISH

Indrajit and Fix are the founding partners of the Protagonists, a jobber company in Kish. Since the seven great families of Kish farm out all tasks they and the city need doing, a jobber might one day unblock a well; the next, man a tollgate for the fair; and on the third, hunt down a murderer on the loose, all in a corrupt old city that isn’t so much governed as kept barely in bounds.

Indrajit is a poet of a dying race, looking for his successor. Fix is a failed monk, pining for his lost love. They’re swordsmen and thinkers, heroes in their hearts and in their deeds. They also recover stolen documents, unravel financial fraud, escort shipwrecked diplomats, and hunt in the ruins beneath the city for missing academics. Meanwhile, the criminals they investigate, rival jobbers, sorcerers, spies, assassins, and other mysterious parties get more and more reason to want the Protagonists dead.

Welcome to Kish.

Down These Mean Streets

edited by Larry Correia and Kacey Ezell

Among the Gray Lords

by D.J. Butler

Weird World War: China

Time Trials

by M.A. Rothman and D.J. Butler

Poor Man's Sky

by Wil McCarthy

Escape Orbit

by Patrick Chiles

A Matter of Security

by Bjorn Hasseler

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 2022.

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.

Flops by Michael Mersault
The Barcadian Wild by Tim Akers
Monsters in Our Midst by Wen Spencer
Window on Samovar by D.J. Butler
See the Fairville Oddity! by David Afsharirad
Man on the Moon by Elaine Midcoh
Trouble Is My Business by Mike Kupari
Dark Angel by David Carrico
On Cultivating a Chosen One by Christopher Baxter
The Bloody Dentist by Jacob Holo
Fire-breathing Dragon by Dan Koboldt
Xmas at ESL1 by Wil McCarthy

THE EVENTS OF EARTH'S PAST MAY HOLD THE KEY TO EARTH'S SALVATION IN THE FUTURE

Marty Cohen was a gifted linguist and student of ancient military strategy who stepped away from academic Egyptology and opened a woodworking shop. Away from the bitter politics and petty rivalries, he’s happy to take care of his people, play the occasional war game, and try to make a good life.

He discovers mysterious visions rob him of sleep, and then he gets summoned back to Egypt: an off-the-grid dig funded by an eccentric financier has discovered texts that may be the earliest Egypt has produced, and they’ll pay Marty silly amounts of cash just to fly out and take one little look.

Marty turned his back on the academia game, but he’s a small business owner who has to make payroll, and he can’t say no to the money.

But the texts open doors to more visions and to an astonishing journey: the ragtag team of archaeologists finds itself in protohistoric North Africa, a drying land dominated by horrors, where humanity is badly in need of champions.

And behind the war against the fearsome overlords lies a greater struggle: Marty and his team have been chosen to be champions of all Earth and to run a gauntlet on humanity’s behalf.

8 Ebooks, $18

Into the Vortex

by Charles E. Gannon

Time Trials

by M.A. Rothman and D.J. Butler

The Moon and the Desert

Witchy Eye

by D.J. Butler

Servants of War

by Larry Correia & Steve Diamond

Library of the Sapphire Wind

by Jane Lindskold

Scout's Progress

by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Melt

by Arlan Andrews Sr.

Servants of War

by Larry Correia & Steve Diamond

Valhellions

by Tim Akers

Weird World War IV

edited by Sean Patrick Hazlett

At the End of the Journey

by Charles E. Gannon

Blood and Whispers

by A.C. Haskins

The Jupiter Knife

by D.J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey

Little People!

edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann

John Abbott is all in.

He’s up to his eyeballs in debt to pay for school, and he’s just moved his small family forty light-years from Earth for a plum job with the wealthy interstellar corporation, The Sarovar Company. John’s first assignment is to discreetly investigate possible corruption at the remote Arrowhawk Station, where Company traders buy the famous Sarovari Weave from the three-sided, crablike Weavers.

John finds evidence of theft and worse, but when the guilty parties realize he’s getting close, they come after him and his family. Can John catch the thieves and end their corrupt trade? Can he head off a war between the Company and the Weavers? Can he make a life for his family in this remote wilderness without corrupting himself?

With no way back to Earth, the only direction for John Abbott and his family to go is forward—into danger.

7 books, $18

Fair Trade

by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Abbott in Darkness

by D.J. Butler

The City Who Fought

By Anne McCaffrey and S.M. Stirling

Governor

by David Weber and Richard Fox

Freehold: Defiance

by Michael Z. Williamson

The Godel Operation

by James L. Cambias

Rhapsody for the Tempest

by Marc Stiegler

The Romanov Rescue

by Tom Kratman, Justin Watson, and Kacey Ezell

This Broken World

by Charles E. Gannon

Gunfight on Europa Station

edited by David Boop

In Fury Born

by David Weber

1637: No Peace Beyond the Line

by Eric Flint and Charles E. Gannon

Serpent Daughter

by D.J. Butler

Reap the Whirlwind

The Sword of Knowledge, Book 3 by C.J. Cherryh and Mercedes Lackey

Monster Hunter Bloodlines

by Larry Correia

Saving Proxima

by Travis S. Taylor and Les Johnson

World Breakers

Edited by Tony Daniel and Christopher Ruocchio

Days of Burning, Days of Wrath

by Tom Kratman

In the Palace of Shadow and Joy

by D.J. Butler

Beowulf's Children

by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes

Future Crimes

edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann

Antediluvian

by Wil McCarthy

Agent of the Imperium

by Marc Miller

The Best of Jerry Pournelle

by Jerry Pournelle
Edited by John F. Carr

Accepting the Lance

by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

The Scope of Justice

Target: Terror, Book 1
by Michael Z. Williamson

Serpent Daughter

by D.J. Butler

1637: No Peace Beyond the Line

by Eric Flint and Charles E. Gannon

DRAGON AWARD–NOMINATED SERIES. New entry in the Witchy War series, blending alternate history, Appalachian Folklore, and epic fantasy.

Sarah Calhoun has taken her father’s throne and ascended into her goddess’s presence in Unfallen Eden as her father never did.

And Sarah Calhoun is dying.

Her uncle Thomas Penn isn’t done with her. Armed with new powers conferred upon him by the Necromancer and with new allies won via his impending marriage, Penn aims to remove Sarah from her throne—and from the world of the living. In the meantime, Sarah has fallen out with one of her best allies. Against Sarah’s advice, her brother Nathaniel heads into Imperial Philadelphia with the reckless and likely impossible aim of healing the Emperor Thomas.

On the shores of the northern seas, agents of Franklin’s Conventicle with an unlikely connection to the Emperor struggle to win allies among the pole-dwelling giants, who are torn between seizing land covertly from the Firstborn of the Ohio and entering the war openly on the side of Simon Sword. In the west, the Heron King rides an explosive storm into war, crushing the mortal kingdoms in his path and bearing down on Sarah’s Cahokia.

To survive—and to gain the strength she needs to fight this impossible war—Sarah must unite the Moundbuilder kings to enact an ancient rite that will propel her beyond mortality. To do so, she must not only win over doubters among the Firstborn kings, but she must also beat back a rebellion among the Handmaids of her goddess—for there are some of the goddess’s priestesses who long for the dark days of human sacrifice, and who are willing to throw Sarah herself upon the altar.

EVEN GHOSTS NEED HELP FROM A CUNNING MAN. A new novel in the Cunning Man series from Dragon Award-nominated author D.J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey.

Hiram and his son Michael are dowsing a well in Eastern Utah when they hear a cry of help from the ghost of a small boy, torn to pieces by wild animals. Before they can even begin to look into that tragedy, however, a prosperous local rancher is murdered right before their eyes.

In an attempt to both help the ghost and find the killer, Hiram and Michael must navigate an eccentric cast of characters that includes failed bank robbers, a seductive fortune-teller, an inept sheriff, a crazy prospector, and a preacher with an apocalyptic grudge against the Roosevelt administration.

The mystery, however, isn’t just in the hearts of men. There’s an astrological puzzle that Michael, now his father’s apprentice, must solve. Meanwhile, the murderer is moving slowly against Hiram and Michael, forcing them into a trap from which there is no escape.

Penric's Progress

by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Jupiter Knife

by D.J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey

Straight Outta Dodge City

edited by David Boop

Breaking Silence

by Mercedes Lackey and Cody Martin

Future War

edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann

Tyger Bright

by T.C. McCarthy

Gun Runner

by Larry Correia and John Brown

EVEN GHOSTS NEED HELP FROM A CUNNING MAN. A new novel in the Cunning Man series from Dragon Award-nominated author D.J. Butler and Aaron Michael Ritchey.

Hiram and his son Michael are dowsing a well in Eastern Utah when they hear a cry for help from the ghost of a small boy, torn to pieces by wild animals. Before they can even begin to look into that tragedy, however, a prosperous local rancher is murdered right before their eyes.

In an attempt to both help the ghost and find the killer, Hiram and Michael must navigate an eccentric cast of characters that includes failed bank robbers, a seductive fortune-teller, an inept sheriff, a crazy prospector, and a preacher with an apocalyptic grudge against the Roosevelt administration.

The mystery, however, isn’t just in the hearts of men. There’s an astrological puzzle that Michael, now his father’s apprentice, must solve. Meanwhile, the murderer is moving slowly against Hiram and Michael, forcing them into a trap from which there is no escape.