Beyond the Ranges

By John Ringo with James Aidee

The Eccentrics

by Tim Akers

Hyde & Seek

by Simon R. Green

Black Tide Rising

The Weltall File

by David Weber and Jacob Holo

Salvage Right

by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Monster Hunter Fantom

edited by Martin Fajkus and Jakub Marik

Knight Watch

by Tim Akers

Valhellions

by Tim Akers

Wraithbound

by Tim Akers

Frontier

by Patrick Chiles

Frozen Orbit

by Patrick Chiles

Escape Orbit

by Patrick Chiles

THE LATEST ENTRY IN TIM AKERS’ KNIGHT WATCH URBAN FANTASY SERIES

Steampunks Have Heroes Too
Knight Watch stands between the mundane world and the monsters of myth and legend. But there are more than dragons and trolls prowling the shadows of the modern world. Creatures of clockwork and mad science threaten to disrupt the peace. For monsters such as these, a different band of heroes guards the world.

The Eccentrics
Led by the eighth incarnation of Nikola Tesla, the Society of Eccentric Geniuses protects the Mundane world from the horrors of the Gestalt, a timeline of the future that never was. Powered by SCIENCE and steam, the Eccentrics travel the world in their airship, righting wrongs and rescuing troubled suitors, mad scientists, and optimistic engineers, often from monsters of their own creation. But now something new threatens the Gestalt, and they need help from John Rast and the heroes of Knight Watch. Will John be able to navigate a world of clockwork and science to save the day? Or will he fall into the clutches of a madman bent on remaking both the Gestalt and the Unreal in his own image?

THE LATEST ENTRY IN TIM AKERS’ KNIGHT WATCH URBAN FANTASY SERIES

Steampunks Have Heroes Too

Knight Watch stands between the mundane world and the monsters of myth and legend. But there are more than dragons and trolls prowling the shadows of the modern world. Creatures of clockwork and mad science threaten to disrupt the peace. For monsters such as these, a different band of heroes guards the world.

The Eccentrics

Led by the eighth incarnation of Nikola Tesla, the Society of Eccentric Geniuses protects the Mundane world from the horrors of the Gestalt, a timeline of the future that never was. Powered by SCIENCE and steam, the Eccentrics travel the world in their airship, righting wrongs and rescuing troubled suitors, mad scientists, and optimistic engineers, often from monsters of their own creation. But now something new threatens the Gestalt, and they need help from John Rast and the heroes of Knight Watch. Will John be able to navigate a world of clockwork and science to save the day? Or will he fall into the clutches of a madman bent on remaking both the Gestalt and the Unreal in his own image?

The Icarus Plot

by Timothy Zahn

Tower of Silence

by Larry Correia

Into the Vortex

by Charles E. Gannon

Wraithbound

by Tim Akers

7 Ebooks, $18

Tower of Silence

by Larry Correia

Escape Orbit

by Patrick Chiles

Wraithbound

by Tim Akers

1637: The Coast of Chaos

by Eric Flint, Paula Goodlett, and Gorg Huff

Into the Real

by John Ringo & Lydia Sherrer

Valhellions

by Tim Akers

Floe

by Arlan Andrews Sr.

EPIC FANTASY BY A RISING STAR OF FANTASY

Since he was a boy, Rae Kelthannis has dreamed of being a stormbinder like his father, with an air elemental stitched into the fabric of his soul and the winds of heaven at his command. Those dreams died when his father, through no fault of his own, fell into disgrace and was banned by the justicars of the Iron Council. The family fled to the edge of the Ordered World, to live in fear in the shadow of encroaching Chaos.

When Rae defies his father’s orders and attempts to stitch an air elemental to his soul, he instead binds himself to a mysterious wraith. That’s when things get complicated and the world starts to fall apart around him. Literally.

The Icarus Job

by Timothy Zahn

United We Stand

edited by John Ringo & Gary Poole

Interstellar Medic: The Long Run

by Patrick Chiles

What Price Victory?

edited by David Weber

Mission Critical

by Charles E. Gannon, Griffin Barber, Chris Kennedy, and Mike Massa

Wraithbound

by Tim Akers

Security Threats

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

EPIC FANTASY BY A RISING STAR OF FANTASY

Since he was a boy, Rae Kelthannis has dreamed of being a stormbinder like his father, with an air elemental stitched into the fabric of his soul and the winds of heaven at his command. Those dreams died when his father, through no fault of his own, fell into disgrace and was banned by the justicars of the Iron Council. The family fled to the edge of the Ordered World, to live in fear in the shadow of encroaching Chaos.

When Rae defies his father’s orders and attempts to stitch an air elemental to his soul, he instead binds himself to a mysterious wraith. That’s when things get complicated and the world starts to fall apart around him. Literally.

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

AN AGENT OF KNIGHT WATCH, TASKED TO PROTECT HUMANITY FROM SUPERNATURAL ENEMIES, MUST GO TO HELL AND BACK TO CLEAR HIS NAME AND SAVE THE WORLD

When John Rast signed up for Knight Watch, he expected it to be all fighting dragons and rescuing maidens. You know, hero stuff. But instead he’s stuck patrolling game conventions and cosplayer competitions, looking for dangerous anachronisms and the villains who may be trying to exploit them. Fortunately, all that changes when an honest-to-goodness necromancer shows up wielding a weapon created by Nazi occultists and accompanied by some badass evil valkyries, hell-bent on kicking off the end of the world.

John and the team will go to great lengths—even Minnesota—to prove find out who’s responsible for all this and foil their plans. Also, there’s a giant dog who thinks the moon is a ball. It’s epic.

AN AGENT OF KNIGHT WATCH, TASKED TO PROTECT HUMANITY FROM SUPERNATURAL ENEMIES, MUST GO TO HELL AND BACK TO CLEAR HIS NAME AND SAVE THE WORLD

When John Rast signed up for Knight Watch, he expected it to be all fighting dragons and rescuing maidens. You know, hero stuff. But instead he’s stuck patrolling game conventions and cosplayer competitions, looking for dangerous anachronisms and the villains who may be trying to exploit them. Fortunately, all that changes when an honest-to-goodness necromancer shows up wielding a weapon created by Nazi occultists and accompanied by some badass evil valkyries, hell-bent on kicking off the end of the world.

John and the team will go to great lengths—even Minnesota—to prove find out who’s responsible for all this and foil their plans. Also, there’s a giant dog who thinks the moon is a ball. It’s epic.

Jekyll & Hyde Inc.

by Simon R. Green

1637: Dr. Gribbleflotz and the Soul of Stoner

by Kerryn Offord and Rick Boatright

Going Interstellar

by Les Johnson and Jack McDevitt

The Valkyrie Protocol

by David Weber and Jacob Holo

Knight Watch

by Tim Akers

A Dirge for Sabis

The Sword of Knowledge, Book 1
by C.J. Cherryh and Leslie Fish

Robots

edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann

MEN IN BLACK AT THE REN FAIRE!

John Rast went to the Ren Faire looking for a fight. Well, a simulated fight, with blunt swords and safety equipment. But when his final opponent turns into a living, fire-breathing dragon, John finds himself in the fight of his life. It’s John or nothing stopping a disaster in its tracks—and the only real weapon at hand is his mom’s Volvo. So John decides to let it roll . . .

And that's when destiny comes to call. John is spirited away to the well-hidden base of Knight Watch, the organization that stands between humanity and the real nasties the rest of the world doesn’t know about.

Knight Watch would be John’s dream job—except for the storm goddess that destroys his parents’ house, the abandoned mall replete with too much dead, and the Fetch that aims to make John’s domain a final resting place. All this has John’s putative allies in the Knight Watch worried that John is the one bringing bad things into multiple worlds. John and his reluctant teammates have to figure out who, or what, is pulling the strings before all of Knight Watch falls prey to a well-concealed puppetmaster and far worse things enter this world.

Destroyer of Worlds

by Larry Correia

The Waters and the Wild

by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill

Her Majesty's Rebel

by Steve White

Knight Watch

by Tim Akers

Straight Outta Deadwood

Edited by David Boop

Albion

Albion Series, Book 1
by John Grant

There Will be Dragons, Second Edition

by John Ringo

Stellaris: People of the Stars

Edited by Les Johnson and Robert E. Hampson

MEN IN BLACK AT THE REN FAIRE!

John Rast went to the Ren Faire looking for a fight. Well, a simulated fight, with blunt swords and safety equipment. But when his final opponent turns into a living, fire-breathing dragon, John finds himself in the fight of his life. It’s John or nothing stopping a disaster in its tracks—and the only real weapon at hand is his mom’s Volvo. So John decides to let it roll . . .

And that's when destiny comes to call. John is spirited away to the well-hidden base of Knight Watch, the organization that stands between humanity and the real nasties the rest of the world doesn’t know about.

Knight Watch would be John’s dream job—except for the storm goddess that destroys his parents’ house, the abandoned mall replete with too much dead, and the Fetch that aims to make John’s domain a final resting place. All this has John’s putative allies in the Knight Watch worried that John is the one bringing bad things into multiple worlds. John and his reluctant teammates have to figure out who, or what, is pulling the strings before all of Knight Watch falls prey to a well-concealed puppetmaster and far worse things enter this world.

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 2020.

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.

The Red Sea by Mercedes Lackey and Cody Martin
Adrift by Frank Chadwick
The Policeman's Daughter by Wil McCarthy
Peregoy's Wolves by Nancy Kress
Chasing Your Tail by Peter J. Wacks
Bagala Devi Objective by M.T. Reiten
Sacrifices by D.J. Butler
Humanslayer by G. Scott Huggins
The Hero Business by Tim Akers
At the Seams by Jacob Holo
The Red Ship by Marc Miller
Preferred Seating by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

“Hard to put down. From the compelling opening sentence to the last, The Horns of Ruin is much like its protagonist: powerful, relentless and impossible to ignore.”—Miami Herald

When humanity ascended, there were three gods. Three became two. Then two became one…

Eva Forge is the last of her kind—a Paladin of the dead god Morgan, whose might is slowly waning. Trained for a life of combat in the city of Ash, she remains ever wary of the scions of the other gods, who have their own beliefs and agendas. So when Eva accompanies her lifelong mentor to retrieve a strange young girl of a rival faith, she is both curious and suspicious. And above all, she is ready for a fight.

But nothing could have prepared her for an ambush by armored, machine-driven corpses. When the smoke clears both her mentor and the girl are gone—taken captive or worse. Though ordered to stand down and let the authorities handle the investigation, Eva cannot let such a disgrace go unpunished by the power of Morgan.

Soon, her initial desire for bloody vengeance becomes a quest for answers. Because the more Eva learns in her search for the truth, the less she realizes she truly knows about her city, her destiny, and the gods themselves. And what Eva uncovers will either transform the world or leave it in ruins…

Tim Akers, author of the acclaimed Burn Cycle series, introduces readers to a mystical world where men can become gods, and gods can become murderers…

“A complex steampunk world.”—Publishers Weekly

“A solidly created world, populated with magic, action and adventure…we haven’t come across such a refreshing take on multiple sci-fi and fantasy forms in a while.”—Sci Fi Now

The thrilling conclusion to Tim Akers’ hard-boiled steampunk-noir series, The Burn Cycle.

The city of Veridon used Jacob Burn horribly. The Council, the Church, even his family betrayed his trust, and still Burn risked everything to save their lives. For his sacrifice, he lost his tenuous ties to lawful society, his place in the criminal underworld, and the only woman he ever loved. Now, to survive, Burn runs small-time jobs, like his latest gig, delivering a seemingly innocuous package to the Fehn.

The Fehn are a symbiotic race that live under the murky Reine River, colonizing any body that slips beneath its dark waters. Although unsettling to see, the Fehn dwell peacefully below Veridon. But moments after Burn makes his delivery, swarms of dead Fehn clog the Reine. More terrifying are the horde of pearl-white cogdead Fehn who still walk, crawling out of the river to violently ransack the city.

Once again, Burn is responsible for Veridon’s survival, and the Fehn are just one of many threats the city suddenly faces—old adversaries have returned, defunct factions resurfaced, and ancient feuds reignited. Behind it all, an enigmatic foreigner manipulates Veridon’s leaders toward a goal that would destroy Veridon and tear asunder the very essence of life. Burn thought he had nothing to lose, but protecting Veridon could cost him the one thing he has left… his life.