We're baaaccckkkk!

Yep. Once again, the Grantville Gazette is up and running!

John Zeek is back with "King of the Road," but it's nothing like the Roger Miller tune of years ago. James Copley gives us "Transit," a love story, 1632 style.

Kerryn Offord offers "Black Gold," and yes, it's the black gold that runs the world, oil. Terry Howard is still having trouble with those Anabaptists . . . or are the Anabaptists having trouble with Grantville? Check out "Fire and Brimstone."

Garrett W. Vance is back with Episode Two of "Second Chance Bird," and the folks who are hunting those darn dodos. Herb Sakalaucks has lots of people headed to the new world in "Northwest Passage, Part Seven."

Nonfiction this issue has Iver P. Cooper's "Renaissance Boogie: Dancing in Early Modern Europe." Boy, it was a lot more important than the average guy would expect. Kerryn Offord is back with "A Visit to Wietze," which is, oddly enough, about a visit to the Wietze oil fields.

Patty Jansen is our Universe Annex author, with "His Name in Lights." And we've got Bud Webster and Kristine Kathryn Rusch writing columns for us, a real treat.

Here you go. Have at it.

And off we go again, in another volume (Number 32) of the Grantville Gazette!

Gorg Huff gives us "All Steamed Up." Did you ever wonder what was going on with the children of an up-timer/down-timer marriage? Here's what's happening with some of them.

Bjorn Hasseler has written the story of just what might happen when folks start trying to reconstruct the original text of the Bible. Check out "Bibelgesellschaft."

Things, many things, were a bit different in the 1630s. Marriage, for one. So take a look at Kerryn Offord's latest offering, "A Marriage of Inconvenience." A guy has to make mastercraftsman somehow, doesn't he?

Nicholas Keyser saw something in a story published a few issues back, and it nagged at him a bit. "Requiem in Blue" is his resolution.

Terry Howard offers "The Baptist Basement Bar and Grill." Yes, that's what I said. Have a look.

We're starting a new serial this issue. Garrett Vance, our art director, is an author to conjure with as well. Take a look at "Second Chance Bird, Episode One."

Nonfiction this issue comes from Iver P. Cooper and Gorg Huff. Iver discusses the "Treasures of the Earth: Geophysical and Geochemical Prospecting," while Gorg presents a treatise on economics called "Point Source." Interesting stuff!

Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes about one of our favorite topics—stories, stories, stories. Have a look at "The Importance of Stories."

Grantville Gazette 32. Right here, right now.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch talks about the way times have changed in our time line in her column Notes From the Buffer Zone. Well, what about the way times might have changed in the new time line of 1632?

Lots of differences, don't you think? There's the breakdown of social barriers, as portrayed in James Copley's "Margarete's Rose." Technology makes its mark in Jack Carroll's "Storm Signals." Something as simple as an April Fool joke causes a bit of, er, irritation on the part of one man in Iver P. Cooper's "Lion's Tower," not to mention the changes brought about by the railroads, which you can read about in Iver's "Stitching the Country Together."

Henneberg experiences a wrenching change in Virginia DeMarce's "The Red Flage of Henneberg." Swiss Army knives? Maybe not so much. See Kim Schoeffel's "Me Fecit Solingen Nicht" for what could happen there. Papermaking has lots of potential for improvement, as in Terry Howard's "The Future Is Where You Started."

And not all the things the up-timer's bring are good things. Check out what's happening to the grapes and wine-making industry in Kerryn Offord's "Rotkäppchen." Music we know will be affected, and Enrico Toro and David Carrico demonstrate that in "Euterpe, Episode 4." Herb Sakalaucks is back with the next episode of what might be going on in the New World in "Northwest Passage, Part Six."

Now, back in our own timeline, what might go on in space sometime in the future? Check out Jason K. Chapman's "The Long Fall" for one take on that.

Grantville Gazette 31. Ready for you now.

Better late than never, as they say! Grantville Gazette Volume 30 has at last arrived!

Our new department, the Universe Annex, makes it's debut this issue. We have columns and a science fiction or fantasy story that aren't related to the 1632 universe. All very interesting and R. J. Ortega's "Summerland Rentals" is a fantasy you don't want to miss.

Back in 1632, see Virginia DeMarce's "Nor the Moon by Night" and "Historically Well Preserved." Different places and different people, all interesting. Kerryn Offord gives us "The Boat," the story of just what happened about that expensive boat that got wrecked . . . by the government. Blaise Pascal is at it again in Tim Roesch's "Blaise Pascal and the Adders of Apraphul."

Terry Howard writes about Rev. Al Green and what happens to him in "A Tale of Two Alberts," while Bradley H. Sinor and Tracy S. Morris bring back their bubbly reporter in "A Study in Redheads." Harry Lefferts is up to his usual antics in David Carrico's "Hair of the Dog." European immigration to the new world is tackled in Herbert and William Sakalaucks' "Northwest Passage, Part 5" while Kevin and Karen Evans bring us the last part of their India trip story, "No Ship for Tranquebar, Part Fours."

Nonfiction this issue has Rick Boatright's "The Aqualator" and you're just not going to believe the direction of computer science in this universe! Not to mention, there's no telling what's going to happen with ships in this alternate future. Read Iver P. Cooper's "The Multihull and the Mariner."

We finish off with two new columns, one from Bud Webster from his Past Masters series and one from Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

Great reading, loads of info! What more could you ask for?

It's that time again! Time to check out just what's going on in Eric Flint's 1632 Universe!

The law is . . . many things to many people. Samuel Krapp thinks some of them are perverse. Ouch. Read why in Virginia DeMarce's "Speaking of Uncle Abner." And who would think that plain old measles is a problem? Most of Grantville is about to find out why. Read about it in "The Red Menace: Latency" by Gus Kritikos and Kerryn Offord. Plain old measles? 'Fraid not.

Jose Clavell is back with his navy cops in "NCIS: No Greater Love." Find out who has the greater love. Terry Howard and James Copley quote the Devil in "Yes, Dear." Mind, it's the Devil in Damned Yankees, so he's an entertaining fellow.

Our serials continue with Herbert and William Sakalauck's in "Northwest Passage, Part 4," where the French start getting involved. Karen and Kevin Evan are headed east with "No Ship for Tranquebar, Part Three." And we've got plastics galore—or information about them—in Iver P. Cooper's "Industrial Alchemy, Part 5: Polymers." Back to the measles in Gus Kritikos' "Common Childhood Diseases in the 1630s, Part 1, Fevers with Rashes."

Grantville Gazette, Volume 29 is ready! Are you?

NS201005 May 2010 Night Shade Books

Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories

by Fritz Leiber
edited by Jonathan Strahan and
Charles N. Brown

Rules of '48

by Jack Cady

Grey

by Jon Armstrong

In a working-class city with roots deep in the Confederacy, five men will endure seven deadly weeks that will forever alter their perceptions of the world. These haunting events transpiring over the summer of 1948 will irrevocably mark their understanding of race and responsibility in postwar America.

Laconic, nuanced, and stylish, master storyteller Jack Cady's depiction of mid-century Louisville, Kentucky, is fraught with racial tension, precise detail, and the delicate, figurative ghosts of the actions and inactions of the past.

From Jack Cady, award-winning author of The Hauntings of Hood Canal and Ghosts of Yesterday, comes the astonishing final novel Rules of '48, a stirring semi-autobiographical examination of changing social conventions and the development of the American conscience in the aftermath of the greatest war in history. Jack Cady died in January 2004, but his insightful vision of American life lives on in Rules of '48.

"For more than 30 years, Cady has been one of America's great chroniclers of characters and places . . . . Few writers can capture the rhythms of blue-collar speech as well as Cady does . . . "
—Publishers Weekly

"Jack Cady is above all, a writer of great, unmistakable integrity and profound feeling . . . Jack Cady's is a voice we need to hear."
—Peter Straub

Known in his lifetime primarily to readers of science fiction and fantasy, Fritz Leiber is now recognized as one of the finest writers of popular fiction of the twentieth century.  An intimate of H. P. Lovecraft, Leiber crafted the twentieth century's first great stories of urban horror, created the sword and sorcery tale almost single-handedly, and wrote strong, resonant science fiction. Nothing less than a visionary American author, Leiber is considered by critics and fans alike to be one of our most original and versatile storytellers. 

The seventeen tales selected for this volume showcase Leiber's virtuoso range and unforgettable characters: from the fabled, decadent streets of god-haunted Lankhmar to the eerie underworld of a Martian gambling hall; from a sunless, frozen Earth to the shattered, bombed, and violent wreckage of a post-atomic New York, and beyond. Edited by master anthologist Jonathan Strahan and Locus magazine founder Charles N. Brown, Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories presents a wide sampling of his best short fiction so that a new generation of twenty-first century readers can continue to discover and enjoy his groundbreaking and memorable fiction.

Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. (1910–1992) was an American author of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. The son of Shakespearian actors, Leiber was also an actor, expert chess player, and champion fencer. Born in Chicago in 1910, Leiber spent his youth touring with his parents' theater company. He graduated with honors in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1932. Leiber married Jonquil Stephens in 1936. In 1938, their son Justin was born. After Jonquil's death in 1969, Fritz Leiber moved to San Francisco, where he lived until his death on September 5, 1992. 

Leiber's formative sword-and-sorcery story, "Two Sought Adventure," was published in Unknown magazine in 1939. Subsequent stories and novels would appear in such publications as Astounding, Dangerous Visions, Fantastic, Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Galaxy, Other Worlds, Star Science Fiction Stories, and Weird Tales. A number of Leiber's works have been adapted for film or television.

In addition to multiple Hugo, Nebula, Derleth, Lovecraft, and World Fantasy awards, Fritz Leiber received the Grand Master of Fantasy (Gandalf) Award in 1975, World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1976, the Grand Master Nebula Award in 1981, and the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.

"I learned how to play the game of literature—a game of power and precision and elegance—from reading Fritz Leiber, but it was a lesson I learned in fits, chasing his stories across scattershot anthologies. What a blessing and a pleasure that we can all now be schooled, easily and everlastingly, by this marvelous collection."
—Michael Chabon

"He was one of the giants of genre literature and it is hard to imagine the world of tales we read today being the same without him . . . Fritz Leiber's better short stories do the thing a fine whisky does . . . they leave aftertastes in memory, an emotional residue and resonance that remains long after the final page has been turned."
—Neil Gaiman

"For anyone who loves great literature, Fritz Leiber walked on water." 
—HARLAN ELLISON

A mermaid delves into the dark underpinnings of her Utopian society; a dying boy finds himself trapped in a virtual world beyond his wildest imagining; Friedrich Nietzsche meets Wyatt Earp on the dusty streets of Tombstone, Arizona; a gorilla strives to remain relevant among the info-streams and easily distracted eyeballs of a shallow, media-addled culture; a civilization raises its young as computer programs, deleting problematic children at will . . .

Few authors have matched the versatility and stylishness of Walter Jon Williams. His genre-defining novels have received wide critical acclaim and captured the rapt attention of fans worldwide. He has been nominated for every major SF award. The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories contains nine bleeding-edge tales showcasing Williams' flexibility, power-chord storytelling, and engagingly human and post-human characters.

From Walter Jon Williams, author of more than twenty novels, including This Is Not a Game, Implied Spaces, and the definitive cyberpunk novel Hardwired, comes The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, a stunning collection of short fiction including the Nebula Award-winning stories "Daddy's World" and "The Green Leopard Plague," and featuring an introduction by Charles Stross, plus in-depth story notes.

NO REST FOR THE WEARY

Captain Daniel Leary and his friend, the spy Adele Mundy, have been in the front lines of Cinnabar's struggle against the totalitarian Alliance. Now these galactic superpowers have signed a peace of mutual exhaustion--

But the jackals are moving in!

The Republic of Cinnabar was on the verge of collapse under the weight of taxes, casualties, and war's disruption of trade. That the Alliance of Free Stars was in even worse condition helped only because it has made peace possible.

Years of war have been hard on Daniel and harder still on Adele, whose life outside information-gathering is a tightrope between despair and deadly violence. Their masters in the RCN and the Republic's intelligence service have sent them to the fringes of human space to relax away from danger.

But the barbarians of the outer reaches have their own plans, plans which will bring down both Cinnabar and the Alliance. The enemies of peace include traitors, giant reptiles, and barbarian pirates whose ships can outsail even Daniel Leary's splendid corvette, the Princess Cecile.

Unless Daniel, Adele, and their unlikely allies succeed, galactic civilization will disintegrate into blood and chaos.

So they will succeed—or they'll die trying!

About the Author

David Drake was attending Duke University Law School when he was drafted. He served the next two years in the Army, spending 1970 as an enlisted interrogator with the 11th armored Cavalry in Viet Nam and Cambodia. Upon return he completed his law degree at Duke and was for eight years Assistant Town Attorney for Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He has been a full-time freelance writer since 1981. Besides the bestselling Hammer's Slammers series, his books for Baen include Ranks of Bronze, All the Way to the Gallows, Redliners, and many more. His "Lord of the Isles" fantasy novels for Tor are genre best sellers. What Distant Deeps is the eighth in the popular RCN series. The previous titles are: With the Lightnings; Lt. Leary, Commanding; The Far Side of the Stars; The Way to Glory; Some Golden Harbor, When the Tide Rises and In the Stormy Red Sky.

W201101 January 2011 Monthly Baen Bundle

Citadel

by John Ringo

Cobra Guardian: Cobra War Book II

by Timothy Zahn

The Agent Gambit

by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

All the Way to the Gallows

by David Drake

Torch of Freedom

by David Weber and Eric Flint

The Tuloriad

by John Ringo and Tom Kratman

Man-Kzin Wars XII

by Larry Niven, Paul Chafe, Hal Colebatch and Matthew Harrington

Dragon's Ring

by Dave Freer

A collection of side-splitting science fiction shorts includes tales of paratrooper goblins, space cops and their politically correct alien supervisor, a band of mercenary elves, and a collaboration with Larry Niven.

When the colony worlds Adirondack and Silvern fell to the Troft forces almost without a struggle. Outnumbered and on the defensive, Earth made a desperate decision. It would attack the aliens not from space, but on the ground—with forces the Trofts did not even suspect. Thus were created the Cobras, a guerilla force whose weapons were surgically implanted, invisible to the unsuspecting eye, yet undeniably deadly. And the Moreau family were the most famous of the Cobra warriors. Long after victory over the Troft was achieved, the Cobras made common cause against their former adversaries against a new enemy. Their reward was three planets that would be a home for the Cobras, who deadly powers made them too dangerous to feel at home on Earth.

Now, years had passed and not everyone on the Cobra worlds thought that the Cobras were worth the cost of maintaining their existing built-in weaponry, let alone supporting research to improve the Cobra weapons, and possibly even put an end to the negative effects of that built-in weaponry, which caused Cobras to die much too young. Many who had never known interplanetary war were convinced that the Cobras were not needed at all.

That was a grave miscalculation, because a Troft faction has decided to invade the Cobra planets in force, using a new strategy that even the formidable Cobra warriors may not be able to defeat . . .

Of all the hosts of Eurotas the Troias were the most fell. For they were born of Winter.

Between the Solar Array Pumped Laser and Troy, the two trillion ton nickel-iron battlestation created by eccentric billionaire Tyler Vernon, Earth has managed to recapture the Sol system from their Horvath conquerors and begin entering the galactic millieu.

But when the Rangora Empire rapidly crushes humanity's only ally it becomes clear the war is just beginning. At the heart of nickel iron and starlight are the people, Marines, Navy and civilians, who make Troy a living, breathing, engine of war. Survivors of apocalypse, they know the cost of failure.

If this Troy falls, no one will be left to write the epic.

Citadel continues the saga begun in Live Free or Die, following the paths of several characters during the first years of The Spiral Arm Wars culminating in the First Battle of E Eridani.

THE SECOND TIME AROUND—IS HARDER . . .

Decades after the last footprints were left on the Moon, the U.S. was preparing to return to the Lunar surface in a new class of rockets, when the mission suddenly became much more urgent. It would have to be a rescue mission.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the world China had sent its own Lunar expedition. A manned expedition. Until a distress call was received, no human outside of China even knew that the mission was manned—or that their ship had crash-landed and couldn’t take off again.

Time was running out, and if the four Chinese astronauts were to be rescued, the American lunar mission would have to launch immediately, with only a skeleton crew. Once the heroic U.S. astronauts were underway the army of engineers and scientists back home had the daunting task of deciding what equipment could be left on the Moon to permit the Lunar lander vehicle vehicle to lift safely from the Moon with the two U.S. astronauts and the four stranded Chinese taikonauts! Could the U.S. mount such a mission successfully—and would thousands of years of instilled honor “allow” the Chinese astronauts to accept a rescue?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Travis S. Taylor—“Doc” Taylor to his friends—has earned his soubriquet the hard way: He has a doctorate in optical science and engineering, a master's degree in physics, a master's degree in aerospace engineering, a master's degree in astronomy, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He's currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space-based beamed energy systems, and next generation space launch concepts. He has appeared in several episodes of the History Channel’s Universe series. He lives in Auburn, AL with his wife Karen and their daughter.

Les Johnson is a NASA physicist, manager, author, husband and father. By day, he serves as the Deputy Manager for the Advanced Concepts Office at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, one of the coolest jobs in the universe. In the early 2000s, he was NASA’s Manager for Interstellar Propulsion Research and later managed the In-Space Propulsion Technology Project. He was technical consultant for the movie Lost in Space and has appeared on the Discovery Channel series, “Physics of the Impossible” in the “How to Build a Starship” episode. He has also appeared in three episodes of the Science Channel series, Exodus Earth. In his spare time he writes popular science books and articles, including Solar Sails: A Novel approach to Interplanetary Travel, Living Off the Land in Space: Green Roads to the Cosmos and Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth.

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

Here they come, and they’re out for blood. For too long, they say, have hot blooded babes in brass bras and chain link bikinis been held up to scorn as the embodiment of male fantasy wish-fulfillment and non-fictionality. You think their swords won’t cut, their clubs won’t crush? You think they look cute?

It’s time to take sword-swinging amazons more seriously. Well, maybe not too seriously. After all, the popular Chicks in Chainmail series wasn’t known for stark drama and solemn think-pieces. In fact, they made a lot of people laugh. And now the first three books in the series are combined in one volume.

· Chicks in Chainmail (The look at the lighter side of amazons that started it all.)

· Did You Say Chicks? (Smile when you say that, you wimpy noncombatant!)

· Chicks ‘n Chained Males (Those men just can’t take care of themselves, so send in the amazons!)

It’s all right to have a laugh or two. The swordswomen like a good laugh as much as the next amazon. Just don’t let them get the idea that you’re laughing at them, instead of with them—if you know what’s good for you . . .

Stories of fierce female fighters by Harry Turtledove, Roger Zelazny, Elizabeth Moon, Jan and S.M. Stirling, K. D. Wentworth, Lawrence Watt-Evans and more—including Esther Friesner herself.

About the Author

Esther Friesner is winner twice over of the coveted Nebula Award (for the Year’s Best short Story, 1995 and 1996) and is the author of over thirty novels, including the USA Today best-seller Warchild, and more than one hundred short stories. For Baen she edited the five popular “Chicks in Chainmail” anthologies. Her works have been published in the UK, Japan, Germany, Russia, France and Italy. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, two children, and two rambunctious cats.

W201012 December 2010 Monthly Baen Bundle

Back to the Moon

by Travis S. Taylor and Les Johnson

Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight of Terra

by Poul Anderson

Chicks Ahoy

by Esther Friesner

Countdown: The Liberators

by Tom Kratman

Cobra Alliance: Cobra War Book I

by Timothy Zahn

A KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR IN A SAVAGE GALAXY

Captain Dominic Flandry has been knighted for his many services to the Terran Empire—an Empire which is old, jaded, and corrupt, as Flandry well knows—but he also knows that the Empire is better than anything that is likely to take its place. And while that “Sir” before his name may be an added attraction to comely ladies (not that he has ever lacked for the pleasant company of the same), he expects that it will also bring him less welcome attention from envious “colleagues” within the empire.

What it is not likely to do is make him more of an object of interest to the alien Merseians, whose plots against the Empire he has repeatedly foiled. They already are as aware as they can be of how much simpler their plans to rule the galaxy would be if their most dangerous adversary were the late Sir Dominic Flandry.

This is the sixth volume in the first complete edition of Poul Anderson’s Technic Civilization saga.

Praise for Poul Anderson:

“These are stories of the classic science fiction tradition: hard science and tough characters in logically well integrated action stories.” —Jerry Pournelle

“One of science fiction’s authentic geniuses.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“The winner of seven Hugos and three Nebulas . . . one of the towering figures of modern SF and fantasy.” —Publishers Weekly

“Anderson fuses elegiac prose and a sweeping vision of man’s technological future as only he can. . . .” —Booklist

As a freelance writer, Jack Naile was used to getting an occasional letter from one of his readers, but when one of those readers sent him a clipping from a magazine, it would not only change his life, but could alter the course of history as well. The clipping had a photo, taken in Nevada in 1903, of a street scene, including a story with a sign, “Jack Naile—General Merchandise.”

Intrigued, Jack phoned the Nevada town’s historian and asked for more information. When the historian sent him a photo of the 19th century Jack Naile, what had seemed like an interesting coincidence immediately became much more bizarre. The four people in the photo, dressed in the style of the time, were unmistakably Jack, his wife, their grown son and teenage daughter. Jack decided he would have to take a trip to that town to investigate further. And if he and his family were somehow going to travel back in time, he was going to be prepared—and be well-armed.

About the Author

Jerry and Sharon Ahern have published over 80 novels in the categories of general fiction, science fiction, horror and adventure, with sales figures in excess of ten million copies. Their series “The Survivalist,” a post-holocaust science fiction adventure series, has continued for nearly three decades and is currently enjoying high sales in audio versions. Their story “Silent Pace” was nominated for a Horror Writers of America award. Jerry is a leading expert on holsters and concealed weapons and a frequent contributor to Guns & Ammo magazine. Sharon is also a magazine photographer, with her b&w and color photos internationally published.