Liberty is a recurring theme in science fiction. Here's a volume of explorations of this theme, combining landmark stories from science fiction's golden age with new stories by some of today's top writers, including Hugo winner and Grand Master Jack Williamson; Michael Resnick, winner of four Hugos and a Nebula, and author of the international bestseller, Santiago; Michael A. Stackpole, author of eight New York Times best sellers; best-selling novelist Jane Lindskold, New York Times best-selling author James P. Hogan, Robert J. Sawyer, winner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year; and more. This stellar crew considers how a government-free society could operate, how a low-tech society might throw off the influence of more "advanced" intruders, how the right to own weapons is fundamental to freedom, and much more. In the future, liberty may be even more threatened than in our present-and this volume suggests very unusual ways of defending and advancing it. . . .

About the Authors

Martin Harry Greenberg has edited more than 1,000 anthologies of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and other genres, and has become renowned for his ingenuity in developing books written around a theme, and his ability to fill them with stories of high quality. Booklist has written, "Greenberg's choices are impeccable," and Library Journal has praised his volumes for "Sheer enjoyability . . . provokes everything from meditation to laughter."

Mark Tier is a former Australian who lives in Hong Kong because "paying taxes is against my religion." He was one of the co-founders of the Australian equivalent of the Libertarian Party. His book Understanding Inflation was a runaway best seller. His second book, How to Get a Second Passport was also an international bestseller. He is the former Hong Kong correspondent for the New York Journal of Commerce. His articles have appeared in Time, Liberty, Reason, and elsewhere.

LOGICAL—BUT NOT REASONABLE

By the mid-21st Century, technology had become much too complicated for humans to handle—and the computer network that had grown up to keep civilization from tripping over its own shoelaces was also beginning to be overwhelmed. Even worse, it was becoming part of the problem. Computers were logical, but not reasonable, and some of the rigorously logical solutions the silicon governors came up with had come terrifyingly close to causing fatal accidents. Something Had To Be Done.

Raymond Dyer's project had developed the first genuinely self-aware artificial intelligence that could learn and change its own programming to meet unanticipated problems. But could the AI—code-named Spartacus—be trusted to obey its makers And if it went rogue, could it be shut down As an acid test, Spartacus was put in charge of a space station and programmed with a survival instinct. Dyer and his team had the job of seeing how far the computer would go to defend itself when they tried to pull the plug. Dyer didn't expect any serious problems to arise in the experiment.

Unfortunately, he had built more initiative into Spartacus than he realized....

Pride, Prejudice � and Vengeance!

Weed-eaters. Monkey-spawn. Honorless herbivores. Individually weak, humans have proved most difficult to conquer and enslave. Now the young heir to the Kzinti patriarchy is forced into a desperate wilderness exile as his empire cracks and the contentious Great Prides attempt to rip one another apart while facing total war with humanity. Annihilation looms unless the young patriarch can ally with two human warriors to battle his way back to his rightful place as Leader of the Prides, keeper of pride strahk, and upholder of sacred Kzinti honor.

A masterful addition from popular contributor Paul Chafe to 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!

"[The Man-Kzin Wars series is] excellent . . .gripping . . .and expands well on Larry Niven's universe. . . ."� Locus

W200607 July 2006 Monthly Baen Bundle

Choosers of the Slain

by John Ringo

Destiny's Forge: A Man-Kzin Wars Novel

by Paul Chafe

Freedom!

by Martin Harry Greenberg and Mark Tier

Kicking the Sacred Cow

by James P. Hogan

Siege Perilous

by Nigel Bennett and P. N. Elrod

The Two Faces of Tomorrow

by James P. Hogan

LEGENDARY WARRIORS—THE ONLY HOPE OF A CONQUERED EARTH

Damon Lathe and his blackcollar combat team face their most serious challenge. On one of the conquered human colony worlds is a Ryqril tactical center through which flows an entire sector's worth of military data. If the blackcollars can find a way inside, it could tip the balance in the current Ryqril-Chryselli war. It could even start humanity on the path back to ultimate freedom.

But the Ryqril aren't sitting idly by. Under threat of reprisals against his world, Prefect Jamus Galway of Plinry is already on the case. His plan: to turn the blackcollars and their combat skill into unknowing tools of the Ryqril. His hidden ace: a clone duplicate of Lathe's ally Allan Caine, ready to be slipped into Lathe's inner circle.

It will be the blackcollars' most important mission. It may also be their last.

Praise for the science fiction of Timothy Zahn:

"Zahn keeps the story moving at a breakneck pace, maintaining excitement."—Publishers Weekly

". . . finely wrought space adventure [with] social, political and emotional complications, all of which Zahn treats with his usual skill." —Booklist

by Andre Norton and Lyn McConchie

SOMETHING VERY REAL IS THREATENING TO TERMINATE OUR PLANET. SOMETHING FROM OUTSIDE . . . .

Bill Van Wyk knows only that something is seriously wrong: statistical analysis proves it. Olaf Siggurdsson knows the approximate destruct time, but not what to do about it.

Vie and Tory Merlin have at least some idea of what needs to be done, but accomplishing it is something else, nonetheless they set out together, in a pickup truck and a white Caddy, to save reality as we know it ... though not, perhaps, as it is.

THE REALITY MATRIX is an incredible adventure novel—and it is also just plain incredible in its integration of the Tao of physics, computer modeling, cosmology, and games, among other things. Its people are memorably human, its premises . . . unusual.

by Eric Flint

Grantville Gazette, Volume I

created by Eric Flint

Grantville Gazette, Volume II

created by Eric Flint

Grantville Gazette, Volume III

created by Eric Flint

Grantville Gazette, Volume IV

created by Eric Flint

Grantville Gazette Volume 5

by Eric Flint

Grantville Gazette Volume 6

created by Eric Flint
edited by Paula Goodlett

Grantville Gazette Volume 7

created by Eric Flint
edited by Paula Goodlett

Grantville Gazette Volume 8

created by Eric Flint
edited by Paula Goodlett

Grantville Gazette Volume 9

created by Eric Flint
edited by Paula Goodlett

Grantville Gazette Volume 10

created by Eric Flint
edited by Paula Goodlett

In Dreams Begin Adventure!

We've all had the dream. A looming presence. Menace. The struggle to wake. But when a modern day woman finds she can't return to reality so easily, then it's time for the nightmare to be faced. For all true things can be found in dreams. And now Drew must find the courage and resolve to fight for her life—and to rescue the mysterious other who is trapped there with her. The other who may be her soul's mortal enemy—or its one true love.

A lyrical debut fantasy novel from a talented new teller-of-tales!

Journeys, Battles, and Legends!

"Do you ever find yourself trapped in a nightmare that you know, even as you dream, is a nightmare "
—from From Dream to Dream, by gifted new Baen author, Arlene Golds.

W200606 June 2006 Monthly Baen Bundle

Blackcollar: The Judas Solution

by Timothy Zahn

From Dream to Dream

by Arlene Golds

The Cobra Trilogy

by Timothy Zahn

The World Turned Upside Down

by David Drake, Jim Baen and Eric Flint

Rogue Berserker

by Fred Saberhagen

Rocheworld

by Robert L. Forward

The Reality Matrix

by John Dalmas

by Eric Flint

Grantville Gazette Volume 8

created by Eric Flint
edited by Paula Goodlett

Grantville Gazette Volume 9

created by Eric Flint
edited by Paula Goodlett

Grantville Gazette Volume 10

created by Eric Flint
edited by Paula Goodlett

by Eric Flint

Powered by a revolutionary laser-driven stardrive, the first interstellar spaceship would reach the double planet that circled Barnard's Star in a mere twenty years. Some of the world's finest scientists were aboard that ship, and they would arrive prepared for adventure, danger and-to them, most important of all-the thrill of scientific discovery. But what they would find, both in terms of danger and discovery, would surpass all their expectations.

Unlike so much "far out" science fiction this novel is based on solid scientific reasoning by a world-class physicist. The weird intelligences of Rocheworld are imaginary, but we could start work on Forward's laser-driven starprobe tomorrow.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Sometimes it takes a big book to bring life to a big concept; a much shorter, substantially different version of this novel was published in hardcover in 1982 (paperback from Baen), but that version was rushed to publication before the author was ready. Now, with an additional 50 thousand words-longer than most novels!-Robert Forward offers us the novel that Flight of the Dragonfly should have been: ROCHEWORLD! If you liked Flight of the Dragonfly you'll love Rocheworld

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Robert L. Forward writes science fiction novels and short stories, and science fact books and magazine articles. He is also a consulting scientist specializing in exotic physical phenomena and advanced space propulsion. Dr. Forward obtained his Ph.D. in Gravitational Physics from the University of Maryland. For his thesis he constructed and operated the world's first bar antenna for the detection of gravitational radiation. The antenna is now on display in the Smithsonian museum.

For 31 years, from 1956 until 1987, when he left in order to spend more time writing, Dr. Forward worked at the Hughes Aircraft Company Research Laboratories in Malibu, California in positions of increasing responsibility, culminating with the position of Senior Scientist on the staff to the Director of the Laboratories. During that time he constructed and operated the world's first laser interferometer gravitational radiation detector, invented the rotating gravitational mass sensor, published over 65 technical publications, and was awarded 18 patents.

From 1983 to the present, Dr. Forward has had a series of contracts from the Astronautics Laboratory of the U.S. Air Force Systems Command (formerly the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory) to explore the forefront of physics and engineering in an attempt to find new energy sources that will produce breakthroughs in space power and propulsion. He has published journal papers and contract reports on antiproton annihilation propulsion, laser beam and microwave beam interstellar propulsion, negative matter propulsion, light-levitated perforated sail communication satellites, space warps, and a method for extracting electrical energy from vacuum fluctuations.

In addition to his professional work, Dr. Forward has written over 70 popular science articles for publications such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica Yearbook, Omni, New Scientist, Science Digest, Science 80, Analog, and Galaxy. His most recent science fact books are FUTURE MAGIC and MIRROR MATTER: PIONEERING ANTIMATTER PHYSICS (with Joel Davis). His science fiction novels are DRAGON'S EGG and its sequel STARQUAKE, MARTIAN RAINBOW, and ROCHEWORLD (formerly THE FLIGHT OF THE DRAGONFLY). The novels are of the "hard" science fiction category, where the science is as accurate as possible.

Dr. Forward is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society and Editor of the Interstellar Studies issues of its Journal, Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Senior Member of the American Astronautical Society, and a member of the American Physical Society, Sigma Xi, Sigma Pi Sigma, National Space Society, and the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Somebody was testing a planet—killing weapon on Mars—and the next target was Earth

Mars is the staging ground. Earth is the target. A storm of invasion gathers as the Red Planet pales and Earth scientists � amateurs and professionals alike � race to discover what it portends. Worse news: the horde of self-replicating probes suspected as the cause � implacable and all-consuming in its own right � may be only the tip of a full-scale assault.

Ideas — the only useful weapon when facing an adversary an order of magnitude more advanced than you are. But against such an enemy, thought without action is as futile as war-making without a plan. Humanity's hope The "straddlers": intelligent soldiers who know their science — and fighting scientists who have no scruples about using their smarts to kick some alien butt. Yet even with the right people finally on the job, the hour is late.

For Mars glows red again. And the swarm is nearly upon us!

Multiple New York Times and USA Today best-seller John Ringo rocks our world as hard as he did with his ground-breaking "Posleen War" series, teaming with NASA and DOD scientist Travis S. Taylor, a specialist in advanced propulsion and space telescopes — and popular author of Warp Speed and The Quantum Connection — to usher in a new saga of invasion, resistance and heroism!

"If Tom Clancy were writing SF, it would read much like John Ringo."
—Philadelphia Weekly Press on New York Times best-seller John Ringo.

"[S]timulating and satisfying speculation."
—Publishers Weekly on Travis S. Taylor's The Quantum Connection.

The Great Revolt is On!

Europe, 1634. With the example of future Grantsville, U.S.A., a small town thrown back in time by a cosmic accident, a peasant revolt becomes a revolutionary movement. You're from the future. You want the serfs to liberate themselves-but you also know what a bloodbath the French Revolution became. Avoiding that possibility will take all American horse-trading diplomacy you can muster. The stakes: an explosion that could cover half the continent in blood!

Alternate history master Eric Flint and exciting newcomer Virginia DeMarce fire another exciting volley in Flint's engrossing "Grantsville" chronicles.

"[W]itty, tightly written alternative history."
—Publishers Weekly on Eric Flint

by Vernor Vinge

by Vernor Vinge

by Robert Charles Wilson

by Vernor Vinge

by Charles Stross