The Dreel was a hive-mind, composed of trillions upon trillions of virus-sized units, which infected intelligent beings like a disease and took over the mind of an occupied being, utterly. It had occupied planets throughout the galaxy, making their entire population its mind-slaves, and was on its way to conquering the entire galaxy—until a cop on the frontier planet of Parkatin discovered the truth.

Those whose minds were still free fought back, using a weapon so powerful that it wrought havoc with the control of the Well World, the ancient planet-sized supercomputer that a vanished super-race called the Markovians built to recreate the entire universe, and maintain it in its present form. If the Well World's control of time and space could not be restored, the universe could vanish like a blown-out candle flame.

Only a Markovian could go to the Well World and repair the damage, but only one Markovian was still known to survive. He had last been seen in human form, going by the name of Nathan Brazil. No one knew where he was now, what name he was using, or even if he still appeared human. Finding him, somwhere in the immensity of the galaxy, seemed an impossible task. So the task fell to someone who had done the impossible over and over: Mavra Chang, one of the few beings ever to escape from the Well World. And on that occasion, she had brought back with her a computer named Obie, who just might be the second most powerful computer in the universe, after the Well World itself. With those two on his trail, Nathan Brazil could run—but could he hide

Publisher's Note: We Few is not divided into separate chapters, but simply is separated into the prologue and main text. "Chapter 1" is the only chapter.
THE HARD WAY

Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang McClintock hasn't done anything the easy way.

The spoiled playboy prince grew up the hard way on the planet Marduk. Watching ninety percent of your bodyguards — bodyguards who have become friends, closer to you than your own brothers and sisters — die to keep you alive will do that. And it tends to make you dangerous . . . perhaps in too many ways.

Now he's coming home, but home isn't what it was when he left. Traitors have murdered his brother and sister, his nieces and nephews. His mother, the Empress, is still alive, but in the hands of Roger's own biological father, who controls her through drugs and physical and psychological torture. A new heir to the Throne has been conceived, and once the child is born his mother will no longer be necessary to the traitors' plans. Home Fleet, the largest and most powerful of the Empire's fleets is under the traitors' control, and no one in a position of power on Old Earth has the means — or the will — to do anything about it.

And, just to make things perfect, the Empire has been told that the real traitor is Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang McClintock.

With the twelve survivors of Bravo Company of the Empress' Own, a few hundred three-meter tall Mardukans, his one-time tutor and present chief of staff, an elephant-sized flarta pack beast, his faithful pet Dogzard, and the ghost of his greatest ancestor, Prince Roger must somehow retake the Empire from the men who control it . . . before his new brother is born and his mother dies.

It's an impossible task, but Prince Roger knows all about impossible tasks, and the surviving Bronze Barbarians and the Mardukans of the Basik's Own believe he can do it. They're prepared to storm the gates of Hell itself at his heels in order to retake the Empire.

But after they do, can they save it from Prince Roger, as well

Once Again, Great Leaders Make Great History
—but Not History as We Know It. . . .

History shows that leadership is crucial in war, but there are other factors at work. What if history were given a twist or two, and great commanders on land and sea fought their greatest battles under different circumstances

� Suppose General Douglas MacArthur had been captured before he could escape from Manila and became a prisoner of war

� Suppose Joan of Arc had not been burned for heresy and had gone on to lead France to very different victories

� Suppose Genghis Khan had been a convert to Judaism and his horde had fought for a different cause than in our universe

Turtledove and his colleagues turn the past upside down and inside out, and the possibilities are endless. . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hugo-winner, New York Times best-selling author, and historian—Harry Turtledove is equally renowned in science fiction for his rigorously thought-out alternate history novels and in fantasy for his tales of the supernatural placed in historically accurate settings. For Baen, he has written the alternate American Civil War fantasy trilogy comprising Sentry Peak, Marching Through Peachtree, and Advance and Retreat, as well as The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump, and the popular "Gerin the Fox" series, Wisdom of the Fox and Tale of the Fox. He has also authored the Ingram bestseller Guns of the South and the genre bestsellers in the "World at War" series for Del Rey.

W200504 April 2005 Monthly Baen Bundle

We Few

by David Weber and John Ringo

The Quantum Connection

by Travis S. Taylor

Alternate Generals III

by Harry Turtledove

Dark Companion

by Andre Norton

The Return of Nathan Brazil

by Jack L. Chalker

Crown of Slaves

by David Weber and Eric Flint

The Creatures of Man

by Howard L. Myers
edited by Eric Flint

In Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff's "Poor Little Rich Girls," we follow the continuing adventures of the teenage tycoons begun by Huff in "The Sewing Circle" (Gazette #1) and "Other People's Money" (Gazette #3). The focus in this story, however, is on the younger siblings—the so-called Barbie Consortium—and their down-timer associates and enemies.

Jose Clavell's "Magdeburg Marines" and Ernest Lutz and John Zeek's "Elizabeth" depict the early days of two military units after the Ring of Fire: a reborn U.S. Marine Corps trying to adapt to new circumstances, and the First Railway Company, formed to provide logistics using a combination of up-time and down-time methods and technology.

David Carrico's "Heavy Metal Music" continues the story of the interaction between up-time and down-time musicians that he began in last issue's "The Sound of Music."

In other stories:

—A German craftsman blackballed by guild masters gets a new start in Karen Bergstralh's "One Man's Junk."

—Grantville has to deal with the tragic accidental deaths of several high school graduates in Kerryn Offord's "The Class of '34."

—In Virginia DeMarce's "'Til We Meet Again," a widowed up-timer responds to her husband's death by joining the faculty in the newly-established women's college in Quedlinburg.

—Julie Sims' ex-boyfriend finds a new romance in Russ Rittgers' "Chip's Christmas Gift."

—in Dan Robinson's "Dice's Drawings," an American retiree finds a new life and maybe a new love in seventeenth century Germany.

The fourth volume of the Gazette also contains factual articles dealing with the development of an oil industry, advances in textile and garment manufacture, possible uses of biodiesel technology, and differing views on the prospects of creating a machine gun using the resources and technology available after the Ring of Fire.

The Breathtaking Sequel to Warp Speed—Science Fiction Written by a Real Scientist Who is Also a Gifted Writer.

Steven Montana, computer whiz and hacker extraordinaire, was attending college in Ohio when his world fell apart. A swarm of huge meteors fell all over the world, on Europe, on the United States, and in particular on Steven's home town in California. In an instant, his family and all his friends were gone.

Suffering fits of deep depression, he dropped out of college and ended up working as a repairman in a video games store, where he did a brilliant job of repairing a 30-year-old video game. That caught the attention of the game's owner, who happened to be in a position to get Steven a government job, cracking computer codes, and reverse engineering unusual hardware.
When he was given a tiny piece of hardware to examine as a "test," he worked out its functions so well that he and his boss were called to Washington for a Top Secret meeting. They asked him countless questions, yet declined to answer his; but he would soon learn all the answers.

The "meteor" onslaught that had orphaned him had actually been a brief and still secret war between the U.S and its enemies (as told in Warp Speed) using a new warp drive technology that was more secret than top secret. Another secret was that U.S. had been sending faster-than-light ships to other star systems. Most secret of all was that unfriendly aliens were observing the Earth, and while U.S. spaceships were not quite in a war with the unknown aliens, they were shooting at the intruders.

Whether any of these answers would do Steven any good was an open question because he learned them only after he was abducted by those very same aliens and was held prisoner on one of their ships orbiting Saturn. At first, he was one of three human prisoners, but he had just seen the aliens completely dissect one of the three, and it looked like either Steven, or the Russian girl who was his fellow prisoner, were scheduled to be the next alien lab experiment. . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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, all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; a Master's degree in Astronomy from the University of Western Sydney, and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University. 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. In his copious spare time, Doc Travis is also a black belt martial artist, a private pilot, a SCUBA diver, has raced mountain bikes, competed in triathlons, and has been the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of several hard rock bands. He currently lives with his wife Karen, his daughter Kalista, two dogs Stevie and Wesker, and his cat Kuro, in north Alabama.

Praise for Warp Speed, the prequel:

"Reads like Doc Smith writing Robert Ludlum; beautiful, vivacious female astronauts, sterling-hearted redneck scientists and evil mercenaries bent upon galaxy-wide conquest. You won't want to put it down. FLUBELLS AWAY!" —John Ringo

"You thought they didn't write 'em like this anymore Doc Travis does!" —Jim Baen

GOD (AND ELFLAND) SAVE THE QUEEN

Peace reigns in Elfland. Incredibly, King Oberon and his exquisite but willful queen, Titania, are at peace with one another. But still the FarSeers of the Selieghe Court are uneasy. They fear trouble is coming to the mortal world of England, which is close to Elfhame Avalon. King Henry VIII is ageing but the futures shown when the FarSeers lift the great crystal lens are unchanged. The rule of the son Great Harry finally succeeded in begetting will bring gray lives and a misery of dull oppression to England. Worse will come if his eldest daughter comes to the throne--a queen warped by fanaticism who might easily summon the Inquisition to rule by torture and fire, burning out heresy ... and every bright aspect of life. The prize at the end of the rainbow is the possibility of a red-haired queen with lion-gold eyes, brilliant with interest and curiosity, welcoming the blossoming of art, music, and literature. But now the last image is flickering, edged in a dark menace.

Years before, Prince Vidal had tried to seize the child Elizabeth and replace her with a simulacrum who would soon die. Vidal had been wounded almost to death in the attempt—-but so also had Denoriel, Elizabeth's principal protector. Denoriel is now healing--but so, unbeknownst to those of the Bright Court, is Vidal. And when Vidal wakes to himself, his determination to hurl England into a new dark age is fiercer than ever, fueled by his fury over his defeat and injury. Also, his Dark Court feeds on human suffering and dark emotions. To ensure his own power, he must at all costs prevent Elizabeth from coming to the throne. To gain this goal, Vidal has set in motion a plan of which Denoriel and his comrades are dangerously unaware. . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Mercedes Lackey is the author of the Bardic Voices series and the SERRAted Edge series (both Baen), the Heralds of Valdemar series (DAW), and many more. Of her writing, Stephen King has stated, "She'll keep you up long past your bedtime," and Locus raved, "Lackey is one of the best storytellers in the field." She has her own fan club with over 1,000 members, and was one of the first writers to have an online newsgroup devoted to her writing. Among her popular Baen titles are The Fire Rose, The Lark and the Wren, and The Shadow of the Lion (with Eric Flint and Dave Freer). She lives in Oklahoma.

Roberta Gellis is author of over 25 novels in different fields. New York Times best-selling author John Jakes has called her "a superb storyteller of extraordinary talent," Publishers Weekly has termed her "a master of the medieval historical," and Romantic Times has praised her as "a master spinner of tales." Her many awards include: The Silver and Gold Medal Porgy for historical novels from West Coast Review of Books and the Golden Certificate and Golden Pen from Affaire de Coeur. From Romantic Times she has received both the Award for Best Novel in the Medieval Period and also the Lifetime Achievement Award for Historical Fantasy. And the Romance Writers of America have presented her with their Lifetime Achievement Award. Her previous fantasy titles for Baen are Bull God and Thrice Bound.

Elvish Conspiracies Afoot! Heroine, Arise!

Trouble, trouble, the plots do bubble! King Henry VIII has finally joined his unmerry wives in the afterlife, and the Unseleighe Sidhe, the Dark Elves, are bent on subverting the English throne and bringing back the sorrow, horror and despair of the Middle Ages. After all, that's what made the bad old days so much fun — for them!

Enlightenment's hope A mere fourteen-year-old girl. A bright and adaptable fourteen-year-old to be sure, but still—what chance has such a young thing against the Unseleighe Sidhe's tangled web of treachery and depravity

A pretty good one. You see, the girl's name is Elizabeth, and that fiery red hair is no lie. Whether immortal lord or malicious mortal, young Elizabeth Tudor's enemies cross her at their peril!

Two hugely-popular master storytellers of historical fantasy brew up an elvish conspiracy for the ages in this exciting sequel to This Sceptr'd Isle and Ill Met By Moonlight.

"[Mercedes] Lackey. . . produces elegant, compelling fantasy."
—Publishers Weekly on best-selling High Priestess of Fantasy, Mercedes Lackey.

"[K]nowledgeable readers. . .will enjoy the interplay between elven intervention and historical fact."
—Publishers Weekly on Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis's This Sceptr'd Isle.

With Lord of the Isles, David Drake returns to fantasy with a towering and complex epic of heroic adventure set in an extraordinary and colorful world where the elemental forces that empower magic are rising to a thousand-year peak.

In the days following an unusually severe storm, the inhabitants of a tiny seaport town travel toward romance, danger, and astonishing magic that will transform them and their world.

"Unlike most modern fantasy, David Drake's Lord of the Isles is an epic with the texture of the legends of yore, with rousing action and characters to cheer for." —Terry Goodkind

"True brilliance is as rare as a perfect diamond or a supernova. Lord of the Isles is truly brilliant. We are in at the birth of a classic....There is a lot of fantasy out there, but there is only one Lord of the Isles." —Morgan Llywelyn

"David Drake's work here is original, engrossing, and instantly credible. After all the hackneyed, repetitive fantasy I've read recently, Lord of the Isles seems quite wonderful." —Stephen R. Donaldson
Tom Doherty Associates, LLC www.tor.com

W200503 March 2005 Monthly Baen Bundle

Ill Met by Moonlight

by Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis

The Prometheus Project

by Steve White

Interstellar Patrol II: The Federation of Humanity

by Christopher Anvil
edited by Eric Flint

Lord of the Isles

by David Drake

The Course of Empire

by Eric Flint and K. D. Wentworth

Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War

by Larry Niven and Hal Colebatch

E. Godz

by Robert Asprin and Esther Friesner

Only a Gigantic Hoax Kept the Earth from Being Taken Over by Aliens—but the Secret was About to be Leaked by a Traitor in THE PROMETHEUS PROJECT

Bob Devaney was a soldier in the Special Forces in the early 1960s until a traumatic event which he refused to discuss caused him to leave, setting up his own security and investigative agency, with one employee: himself.

Often hired by a secret government agency to do undercover work, he was escorting a mysterious woman named Novak to the White House when they were ambushed by gunmen. Novak used a device like an invisibility field to make an impossible escape—and then knocked Devaney out with some kind of ray-tube. When he woke up, Novak was about to terminate him for knowing too much, but a message arrived from a mysterious individual known as Mr. Inconnu: Devaney was to be recruited for something called the Prometheus Project.

The Project turned out to be the largest disinformation operation in history, targeted at the aliens who ruled the galaxy. Mr. Inconnu had arrived in a damaged but highly advanced craft in the 1940s with the information that he had escaped from a group of humans whom aliens had been studying. And unless the Earth could convince the aliens that the planet had a unified government, armed with technology comparable to that of the galactic rulers, the Earth would be exploited as a primitive protectorate.

So far the hoax was working—and the technology which Mr. Inconnu had brought with him helped—but someone in the Project was selling secrets to an interstellar mafia called the Tonkuztra about the real state of affairs on Earth. And Devaney knew that Chloe Bryant, the woman he had fallen in love with, was being set up to take a fall for the real traitor, who was about to embark on a treason beyond imagination, whose consequences could jeopardize the universe itself.

But matters would turn out to be even more complicated than that—and Devaney would discover the strange relationship between himself and the enigmatic Mr. Inconnu. . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve White was an officer in Naval Intelligence, and served in the Mediterranean and the Vietnam War Zone. Among the popular science fiction adventure novels he has written for Baen are the trilogy comprising The Disinherited, Legacy and Debt of Ages, which combine fast-paced space opera with Arthurian mythology. He has also written the galaxy-spanning adventure Prince of Sunset, and its sequel Emperor of Dawn, and the SF suspense thriller Eagle Against the Stars. With David Weber, he has written the Starfire series, the latest of which was the New York Times best seller The Shiva Option. His most recent novel is Forge of the Titans. He currently works for a legal publishing company in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is married and has three daughters.

Vaughan Roberts and his two companions had been trapped on a crime-ridden, chaotic planet until they bamboozled the population with a gigantic hoax—which brought them to the attention of the Interstellar Patrol, who were looking for a few good con men, capable of ingenious improvisation and adept at playing dirty tricks on the bad guys. The new recruits acquitted themselves admirably, so they naturally were given more tough nuts to crack, including:

Flummoxing an alien empire which has taken a number of human prisoners as reconnaisance for an invasion. This has a personal aspect, since the prisoners are from the planet which Roberts tricked into reforming. . . . Stopping a plan by not-so-good Samaritans who are pretending to cure a planetary plague—which they introduced to the planet—with a "miracle" drug which creates an addiction to the same drug, which the schemers will be glad to continue supplying for ever-increasing sums . . . Not only rescuing some Patrol personnel taken hostage by fanatics who plan to execute them one at a time until their leader is released, but convincing other fanatics throughout the galaxy that the consequences of threatening anyone in the Patrol are too terrible even to think about. . . . Making sure that the rightful heir to a planet's throne escapes from captivity and overthrows the usurper. This time there's a complication: Roberts may be falling for the ruler's beautiful sister. . . .

And much more. . . .

Editor's Note:

Interstellar Patrol II: The Federation of Humanity is a companion volume to Christopher Anvil's Interstellar Patrol (published by Baen Books in April, 2003). In this volume, the later adventures of the Interstellar Patrol agents Vaughan Roberts and his associates are recounted. Included also are all the various other stories which Anvil wrote in the same Federation of Humanity setting.

THREE COMPLETE NOVELS IN ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR ADVENTURE SERIES IN SCIENCE FICTION—ALL IN ONE HUGE BOOK

Ages ago, perhaps before the human race even existed, two war-maddened races fought—and though both are extinct, their Frankenstein weapon, the Berserkers, robotic asteroid-sized warships, still follow their program. And now the relentless death machines have crossed the galaxy, to encounter an equally relentless opponent: humans . . .

Three complete novels set in a seemingly endless war against death itself:

• The Berserker Wars: The millennium-long battle between humans and the killing machines, with heroes, cowards, villains—and even a prankster.

• Berserker Blue Death: One revenge-obsessed man fanatically pursues the great blue Berserker that men call Leviathan.

• Berserker Kill: A Berserker has stolen a biolab filled with human zygotes. Can its pursuers discover its secret plan before it's too late

Publisher's Note: Berserker Man has been published previously as three separate novels: The Berserker Wars, Berserker Blue Death, and Berserker Kill. This is their first combined publication.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Fred Saberhagen is the author of many popular science fiction and fantasy series. His Berserkers® have menaced the universe for over 40 years. His "Swords" and "Lost Swords" stories have caught the imagination of many fantasy readers. Equally intriguing are Saberhagen's exploits in the area of historical fantasy where figures such as Hitler and Lincoln, Daedalus and the pharaohs, populate his alternate worlds. On the border of history and fantasy, Saberhagen has created a unique picture of an old favorite, Dracula. More recent is the "Book of the Gods" series, a new telling of the ancient myths. Many of his works also appear in tape and e-book format. Before abandoning himself to imagination, he served in the US Air Force, worked as a civilian electronics technician, and wrote and edited articles on science and technology for the Encyclopedia Britannica. Born and raised in Chicago, he now lives and works with his wife, Joan Spicci, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Additional information on Fred Saberhagen and his work can be found at his website: www.berserker.com

A New Golden Age � or the Apocalypse

The moon has suddenly acquired its own satellite: a two-mile-across starship that represents a hitherto unsuspected Galactic Commonwealth. The F'thk, a vaguely centaur-like member species for whom Earth's ecology is hospitable, have been sent to evaluate humanity for prospective membership.

The F'thk are overtly friendly but very private—"Information is a trade good." As Earth's scientists struggle to understand their secretive appraisers, odd inconsistencies emerge. As troubling as those anomalies is the re-emergence of a bit of insanity humanity thought it had outgrown: Cold War and nuclear saber-rattling.

The Galactics' arrival may signify the start of a glorious new era, or it may presage the cataclysmic end of human civilization. Which outcome do the aliens really desire . . .

And what will they do if humanity refuses to play its assigned role

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As a physicist and computer scientist, Edward M. Lerner gained access to such unsuspecting techie havens as Bell Labs and Hughes Aircraft—even onto NASA's space shuttle simulator. Probe, his first novel, was a techno-thriller that leveraged that experience. Moonstruck builds on that tradition.

Lerner's appearances in leading science-fiction magazines include the cyberspace novel Survival Instinct (serialized in Analog) and the InterstellarNet novelettes (in Analog and Artemis) about the century-long evolution of a star-spanning, radio-based, trading community. His SF/mystery/telecom novelette Creative Destruction was anthologized in Year's Best SF 7 and was the sole work of speculative fiction published in association with Telecom World 2003 (sponsored by the UN's International Telecommunications Union).

His website is www.sfwa.org/members/lerner/.

Problems, Problems, Problems . . .

The world had been a paradise until the Fall, when the holders of the control codes for the world-spanning program called "Mother" fell out in civil war.

The United Free States felt well defended behind its screen of elite Dragon carriers that held sway in the Atlantis Ocean. But when New Destiny proved to have dragon carriers of its own, and more of them, the linch-pin of the UFS defense went out the window.

Now, with the UFS' back to the wall, everything seems to be going New Destiny's way.
But there are problems.

Edmund Talbot had never really studied naval warfare, but what he didn't know about war in general hadn't been written. So when he took over the UFS navy, at its moment of utter defeat, New Destiny's problems were just starting.

And little did the instigator of the civil war, Paul Boman, know that his closest confidante was the daughter of the UFS' head of intelligence. Megan Travante, for four years mired in a concubine's harem, has just been recruited to be an agent in the enemy camp. Of course, she's also planning on murdering Paul, just as soon as she gets a chance.

Herzer Herrick, the UFS' premier ground fighter, has problems of his own. A man who's "good with his hands" he's also found he's good with a dragon. Which is why he's the XO of a dragon contingent instead of fighting in the front lines of the ground battle. With a crew of brand new pilots, undertrained dragons, untrained support personnel, the bitchiest dragon CO on Earth and a ship's commander who's half cat, he has enough problems for any one man. And then he gets an order that drops a whole passel more in his lap.

The battle of dragon carrier on dragon carrier is about to start, with the fleets pursuing each other over half the Atlantis Ocean in a game of cat-and-mouse.

But all the cats are on the side of the UFS.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Ringo had visited 23 countries and attended 14 schools by the time he graduated high school. This left him with a wonderful appreciation of the oneness of humanity and a permanent aversion to foreign food. He chose to study marine biology and really liked it. Unfortunately the pay was for beans. So he turned to quality control database management, where the pay was much better. His highest hopes were to someday upgrade to SQL Server, at which point, he thought, his life would be complete. But then Fate took a hand: John has become a professional science fiction writer, and is in the early stages of becoming fabulously wealthy, which his publisher has assured him is the common lot of science fiction writers who write for Baen Books. In addition to his own enthusiastically received and New York Times best-selling military SF series—A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hell's Faire—he is collaborating with fellow New York Times best-selling author David Weber on a new SF adventure series: March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars and We Few, with more to come.

With his bachelor years spent in the airborne, cave diving, rock-climbing, rappelling, hunting, spear-fishing, and sailing, the author is now happy to let other people risk their necks. He prefers to write science fiction (both alone and in collaboration with David Weber and others) raise Arabian horses, dandle his kids and watch the grass grow. Someday he may even cut it. But not today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe he'll just let the horses eat it.

The early days of space travel — the tragic deaths, the explorers who disappeared without a trace, the many heroisms— were now relegated to a few pages in history textbooks. The Solar System, from Mercury out to the cometary Oort cloud, was as thoroughly domesticated and familiar as anyone's back yard. But other frontiers still beckoned, as distant as the farthest stars themselves, and humankind swarmed out across the galaxy at speeds many times that of light, but still only an amoeboid crawl in comparison to the vast breadth of the galaxy. And once again the statement by a largely-forgotten 20th century scientist was proven true: the universe is not only stranger than we imagine—it is stranger than we can imagine. Stories of interstellar voyagers confronting the infinite by: Gregory Benford, Eric Flint & Dave Freer, James P. Hogan, Debra Doyle & James MacDonald . . . and more.

About the editor

Toni Weisskopf is executive editor at Baen Books. With Josepha Sherman she compiled and annotated the definitive volume of subversive children's folklore, Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts, published by August House, now in its third printing. Long active in science fiction fandom, she has won both the Phoenix and Rebel Awards given by the DeepSouthCon. Weisskopf is a graduate of Oberlin College with a degree in anthropology, the mother of a delightful twelve-year old daughter, married to sword maker and freelance nonfiction writer Hank Reinhardt, and is possessed by a truly devilish little dog.

W200502 February 2005 Monthly Baen Bundle

Against the Tide

by John Ringo

Berserker Death

by Fred Saberhagen

Cosmic Tales: Adventures in Far Futures

by T. K. F. Weisskopf

This Scepter'd Isle

by Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis

Forge of the Titans

by Steve White

Barbarian Hordes vs. Sheer, Cold Reason
Technology vs. Sorcery

The Empire of Sabis is falling, besieged and overwhelmed by the army and hostile wizards of a more powerful empire. Still, it is not too late for a small group of philosopher-scientists to reverse the tide if they can convince the rulers of Sabis to build the deadly new weapon that they have invented: the cannon. But when the rulers prove too short-sighted and Sabis falls, the scientists flee, disguising their knowledge under the cover of a religion and its arcane rituals.

Though centuries will pass and the Sabirn race will be oppressed and persecuted, the powerful knowledge will be passed on and preserved by the Secret Order. And the time will come when only one thing stands against destruction by a ruthless and invincible barbarian horde:

A Sweeping Fantasy Epic
Complete in One Hardcover
Volume for the First Time

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

C. J. Cherryh is a four-time Hugo Award-winner, and is author of many best-selling science fiction and fantasy series. Among the latest of her more than fifty novels are Hammerfall, Forge of Heaven (both from Eos) and Destroyer (DAW). She makes her home in Spokane, WA. Visit www.cherryh.com.

Mercedes Lackey, author of the bestselling Heralds of Valdemar and Bardic Voices series, began life as a child and has been attempting to rectify that error ever since. Other than writing she can be found at various times prying the talons of the birds of prey she is attempting to nurse back to health out of her hands, endangering her vision by creating various forms of Art Beadwork, and cross-stitching dragons, gryphons, and other semi-mythological fauna. She lives in Oklahoma. Visit www.mercedeslackey.com.

Nancy Asire has written several fantasy novels, including Twilight's Kingdoms, Tears of Time and To Fall Like Stars for Baen, and many short stories.

Leslie Fish has published many short stories, and also has written and recorded many fantasy and science fiction songs. The volume Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three (Baen) is an anthology of stories based on one of her most popular songs.

GET READY FOR A GIANT, MIND-EXPANDING DOSE OF THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION EVER WRITTEN BY THE GREATEST SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF ALL TIME!

When readers first encounter science fiction, they find adventures on other planets and in future worlds, explorations of future technology and its implications, and extrapolations of social trends and warnings of where they may lead—but they also encounter concepts heretofore undreamed of, and the impact on the readers' thinking does nothing less than turn their world upside down.

Now, David Drake, Jim Baen and Eric Flint gather together some of the greatest science fiction ever written in one volume, with each story chosen for a startling breakthrough concept which left readers stunned and changed the course of science fiction.

In the Golden Age of science fiction, the science fiction magazines weren't given titles such as Astounding, Amazing, Startling, etc., for nothing! Pick up this generous serving of the very best of science fiction and prepared to be astounded, amazed, startled—and entertained.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

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 With the Lightnings and its sequel Lt. Leary, Commanding, Ranks of Bronze, Starliner, All the Way to the Gallows, Redliners, and many more. His most recent novel is The Way to Glory, the latest in his popular Lt. Leary series.

Jim Baen is Editor-in-Chief of Baen Books, and is renowned throughout the science fiction field for his taste and ability to select authors with strong storytelling ability and steer them to commercial success. Prior to founding Baen Books, he was the editor of the legendary science fiction magazine Galaxy, the science fiction editor of Ace Books, and an editor at Tor Books.

Eric Flint's impressive first novel, Mother of Demons (Baen), was selected by SF Chronicle as one of the best novels of 1997. His next solo novel, 1632, sold out its first hardcover printing and went back to press almost immediately, and received enthusiastic critical praise. With David Drake he has written five popular novels in the Belisarius series. Flint has also begun a highly-praised fantasy adventure series, so far comprising The Philosophical Strangler and Forward the Mage. Flint received his masters degree in history from UCLA and was for many years a labor union activist. He lives in East Chicago, IN, with his wife.

KEITH LAUMER'S POPULAR
SAGA OF THE BOLOS CONTINUES

Controlled by their tireless electronic brains which were programmed to admit no possibility of defeat, the gigantic robot tanks known as Bolos were almost indestructible, and nearly unstoppable. Their artificial intelligences were designed to make them selflessly serve and protect humans throughout the galaxy and made each Bolo the epitome of the knight sans peur et sans reproche, and often far more noble than the humans who gave them their orders.

Now, David Weber, New York Times best-selling author of the Honor Harrington series, continues the history of the Bolo, in four short novels, one of them published here for the first time.

One Bolo is driven over the edge by the very humans it is pledged to protect. Another Bolo must decide whether or not to disobey when it is given an order that constitutes genocide. A third must hunt one of its own kind whose robot brain is damaged and rescue two children which the deranged Bolo thinks it is protecting from a nonexistent enemy.

And more, including as a bonus, David Weber's own authoritative technical history of the Bolo, all in a volume that will be irresistible both for David Weber's huge readership and Bolo fans everywhere.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Weber is best known for his New York Times bestselling Honor Harrington series, arguably the most popular series in science fiction, which has led to reviewers comparing him to C.S. Forester , celebrated creator of Captain Horatio Hornblower. Weber's work ranges from epic fantasy (Oath of Swords, The War God's Own) to breathtaking space opera (Path of the Fury, The Apocalypse Troll, Empire from the Ashes) to military science fiction with in-depth characterization (the Honor Harrington novels). With John Ringo, he inaugurated the Prince Roger series of space adventures with March Upcountry and has continued it with March to the Sea and March to the Stars. Weber and his wife Sharon live in South Carolina with their three children.

ABOUT THE CREATOR

Keith Laumer, creator of the Bolo series, was renowned both for his fast-paced stories of science fiction adventure, and for his comical stories of Retief, the only two-fisted diplomat in the galaxy. His novels and story collections have gone through printing after printing for nearly four decades. Laumer was a Captain in the US Air Force and later an officer in the Diplomatic Corps, serving all over the world, giving him a solid background both for his fast-moving action stories, including his Bolo series, and his satirical Retief adventures, which deftly skewer the bureaucratic mentality, whether human or alien. Among his other books, all from Baen, are The Compleat Bolo, The Lighter Side, Retief, Future Imperfect, and A Plague of Demons.