They say girls can’t be gunslingers. Beth’s gonna prove ’em wrong.

Even if she has to fight a dragon to do it.

It won’t be easy to prove her worth while working as a hotel chambermaid in Golden City, Colorado. The famous battle that defeated the giants was fought thirteen years ago. The trolls remain confined east of the Mississippi. No one’s spotted a harpy since 1875.

But Beth trained with legends: the ghost of Calamity Jane gave her the gun, Wild Bill Hickok taught her to shoot.

And at sixteen, she’s ready to make a name of her own.

So, when strange assailants murder a visiting Arapaho Indian shaman, Beth straps on her Colt .45. Without waiting for help, she must find the killers, defeat their dragon, and prevent the destruction of the Western world.

Grantville Gazette 97 takes us around the world. Terry Howard and Jack Carroll start out in Venice with "A Proposal For Angelina." Mark Roth-Whitworth's story "Marianne" takes place in Paris. Robert E. Waters and Bob Finegold bring us "The Evil of Thy Doings: A Calabar's War Story," set off the coast of Brazil. Iver P. Cooper tracks down "The Ghost Galleon" off the coast of California. Brendan Roche introduces Father Pedro Claver in "Slave of the Slaves," set in Cartagena.

Iver P. Cooper also has a non-fiction article, "'Rice Is Life': Rice Cultivation and Soceity in the 1632 Universe." Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes about Las Vegas in "Notes from The Buffer Zone: Science Fiction City." "Hot Off the Ring of Fire Press" features new and upcoming releases. Ring of Fire Con is coming soon: October 1-3 at Capclave in Maryland.

The Universe Annex features two stories: "Ill-Met in Space-Time, Part III" from Edward M. Lerner and "Black Smoker Curandero" by Ian Pohl.

“December 2, 1943. Today I was assigned to the Senate staff of the United Press and moved into the Senate Press Gallery; I hope to stay. Nothing could be a better break for a newspaperman and nothing could please me more. It is exactly what I wanted.”
—Allen Drury, from A Senate Journal

Allen Drury is perhaps the greatest political novelist of the 20th century. His masterpiece Advise and Consent won the Pulitzer Prize and became one of the best-selling novels of the century. His other works, such as Decision, A Shade of Difference, A God Against the Gods, and That Summer showcase human politics from an intimate scale to a grand panorama.

“A panorama of 20th century U.S. history.”
—Paul Moreno, from his Foreword

Grantville Gazette 96's theme is hope. Find out what happens when the Roman Catholic Church denounces slavery in Walt Boyes' "Contra Servitutem." Then go on to Robert E. Waters' "Cassini Takes First," about a boy who just wants to play baseball. Remember Irene Flannery? She was more complicated than it appeared, and her estate brings hope in many ways in "Mrs. Flannery's Flowers, Part 2: Flowers and Fashion" by Bethanne Kim. Many people in the new timeline want to fly. Iver P. Cooper explains how some of them might be able to in "Tethered Balloons and Kites in the 1632 Universe, Part 2."

Kristine Kathryn Rusch brings us "Notes from The Buffer Zone: Stepping Into an Uncertain Future."

In "The First Cavalry of the Cretaceous, Part 8: The Righteous and the Wicked," by Garrett W. Vance, the battle comes to an end, leading a number of characters to reflect on their hope or lack thereof. In the Universe Annex, we have J. Kenton Pierce's "Though the Night Be Long" and Edward M. Lerner's "Ill-Met in Space-Time, Part 2," which deal with hope in very different ways.

In Grantville Gazette 95, we find out that many things aren't what they seem. Virginia DeMarce brings us "One To A Customer," in which Massinger's Men deal with everything from the political implications of their plays to the fact that proclaiming an Anglican bishop for Grantville doesn't automatically get the work done. In Natalie Silk's "Letting Grace," it seems like Deborah has made an invisible friend. Or has she? In "The Heights of Beverwijk: The Miller's Daughter," by Kerryn Offord, Egon has a job near Amsterdam. An unexpected reason lies behind the job, Egon has his own motivations, and a local family's situation is quite a bit more complicated than it appears.

Kim takes us back to the Ring of Fire, with "Mrs. Flannery's Flowers, Part 1: Acceptance." Krystal Reed is hoping things aren't what they seem, and Irene Flannery turns out to be a much more complicated character.

Iver Cooper begins a series with "Tethered Balloons and Kites in the 1632 Universe, Part 1." Kristine Kathryn Rusch asserts that "Science Will Save Us."

"Hot Off Ring of Fire Press" features recent releases and upcoming books from Ring of Fire Press.

You get to vote: "Nominate the Best of 2020."

In "The Reformation of Castle Deltle," by Zachary Robbins, things are really not what they seem. The same is true in Edward M. Lerner's "Ill-Met In Space-Time, Part 1." Various problems aboard ship hide a much more serious issue.

Decades ago, the Visitors descended on Earth. They claimed to bring peace and prosperity. Their real goal was the total subjugation of humankind. But humanity did not give up its only home without a fight.

After a devastating war, the Visitors were driven back to Mars. Their millions of willing human collaborators were left behind. The task of hunting down these former alien collaborators and bringing them to justice falls to Federal Recovery Agents like Nathan Foster.

Now, Nathan Foster is tasked with bringing to justice Emmogene Anderson. As a teenager, Emmogene was experimented on by the Visitors and implated with a device that allows her to control other people. With her is her obsessive ex-lover, who was also a former commando of the Visitors’ forces. It’s an easy enough job—but Emmogene has been implanted with something else, something much more important.

Nathan and Ben must decide what is right in a largely lawless world—and the fate of the planet hangs in the balance.

Jon of Dun Add has created a civilization where before there had only been isolated pockets of humanity in a shattered cosmos.

Young knight Pal is one of the most respected members of Lord Jon’s Hall of Champions. But Pal’s greatest talent lies not on the field of battle, though he’s no slouch there. He is also a Maker, one who can repair the tools the Ancients had left—sometimes. Moreover, he has learned to use his warrior dog’s ability to predict motion better than any human could, an ability that has saved his skin and won the day more than once.

Now, Pal will need all his talent—as a fighter, as a Maker, and as a Champion—to deal with the monsters the Waste throws at him—and to deal with his fellow humans. For there are those who would destroy Dun Add and Lord Jon’s vision of a humanity united in peace from within . . .

The most popular alternate history series of all continues. When a cosmic disturbance hurls your town from twentieth-century West Virginia back to seventeenth-century Europe—and into the middle of the Thirty
Years War—you have to adapt to survive. And the natives of that time period, faced with American technology and politics, need to be equally adaptable. Here’s a generous helping of more stories of Grantville, the American town lost in time, and its impact on the people and societies of a tumultuous age.

Featuring stories by Eric Flint, Tim Sayeau, Robert Noxon, Griffin Barber, Bjorn Hasseler, Clair Kiernan, Margo Ryor, Mark Huston, Robert Waters, Phillip Riviezzo, Jack Carroll, Terry Howard, Tim Roesch, Sarah Hays, Mike Watson, Iver P. Cooper, Kerryn Offord, Rick Boatright, Brad Banner, Anne Keener, Jackie Britton Lopatin, Bjorn Hasseler, David Carrico, and Tim Sayeau.

Marshall Hunter only wanted to fly: the faster, the higher, the better. But a life of rescuing wayward spacefarers and derelict satellites in the cislunar cruiser U.S.S. Borman is far from the adventure he’d imagined. But his fortunes change when a billionaire couple goes missing on their way to a near-Earth asteroid. Out of contact and on a course that will eventually send them crashing into Mars, the nuclear-powered Borman is dispatched on an audacious, high-speed interplanetary run to bring the couple home. As they approach the asteroid, however, the Borman itself becomes hopelessly disabled.

With the Borman suddenly out of commission and far beyond reach, cislunar space begins falling into chaos as critical satellites fail and valuable lunar mineral shipments begin disappearing in transit. Nothing is as it seems, and Marshall Hunter and the rest of the crew suspect none of it is by coincidence.

Lava

by Kevin O'Donnell, Jr.

War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches

edited by Kevin J. Anderson

Keeper of the Earth

by Jenna Solitaire

My name is Jenna Solitaire and everything I thought I knew about myself, my family, and my future is wrong. My life is not my own. It never has been. I just didn’t know it—until now . . . 

Having found the Board of Fire, Jenna and Simon hurry to decipher the clues that will lead them to the Board of Earth—and mastery over the very land itself. But on their way to locate the tomb of a mythical English hero while fending off shadowy new attackers who want the Boards for themselves, an offer of help comes from a surprising source. Can Jenna and Simon trust this offer—or are they walking straight into a trap set by the one who has coveted the Boards for millennia?

The Martian Invasion! Accounts of the War of the Worlds as told by celebrity eyewitnesses all around the globe!

Jules Verne reports on the Martian attacks on Paris.

Teddy Roosevelt, big game hunter, goes after the most dangerous game . . . from another world.

Mark Twain recounts the Martians on the Mississippi.

Jack London fights the Martians in the Yukon.

Albert Einstein pits his great mind against the Martian overlords.

And fourteen other imaginary reports from the front lines of the War of the Worlds, including H.P. Lovecraft, Winston Churchill, Pablo Picasso, Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad, and others—as written by some of the greatest names in modern science fiction.

Third book in the rollicking, galaxy-spanning SF adventure series that will make your imagination spin!

McGill Feighan is able to “Fling”—or teleport—himself or anything else as far away as he can imagine. As such, he makes a rather substantial living by Flinging anything and everything, for a fee, to the far corners of the universe.

His real quest, though, is to find the Far Being Retzglaran, who has meddled in his life since birth.

Oh, and he’s trying to avoid the dread Organization, which is trying to kill him at every turn. They’ve had a contract out on his life since he was four days old, but they’ve been unsuccessful. So far.

Now McGill teams up with an Actuni plant-monk—who is not your everyday sentient cactus—as they flee the PsychSection of the Flinger Network and seek an encounter with the most ancient of all mysteries.

It is a thorny dilemma indeed.

Includes two stories set in far corners of the Liaden Universe®.

Short story "Command Decision," which first appeared in the anthology Release the Virgins, features Bjarni, a man with a nose for 'shroom, improbably standing at the intersection of change and tradition.

Novella "Dead Men Dream," is original to this chapbook, and harks back to the time of Lee and Miller's novel Trade Secret. What is life after death, after all, if not an adventure?

The world has been brought to its knees by the “zombie virus.” Nations have fallen, cities have been overrun by the infected, and the human race has come perilously close to extinction. But with the first winter come and gone, the infected have been reduced to not much more than a background nuisance, and survivors around the world are taking stock and vowing to rebuild and rise up stronger, better, and unafraid.

All-new stories from New York Times best-selling author John Ringo’s “Black Tide Rising” series:

Kevin J. Anderson
Brendon DuBois
Jody Lynn Nye
Michael Z. Williamson
Kacey Ezell
Mike Massa
Christoper L. Smith
Lydia Sherrer
Jason Cordova
Brian Trent
Patrick Vanner
Jamie Ibson

For more than fifty years, the Terran Republic and the Terran League have been killing one another. The death toll has climbed ever higher, year after year, with no end in sight. But the members of the Five Hundred, the social elite of the Republic’s Heart Worlds, don’t care.

Rear Admiral Terrence Murphy is a Heart Worlder. His family is part of the Five Hundred. His wife is the daughter of one of the Five Hundred’s wealthiest, most powerful industrialists. His sons and his daughter can easily avoid military service, and political power is his for the taking. There is no end to how high he can rise in the Republic’s power structure.

All he has to do is successfully complete a risk-free military “governorship” in the backwater Fringe System of New Dublin without rocking the boat. But the people sending him to New Dublin have miscalculated, because Terrence Murphy is a man who believes in honor. Who believes in duty—in common decency and responsibility. Who believes there are dark and dangerous secrets behind the façade of what “everyone knows.”

Terrence Murphy intends to meet those responsibilities, to unearth those secrets, and he doesn’t much care what the Five Hundred want. He intends to put a stop to the killing.

Terrence Murphy is coming for whoever has orchestrated fifty-six years of bloodshed and slaughter, and Hell itself is coming with him.

Everyone has a different war. For some in the UN Peacekeeping mission to Grainne, the struggle is just to survive. For others, it’s to remain sane, or keep one’s friends and comrades physically and mentally intact. When the rules of engagement are in constant flux, and orders are unclear or based on false information, just getting back inside the fence can be an accomplishment.

For the rebels of the Freehold of Grainne, they must form an organized force from the shattered remnants of their military, and from grimly determined, but underequipped and outnumbered insurgents. Their war is for their very way of life. They’ll do everything and anything to stop this invasion, using whatever means are available. They mean to make the enemy suffer. Quod vulnera curare potes. “Because physical wounds heal.”

Daslakh is an AI with a problem. Its favorite human, a young man named Zee, is in love with a woman who never existed—and he will scour the Solar System to find her. But in the Tenth Millennium, a billion worlds circle the Sun—everything from terraformed planets to artificial habitats, home to a quadrillion beings.

Daslakh’s nicely settled life gets more complicated when Zee helps a woman named Adya escape a gang of crooks. This gets the pair caught up in the hunt for the Godel Trigger, a legendary weapon left over from an ancient war between humans and machines—which could spell the end of civilization.

In their search, they face a criminal cat and her henchmen, a paranoid supermind with a giant laser, the greatest thief in history, and a woman who might actually be Zee’s lost love.

It’s up to Daslakh to save civilization, keep Zee’s love life on the right track—and make sure that nobody discovers the real secret of the Godel Trigger.

The assassinated Shah Jahan lies entombed beside his beloved wife in the Taj Mahal, while their progeny drag the Mughal Empire into a three-sided struggle over the succession to the Peacock Throne.

The diplomatic and trade mission from the United States of Europe is openly siding with Princess Jahanara and her brother Dara Shikoh. The mission, made up largely of Americans transplanted in time by the Ring of Fire, is providing the siblings with technical assistance as they prepare to fight their rivals for the throne, Aurangzeb and Shah Shuja. Meanwhile, the Afghan adventurer Salim Gadh Yilmaz, confidant of two emperors—Shah Jahan and now his son Dara Shikoh—has been elevated to the position of general. He has great challenges to face, not the least of which is resisting the fierce and forbidden mutual attraction between himself and Princess Jahanara.

As the conflict deepens, the junior members of the mission are sent east to buy opium needed by the USE’s doctors. Their guide, merchant Jadu Das, has an agenda of his own, one entrusted to him by Jahanara: seek out her great uncle, Asaf Khan, and promise whatever is needed to bring his army over to Dara’s side.

The USE’s mission was sent to India in search of goods needed in Europe. But now they find that straightforward task has become enmeshed in a great civil war—for control of the Peacock Throne.

Reefs

by Kevin O'Donnell, Jr.

Hold Your Fire

edited by Lisa Mangum