#15 in the multiple best-selling Ring of Fire Series.

It's springtime in the Eternal City, 1635. But it's no Roman holiday for uptimer Frank Stone and his pregnant downtime wife, Giovanna. They're in the clutches of would be Pope Cardinal Borgia, with the real Pope—Urban VIII—on the run with the renegade embassy of uptime Ambassador Sharon Nichols and her swashbuckling downtime husband, Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Up to their necks in papal assassins, power politics, murder, and mayhem, the uptimers and their spouses need help and they need it quickly.

Special rescue teams—including Harry Lefferts and his infamous Wrecking Crew—converge on Rome to extract Frank and Gia. And an uptime airplane is on its way to spirit the Pope to safety before Borgia's assassins can find him. It seems that everything is going to work out just fine in sunny Italy.

Until, that is, everything goes wrong. Now, whether they are prisoners in Rome or renegades protecting a pope on the run, it's up to the rough and ready can do attitude of Grantville natives to once again escape the clutches of aristocratic skullduggery and ring in freedom for a war torn land.

NEW ENTRY IN THE BEST-SELLING RING OF FIRE SERIES FROM NEBULA AND DRAGON AWARD NOMINEE CHARLES E. GANNON AND ROBERT WATERS

Domingos Fernandes Calabar started out as a military advisor for the Portuguese in Brazil. But to his superiors, he was still nothing more than a mameluco, a man of mixed blood. Until, that is, the Dutch arrived and he switched sides. Then the Portuguese had a new label for him: “traitorous dog.”

But when Dutch admiral Maarten Tromp arrives, having barely survived the disastrous Battle of Dunkirk, Calabar’s job changes again. Now he has to help engineer a swift Dutch exodus to a safer place before word of Tromp’s defeat reaches Spanish ears. Partnered with the Sephardic pirate Moses Cohen Henriques, the two aid the battered Dutch fleet by striking at the Portuguese and Spanish, both on land and sea. Until, that is, Calabar learns that bitter personal enemies have grabbed his family, put them in chains, and sold them to a slaveship bound for the Spanish Main.

Calabar must now choose: continue to help the Dutch, or save his wife and children? Tromp and other strong allies want to put an end to slavery, too, but their strategies and timetable are measured in months and years. Calabar doesn’t have that kind of time and can’t rely on their methods. The struggle to recover his family, and to free the millions more suffering in shackles, is one he must win in his own way and on his own terms. Because ultimately, this is not just  Calabar’s fight.

This is Calabar’s war.

Eddie Cantrell, now married to the king of Denmark’s daughter, is sent by Admiral Simpson to the Caribbean to secure access to the most valuable commodity on that continent—not the gold and silver which the Spanish treasure, but the oil which up‑time machines and industry need. The admiral has also provided Eddie’s small task force with the new steam‑powered frigates that have just come out of the navy’s shipyards.

Even with the frigates, a giant obstacle stands in his way: the Gulf‑girdling Spanish presence in the New World. So a diversion is needed, carried out by an up‑time car mechanic and a down‑time mercenary colonel who also happens to be the last earl of Ireland. Their mission: grab the oil fields on Trinidad, and so distract the attention of Spain’s New World governors.

While the Spanish galleons and troops head for Trinidad, Commander Cantrell’s smallest and fastest steam sloop will make a run to the Louisiana coast. There, her crew will wind their way up the bayous to the real New World prize: the Jennings Oil Field.

But Cantrell’s plans could be wrecked in a multitude of ways. He faces often‑hostile natives, rambunctious Dutch ship captains, allied colonies on the brink of starvation, and vicious social infighting that can barely be contained by his capable and passionate new wife. When the galleons finally come out in force to engage his small flotilla, Eddie will discover that the Spanish aren’t the only enemies who will be coming against him in a fateful Caribbean show‑down.

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

SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, 1636

It’s spring in Burgundy. The flowers are out and so are the cardinals—of Pope Urban’s renegade papacy, now on the run from the Vatican’s would-be usurper Borja. Most of the Church’s senior leaders have converged upon the city of Besancon, where the Pope plans to offer an ecumenical olive branch to the other Christian denominations with which Rome has been at war.

Fortunately, Urban has up-time help. He can rely upon Cardinal-Protector Larry Mazzare’s theological savvy, Sharon Nichols’ medical skills, and her husband Ruy Sanchez’s keen-eyed experience as a body-guard-in-chief. And even though Urban has a new Papal Guard in the form of Owen Roe O’Neill’s Wild Geese, Mike Stearns has loaned the Pope a small contingent of the Hibernian Battalion—just in case.

Which is prudent, since Urban and his peace initiative are not merely at risk from Borja’s assassins. There is another, more deadly, team of professional killers in town, directed by the man who almost killed the Pope before: lethal Spanish mastermind Pedro Dolor.

Dolor hasn’t come to confess murder—he’s come to commit it.

THE BATTLE FOR THE NEW WORLD IS A FIGHT TO THE FINISH! A NEW RING OF FIRE NOVEL BY BEST-SELLING WRITING TEAM ERIC FLINT AND CHARLES E. GANNON

A New Day in the New World

It’s 1637 in the Caribbean. Commander Eddie Cantrell and his ally and friend Admiral Martin Tromp start it off with some nasty surprises for Spain, whose centuries-long exploitation and rapine of the New World has run unchecked. Until now.

Yet life goes on in the Caribbean. Relationships among the allied Dutch, Swedes, Germans, up-timers, and even Irish mercenaries continue to evolve and deepen. New friendships must be forged with the native peoples, who will not only shape the colonists’ future in the Caribbean, but will also decide whether they will be given access to a Louisiana oilfield that could change the balance of power.

But for now, the only oil Imperial Spain knows about is the crude pouring out of the Allies’ pumps on Trinidad—which threatens its interests in both the New and the Old Worlds. So, following in the footsteps of the conquistadors, the empire’s commanders are resolved to show that they do not take threats lightly or lying down. Indeed, their historical reaction is to respond with overwhelming—and often genocidal—force.

The battle for the New World has not merely begun; it is a fight to the finish.

The Icarus Plot

by Timothy Zahn

Tower of Silence

by Larry Correia

Into the Vortex

by Charles E. Gannon

Wraithbound

by Tim Akers

A NEW NOVEL IN THE BEST-SELLING TERRAN REPUBLIC SERIES

It has been 15 Terran months since Colonel Rodger Murphy and his Lost Soldiers were dropped in the 55 Tauri binary system. Since then, they have forged an uneasy alliance with space-dwelling descendants of the Ktor, liberated the earlier human inhabitants of the planet R’bak, and driven their oppressors from the neighboring system back into a few fortified cities.

But there’s another pivotal battle looming before them: intercepting the Harvester fleet sent by those same oppressors, the Kulsians. And time is growing short. The two stars are nearing periastron, which the natives of R’Bak call the Searing, due to the approach of the blistering F-class star. That’s when the Kulsians cross the 10 AU separating the systems to strip R’Bak of rare biological resources and destroy any powers that might become a challenge to future Harvesters. But Murphy has a plan to break that cycle of interstellar rapine. With the cooperation of both indigenous R’Baku and the mutually suspicious Spindogs and Rockhounds, the Lost Soldiers—now sporting the nickname Murphy’s Lawless—have pulled off a delicate scheme to capture an advanced Kulsian corvette. The objective: to improve the cutting-edge warship and use Spindog “autofab” technology to create a flotilla with which to repel the Harvester fleet.

But true to the source of the Lawless nickname, Murphy’s Law may be their greatest foe. Murphy’s worsening multiple sclerosis is becoming impossible to hide, and the corvettes are proving far more difficult to replicate than anything the Spindogs have ever attempted.

However, it’s the job of training and forging crews from the highly competitive Spindogs and Rock Hounds that is pushing both groups toward mutiny—and possibly murder. The only chance to bring all those forces together? Ex-Navy fighter jock Kevin Bowman—now known as “The Admiral”—who has his work cut out for him.

Problem is, both Bowman and Murphy are running out of time. Not only is the Harvester fleet coming earlier than expected, but it’s bigger than ever before. Much bigger. And its objective is clear: to reassert complete control over the system and annihilate Murphy’s Lawless, their allies, and any who would stand with them.

A NEW NOVEL IN JOHN RINGO'S BEST-SELLING BLACK TIDE RISING SERIES BY NEBULA- AND DRAGON AWARD–NOMINATED AUTHOR CHARLES E. GANNON

It was supposed to be fun. Six teenagers and their British captain aboard the ketch Crosscurrent Voyager, headed on a senior year summer cruise to excitement and adventure. Then the world as they knew it ended.

A plague spread throughout the globe, killing millions and turning the survivors into cannibalistic rage monsters—zombies, in so many words. Only by putting aside their differences were the young crew able to survive.

Now, they seek others like them, those fortunate souls who have made it through the zombie apocalypse. After all, maybe it's not the end of the world so long as GPS can help survivors navigate deadly terrain, to link up, and maybe—just maybe—ensure the continuation of the human race.

But the Earth’s GPS systems are failing. It falls to those aboard the Crosscurrent Voyager to keep the unthinkable from happening. In order to do so, they must traverse dangerous seas to a European Space Agency complex in French Guiana.

And thousands of infected stand in the way.

If they succeed, humankind has a chance of rebuilding. If they fail, humanity may well be at the end of its journey.

A NEW NOVEL IN JOHN RINGO'S BEST-SELLING BLACK TIDE RISING SERIES BY NEBULA- AND DRAGON AWARD–NOMINATED AUTHOR CHARLES E. GANNON

CASTAWAYS IN A ZOMBIE PLAGUE

Six kids ranging from suburban geeks to street-smart pariahs. A British captain who rarely talks and never smiles. All on the 70-foot pilot house ketch Crosscurrent Voyager, bound on a senior summer cruise to adventure and serious fun.

Except most of the kids don’t get along. And they’ll be gone all summer. And none of them have sailed before. And worst of all—because they booked at the last minute—they got the destination nobody else wanted: the frigid and remote South Georgia Islands.

But there’s one other hitch: They’ll never see their families or friends again. Because just days after they leave, a plague starts spreading like wildfire, turning most of its survivors into shrieking, cannibalistic rage-monsters. So with their past dying as fast as the world that shaped it, the kids’ hated destination becomes their one hope for survival.

But it’s an uncertain hope. Not only are other hostile survivors headed there, but South Georgia Island is unable to support permanent habitation. So if the strange crew of the Voyager doesn’t come up with a further plan, they are—in every sense—heading straight toward the end of the world.

A new entry in the critically acclaimed Caine Riordan science fiction series by three‑time Nebula nominee Charles E. Gannon! Science fiction on a grand scale. Prequels Raising Caine, Trial by Fire and Fire with Fire were all Nebula Award finalists. Charles E. Gannon is also the winner of the Compton Crook Award.

Caine Riordan, fresh from serving as envoy to the aliens known as the Slaasriithi, has been given yet another daunting task: apprehend raiders that are terrorizing a distant planet.

As difficulties mount, Caine becomes aware that the mission his superiors sent him to perform may not be the one they actually hope he will achieve. Which means Caine may be forced to choose between honoring a promise to friends or following orders—a choice that could ultimately put him in front of a board of inquiry. Or a firing squad.

CAINE RIORDAN RETURNS . . . AND FACES DOWN HIS BIGGEST CHALLENGE YET!

Caine Riordan has faced many crises in his unintended career as diplomat, soldier, and first-contact specialist, but none more challenging than the one he faces now.

He and twelve of his crew are adrift in uncharted space, so far beyond Earth that the starfield is unrecognizable. And with the controls and computer destroyed, they have no way to calculate their position or call for rescue.

Instead, trapped on a derelict alien ship, they have only forty-eight hours before its decaying orbit causes it to burn up in the atmosphere of the strange planet beneath them. It’s a silent and forbidding world of bleak deserts and turbulent seas, without any sign of life and dominated by violent storms.

But since the ship's lander is also useless, they've got only one way to reach the surface: flimsy, foam-inflating cargo drop pods never intended for human use, let alone an emergency planet-fall. And even if they live through the fiery plummet from low orbit, they have almost no portable gear with which to survive in an arid alien wilderness.

However, those who make it to the surface discover that the dangers they couldn’t see from space are by far the most deadly. A variety of bizarre, carnivorous species roams the barren wastes, desperate for food. Their primary competition? Deeply devolved transgen humans that are as uncommunicative as they are primitive and ferocious.

Even more ominous, the world’s blasted cities have telltale signs which indicate their original masters were none other than humanity's most dangerous foe: the Ktor.

And worst of all, they may still be here.

2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth's Moon—a history-making clandestine project—and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan's mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient—enough so to have built a lost civilization.

However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he's been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it's clear that someone doesn't want his mission to succeed. In the end, it takes the keen insights of an intelligence analyst and a matching instinct for intrigue to ferret out the truth: that humanity is neither alone in the cosmos nor safe. Earth is revealed to be the lynchpin planet in an impending struggle for interstellar dominance, a struggle into which it is being irresistibly dragged. Discovering new dangers at every turn, Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly—and to fight fire with fire.

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

The second, expanded edition includes not only 21,000 words of excluded scenes and background details on the worlds, blocs, and culturescape of the Consolidated Terran Republic, but blueprints and renderings of its various spacecraft, including the Commonwealth-class shift-carrier.

2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth's Moon—a history-making clandestine project—and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan's mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient—enough so to have built a lost civilization.

However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he's been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it's clear that someone doesn't want his mission to succeed. In the end, it takes the keen insights of an intelligence analyst and a matching instinct for intrigue to ferret out the truth: that humanity is neither alone in the cosmos nor safe. Earth is revealed to be the lynchpin planet in an impending struggle for interstellar dominance, a struggle into which it is being irresistibly dragged. Discovering new dangers at every turn, Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly—and to fight fire with fire.

THIRD EDITION: New edition of the best-selling, award-winning first entry in the Caine Riordan series, with new material by author Charles E. Gannon.

2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth’s Moon—a history-changing clandestine project—and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan’s mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient—enough so to have built a lost civilization.

However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he’s been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it's clear that someone doesn't want his mission to succeed. In the end, it takes the broad-based insights of an intelligence analyst and a matching instinct for intrigue to ferret out the truth: that humanity is neither alone in the cosmos nor safe. Earth is revealed to be the lynchpin planet in an impending struggle for interstellar dominance, a struggle into which it is being irresistibly dragged. Discovering new dangers at every turn, Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly—and to fight fire with fire.

WINNER OF THE COMPTON CROOK AWARD FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL

CHECKSUM Checkmate
by Tony Daniel Grayson Navy Letters Home
by Joelle Presby Like Ghost Cat and a Dragon's Dog
by Dave Freer A Murder of Crows
by Alex Hernandez The Age of the Warrior
by Hank Reinhardt Taking the High Road
by R.P.L. Johnson Conella and the Cyclops Sea Serpent of Doom
by John Ringo Landed Alien
by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller Kinderspiel
by Charles E. Gannon Peace Offering
by Wen Spencer Angel in Flight
by Sarah A. Hoyt Away in a Manger
by Wen Spencer

Eleutherios
by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Seven Miles
by T.C. McCarthy To Spec
by Charles E. Gannon Skyspark
by Ryk E. Spoor The Krumhorn and Misericorde
by Dave Freer Pittsburgh Backyard and Garden
by Wen Spencer Haunts of Guilty Minds
by John Lambshead The Lamplighter Legacy
by Patrick O'Sullivan Dog's Body
by Sarah A. Hoyt The Sorcerer of Daigawa
by Jon F. Merz Sweothi City
by Larry Correia Out of True
by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Mars Farts
by Ben Bova The Virgin of Hertogenbosch
by David Drake Murder on the Hochflieger Ost
by Frank Chadwick

The Gift of Music
by Sharon Lee The Aristocrat and the Free Man
by Robert Conroy Stealing Arturo
by William Ledbetter Magic and Other Honest Lies
by Robert Buettner Soft Casualty
by Michael Z. Williamson Songs of Waste and Wood
by P.C. Hodgell The Last Secret of Mary Bowser
by Steve White Low Arc
by Sean Monaghan Balance
by Marina J. Lostetter A Thing of Beauty
by Charles E. Gannon An Imperium Pursuit
by Jody Lynn Nye Picket Ship
by Brad R. Torgersen The Golden Knight
by K. D. Julicher Bare Snow Falling on Fairywood
by Wen Spencer Bait and Switch
by Ryk E. Spoor The night don't seem so lonely
by Sharon Lee Long Nights Moon
by David B. Coe

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2015.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2021.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

APPLESEED: A Founder Effect Legend by Robert E. Hampson
Latuda’s Lady in White by Aaron Michael Ritchey
Misfits by A.C. Haskins
All Orca Go to Heaven by Joelle Presby
The Paoshi Puzzle by James L. Cambias
Of Shadows and Caves by David Weber and Richard Fox
Salvage Judgment by G. Scott Huggins
Murder in Space by Les Johnson
The Man Who Would be Dracula by Simon R. Green
Shattered Trust by Dave Bara
Echoes of Meridian by M. Elizabeth Ticknor
The Rot’s Last Laugh by Charles E. Gannon
Fire-Bright Rain by Jane Lindskold
From Every Storm a Rainbow by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

BOOK TWO IN CHARLES E. GANNON’S VORTEX OF WORLDS EPIC FANTASY SERIES

A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing . . . but knowing the full truth might get you killed.

Druadaen, Outrider for the once-mighty Dunarran Consentium, has proven that there are irreconcilable contradictions between magic and physics on Arrdanc, the world of his birth. And what is his reward for this important discovery, made against all odds and at considerable personal risk? Exile—organized and compelled by nervous temple hierarchs.

However, Druadaen remains determined to uncover what several ancient persons and beings have urged him to seek: “the truth of the world”—which might only be gained by traveling beyond it. Indeed, the mysterious Lady of the Mirror speculates that he might find the answers by journeying to the other side of her unusual looking glass: a reflective, ethereal portal that she calls a “shimmer.”

But there’s a catch: because the mysterious portal only allows a single person to pass through, Druadaen must leave his companions behind. Unfortunately, once he has, they discover that the “shimmer” only allows travelers to leave Arrdanc, not return to it. So his friends, led by stalwart swordsman Ahearn, resolve to find another means by which they can retrieve Druadaen—and with him, the truth of the world.

There’s just one small problem with their quest: the closer they come to finding a solution, the more obvious it becomes that various powers on Arrdanc don’t want them to succeed. In fact, they’d rather Druadaen doesn’t return at all.

So much so that they might kill both him and his friends in order to prevent it.

Jason Thanou of the Temporal Regulatory Authority had about had it with nursemaiding parties of ivory-tower academics through Earth's blood-drenched history, keeping them alive as they sought evidence for their pet theories. Of course, when one of the ivory-tower academics looked like Doctor Deirdre Sadaka-Ramirez, one last expedition didn't look like such a bad idea after all.. . .

Besides, there was something to be said for witnessing the Santorini explosion of 1628 B.C.—the most cataclysmic natural disaster of human history, and the source of much of the mythology of Jason's own Greek ancestors. But once Jason and his companions were in the Aegean Bronze Age, unable to return to their own twenty-fourth-century time until a predetermined instant, they would find that there was more to those old legends of gods and heroes than anyone had imagined. For the gods were very real—horribly so. And dealing with them took very real heroes.

KING ARTHUR SAVED THE GALAXY
NOW WHO WILL SAVE
THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING

In The Disinherited we learned that We Are Not Alone, but share this galaxy with the most loathe-somely aggressive communal aliens imaginable. Thank God for the U.S. Space Force.

In Legacy we learned that time-travel is not only possible for the humans of the far future, it's easy. But meddling in time can have awful consequences for mere mortals: Thank God for King Arthur.

And now . . .

The Once and Future War Duke of the Britons has been saved and as a special military consultant to the galactic overlords he has given the future new hope. But now that he has saved the universes, who shall save the King

"This delightful book is a welcome sequel to The Disinherited. Mr. White's ability to capture a realm rich with detail and add adventure is without parallel. Anyone looking for a great read with a different twist should definitely place this title at the top of their list."
—Sherrilyn Kenyon, Affaire de Coeur

"A mind boggling action-mystery. . . ."
—Southern Book Trade

"A storyteller with marvelous instincts, Mr. White combines space opera high adventure with an enthralling peek into history."
—Melinda Helfer, Romantic Times

"Mr. White commands our interest with an exciting variation of a favorite plot and engages our empathy with his nicely developed cast of characters."
—Romantic Times

"Excellent hard-core SF . . . Highly recommended for [all readers] who like exciting extraterrestrial battle scenes served up with a measure of thought and science."
—Kliatt

If the Demon Gate is Opened,
Nothing Can Ever Close it Again . . .

Valdar, heir to the throne of Dhulon, was in the fabled city-state of Schaerisa to pay his kingdom's respects to the recently deceased co-emperor. But then he ran into his old mentor, the sorcerer Nyrthim—who was supposed to be dead. The sorcerer's death had been faked so that he could be free to investigate tales that demons, once banished, were returning to the world. And unfortunately, the tales understated the danger. Once demons ranging from deadly imps to evil demigods had ruled the world. They had been cast out and confined to the nether world only with powerful sorcery, using spells long lost. Now someone is trying to summon the most powerful—and unspeakably dangerous—of these accursed creatures back to the world of men, hoping to conquer it through them. And unless Valdar and his companions at arms can thwart the plan, creatures evil beyond all human conception will return to rule the world. And this time, nothing will drive them back into the darkness. Instead darkness will rule the world forever . . .

Fantasy Adventure by the Co-Author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Shiva Option

[Steve White's The Disinherited is] "Highly recommended for [all readers] who like exciting extraterrestrial battle scenes served up with a measure of thought and science," —Kliatt

"White perfectly blends background information, technical and historical details, vivid battle scenes and well-written characters. . . a great package." —Starlog

"Mr. White commands our interest . . . and engages our empathy with his nicely developed cast of characters."
—Romantic Times

THE ALIENS PLAYED BY THE RULES. THEIR RULES.

When the Lokaron suddenly appeared in the skies of Earth, America was enjoying victory in the off-and-on war that had occupied most of the 20th century. That's why they chose America to occupy and use as their puppet in dominating the planet. We were already set up to do it; now we would do it for them.

Not that they were evil; they just insisted that we trade with them. By their rules, rules backed up by irresistible weapons. In terms of those rules, they would even play fair—but in the long run, if they didn't own something, it would be because they didn't want it.

At first we tried to fight, but just as the Japanese, the Chinese, the Hindus and all the rest had learned, when the ones with the guns say "Let's trade!" they really mean 'Trade or bleed." And so you trade—even if you won't have a country—or a planet—left when the last round is played out.

But worms turn, and just as had the Europeans a century ago, the Lokaron were going to learn a lesson from their victims, a lesson that they weren't going to like one bit....

Eagle Against the Stars

"Highly recommended ... exciting extraterrestrial battle scenes served up with a measure of thought and science." —Kliatt

An Empire in Danger

The Empire is in danger, with a weak sybarite on the throne and rebellion rising in outlying regions of the Galaxy and on Earth itself. Then the Emperor is assassinated, and General Ivar Brady-Schiovana is forced to declare himself Emperor. But hope appears in the persons of two men and a woman who are rumored to be legendary heroes.

THE OLD GODS ARE RETURNING-
AND SOME OF THEM ARE NOT
FRIENDLY!

When Derek Secrest was suddenly pulled out of Naval flight officer school to take part in a top secret government project involving telepathy—because tests showed that he had a strong latent talent for psi powers— he thought things couldn't get weirder. He was wrong.

Soon he was contacted by a mysterious woman who could open portals at will through spacetime. Her powers seemed godlike—and they were. Millennia ago, extra-dimensional beings with great powers had come to earth and taken on human form, remembered in legends as gods and goddesses—and titans, the ancient enemies of the gods. The godlike beings had driven off the titans, but now the old enemy is returning, with a new plan to use humans with psionic abilities to rule the Earth, and not be driven from it this time. And the titans always did have a fondness for human sacrifice.

Unless Derek and a handful of other telepaths can join forces with the ancient gods to defeat the titans, the world will be plunged into a new dark age of terror and death. Even so, judging from mythology, how much can you really trust a god. . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve White was an officer in Naval Intelligence, and served in the Mediterranean and the Vietnam War Zone. In addition to the Starfire series with David Weber, he has written several popular science fiction adventure novels for Baen. They include 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. His latest is Eagle Against the Stars. He currently works for a legal publishing company in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is married and has three daughters.

The Gift of Music
by Sharon Lee The Aristocrat and the Free Man
by Robert Conroy Stealing Arturo
by William Ledbetter Magic and Other Honest Lies
by Robert Buettner Soft Casualty
by Michael Z. Williamson Songs of Waste and Wood
by P.C. Hodgell The Last Secret of Mary Bowser
by Steve White Low Arc
by Sean Monaghan Balance
by Marina J. Lostetter A Thing of Beauty
by Charles E. Gannon An Imperium Pursuit
by Jody Lynn Nye Picket Ship
by Brad R. Torgersen The Golden Knight
by K. D. Julicher Bare Snow Falling on Fairywood
by Wen Spencer Bait and Switch
by Ryk E. Spoor The night don't seem so lonely
by Sharon Lee Long Nights Moon
by David B. Coe

Special operations officer Jason Thanou of the Temporal Regulatory Authority must once again plunge into Earth’s blood‑drenched past to combat the plots of the Transhumanist underground to subvert that past and create a secret history leading up to the fulfillment of their mad dream of transforming humanity into a race of gods and monsters.

The transhumanists are attempting to use the chaos of the American Civil War to escape the Observer Effect: the immutable law that recorded history cannot be changed. If any should attempt it, time has a way of dealing with those transgressors in a very brutal, very final fashion. Now it is the last days of the Confederacy, and the Fall of Richmond looms. In the Shenandoah Valley, in the region later known as Mosby’s Confederacy, insurgency brews, and the time travelers must join the raiders to prevent a transhumanist trap from dooming the mission from the start.

Yet human freedom is ultimately on the line in both the past and the future, and the leader of a secret slave underground fighting for liberty possesses an incredible secret that may change Jason’s fate—and that of the future itself—forever.

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

Jason Thanou has fought for the continued existence of humanity across the centuries. As a special operations officer of the Temporal Regulatory Authority, he’s traveled though time to thwart the Transhumanists—genetically and mechanically enhanced beings that seek to destroy humanity—and their alien allies, the Teloi.

But for all his work, the Transhumanist Underground has never been defeated. In possession of the same time travel technology as the Temporal Regulatory Authority, the Transhumanists have been busy planting “time bombs” throughout recorded history. Time bombs that are set to go off on The Day, when the secret history the Transhumanists have planted will be revealed, resulting in the overthrow of humanity.

Now, Jason Thanou, along with fellow TRA agents Alexandre Mondrago and Father Julian Casinde, must travel through Earth’s bloody history to ensure the survival of the human race. They’ll find themselves in Italy, two days before the death of Pope John Paul I. Father Casinde has reason to believe that something much more sinister than a simple heart attack is behind the death of the Holy Father.

Racing against—and through—time, Jason and his fellow officers must defeat the Transhumanists and their Teloi allies. Meanwhile, back in Jason’s home time of the 24th century, The Day grows ever closer!

THE UNION JACK TAKES TO SPACE! All-new alternate history science fiction from New York Times best-selling author Steve White.

In an alternate future where the British empire never crumbled, the space ships of Her Majesty’s Navy work to keep the spaceways safe. Commander Robert Rogers of the Royal Space Navy is a defense intelligence officer known for his unconventional ways. Rogers is American born-and-raised, a loyal citizen of the Viceroyalty of North America. He’s a descendant of the founder of the highly effective, pro-British Rogers’ Rangers during the Colonial unpleasantries of 1776, and he’s inherited his ancestor’s intelligence and drive in spades.

But there are those among the stars who are not so happy being subjects of the British Empire. In the Tau Ceti system, a cauldron of trouble brews as a terrorist faction of the rebellious Sons of Arnold attacks the empire from within, and warships of the theocratic Caliphate enter the system, prepared to do their worst to destroy the hated empire head on. Yet standing against the coming anarchy and tyranny is one intrepid spy prepared to risk all for queen and empire:

COMMANDER ROBERT ROGERS, HER MAJESTY’S AMERICAN

HER MAJESTY’S AGENT GOES ROGUE

The British Empire did not fall apart, but survived and took to the stars! There is no USA, but America and India have become the dynamic portions of a star empire. After dealing with a terrorist plot on the isolated system of New America, Her Majesty’s special agent Robert Rogers finds his loyalties tested as he fights to defend the sometimes prickly colonists of New America, and to foil a conspiracy within the British imperial government which he serves.

Rogers is dismayed to find that the news he uncovered of the secret alliance between the hostile alien Gharnakh’sha and the star-spanning Islamic Caliphate has been suppressed. Worse, the fact that the Sons of Wilkinson, New America extremists Rogers previously thwarted, were in league with the Gharnakh’sha and the Caliphate has caused all New Americans to come under a cloud of imperial suspicion.

When the Gharnakh’sha threaten once more, Rogers must decide whether or not to “go rogue,” and help the New Americans resist an oncoming occupation. What’s more, the only hope for the colonists may be to deploy a super-weapon which Rogers has so far done everything in his power to prevent them from ever using!

About Her Majesty's American:
"White presents thought provoking observations about humanity in an alternate future, with clever twists and turns."—Booklist

"With a strong combination of alternate history, science fact, and science fiction, White (the Starfire series) takes readers into a future of interplanetary colonization and threats both foreign and domestic."—Publishers Weekly

Lt. Robert Sarnac thought the space academy
had prepared him for anything. . . .

A quick dazzling smile and Artorius was gone, riding along the lines and acknowledging cheers. Sarnac was left gaping after him, with barely enough time to settle back into position in line before the shrill, barbaric horns sounded again and the Visigothic cavalry broke into a charge.

Spreading his feet a little wider apart and waiting to receive heavy shock cavalry, Sarnac subvocalized (sheer habit, in this rising thunder of hooves) into his implant communicator. "Tylar, I'm sure you've got the situation well in hand. But whatever it is you're planning, now's the time."

There was no reply. He again made the motion that activated the comm link, confirming that it was already functioning.

"Tylar, this isn't funny! Talk to me!"

Dead silence inside his skull.

"Tylar Tylar !"

Then the Visigoths were on them.

Pirates of the Caribbean meets times traveling heroes and godlike aliens. Sequel to Sunset of the Gods and Blood of Heroes.

Special operations officer Jason Thanou of the Temporal Regulatory Authority must once again plunge into Old Earth's blood‑drenched past to combat the plots of the Transhumanist underground to subvert that past and create a secret history leading up to the fulfillment of their mad dream of transforming humanity into a race of gods and monsters.

Jason and his companions travel to the seventeenth century encounter the real pirates of the Caribbean—including a beautiful she‑pirate who turns out to be Transhumanist renegade. To Jason's horror, he also learns that the Teloi aliens who were the grim reality behind the pagan pantheons of antiquity—aliens Jason believed he'd successfully destroyed—are still active, and aiding the Transhumanists in founding an unspeakable cult. What's more, these are a different—and far more dangerous—breed of Teloi than before.

  Jason must somehow thwart the plans of the sinister allies while at the same time preventing reality itself from falling into chaos. In the end he finds himself venturing into space with a totally unexpected ally: Henry Morgan.

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

IT WASN'T MUCH OF AN EMPIRE ANYMORE— BUT IT WAS ALL THEY HAD....

Afterwards, Basil Castellan was always certain that it had all begun the day he'd been rescued by the dragon. Oh, it hadn't been a real dragon, of course, or so he hastily assured everyone to whom he told the story. Only . . . it had been a real dragon. But he would never share that particular knowledge with anyone but Sonja and Tarval.... The Empire had preserved peace and order throughout human-inhabited space, but it had grown weak with the passing of the centuries, and now the self styled New Humans were rising in open rebellion, striving to seize control and impose their fanatical grand design on all humans everywhere. Basil, Sonja and Torval had only recently graduated from the Imperial Deep Space Fleet Academy, and the three comrades had no inkling of the crucial role they would play as the rising storm of war engulfed the galaxy—nor of the importance of the Luon, the dragon-like beings from Basil's homeworld, who were older, wiser, and more powerful than humans could imagine.

Praise for Steve White:

"Highly recommended for all readers who like exciting extraterrestrial battle scenes served up with a measure of thought and science."
—Kliatt

"White perfectly blends background information, technical and historical details, vivid battle scenes and well-written characters. . . a great package."
—Starlog

In our universe, Ponce de León is remembered for his fruitless search for the mythical fountain of youth. But, in an alternate universe, his quest found something very different—and very dangerous. After his return to Spain, bizarre rumors flew about what he had found there, and what had come back with him.

Eighty-five years later, Spain sent a fleet of ships against England. The English were confident that they could repel the threat—but England's fleet was annihilated by weapons shooting beams of fiery light, weapons which seemed to employ the blackest of sorcery, even if they were wielded by odd-looking beings in monk's garb.

The Queen herself was forced to flee to the New World on Captain Thomas Winslow's ship, Heron, accompanied by her advisor Dr. Dee, whom some called a sorcerer, and an odd fellow named Shakespeare, hoping there to find the source of Spain's powerful weapons. But they would find far stranger matters there than they had expected, such as a grown woman who had been only an infant a year before, and eerie tales of a gate to another world with beings who were not human . . .

About the Author

Steve White completed a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Naval officer. With David Weber, he has collaborated on Insurrection, Crusade, In Death Ground, and the New York Times best seller The Shiva Option. His recent books for Baen include Forge of the Titans, The Prometheus Project and Blood of the Heroes.

Book #5 in Steve White's exciting TRA series. Jason faces down humanity's arch-enemies in an action-packed space adventure.

Special operations officer Jason Thanou of the Temporal Regulatory Authority must once again plunge into Earth’s blood-drenched past to combat the plots of the Transhumanist underground to subvert that past and create a secret history leading up to the fulfillment of their mad dream of transforming humanity into a race of gods and monsters.

Sequel to time travel thriller Blood of the Heroes.

Jason Thanou: a time traveler with a burning mission. When the gods of ancient Greece proved to be not only monstrously real, but totally alien—and poised to dominate humanity forever—Jason took care of the situation, at least in Minoan Crete. Now he's got what looks like a normal assignment: to lead a time traveling expedition of scholars to the battle of Marathon and record for the benefit of future historians the magnificent stand of Greece's hoplite warriors against Persian invaders.

But the Olympians are not done with their attempt to dominate humanity. Now the god Pan is afoot in Greece—a creature who may have the power to turn ancient Athens away from her budding democracy and toward a corrupt future on an Earth dominated by twisted humans and evil alien forces. But not if Jason can discover Pan's secret, thwart a conspiracy that stretches for millennia— and save the birthplace of democracy from the corruption of the gods.

The Galaxy Is A Bad Neighborhood

The U.S. Space Force was in big trouble. Not from the Russians—we'd whipped them years ago, and not from the Japanese; they had quite wisely decided against mounting a serious military presence in space. Even the Chinese weren't a threat for the near term. No, the threat wasn't external at all. The United States itself was turning inward, forgetful of the heritage that had made it great. Soon the Space Force would be called entirely back to Earth, and there would be nothing American in space save for the comsats that had started it all so long ago.

That's when the aliens arrived. Though themselves entirely human, handsome as gods and pacifist to a fault, they bore bad tidings. Following on behind were creatures of an entirely different nature: warlike, ugly as toads, and with nothing but military conquest on their hive mind. Suddenly the United States Space Force had something even worse to worry about than going out of business . . . .

WHEN LADY FORTUNE SMILES DAGGERS

What if the past is merely a playground for the future? In a new, evolving timeline, Cesare Borgia did not follow a path that led to a fatal ambush and unfulfilled ambitions, but instead employs Leonardo Da Vinci’s visionary war machines—only ideas in a notebook in our own timeline—and the sly wisdom of Niccolò Machiavelli—who suffered years of disgrace in “regular” history—in a rolling effort to unify the contentious city states of Italy. From there Borgia hopes to create a powerful Renaissance empire centuries in advance of the modern nation. But someone—or something—with shadowy motives and nefarious purposes may be aiding Borgia every step of the way. And when a beautiful operative from a future that may never be shows up to set things right, the stakes become human freedom itself in a transformed future!

About Steve White

“Creative . . . White seamlessly inserts his characters into history, blending science fiction and vintage military action to deliver a fast-paced, high-stakes story. The time travel leads to a twisty, clever series of surprises and plot mechanics.” —Publishers Weekly on Soldiers out of Time

“White offers fast action and historically informed world-building.” —Publishers Weekly

“. . . recalls the best of the John Campbell era of SF. White's core audience of hard SF fans will be pleased . . .” —Publishers Weekly

“. . . Engaging entertainment . . . much suspense and many well-handled action scenes . . .” —Booklist

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.