A Short Note of Explanation
This book started as short stories. The heroes of the following tales, the Blaatshi Recital Thane Indrajit Twang and Fix, former Trivial of Salish-Bozar the White, first appeared in the Baen Books novel In the Palace of Shadow and Joy. In Palace, Indrajit and Fix met, had a joint adventure, endured sundry joint perils, and emerged as partners in a new, small, jobber firm, the Protagonists. (I won’t tell you more about the events recounted in Palace, because, although the Protagonists’ adventures happen in sequence, they’re not part of an overarching plot. That means that you can go right ahead and read this book first, and then go back and enjoy Palace afterward. Do it, I dare you.)
This volume contains ten short stories, previously published by Baen Books, Chris Kennedy/New Mythology Press, and Hemelein Publications. They’re included herein in the order in which they were written, which is also the order in which Indrajit and Fix experienced them. The Protagonists and Kish change over time and the changes persist—once the Kyone Munahim shows up in “Power and Prestige,” for instance, he sticks around (indeed, in “Good Boy,” he’s the point-of-view character). Seven of the stories were written as standalones, but three were written as a tightly linked sequence, comprising, in effect, a novella in three parts. “The Name of the Monster,” “The Caveats of Salish-Bozar,” and “The End of the Story” are collected here under the title “Welcome to Kish.”
I have made some subtle tweaks to the texts of the previously published stories, for consistency.
The novella that closes this volume, “The Politics of Wizards,” was written new, for the purpose of inclusion herein.