FREE THE BLONDES!

(America's Civil War Turned Upside Down)

A terrible civil war was tearing apart the kingdom of Detina, a land which could no longer be half serf and half free. When the new ruler, King Avram, announced his intent to liberate the blond serfs upon which the northern provinces depended, Detina was torn in two, and the rebellious north took Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey, as their king.

Neither side could expect an easy victory. The south was larger and wealthier, but the north had better soldiers and more powerful wizards. Led by officers riding unicorns, supplied by flying carpets, both sides had been clashing for three years when Count Thraxton, a conceited wizardgeneral whose opinions of his spell-casting ability far outstripped the reality, bungled a spell which backfired disastrously against his own side, giving the Unionists a decisive victory.

But the war was far from over: Thraxton the idiot had been relieved of command; which meant that the south faced a far more competent general: Joseph the Gamecock. And Joseph and his troops were determined to hold Peachtree Province against the loyalist troops. They had occupied Rockface Rise, which offered only two narrow places where the Unionists could come at them, and had further fortified it with trenches and catapults. When the southern army attacked, they would face formidable obstacles both natural and manmade, as well as the repeating crossbows of the troops and the deadly sorcerous storm and lightning wielded by the northern wizards.

Still, the very survival of Detina as one united realm was at stake, and King Avram's forces had no choice but to attack, no matter what the odds, no matter how desperate the situation ....

CONSULT OR DIE!

It all began when the wizards of the White League were under attack by their opponents of the Black League and one of their most powerful members cast a spell to bring forth a mighty wizard to aid their cause. What the spell delivered was master hacker Walter "Wiz" Zumwalt. The wizard who cast the spell was dead and nobodynot the elves, not the dwarves, not even the dragons-could figure out what the shanghaied computer nerd was good for.

But in short order, Zumwalt found that spells were a lot like computer programs. In spite of the Wiz's unprepossessing appearance, he defeated the all-powerful Black League and won the love of Moira, a beautiful red-haired witch.

But that was only the beginning. Now Wiz has to deal with new and equally menacing forces. A deadly curse has been laid on him by the elf Lisella. A couple of computer criminals from his own world, the type who would consider a computer virus that would destroy civilization a way cool idea, have forged an alliance with the destructive forces of primal chaos. Worst of all, the dragons, who view with alarm the way that the Wiz and his computer hackertype spells are remaking the realm into a human-friendly universe, and consequently an increasingly not-so-friendly universe to dragons, have abducted him. If he wants to see hearth and home again, not to mention the fair Moira, he'll have to come up with a new plan that will leave no dragon behind.

Once again, it's a job for a master sorcerer. And when it comes to spells and sorcery, nobody but nobody can beat a Silicon Valley computer geek!

Espionage and Intrigue in the
Far Reaches of the Galaxy
from the Creator of Telzey Amberdon
and Trigger Argee

The Galaxy was not a nice neighborhood, and most would have laid bets that the Vegan Confederacy was too small and weak to survive, let along prosper. But prosper it did, to the bewilderment of observers, who didn't know about the Vegans' secret weapon.

Once, the Galactic Empire had spanned the stars and when it crumbled and fell, star systems were isolated, some barely surviving, many becoming tyrannical feifdoms, others turning to piracy, and all of them often at war with each other. The Confederacy didn't have huge space armadas, and millions of troops to protect itself and re-civilize its neighbors, but it did have the Zone agents. Few outside the top echelons of the Confederacy even knew that they existed, and even fewer had an inkling of how the agents time and again could appear on the spot just when a push in the right place could stop a war, topple a despot, or thwart an invasion of unfriendly aliens.

Their numbers were pitifully few, and they had to patrol vast stretches of space. They were helped by their ships, bristling with hidden armament and piloted by robot brains of high intelligence. But their main weapon was that the minds of their opponents were open books to them. Not all of the Agents of Vega were human, but they were the most powerful telepaths the Galaxy had ever known . . .

Publisher's Note: Part of Agent of Vega & Other Stories has previously appeared separately. This is the first expanded, unitary publication.

"Take my advice and buy TWO copies of this book! You'll want to lend it to friends and (trust me on this: I have years of experience to back up the observation) once people get their hands on a Schmitz book, they don't let go!" - Janet Kagan, Hugo-Winner and author of Uhura's Song

"Wonderfully fresh imagination." -The Horn Book

THE STRANGEST CIVIL WAR 
NOVEL YOU EVER READ!

When Avram became King of Detina, he declared he intended to liberate the blond serfs from their ties to the land. The northern provinces, where most of the serfs lived, would not accept his lordship. The hot north was a land of broad estates, whose noble overlords took the serfs' labor and gave back next to nothing. Those provinces left Detina, choosing Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey, as their king in his place.

Avram said he had inherited all of the kingdom, not just a part. He refused to let Geoffrey rule the north without a challenge. And the southron provinces, full of merchants and smallholders stood solidly behind him. So he sent armies clad in gray against the north. Geoffrey raised his own army, and arrayed his men in blue made from the indigo much raised on northern estates to distinguish them from the southrons.

Avram held the larger part of the kingdom, and the wealthier part, too. But Geoffrey's men were bolder soldiers. And the north, taken all in all, had better wizards than the southrons did. The war raged for almost three years, until Avram's General named Guildenstern and his great lieutenant, Doubting George, moved against the northern army under Count Thraxton the Braggart and his commander of unicorn-riders, Ned of the Forest, which held the town of Rising Rock, close by Sentry Peak. . . .

IMPLOSION!

The worst has happened: Fleet is tearing itself apart. Some of the mutineers see injustice in the unequal spread of the rejuvenation drugs that offer virtual immortality to the rich; others are simply thirsty for power, or for blood. The Loyalists, meanwhile, fight desperately to preserve the rule of law in Familias Regnant space.

But when Esmay Suiza-Serrano is unceremoniously booted out of Fleet, the apparent victim of Family politics, she has no Idea of the whirlwind of conflict Into which she is about to be drawn. As the noose tightens on galactic civilization, great battles will be fought and greater loves affirmed ... and old friends will meet their destinies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Moon has degrees in history and biology, served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, was elected to public office, and spent six years as a paramedic on a rural Texas ambulance service. Her much acclaimed novels include The Deed of Paksenarrion, an epic fantasy, the “Heris Serrano” series; and two nationally bestselling collaborations with Anne McCaffrey, Sassinak and Generation Warriors. Her recent novel Remnant Population was acclaimed by Anne McCaffrey (“. . . marvelously empathic insights . . . pure satisfaction . . .”) and Ursula K. LeGuin (“. . . a book full of pleasures.”) and was a Hugo Award finalist. Her last novel was Change of Command, to which Against the Odds is a sequel. Moon lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband and their son.

Visit Elizabeth Moon's web page at  http://www.sff.net/people/Elizabeth.Moon

LAWYER IN A STRANGE LAND

In the real world, the Mediterranean basin dried up several times, only to refill again. If it hadn't, what's really sea bottom would have become the most savage desert in the world. Mild-mannered Radnal vez Krobir likes it that way. When his kingdom's enemies try to shake down the Barrier Mountains and let the Atlantic in, he has to stop them-or else drown along with everything he holds dear.

Plus "The Wheels of If' and "The Pugnacious Peacemaker"

"Harry Turtledove has established himself as The grand master of the alternative history form," -Poul Anderson

"(Turtledove is) one of alternate history's authentic modern masters," -Booklist

"(Turtledove is) one of the finest explorers of alternate histories ever," -Locus