ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH ...

With the defenses of the Southern Appalachians sundered, the only thing standing between the ravening Posleen hordes and the soft interior of the Cumberland Plateau are the veterans of the 555th Mobile Infantry.

Dropped into Rabun Pass, with a couple of million Posleen behind them and fourteen million to the front, the only question is which will run out first: power, bullets or bodies.

But they have a hole card: far to the north the shattered SheVa Nine, nicknamed "Bun-Bun," is undergoing a facelift. Rising from its smoking ashes is a new weapon of war, armed with the most advanced weaponry Terra has ever produced, capable of facing both the Posleen hordes and their redoubtable space-cruisers. Capable of dealing out Hell as only SheVa Nine can.

But when push comes to vaporization, if Mike O'Neal and the other members of the 555th are going to survive, it will come down to how much Posleen butt Bun-Bun can kick.

Prepare to eat antimatter, Posleen-boy.

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 military SF series—A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and now Hell's Faire—he is collaborating with New York Times best-selling author David Weber on a new SF adventure series: March Upcountry, March to the Sea, and March to the Stars, 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) 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.

DOW JONES
MEETS DARKEST SORCERY!

E.Godz, Inc.'s stock-in-trade was magic. When Edwina Godz inherited the family corporation, she immediately put to work all the sorcery she knew, taking shamans on board as subsidiaries, and raking in the benefits of the material world, including big profits and a high-selling stock.

Unfortunately, Edwina's two children hated each other's guts, and if she stepped aside and let them take over the company, it was certain to go down the tubes. So she decided to let them fight it out for dominance using all the tricks of both corporate in-fighting and wizardly warfare that she had taught them.

It's no holds (or spells) barred—and may the most evil and ruthless sorcerer win!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Robert Asprin was the New York Times bestselling author of the Phule's Company series of space adventures and the nationally bestselling Myth Adventures series of humorous fantasies. He was the creator and editor of the Thieves' World series, the first shared universe series in fantasy and science fiction. Asprin makes his home in New Orleans.

Esther Friesner is a winner twice over of the coveted Nebula Award (for the Year's Best Short Story, 1995 and 1996), and is the author of twenty-nine novels and more than one hundred short stories. She has also edited six anthologies, including the very popular Chicks in Chainmail series for Baen. Her works have been published in the UK, Japan, Germany, Russia, France, and Italy. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, two children, two rambunctious cats, and a fluctuating population of hamsters.

The Convulsing Earth had shattered Civilization
—and Something Was Moving In To Pick Up The Pieces

• Mal was heading across an America ravaged by worldwide earthquakes when he ran into a dying stranger who babbled of men who weren't really men. The stranger had an unusual gold coin in his pocket which no expert could identify, and soon, Mal was to discover some things who wanted that coin were on his trail....

• Steve Dravek awoke in a nightmarish city and immediately had to fight for his life against ruthless organ-stealing gangs. His last memories are of a vanished time from over a century ago. And someone is hunting him through the dark city, someone who seems to know him better than he knows himself....

• The commander of the spaceship fleet that just annihilated the enemy armada has decided to become world dictator unless his second in command can stop him....

• A national test condemns a man to a life of unskilled labor, unless he can find a way around the system....

A full-length novel, and a host of short novels and more fill an action-packed volume by the master of science fiction adventure.

Praise for Keith Laumer:

"Spare, clean prose style and muscular storytelling technique , . . when the final word is read, the reader comes away with both a sense of completion and a desire for the tale to go on ... forever, if possible."
—David Weber

"You're about to have fun," —David Drake

"One of the most productive and popular writers of science fiction."
* —Ben Bova

"... adventure tales that are brisk, light and sardonic,.,."
—Publishers Weekly

"Laumer is a master,.," —Seattle Times

"Tautly written and endless suspense ... excellent..,." — VOYA

NOT ONLY STRANGER THAN YOU IMAGINE, STRANGER THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE

In a distant future when humans no longer need spaceships, but hurtle between the stars faster than light, propelled and protected by implants in their bodies, the galaxy has been divided between two battling factions who contend for dominance by economic maneuvering. Each side is determined to overwhelm the other, and is likely to abandon the "Econo-War" for a genuine shooting war if it thinks that defeat is imminent. Only one thing can avert the looming disaster: a talisman of great, almost supernatural power which has been lost for millennia on a minor world called Earth.

Here, The Econo-War is collected in one continuous novel-length narrative for the first time, along with other dazzling visions of future worlds: A planet where well-meaning busybodies from Earth try to "cure" the inhabitants of their craving for the exotic drug chocolate ... another planet where insects dimly recall myths of the humans who gave them intelligence before departing for the stars, and wonder if the strange creatures will ever return ... a brilliant concert pianist whose twin is the target of an inexplicable assassination plot which he must foil—because he and his "twin" share the same brain ... an intelligent weapon which was instructed billions of years ago to obliterate a race, but whose mission was frustrated by a slight malfunction—until now . . . and much more by a unique and original master of science fiction adventure.

"In the 1960s, Myers' stories came pouring out—almost every one of them excellent, ranging from the chilling to some of the wittiest science fiction stones ever written." —Eric Flint and Guy Gordon

Publisher's Note: Among insiders, Baen Books has become quite renowned for its penchant for "rediscovering" great SF, and Eric Flint has become famous for compiling and editing old greats. You probably haven't met "Verge Foray" (pen-name of Howard L. Myers) before. Well, lucky you; this is your chance to test out Baen's reputation, and Eric's, plus you have a pretty good shot at several hours of solid, edifying entertainment. —Jim Baen

SET A TRAP FOR A SORCERER . . .
WITHOUT BEING TRAPPED YOURSELF!

Eric Banyon has settled into the New York whirl nicely: he's doing well at Juilliard, he's made a lot of new friends, he's defeated a lord of the Unseleighe Sidhe . . .

Or has he

Aerune mac Audelaine, whose beloved was killed by mortal men, was determined to destroy the human race until Eric, with a little help from his new friends the Guardians, thwarted Aerune's plans and exposed the chemists whose designer poison turned ordinary humans into zombie Mages. The human side of the threat is finished, but Aerune, like the rest of the Sidhe, has a long memory . . . and a lot of patience. He's also got Jeanette Campbell, former Threshold Black Ops, and the science behind the murder.

Can Eric stop Aerune's latest plan Only if he finds out about it before it's too late, but between babysitting a visiting Healer, training a banjo-playing Bard, attending his daughter's Underhill Naming ceremony, dealing with a dragon-and trying to survive summer school-Eric's got his hands full. Saving the world has never been more necessary-or come at a higher price.

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 ....