Eric Banyon, better known as Bedlam's Bard, is finally about to graduate from Julliard and enter the Real World and so, with the help of a psychiatrist who specializes in the problems of magicians, he's finally coming to terms with his past. But a spur-of-the-moment trip home to Boston to visit his parents brings him more trouble than even Eric thought possible.
Meanwhile, his Bardic apprentice Hosea has discovered that the young homeless children in New York's shelters have created a bizarre mythology about a demon called Bloody Mary who preys on young children—and somehow Bloody Mary has taken on an independent life and now stalks the streets of the city.
And for some reason, she's after Eric as well. . . .
Praise for the Bedlam's Bard Series:
"[Spirits White as Lightning is] fast, furious, and completely absorbing . . . make no mistake, this is a good series." —Booklist
"Lively and original, rich in clever ideas . . . Lackey is one of the best storytellers in the field, and this is among her best." —Locus
"This is a fast-paced, suspenseful, action-packed page turner." —VOYA
"[Lackey] shows a sure touch with the wonder and adventure that characterize the best fantasy writers." —Romantic Times
It's Howling Time in Known Space again!
Back to the Frontlines of the
Top Selling Space War in All of
Science Fiction.
The first colonists from Earth named the planet Wunderland. Generations later, the felinoid invaders called Kzin came and turned it into a hell for humans. Touched on in other accounts of the Man-Kzin wars, here for the first time is the decades-long saga of Wunderland: How the Wunderlanders first learned of the Kzin attacks on Earth by slower-than-light communications, barely in time to prepare to fight back. How valiant human defenders turned to guerilla warfare in the Wunderland jungles and caves after the feline warrior race had destroyed or seized the cities. And what happened after the Kzin suffered an ignominous defeat. Many humans wanted revenge and many Kzin still saw humans as just an annoying food source. Was the war really over. . .
"[Larry Niven is ] a writer of supreme talent." —Tom Clancy
"[The Man-Kzin Wars series is] excellent . . . gripping . . . expands well on Larry Niven's universe. . . ."
—Locus
"Well, you know the drill by now. Scream and leap to your nearest bookstore . . . they are going to sell out fast."
—Rave Reviews
"Masterful handling of hard SF embedded within a rich background of character and plot."
—Quantum
MILES VORKOSIGAN TIMES THREE
EQUALS ENTERTAINMENT,
EXCITEMENT & EXCELLENCE
Diplomat, soldier, spy-Lieutenant Lord Miles Naismith Vorkosigan of the Barrayaran Empire, a.k.a. Admiral Naismith of the Dendarii Free Mercenaries, is a young man of many parts.
Miles and his handsome cousin Ivan are called upon to play a simple diplomatic role on the capital world of Barrayar's old enemy until murder and deceit thrust them into Cetagandan internal politics at the highest levels, and Miles discovers the secrets of the haut-women's biological domain to be very complicated indeed.
Commander Elli Quinn, sent by Miles on the trail of those secrets, meets a man who marches to the beat of a very different drummer. Dr. Ethan Urquhart, obstretician from a planet forbidden to women, is on a quest at cross-purposes to Elli's mission - or is it
Consequences of Cetagandan bioengineering continue to play out, this time on a Dendrii sortie to the crime planet of Jackson's Whole. When he encounters a genetically altered super-soldier, Miles's routine rescue strike takes a sudden hard turn for the unanticipated.
Publisher's Note: Miles, Mystery & Mayhem was previously published in parts as Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, and "Labyrinth." This is the first unified edition.
A covert ops liberation of Barrayaran allies in a Cetagandan POW camp goes awry and Miles Naismith is right in the middle of it. Will he find damnation though good works, or faith alone
Still reeling from the prior mission, the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet puts in at old Earth for repairs—and finds old enemies. Miles's attempt to juggle both his identities, Admiral Naismith and Lieutenant Lord Vorkosigan, crashes when a new player enters the game: the brother he never knew he had.
Two years later, on the crime planet of Jackson's Whole, disaster gets a new name: Mark Pierre Vorkosigan. Another rescue, of clone children scheduled to be murdered for their bodies, goes seriously sour. This time, the consequences look fatal and permanent—unless two brothers can each learn the other's true names and games.
Publisher's Note:Miles Errant has been previously published in parts as "Borders of Infinity," Brothers in Arms, and Mirror Dance. This is the first chronologically combined edition, as chosen by the author.
"Georgette Heyer has met her match for intrigue and STYLE! . . . [Komarr] has twists and turns that could only happen in a Vorkosigan-inspired novel. . . . Boy, can she write!" —Anne McCaffrey
"Bujold successfully mixes quirky humor with just enough action, a dab of feminist social commentary and her usual superb character development. . . enormously satisfying." —Publishers Weekly
The mind-numbingly alien Arachnids were an enemy whose like no civilized race had ever confronted. Like some carnivorous cancer, the "Bugs" had overrun planet after planet . . . and they regarded any competing sentient species as only one more protein source. They couldn't be reasoned with, or even talked to, because no one had the least idea of how to communicate with a telepathic species with no recognizable language . . . and whose response to any communication attempt was a missile salvo. No one knew how large their civilization—if it could be called a "civilization"—actually was, or how it was organized, but the huge fleets they threw against their opponents suggested that it was enormous.
The Grand Alliance of Humans, Orions, Ophiuchi, and Gorm, united in desperate self-defense, have been driven to the wall. Billions of their civilians have been slaughtered. Their most powerful offensive operation has ended in shattering defeat and the deaths of their most experienced and revered military commanders. The edge in technology with which they began the war is eroding out from under them and whatever they do, the Bugs just keep coming.
But the warriors of the Grand Alliance know what stands behind them and they will surrender no more civilians to the oncoming juggernaut. They will die first . . . and they will also reactivate General Directive 18, however horrible it may be. Because when the only possible outcomes are victory or racial extermination, only one option is acceptable.
Andre Norton called by Time the "Grande Dame of science fiction," has created one of the most memorable worlds in SF in the planet humans call Warlock, secretly ruled by the matriarchal Wyverns, an alien race of witches who are masters of mental illusions and dreams. In a sweeping generational saga, the story of Warlock is told by three humans:
Shann Lontee was the lowest-ranking member of an exploration team sent to the newly discovered planet Warlock. When the insectile Throgs attacked the base, only he and two trained wolverines escaped. Hunted by the Throgs, he and the wolverines had to survive without technology on an alien world. Then he discovered the Wyvern, who were his only hope-if they weren't an even more deadly menace than the Throgs . . .
Charis Nordholm was sold into slavery by the outlaw colony on the planet Demeter. The trader, Jogon, who holds her contract, was on his way to Warlock to trade with the Wyvern. But the alien witches had ominous plans of their own, and both Charis and Shann Lantee found themselves fighting for their lives . . .
Ziantho's mental powers had made her a valuable asset to the interstellar criminals she worked for. Then she encountered a gem of ancient power, an artifact made by the vanished prehistoric race known as the Forerunners, and stole it. Pursued both by the stone's owners and the agents of the Patrol, she fled across the galaxy and encountered Ris Lantee, o man from the planet Warlock, who alone could solve the powerful gem's mystery ....
Publishers Note: Warlock has been previously published in parts as Storm Over Warlock, Ordeal in Otherwhere and Forerunner Foray. This is the first unitary edition.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Called "a superb talent" by The New York Times, Andre Norton is a living legend in science fiction, and one of our greatest storytellers. She has been writing science fiction novels for nearly five decades, beginning with the now-classic novel Star Mon's Son in 1952. Many of today's top writers, including C.J. Cherryh and Joan D. Vinge, have cited her as a primary influence on their own work. She was Guest of Honor at the 1989 World Science Fiction Convention, and has received the Grand Master award from the Science Fiction Writers of America and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the World Fantasy Convention. She has been astoundingly prolific, with over thirty books in her celebrated and currently very popular Witch World series alone. She has introduced three generations of SF readers to SF and fantasy, both through her critically acclaimed young adult novels and her adult works, and stands today as one of the most popular authors in both fields.
Mercedes Lackey 
