JUST ONE RED SWORD COULD DEFEAT AN ARMY —
AND THE ENEMY HAD A WHOLE ARSENAL!

Every schoolboy knows that Mordred the Great defeated King Arthur the Tyrant in the twelfth century, and Mordred's heirs had preserved the British crown through the Age of Crisis, and extended its reach halfway across the globe. By the 17th century, much of Europe, Asia and the New world was ruled from Londinium by the the kings of the Pendragon dynasty, protecting the Crown against the still-powerful Holy Roman Empire as much as the onset of the Dar Al Islam. The ragged band of outlaws that had been created as Mordred the Great's bodyguards had, over the centuries, become the paladins of the Order of Crown, Shield, and Dragon, dedicated to the Pendragons, each one taking the vow of "Service, honor, faith, obedience. Justice tempered only by mercy; mercy tempered only by justice."

But knights of the Order had more than vows to preserve the Crown. During the Age of Crisis, the Great Wizards had forged live swords to be weapons of the Order knights. Weapons of such power that could be trusted to no lesser mortals, because White swords held the souls of saints, while the Red swords imprisoned the souls of those who were anything but saints, and in the wrong hands, Red swords were capable of unspeakable destruction.

The art of making live swords had perished with the Great Wizards at end of the Age of Crisis.

Or so everyone thought.

But now, as the Crown, the Empire, and the Dar Al Islam sit astride the world in a precarious balance, three knights of the Order have discovered a brand new, previously unknown Red sword which has been very recently forged.

Worse, the tortured soul imprisoned in the sword remembers that it was only one of many which were cached in the hold of a mysterious sailing ship, origin unknown, and destination uncertain....

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joel Rosenberg was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and raised in North Dakota and Connecticut. His occupations have included driving a truck, caring for the institutionalized retarded, bookkeeping, gambling, motel desk-clerking, technical writing, firearms training, and passing himself off as a head chef.

His first sale was an op-ed piece favoring nuclear power, appearing in The New York Times. His Guardians of the Flame novels have been bestsellers, and given him a huge readership in fantasy, which is growing as the first books in the series are being reprinted by Baen Books. His science fiction novels, including Ties of Blood, Emile and the Dutchman, Not for Glory, and Hero have been equally popular and received critical acclaim. With his new novel, Paladins (Baen), he has begun a new heroic fantasy series.

He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and daughters.

ALIEN INVASION PLEASE COMPLETE
FORM J23-B, IN QUINTUPLICATE.

Victory! The triumphal return of the cyber-uplifted rats and bats is greeted with the reward the HAR Army traditionally gives its best:

Arrest, detention without trial, and a firing squad at dawn.

Chip Connolly, vat-bred other-ranker hero, comes home from conquest of several million alien Magh', to find that was the easy bit. The real enemy, the enemy within, has not yet even begun to fight.

Now, the rats and bats have to raise the revolution. Or, at least make sure that someone with opposable thumbs survives to open screw-caps. The alien menace lurks in their midst, since the aliens have harnessed that most dangerous foe against them: human bureaucracy. They have to take on the secret police and an alien starship armed with missiles and lasers. All they have is superglue, an armored golf-cart and a delight in mayhem. Surely, they are doomed.

But wait: who is this hero leaping through the darkness He's a macho hidalgo without peer. His voice is like thunder. . . . His lemur-like body would fit in a soup-cup. However, his waistcoat is immaculate.

Only Fluff can save them now, with a bit of help from Elvis. And some burnin' love.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dave Freer, author of The Forlorn (Baen) and of many articles in scientific journals, is an expert on sharks, an accomplished rock-climber, a wine-taster, a chef and was an unwilling conscript in the "undeclared" South African-Angolan war. With Eric Flint, he has co-authored Rats, Bats & Vats, prequel to The Rats, the Bats & the Ugly, and Pyramid Scheme. He has also collaborated with Mercedes Lackey and Eric Flint in a sweeping alternate history-fantasy set in the Renaissance. The first two books in the series, The Shadow of the Lion and This Rough Magic have been enthusiastically received by the critics and readers. He lives in KwaZulu, South Africa with his wife Barbara, two sons and far too many dogs and cats.

Eric Flint is a popular new star of military and alternate history SF. His first novel for Baen, Mother of Demons, was chosen by Science Fiction Chronicle as a best novel of the year. His next novel, 1632, a major novel of time-travel adventure and alternate history, was a strong commercial and critical success, and has begun a popular series. With David Drake he has collaborated on five novels in the acclaimed "Belisarius" series, the latest being The Tide of Victory. A longtime labor union activist with a degree in history, he currently resides in northwest Indiana with his wife Lucille.

He was a New Kind of Soldier,
Created for a New Kind of War!

Soldier . . .
The colony worlds Adirondack and Silvern fell to the Troft forces almost without a struggle. Outnumbered and on the defensive, Earth made a desperate decision. It would attack the aliens not from space, but on the ground—with forces the Trofts did not even suspect. Thus were created the Cobras, a guerilla force whose weapons were surgically implanted, invisible to the unsuspecting eye, yet undeniably deadly. But power brings temptation . . . and not all the Cobras could be trusted to fight for Earth alone. Jonny Moreau would learn the uses—and abuses—of his special abilities, and what it truly meant to be a Cobra.

Mercenary . . .
If anyone had told Jonny Moreau the Cobras would one day take orders from the alien Troft, he would have laughed without humor. He'd lost too many friends during the Troft war, though the Cobras triumphed in the end. Now, though, the Troft were trading partners—and they feared what might be a mutual danger: A new race, ruthless and tenacious, that threatened human space as well as Troft. And the offer was five new planets for the overcrowded Cobra worlds. Jonny's son Justin would carry the Moreau name to danger . . . and learn that it takes more than a Cobra father to make a Cobra son.

Governor . . .
Corwin Moreau is governor of Aventine, but the fact that the Moreau family has held power for so long is beginning to generate bad feelings in the Cobra Worlds Council. But Corwin's niece, Jasmine, faces the greatest challenge. Her only ambition is to become a Cobra—but no woman has ever been accepted to the Academy or ever will be, if her opponents have their way. Until a mission arises that demands her expertise, and requires that she be given the deadly Cobra implants. Because the enemy, too, knows that there are no female Cobras, and Jasmine can infiltrate without being suspected . . . she thinks. . . .

The Complete Cobra Generational Saga,
by the New York Times Best-Selling Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Timothy Zahn is a winner of the coveted Hugo Award for his novella, Cascade Point and is author of the New York Times best-selling Star Wars novel, Heir to the Empire. Born in Chicago, he earned a B.S. in physics from Michigan State University and an M.S. in physics from the University of Illinois. Selling his first story to Analog in 1978, he quickly attracted attention as a new writer of "hard" science fiction, based on real, cutting-edge science. In addition to his novels for Baen set in the Cobra universe, he has also written such popular series as the "Blackcollar," "Conqueror," and "Dragonback" novels. Zahn has written over twenty novels, including the recent works Angelmass and Manta's Gift. He and his family currently live in Oregon.

A FEW GOOD CON MEN....

The starship crew was stuck on a planet where the well-meaning schemes of ivory tower social engineers had created a nightmare of battling gangs. So they pretended to be the "Royal Legions" from a distant star kingdom in hot pursuit of an unspeakably evil and nearly all-powerful villain who was hiding somewhere on the planet.

Things went even better than they had hoped, and the planet was rapidly becoming civilized . . . and then the real Royal Flagship showed up. They thought they were doomed, but instead the new arrivals (who also weren't quite what they claimed to be) thought the crew had shown just the sort of initiative and ingenuity that the Interstellar Patrol was looking for. So they were inducted into the Patrol.

And that was just the beginning. . . .

Publisher's Note: A short portion of Interstellar Patrol was previously published Strangers in Paradise. This is the first unified publication of t| Interstellar Patrol saga.

"I am delighted that someone is making Christopher Anvil's work available once again. Especially the Interstellar Patrol stories. I've always loved Anvil's . . . peculiar sense of humor."
—David Weber

"[Anvil is] insistently readable!"
—The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

THE UNIVERSE DOESN'T CARE

A pilot is on an emergency mission to a planet whose colony is doomed if he doesn't get there fast. He has just enough fuel to reach the planet—then he finds that he has a stowaway, a young girl wanting to be with her brother on the colony. If the pilot spaces the girl, the ship will barely make it to the planet. If he does not, the ship will crash and both of them as well as the colony will die. What will he do This story rocked science fiction when it first appeared.

Also in this volume is Godwin's long-unavailable novel The Survivors, which poses another problem in survival: If hostile aliens have marooned you and hundreds of other people on a nearly uninhabitable planet, how do you not only manage to endure, but to get revenge as well

This is a massive volume by a master of science fiction adventure, with added dimensions of speculation and cold, hard realism.

Publisher's Note: The novel The Survivors has been published separately.

"['The Cold Equations'] is one of the most popular and controversial hard sf stories of the last fifty years. ..."
—David G. Hartwell, The Ascent of Wonder

"The touchstone story for hard-core science fiction is Tom Godwin's 'The Cold Equations'."
—James Gunn, The Road to Science Fiction, Vol. Ill

"[Tom Godwin's SF] exhibited a fine clarity of conception, and considerable narrative verve. ..."
—John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

"The impact [of 'The Cold Equations' on publication] was immediate .... The impact of the story . . . remains the same now as then."
—Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss,The Astounding-Analog Reader