THE HARD WAY

Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang McClintock hasn't done anything the easy way.

The spoiled playboy prince grew up the hard way on the planet Marduk. Watching ninety percent of your bodyguards — bodyguards who have become friends, closer to you than your own brothers and sisters — die to keep you alive will do that. And it tends to make you dangerous . . . perhaps in too many ways.

Now he's coming home, but home isn't what it was when he left. Traitors have murdered his brother and sister, his nieces and nephews. His mother, the Empress, is still alive, but in the hands of Roger's own biological father, who controls her through drugs and physical and psychological torture. A new heir to the Throne has been conceived, and once the child is born his mother will no longer be necessary to the traitors' plans. Home Fleet, the largest and most powerful of the Empire's fleets is under the traitors' control, and no one in a position of power on Old Earth has the means — or the will — to do anything about it.

And, just to make things perfect, the Empire has been told that the real traitor is Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang McClintock.

With the twelve survivors of Bravo Company of the Empress' Own, a few hundred three-meter tall Mardukans, his one-time tutor and present chief of staff, an elephant-sized flarta pack beast, his faithful pet Dogzard, and the ghost of his greatest ancestor, Prince Roger must somehow retake the Empire from the men who control it . . . before his new brother is born and his mother dies.

It's an impossible task, but Prince Roger knows all about impossible tasks, and the surviving Bronze Barbarians and the Mardukans of the Basik's Own believe he can do it. They're prepared to storm the gates of Hell itself at his heels in order to retake the Empire.

But after they do, can they save it from Prince Roger, as well

The Breathtaking Sequel to Warp Speed—Science Fiction Written by a Real Scientist Who is Also a Gifted Writer.

Steven Montana, computer whiz and hacker extraordinaire, was attending college in Ohio when his world fell apart. A swarm of huge meteors fell all over the world, on Europe, on the United States, and in particular on Steven's home town in California. In an instant, his family and all his friends were gone.

Suffering fits of deep depression, he dropped out of college and ended up working as a repairman in a video games store, where he did a brilliant job of repairing a 30-year-old video game. That caught the attention of the game's owner, who happened to be in a position to get Steven a government job, cracking computer codes, and reverse engineering unusual hardware.
When he was given a tiny piece of hardware to examine as a "test," he worked out its functions so well that he and his boss were called to Washington for a Top Secret meeting. They asked him countless questions, yet declined to answer his; but he would soon learn all the answers.

The "meteor" onslaught that had orphaned him had actually been a brief and still secret war between the U.S and its enemies (as told in Warp Speed) using a new warp drive technology that was more secret than top secret. Another secret was that U.S. had been sending faster-than-light ships to other star systems. Most secret of all was that unfriendly aliens were observing the Earth, and while U.S. spaceships were not quite in a war with the unknown aliens, they were shooting at the intruders.

Whether any of these answers would do Steven any good was an open question because he learned them only after he was abducted by those very same aliens and was held prisoner on one of their ships orbiting Saturn. At first, he was one of three human prisoners, but he had just seen the aliens completely dissect one of the three, and it looked like either Steven, or the Russian girl who was his fellow prisoner, were scheduled to be the next alien lab experiment. . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Travis S. Taylor—"Doc" Taylor to his friends—has earned his soubriquet the hard way: He has a Doctorate in Optical Science and Engineering, a Master's degree in Physics, a Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; a Master's degree in Astronomy from the University of Western Sydney, and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University. Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He's currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space-based beamed energy systems, and next generation space launch concepts. In his copious spare time, Doc Travis is also a black belt martial artist, a private pilot, a SCUBA diver, has raced mountain bikes, competed in triathlons, and has been the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of several hard rock bands. He currently lives with his wife Karen, his daughter Kalista, two dogs Stevie and Wesker, and his cat Kuro, in north Alabama.

Praise for Warp Speed, the prequel:

"Reads like Doc Smith writing Robert Ludlum; beautiful, vivacious female astronauts, sterling-hearted redneck scientists and evil mercenaries bent upon galaxy-wide conquest. You won't want to put it down. FLUBELLS AWAY!" —John Ringo

"You thought they didn't write 'em like this anymore Doc Travis does!" —Jim Baen

Once Again, Great Leaders Make Great History
—but Not History as We Know It. . . .

History shows that leadership is crucial in war, but there are other factors at work. What if history were given a twist or two, and great commanders on land and sea fought their greatest battles under different circumstances

� Suppose General Douglas MacArthur had been captured before he could escape from Manila and became a prisoner of war

� Suppose Joan of Arc had not been burned for heresy and had gone on to lead France to very different victories

� Suppose Genghis Khan had been a convert to Judaism and his horde had fought for a different cause than in our universe

Turtledove and his colleagues turn the past upside down and inside out, and the possibilities are endless. . . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hugo-winner, New York Times best-selling author, and historian—Harry Turtledove is equally renowned in science fiction for his rigorously thought-out alternate history novels and in fantasy for his tales of the supernatural placed in historically accurate settings. For Baen, he has written the alternate American Civil War fantasy trilogy comprising Sentry Peak, Marching Through Peachtree, and Advance and Retreat, as well as The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump, and the popular "Gerin the Fox" series, Wisdom of the Fox and Tale of the Fox. He has also authored the Ingram bestseller Guns of the South and the genre bestsellers in the "World at War" series for Del Rey.

In a future where humanity has scattered itself across the stars and Earth itself is now a dimly-remembered place of legend, two worlds of near-supernatural strangeness challenge two naive but courageous heroes. The planet Beltane had been unscathed by the all-encompassing war of the four Sectors when Vere Collis and his friends, exploring caves underground, were trapped by powerful explosions on the surface. Their leader was killed, but the group wandered for days underground to find a way to the surface. They emerged to find that they were the last human survivors on Beltane. Only strange and deadly mutant creatures now roamed the surface.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, Kilda's home planet had no place for her, so she took employment as a teacher and governess to two young children on the planet named Dylan. But she soon found that one of her charges has an invisible "dread companion"—and soon Kilda knows that the companion is not imaginary at all, as it leads her charges into an other-dimensional world resembling the legends of Faerie. Though the other world has unknown dangers on every hand, Kilda follows the children across the spatial barrier, knowing that she is their only hope. Two complete novels of two very different heroes battling alien and unknown evil, and fighting to protect the helpless in worlds that are wondrous, terrifying, and utterly alien.

Publisher's Note: Dark Companion has previously appeared separately as Dark Piper and Dread Companion. This is the first combined publication of the complete book.

The Dreel was a hive-mind, composed of trillions upon trillions of virus-sized units, which infected intelligent beings like a disease and took over the mind of an occupied being, utterly. It had occupied planets throughout the galaxy, making their entire population its mind-slaves, and was on its way to conquering the entire galaxy—until a cop on the frontier planet of Parkatin discovered the truth.

Those whose minds were still free fought back, using a weapon so powerful that it wrought havoc with the control of the Well World, the ancient planet-sized supercomputer that a vanished super-race called the Markovians built to recreate the entire universe, and maintain it in its present form. If the Well World's control of time and space could not be restored, the universe could vanish like a blown-out candle flame.

Only a Markovian could go to the Well World and repair the damage, but only one Markovian was still known to survive. He had last been seen in human form, going by the name of Nathan Brazil. No one knew where he was now, what name he was using, or even if he still appeared human. Finding him, somwhere in the immensity of the galaxy, seemed an impossible task. So the task fell to someone who had done the impossible over and over: Mavra Chang, one of the few beings ever to escape from the Well World. And on that occasion, she had brought back with her a computer named Obie, who just might be the second most powerful computer in the universe, after the Well World itself. With those two on his trail, Nathan Brazil could run—but could he hide

A NEW SERIES SET
IN THE "HONORVERSE"OF
HONOR HARRINGTON

The Star Kingdom's ally Erewhon is growing increasingly restive in the alliance because the new High Ridge regime ignores its needs. Added to the longstanding problem of a slave labor planet controlled by hostile Mesans in Erewhon's stellar backyard, which High Ridge refuses to deal with, the recent assassination of the Solarian League's most prominent voice of public conscience indicates the growing danger of political instability in the Solarian League—which is also close to Erewhon.

In desperation, Queen Elizabeth tries to defuse the situation by sending a private mission to Erewhon led by Captain Zilwicki, accompanied by one of her nieces. When they arrive on Erewhon, however, Manticore's envoys find themselves in a mess. Not only do they encounter one of the Republic of Haven's most capable agents—Victor Cachat—but they also discover that the Solarian League's military delegation seems up to its neck in skullduggery.

And, just to put the icing on the cake, the radical freed slave organization, the Audubon Ballroom, is also on the scene—led by its notorious and ruthless assassin, Jeremy X.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

David Weber: New York Times best-selling Honor Harrington series, arguably the most popular series in science fiction, which has led to reviewers comparing him to C.S. Forester, celebrated creator of Captain Horatio Hornblower. Weber's work ranges from epic fantasy (Oath of Swords, The War God's Own) to breathtaking space opera (Path of the Fury, The Apocalypse Troll, Empire from the Ashes) to military science fiction with in-depth characterization (the Honor Harrington novels). With John Ringo, he inaugurated the Prince Roger series of space adventures with March Upcountry and has continued it with March to the Sea and March to the Stars. Weber and his wife Sharon live in South Carolina with their three children.

Eric Flint: is a new master of science fiction. His alternate-history novel 1632 received lavish critical praise from all directions and enjoyed high sales. The sequel, 1633, written in collaboration with David Weber, has also been highly praised and popular. His first novel, Mother of Demons, was picked by Science Fiction Chronicle as a best novel of the year. He has also shown a powerful gift for humorous fantasy adventure with Forward the Mage and The Philosophical Strangler, which Booklist described as "Monty Python let loose in Tolkien's Middle Earth." With David Drake he has collaborated on five novels in the popular "Belisarius" series, and is working on the sixth, The Dance of Time. A longtime labor union activist with a master's degree in history, he currently resides in Indiana with his wife Lucille.

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