GATEWAY TO HELL'S FURY

The Union of Arcana has expanded through the portals linking parallel universes for over a century and a half. In that time, its soldiers and sorcerers have laid claim to one uninhabited planet after another—all of them Earth, and in the process, the Union has become the most powerful, most wealthy civilization in all of human history. But now the Union's scouts have discovered a new portal, and on its far side lies another human society, Sharona, which has also been exploring the Multiverse, and the first contact between them did not go well. Arcana is horrified by the alien weapons of its sudden opponents, weapons its sorcerers cannot explain, weapons based upon something called . . . science. But Sharona is equally horrified by Arcana's "magical" weapons. Neither side expected the confrontation and each thinks the other fired first. But as the initial disastrous contact snowballs into all-out warfare, both sides can agree on one thing. The portal which brought them together is Hell's Gate itself!

"Magic and high tech collide in this exciting military SF novel from bestseller Weber and Evans, the first of a new series. . . . The authors treat both societies sympathetically and realistically, with human vices and virtues evenly distributed."—Publishers Weekly

A volume of visions of future wars, fought with weapons out of nightmare, by today's top writers of military science fiction, as well as some writers who are not usually associated with military SF, such as best-selling writer Gregory Benford, and award-winning author Kristine Katherine Rusch. Also present are Michael Z. Williamson, author of the strong selling novels Freehold and The Weapon, award-winning author of Bolo Strike, William H. Keith, and more. Through the centuries, weapons have changed radically, but the soldier has remained much the same. But in the future, soldiers, too, may undergo radical changes.

As editor Joe Haldeman puts it, "Weapons are an extension of the soldier, and also an extension of the culture or species that produced the soldier. And they are sometimes more dangerous to the soldier than the enemy. . . ."

From the aftermath of World War III to a world inherited by robots, where humans are unwelcome . . . from a handful of human survivors on a starship desperately searching for other ships carrying survivors of the destruction of the entire Earth by an unknown enemy, who may strike again at any time, to another starship hurtling through the cosmos at a speed so close to that of light—and unable to slow down—that relativistic effects make millennia fly by for each tick of the clock onboard . . . from a team striving to make Venus habitable for humans to a group of men who find the ominous secret behind a new quasi-religious philosophy that is sweeping the world. . . . The wide-ranging imagination and exciting storytelling of Poul Anderson brings many different worlds to vivid life in a great volume of his best stories that will thrill all fans of science fiction.

About the Author

Poul Anderson was one of the most prolific and popular writers in science fiction. He won the Hugo Award seven times and the Nebula Award three times, as well as many other awards, notably including the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America for a lifetime of distinguished achievement. With a degree in physics, and a wide knowledge of other fields of science, he was noted for building stories on a solid foundation of real science, as well as for being one of the most skilled creators of fast-paced adventure stories. He was author of over a hundred novels and story collections, and several hundred short stories, as well as several mysteries and non-fiction books. He died in 2001.

In the dark days after the events in the book Gust Front, but before the primary invasion, the Chancellor of Germany faces a critical decision. Over the years, with military cutbacks, the store of experienced military personnel had simply dwindled. After the destruction of Northern Virginia, he realized that it was necessary to tap the one group he had sworn never, ever, to recall: the few remaining survivors of the Waffen SS. Watch On the Rhine is perhaps the most unbiased, and brutal, look at the inner workings of the Waffen SS in history. Meticulously researched, it explores all that was good, and evil, about the most infamous military force in history using the backdrop of the Posleen invasion as a canvas.

About the Author

John Ringo is the author of the New York Times best-selling Posleen War series, so far comprising A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hell's Faire. He is also co-author with David Weber of the Prince Roger series, so far consisting of March Upcountry, March to the Sea, and March to the Stars. He has appeared on Fox News as a guest commentator and has written an op-ed column for the New York Post. A veteran of the 82nd Airborne, he brings first-hand knowledge of battle and the military life to his SF.

Tom Kratman is author of A State of Disobedience (Baen). In 1974, at age seventeen, he became a political refugee and defector from the PRM (People's Republic of Massachusetts) by virtue of joining the Regular Army. He attended Boston College after his first hitch, then rejoined the Army until after the Gulf War, when he decided to become a lawyer. Every now and again, when the frustrations of legal life and having to deal with other lawyers got to be too much, Tom would rejoin the Army (or a somewhat similar group, say) for fun and frolic in other climes. His family, muttering darkly, still puts up with this. Tom is currently an attorney practicing in southwest Virginia.

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.

To the North of the Holy Roman Empire lie the pagan Norse-lands. It is here that Manfred, Prince of Brittany, and his Icelandic bodyguard, Erik, must venture in the dead of winter. To a rugged land of trolls and ice, to find a Pagan relic, something so magical that should not be possible to touch it, let alone steal it. Yet, it is gone. Unless it is recovered before Yuletide, a new Viking age will be born. King Vortenbras will lead his berserks in an orgy of rapine, looting and destruction across the Empire's unguarded flank.

Princess Signy is the King's older stepsister. Everyone believes her to be the thief, a witch and murderess. Everyone but Cair, her stable-thrall, an ocean-plucked man with a hidden past. Cair doesn't believe in witches or magic, let alone that Signy could steal and murder. And if he has to drag the foremost knight of the age and his bodyguard kicking and screaming through the entire Norse underworld to prove it, he'll do it. No kobold, dwarf or troll is going to stop him or his scepticism. Not the wild hunt. Not even a grendel. He doesn't believe in this superstitious rubbish. He's a man of science, and he's used that to fake his way into being feared as magic-worker. But for Signy, he'll be all of mankind's witches.

He'll have to be. Because that's what it'll take to defeat the dark magics massed against her.

A tale of intrigue, murder, love and magic set in the alternate history world SHADOW OF LION and THIS ROUGH MAGIC.

About the Author:

Dave Freer is an Ichthyologist turned author because he'd heard that the spelling requirements were simpler. They lied about that. He lives in a remote part of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, with his wife and chief proof-reader, Barbara, four dogs and four cats, two sons (Paddy and James) and just at the moment no shrews, birds, bats or any other rescued wildlife. He does his best to blame his extraordinary spelling on an Old English Sheepdog nose, or the cat/s on his lap. It has nothing to do with falling out of pear trees onto his head or spending too long underwater freediving for spiny lobster.

His first book — The Forlorn (Baen) came out in 1999. Since then he has co-authored with Eric Flint (Rats, Bats and Vats, Pyramid Scheme, and The Rat, Bat and the Ugly) and, with Mercedes Lackey and Eric Flint (Shadow of the Lion, This Rough Magic, Wizard of Karres) as well writing as various shorter works.

Besides working as a Fisheries Scientist for the Western Cape shark fishery, running a couple of fish farms, he has worked as a commercial diver, and as a relief chef at several luxury game lodges. Yes: he can both cook and change diapers. (No man ever really gets tired of danger sports.) He spent two years as a conscripted soldier along the way, so he can iron too. His interests are rock climbing (he's still good at it), diving, fly-fishing (he's still bad at it), fly-tying, wine-tasting and the preparation of food, especially by traditional means - smoking and salting, all the good unhealthy things.

DANGEROUS REPTILES

For millennia after the collapse of the great galactic empire in a war that destroyed hundreds of whole planets, the surviving worlds of the Confederation had permitted no new scientific research. The resultant stagnation was considered an acceptable price, since it meant no new weapons of war would be developed, and wars could be confined to disputes between nations on a single planet. But when one of their colony planets was discovered by warships from the Caliphate, another surviving group of planets with technology far superior to anything the Confederation possessed, the Confederation discovered that they had made a fatal mistake. Only the nearly superhuman abilities of the Tyss-trained White Regiment had driven off the attackers. But now the Caliphate is returning in force, with a vast fleet warships, determined to conquer the Confederation.

And there is a third player. Between the regions of the galaxy separating the two forces is a third empire of reptilian beings who were attacked without provocation by an earlier Caliphate incursion—and who make no distinction between one group of humans and another. They are determined to eliminate this dangerous ape species from the galaxy once and for all.

The Caliphate thinks it has the element of complete surprise, as do the lizardlike aliens. But the mystic warriors of Tyss have made mental contact with both fleets, and they have a plan which is the only hope to avert a second galaxy-wide war, a war that could shatter the worlds of all three sides.