In a moment of girlish folly, she allowed a high-flying young man to take her up in his phaeton, not realizing that he was drunk. When he dropped the ribbons, she recovered them, but could not avoid disaster.
The young man was killed. Rebecca survived, crippled, and with a reputation in tatters.
Against all expectation, her father has found someone who will marry her. Rebecca's life seems set, and she resigned to it. Then, Altimere of the Elder Fey enters her life—and everything changes.
Two complete novels in one volume—
the beginning of the Belisarius saga.
An Oblique Approach: In northern India the Malwa have created an empire of unexampled evil. Guided or possessed by an intelligence from beyond time, with new weapons, old treachery, and an implacable will to power, the Malwa will sweep over the whole Earth. Only three things stand between the Malwa and their plan of eternal domination: the empire of Rome in the East, Byzantium; a crystal with vision; and a man named Belisarius, the greatest commander Earth has ever known.
In the Heart of Darkness: Having conquered sixth century India, the Malwa Empire is forging the subcontinent's vast population into an invincible weapon of tyranny. Belisarius, the finest general of his age, must save the world. Guided by visions from a future that may never be, he and a band of comrades penetrate the Malwa heartland, seeking the core of the enemy's power. And when Belisarius leads the forces of good, only a fool would side with evil.
Think there's an unbridgeable gulf between human and alien thought Not so! There's a common tongue, all right -- and Nicholas Van Rijn speaks it fluently: TRADE. For behind the buffoonish blarney and bawdy bonhomie of the Falstaffian Van Rijn is a man who gets things done. A born wheeler-dealer who usually leaves both sides better off in the bargain. (While pocketing a hefty cut of the profits himself, of course!)
With The Man Who Counts and a passel of other tales included, this is the first of three volumes set to contain the complete cycle of “Polesotechnic League” books and stories by transcendently-gifted science fiction master (how does seven Hugos and three Nebula Awards strike you ) Poul Anderson – and starring Nicholas Van Rijn, his most famous character of all!
Earth invaded! The Posleen aggressors eating what population they don't outright vaporize! Now the aliens are closing in on a vital choke point for the humans: the Panama Canal. No canal, no food. No food—the North American resistance crumbles, and hope fades. What's worse, slimeball appeasers within the U.S. State Department (surprise!) are set to sell out the resistance to another race of would-be galactic overlords.
One problem for our enemies: when the chips are down for humans, heroes have a habit of arising: A captain of industry who whips a corrupt and inefficient Central American kleptocracy into fighting shape within weeks. A retired Panamanian woman warrior who returns to the field of battle to rally her people in a last stand to save their children. And a battleship that is literally brought to consciousness by the echoes of ancient naval tradition (and a sentient A.I.) to fight ferociously for her country — and the captain she's come to love.
It's a rip-roaring epic of tactics, heroism, and survival as only two masters of military SF (both of whom served in Panama during their stint in the Army) can tell it.
Multiple New York Times and USA Today best-seller John Ringo and Tom Kratman, collaborator with Ringo on the intriguing and controversial Watch on the Rhine, deliver another exciting entry in Ringo's hugely popular Posleen War series.
A huge volume of edge-of-the-seat science fiction adventure, including:
* The Long Twilight: Grayle and Falconer met in relentless combat with no quarter in prehistoric ages past, their endless battle now remembered only as dark myths and legends. Now their long battle is nearing its climax-and the final battleground is an uncontrolled experimental power plant that threatens the Earth itself!
* Night of Delusions: A detective is hired by men claiming to be government agents and given an assignment that may lead to his being hailed as the savior of the nation-or executed for treason. His mysterious clients also give him devices to use in the assignment, devices which seem to be far beyond anything human technology is capable of. And as he doggedly pursues the case, he finds that the very fabric of reality seems to be changing around him, even to the point that he himself seems never to have existed!
* Plus three short novels of equally stunning concepts and breathtaking action.
About the Author
Keith Laumer was a Captain in the US Air Force and later an officer in the Diplomatic Corps, serving all over the world, giving him a solid background both for his fast-moving adventure stories and his satirical comedies of Retief, the galaxy's only two-fisted diplomat. He was known as one of the top writers of SF adventure.
The U.S. Space Force was in big trouble. Not from the Russians—we'd whipped them years ago, and not from the Japanese; they had quite wisely decided against mounting a serious military presence in space. Even the Chinese weren't a threat for the near term. No, the threat wasn't external at all. The United States itself was turning inward, forgetful of the heritage that had made it great. Soon the Space Force would be called entirely back to Earth, and there would be nothing American in space save for the comsats that had started it all so long ago.
That's when the aliens arrived. Though themselves entirely human, handsome as gods and pacifist to a fault, they bore bad tidings. Following on behind were creatures of an entirely different nature: warlike, ugly as toads, and with nothing but military conquest on their hive mind. Suddenly the United States Space Force had something even worse to worry about than going out of business . . . .
