Humans have come a long ways since the looking glass gates first appeared and an alien menace turned a motley crew of scientists, sailors and force recon Marines into battle-hardened space adventurers. Now with other species running scared, it’s up to humans to take the lead and mold a weapon capable of checking the Dreen—a galactic cancer that has so far proved unstoppable. Their arsenal A hodge-podge of powerful technologies begged, borrowed and/or looted from across the galaxy and cobbled together on what has to be the strangest ship ever to ply the starways: the good ship Vorpal Blade II!
Great Ideas! Cool Space Ships! Evil Alien Butt Blasted to Smithereens!
"If Tom Clancy were writing SF, it would read much like John Ringo."
—Philadelphia Weekly Press.
“[T]his thoroughly enjoyable ride should appeal to techno-thriller fans as well as to military SF buffs."
—Publishers Weekly on John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor’s Into the Looking Glass.
In our universe, Ponce de León is remembered for his fruitless search for the mythical fountain of youth. But, in an alternate universe, his quest found something very different—and very dangerous. After his return to Spain, bizarre rumors flew about what he had found there, and what had come back with him.
Eighty-five years later, Spain sent a fleet of ships against England. The English were confident that they could repel the threat—but England's fleet was annihilated by weapons shooting beams of fiery light, weapons which seemed to employ the blackest of sorcery, even if they were wielded by odd-looking beings in monk's garb.
The Queen herself was forced to flee to the New World on Captain Thomas Winslow's ship, Heron, accompanied by her advisor Dr. Dee, whom some called a sorcerer, and an odd fellow named Shakespeare, hoping there to find the source of Spain's powerful weapons. But they would find far stranger matters there than they had expected, such as a grown woman who had been only an infant a year before, and eerie tales of a gate to another world with beings who were not human . . .
About the Author
Steve White completed a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Naval officer. With David Weber, he has collaborated on Insurrection, Crusade, In Death Ground, and the New York Times best seller The Shiva Option. His recent books for Baen include Forge of the Titans, The Prometheus Project and Blood of the Heroes.
Murdoc Jern's father, an interstellar gem trader, was murdered by outlaw competitors and left behind an odd ring, large enough to fit over the finger of a space suit. With his companion Eet, a strange feline mutant with phenomenal mental powers, he soon discovered that the stone in the ring was actually a Zero Stone—an alien device left behind by an ancient vanished race—and it was the key to powers beyond human imagination.
Murdoc and Eet had to solve the secret of the Zero Stone, and very quickly, because very greedy and dangerous people wanted that ring, and wouldn't hesitate at a second murder to obtain it.
Publisher's Note: Search for the Star Stones was originally published in parts as The Zero Stone and its sequel Uncharted Stars. This is the first time both novels have appeared in one volume.
After a cosmic accident sets the modern West Virginia town of Grantsville down in war-torn seventeenth century Europe, the United States of Europe is forged in the fire of battle. The Baltic War reaches a climax as France, Spain, England, and Denmark besiege the U.S.E. in the Prussian stronghold of Lubeck. The invention of ironclads, the introduction of special force tactics during a spectacular rescue operation at the Tower of London – the up-timers plan to use every trick in the time traveler's book to avoid a defeat that will send Europe back to a new Dark Age!
Multiple New York Times best-seller and creator of the legendary "Honorverse" series David Weber teams with New York Times best-selling alternate history master Eric Flint to tell the tale of the little town that remade a continent and rang in freedom for a battle-ravaged land in the latest blockbuster addition to Flint's "Grantsville" saga!
"This is a thoughtful and exciting look at just how powerful are the ideals we sometimes take for granted, and is highly recommended[.]"
— Publishers Weekly on Flint and Weber's 1633.
"[R]eads like a Tom Clancy techno-thriller set in the age of the Medicis…"
— Publishers Weekly on New York Times best-seller, 1634: The Galileo Affair.
Miles, Mutants and Microbes
Miles Among Mutants
So what if he's a squat, malformed, weak-boned royal outcast Miles Vorkosigan's hyperactive intellect and relentless drive wins through time and again to save the day for the Empire that rejected him. PLUS: You are the perfect spacer—engineered for freefall in body, mind and soul. But now the work's done and you're slated to be genocidally wiped from existence. Are you human enough to resist Hell, yeah!
Here in one masterly volume set in the "Vorkosigan" universe: the science fiction classic and Nebula-award-winning Falling Free, plus two Miles Vorkosigan tales of derring-do, droll wit, and dynamic world-building spun by the multiple Hugo- and Nebula-winning Doyenne of Modern Space Opera, Lois McMaster Bujold!
Humans on the space frontiers may have enough problems with befuddled bureaucrats, rules that don't fit the realities of very dangerous situations, and general rear-echelon incompetence without bringing in unfriendly aliens, but it's that kind of universe. On the other hand, as master satirist Christopher Anvil makes clear, the aliens are anything but omnipotent and have plenty of problems of their own.
* Here for the first time the stories and short novels of the war with the Outs are collected into a novel-length chronicle. The Outs had mental powers they could use to make humans see illusions and convince them to change sides. Obviously, they were unbeatable-until some troublesome humans found their Achille's heel.
* Another set of aliens arrive to conquer the Earth with the promise of eternal youth and healthfulness, and might have won, if some humans weren't too plain ornery not to be suspicious.
* Who's the best human envoy to deal with aliens who can read minds and learn anything their opponents know-the man who knows little or nothing, of course, including why he was sent there.
* When an investigator was hired to find out the reason for the strange events in a palatial mansion, he quickly solves the case-until he wakes up and finds that his solution was only a dream and the case is still unsolved. And the same thing happens again every night.
* These and other stories of human/alien conflict fill this large volume by the master of wryly sardonic science fiction adventure.
Someone Out There really hated humans. Twenty years have passed since
Shiva I first swept aside Earth's crude defenses and rained down
destruction. Now Shiva V has entered the Solar System, more powerful
than any of its predecessors.
The Shiva cannot be destroyed by fleets of ships: we tried, and it
was the fleets that were destroyed. It cannot be defeated by a
clandestinely developed super-weapon based on new principles of physics:
no such weapon exists. It cannot be defeated by a forceful American
President and his faithful generals: they do not know what to do.
There is only one way to defeat a Shiva: get inside and kill it. Once
again, in the personae of five champions, four billion of us are about
to do just that.
"A high-voltage adventure story" and an intriguing look at what the worldwide web may become."
—Vernor Vinge
"A brilliant vision of our future networked intelligence."
—Max More, Ph.D., President of the Extropy Institute and the Extropy
Newsletter
"Why read expensive industry newsletters to puzzle out the future of
the Web Read Earthweb to pull way ahead of today's Web pundits."
—Christine Peterson, Executive Director, The Foresight Institute
Lois McMaster Bujold 
