In the realms of fantasy, the battlefield is where heroism comes alive, magic is unleashed, and legends are made and unmade. From the War of the Ring, Tolkien’s epic battle of good versus evil, to The Battle of the Blackwater, George R.R. Martin’s grim portrait of the horror and futility of war, these fantastical conflicts reflect our highest hopes and darkest fears, bringing us mesmerizing visions of silver spears shining in the sun and vast hordes of savage beasts who threaten to destroy all that we hold dear.

Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams is sounding the battle cry and sixteen of today’s top authors are reporting for duty, spinning never-before-published, spellbinding tales of military fantasy, including a Black Company story from Glen Cook, a Paksenarrion story from Elizabeth Moon, and a Shadow Ops story by Myke Cole. Within these pages you’ll also find World War I trenches cloaked in poison gas and sorcery, modern day elite special forces battling hosts of the damned, and steampunk soldiers fighting for their lives in a world torn apart by powers that defy imagination.

Featuring both grizzled veterans and fresh young recruits alike, including Tanya Huff, Simon R. Green, Carrie Vaughn, Jonathan Maberry, and Seanan McGuire, Operation Arcana is a must for any military buff or fantasy fan. You’ll never look at war the same way again.

CONTRIBUTORS:
Elizabeth Moon
Tobias Buckell & David Klecha
Myke Cole
Jonathan Maberry
Genevieve Valentine
Django Wexler
Yoon Ha Lee
Weston Ochse
Myke Cole
Ari Marmell
Tanya Huff
Carrie Vaughn
TC McCarthy
Glen Cook
Simon R. Green
Seanan McGuire
Linda Nagata

Listen to the author discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

Worst‑Case Scenario:

Sergeant Samuel Morgan Campbell had been in plenty of tight spots before, but nothing like this. It had happened in a few terrifying seconds: the starship he and his crew travelled on, the Outward Initiative, shattered to pieces before their eyes and disappeared, leaving them stranded in the endless night of deep space on Lifeboat LS‑88—all systems dead, light‑years from any known colony.

Somehow, Sergeant Campbell and his crew of half‑trained children—ranging from freshly graduated Xander Bird down to eight‑year‑old Francisco—have to repair systems with no tools, navigate with no computers, and—if they could find a planet they could live on—land a shuttle whose controls were more than half‑destroyed.

And if they manage all of that, then the real challenge begins; the only planet in range has secrets that even Sergeant Campbell cannot imagine!

Entry #3 in the popular Hell's Gate series by 28 times New York Times best-selling author David Weber and Joelle Presby.

The war between magically-gifted Arcana and psionically talented Sharona continues to rage. The dragon-borne Arcanan assault across five universes has been halted at Fort Salby by a desperate defense, but at atrocious cost. One of those costs was the life of Crown Prince Janaki, heir to the newly created Sharonian Empire, who went knowingly to his death in the tradition expected of the House of Calirath. And another price will be the sacrifice of his younger sister, Grand Imperial Princess Andrin, now heir of Sharona, for the accords creating the Sharonian Empire require the marriage of the heir to the Crown to wed a Uromathian prince.

Andrin bears her family's Talent, the Glimpses, which show flashes of events yet to come. She knows the accords must be secured . . . and like her brother, she will pay any price, make any sacrifice for her duty to her people.

Sharona's soldiers dig in, facing the Arcanans in a tense standoff which cannot last long. Both sides continue rushing reinforcements towards the front, but how do armies fight wars when they can reach one another only through the portals which join the universes? And far, far behind the front, carried by dragons, a young Voice name Shaylar and her husband Jathmar hurtle deeper and deeper into Arcanan captivity, their only protection the fierce personal honor of the Andaran officer whose men massacred all of their companions in the horrendous misunderstanding which began the entire conflict.

Men and women of honor on both sides must grapple with the terrible costs and deadly secrets of the spreading cataclysm, and in the shadows, those who will balk at neither treason nor murder drive the conspiracies which pour fuel into the furnace. The stakes are high and the pieces are in motion, but there are factors known not even to the conspirators and not even a Calirath can Glimpse the final outcome.

The War Against Evil Has Been Won!

In this world the millennial battle against the forces of evil has just been won, and all the hard-working heroes are just about to start living very happily Forever After.

But first, you see, there’s this one little problem.

To win the aforementioned War Against Evil, four mantic objects of great power had been summoned forth from dark recesses in which they had lain secreted for a thousand year—since, in fact, the last Great War Against Evil. But there was a reason these objects had been buried so long ago: if they are left in the open for any length of time the forces that emanate start to combine—and Bad Things start to happen. Dinosaurs come to battle dragons, and 747s eclipse the Moon—and that’s just for starters. So it is that our heroes must leave hearth and home to go upon their four separate anti-quests to bury for another thousand years the powers that saved the world. And you can join them—Forever After….

With Robert Asprin, David Drake, Jane Lindskold & Mike Stackpole.

An Exchange of Hostages
Under Jurisdiction torture isn’t about truth. It’s about terror.

The Jurisdiction’s Bench has come to rely on the institutionalized atrocities of the Protocols to maintain its control of an increasingly unstable political environment. When Andrej Koscuisko, a talented young doctor, reports to orientation as a Ship’s Inquisitor he will discover in himself something far worse than a talent for inflicting grotesque torments on the Bench’s enemies. He will confront a passion for the exercise of the Writ to Inquire, whose intensity threatens to consume him utterly.

As Andrej struggles to find some thread of justice and compassion under the Law, and to hang on to what remains of his sanity, he will make powerful enemies who are eager to use his knowledge, his empathy, and his passion against anyone who challenges the Bench.

Prisoner of Conscience
He wanted to be a doctor, but his family sent him to be a Ship’s Inquisitor. Only his fierce determination to hold to justice wherever he can find it has preserved his sanity—his own force of will, and a peculiar partnership with a man condemned by the Bench to serve on pain of agonizing punishment inflicted by the “governor” in his brain.

In Port Rudistal, a defeated people have been consigned to the authority of their ancestral enemies to suffer and work and die like cattle.

Bereft of his friend, drunk on absolute license to work his will on prisoner after prisoner, will Andrej realize what horrors are contained within the walls of the Domitt Prison, and can he bring the truth to light before his enemies silence him forever?

Angel of Destruction
Bench Intelligence Specialist Garol Vogel is one of an elite few chartered by the Bench to uphold the Jurisdiction's rule of Law by any means he sees fit: to rewrite policy, assassinate corrupt officials, and topple planetary governments at his Jurisdiction's discretion.

His most treasured achievement was the amnesty he brokered for the Langsarik rebels. But someone is raiding depot stations in the Shawl of Rikavie around Port Charid, torturing and murdering with unprecedented savagery. Vogel knows the Langsariks are innocent, but who could be to blame, and how can he prevent a Judicial crime of horrific proportions?

Garol Vogel finds the answer on the wrong side of the Judicial order he’s served faithfully all his life, and once he sets foot on a path of subversion and sabotage there will be no going back, ever.

Book Three in Nebula Award nominated and Compton Crook Award winning series. Science fiction adventure on a grand scale.

Caine Riordan, reluctant diplomatic and military intelligence operative, has just finished playing his part repulsing the Arat Kur’s and Hkh’Rkh’s joint invasion of Earth.

But scant hours after the attackers surrender, the mysterious but potentially helpful Slaasriithi appeal to Caine to shepherd a diplomatic mission on a visit to their very alien worlds. The possible prize: a crucial alliance in a universe where the fledgling Consolidated Terran Republic has very few friends.

But Caine and his legation aren’t the only ones journeying into the unknown reaches of Slaasriithi space. A group of renegade K’tor are following them, hoping to destroy humanity’s hopes for a quick alliance. And that means finding and killing Caine Riordan.

Assuming that the bizarre and dangerous Slaasriithi lifeforms don’t do it first.

Europe has spiraled into chaos. A conspiracy years in the making combined with general unrest lead to upheaval and revolution. In the midst of the murderous disorder, mercenary Michael Valentine is in Europe with a small team of his Exodus personnel trying to track down the evil and highly dangerous Katarina Montalban. She has initiated a mysterious plot to do away with those who stand between her and ultimate power. The team is on their own, with few friends, few resources—and racing against the clock. Both Valentine and Lorenzo will have to risk some dangerous alliances if they're to succeed.

Meanwhile, Valentine’s friend, one‑time enemy, and sometime partner Hector Lorenzo finds himself in a dungeon owned by Asian drug lord Sala Jihan. He must make a deal that may lead him to cross paths with Valentine again. If two of the most effective killers in existence hunt, even the pandemonium in Europe may be just the first act in an orgy of destruction.

The corrupt Earth government is sending an army to Greenwood to remove the pioneers who discovered and settled the planet: the potential profits are too great to leave the world to scraggly ne'er-do-wells!

Though the rugged individualists of Greenwood may be fractious and disinclined to agree on most things, the greedy politicians of Earth will learn a harsh lesson if they think the settlers won't join together to save their livelihoods and homes! Under Yerby Bannock, who never walked away from a drink or a fight, the Greenwood patriots will face thugs in the night, lawyers in a distant court, traitors in their own ranks—

And, if they have to, a fortress built to shrug off the assault of a battlefleet!