The Mesan Alignment is revealed, and, for Honor Harrington and the Manticoran Star Kingdom, this means war!

Unintended Consequences

Sometimes things don’t work out exactly as planned.

The Mesan Alignment has a plan—one it’s been working on for centuries. A plan to remake the galaxy and genetically improve the human race—its way.

Until recently, things have gone pretty much as scheduled, but then the Alignment hit a minor bump in the road called the Star Empire of Manticore. So the Alignment engineered a war between the Solarian League, the biggest and most formidable interstellar power in human history. To help push things along, the Alignment launched a devastating sneak attack which destroyed the Royal Manticoran Navy’s industrial infrastructure.

And in order to undercut Manticore’s galaxy‑wide reputation as a star nation of its word, it launched Operation Janus—a false‑flag covert operation to encourage rebellions it knows will fail by promising Manticoran support. The twin purposes are to harden Solarian determination to destroy the Star Empire once and for all, and to devastate the Star Empire’s reputation with the rest of the galaxy.

But even the best laid plans can have unintended consequences, and one of those consequences in this case may just be a new dawn of freedom for oppressed star nations everywhere.

HUMANS OR HEMNOIDS: 
AN UNBEARABLE CHOICE!

Planet Dilbia is in a crucial location for both humans and their adversaries, the Hemnoids. Therefore making friends with the Dilbians and establishing a human presence there is of the utmost importance, which may be a problem, since the bearlike Dilbians; stand some nine feet tall, and have a high regard for physical prowess. They're not impressed by human technology, either. A real man, er, bear doesn't need machines to do his work for him.

But Dilbians are impressed by sharp thinking, and some have expressed a grudging admiration for the logical (and usually sneaky) mental maneuvers that the human "shorties" have used to get themselves out of desperate jams. Just maybe that old human craftiness will win over the Dilbians; to the human side. If not, we lose a nexus, and the Dilbians will learn just how unbearable Hemnoids can be....

"Excellent!" -Science Fiction Review

Space. The Feline Frontier.

It has been said (by Mark Twain) that “If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.” In this volume we explore the many and manifest reasons why humans should voluntarily accord first place in space to their feline brethren. From Robert A. Heinlein’s “Ordeal in Space” in which the merest kitten confers the gift of courage on his human, to Cordwainer Smith’s “Ballad of Lost C’mell,” which answers the very question of what would be the outcome of the melding of human and cat, we offer here sixteen reasons why cats are Number One in our book.

THE FREEHOLDERS RETURN in Book 7 of the nationally best‑selling Freehold Universe series. A return to the libertarian world of Grainne and its battle against an Earth government that will not let the Freeholders remain free!

Angie Kaneshiro never planned to be a spy. She was a veteran of the Freehold Forces of Grainne, and was now a tramp freighter crew‑woman who hadn’t set foot on the dirt of a world in ten years. Angie was free, and that was the way she liked it.

Then the war with Earth started. One thing Angie knew was human space. She knew where the UN troops garrisoned, the methods they used to scan and chip their own to control them. Even better, she had a mental map of the access conduits, the dive bars, and the make‑out cubbies people used to get around restrictions.

The UN forces may hold most of the stations, the docks, and the jump points, but now the Freehold of Grainne has its own lethal weapon: Angie Kaneshiro. The Intelligence branch sends a freighter crewed with Blazers, special forces troops. All Angie has to do is lead them through the holes. Responsibility for the explosions and wreckage will be theirs. But war is complicated, and heroes can be forged in its crucible—even if the hero turns out to be a tramp freighter crew‑woman determined to fight for the freedom she loves.

Miles Vorkosigan faces enormous challenges in this Hugo Award-winning novel as he leads a mutiny against his military commander's criminal orders, rejoins his Dendarii mercenaries, and attempts to rescue Emperor Gregor after Barrayar's royal scion has run off straight into trouble. Sequel to The Warriors Apprentice.

The King had a good head on his shoulders—for the moment, anyway.

Everyone agreed that King Jorian of Xylar had been a good and just ruler. In fact, many also agreed that, in this case, it was a pity that the laws of Xylar decreed that each randomly chosen King must reign for only five years and then, after due pomp and ceremony, have his head cut off! Understandably, Jorian himself was wholeheartedly in agreement with the second sentiment, so with the help of a spell provided by the wizard Karadur, he escaped from the beheading ceremony with his head still on his shoulders.

Unfortunately, his beloved wife, Queen Estrildis, was left behind, and getting her out of Xylar would be anything but simple—particularly with the Royal Guard of Xylar hot on the trail of their fugitive monarch. With Karadur's magic, Jorian might be able to pull off the rescue. But first, he would have to locate a trove of ancient spells, deal with an enemy wizard, steal an item from a 500-year-old (but still beautiful) princess who turns into a giant serpent at inopportune moments, repair the giant tower clocks of Iraz to fulfill a prophecy, break a pirate siege, and finally fly back to Xylar in an enchanted bathtub and whisk away his beloved Estrildis before the Royal Guard notices that their King (not to mention his head) has returned. Then things began to get complicated...

A NEW NOVEL IN THE AWARD WINNING SERIES FROM MULTIPLE NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD!  Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan returns to the planet that changed her destiny.

FUTURE TENSE

Three years after her famous husband’s death, Cordelia Vorkosigan, widowed Vicereine of Sergyar, stands ready to spin her life in a new direction. Oliver Jole, Admiral, Sergyar Fleet, finds himself caught up in her web of plans in ways he’d never imagined, bringing him to an unexpected crossroads in his career.

Meanwhile, Miles Vorkosigan, one of Emperor Gregor’s key investigators, this time dispatches himself on a mission of inquiry, into a mystery he never anticipated – his own mother.

Plans, wills, and expectations collide in this sparkling science-fiction social comedy, as the impact of galactic technology on the range of the possible changes all the old rules, and Miles learns that not only is the future not what he expects, neither is the past.

Download the Reader’s Group Discussion Guide here.

TOP AUTHORS PAY TRIBUTE TO A MASTER. David Drake has left an indelible mark on the science fiction and fantasy genres. He is considered the Grand Master of Military Science Fiction. Now, top authors in the field pay tribute to the man and his work in this all-new collection of stories and essays.

Best-selling author David Drake has been creating topnotch military science fiction, space opera, and fantasy novels and stories for decades. In this all-original collection that appears as Drake is a Special Guest of the 2015 World Fantasy Convention, a stellar line-up of writers pays tribute to Drake with stories as broad in range as his own fiction. Each one comes with an illuminating afterword explaining the connection of the story to Drake and his work.

In Eric Flint’s “A Flat Affect” a king is no match for a pair of storytellers

Gene Wolfe takes us to a strange and wondrous future in “Incubator”

Larry Correia examines what it’s like to face Hammer’s Slammers from “The Losing Side”

S.M. Stirling offers an insider’s view of “Working with Dave, or, Inmates in Bellevue”

Mur Lafferty shows what happens when a fairy visitor receives an unexpected welcome in “The Crate Warrior, the Doppelganger, and the Idea Woman”

The book also features two new pieces from Drake himself: “The Great Wizard, Cabbage,” a comic historical fantasy, and “Save What You Can,” the first new Hammer’s Slammers story in nearly a decade!

With more stories from editor Mark L. Van Name, Cecelia Holland, T.C. McCarthy, Barry N. Malzberg, Sarah Hoyt, Tony Daniel, John Lambshead, Hank Davis, Eric S. Brown, and Sarah Van Name, as well as appreciations from Baen Publisher Toni Weisskopf and Tor founder and Publisher Tom Doherty, Onward, Drake! is a collection that fans of Drake’s fiction—and anyone who enjoys a good story—will not want to miss!