Volume #3 of 3 of the very best of Ben Bova, a grandmaster of science fiction storytelling. These stories span the five decades of Bova's incandescent career.
Here are tales of star-faring adventure, peril, and drama. Here are journeys into the mind-bending landscapes of virtual worlds and alternate realities. Here you'll also find stories of humanity's astounding future on Earth, on Mars and in the Solar System beyond—stories that always get the science right. And Bova's gathering of deeply realized, totally human characters are the heroic, brave, tricky, sometimes dastardly engineers, astronauts, corporate magnates, politicians, and scientists who will make these futures possible—and those who often find that the problems of tomorrow are always linked to human values, and human failings, that are as timeless as the stars.
FIRST IN THE NEW EPIC FANTASY SERIES, WULF'S SAGA. STUNNING COVER ART BY SPECTRUM AWARD WINNER DANIEL DOS SANTOS. Sixteen-year-old third son of a duke in an alternate Viking-like medieval America must face invasion by confederates of a colonial Roman empire based on vampiric blood slavery.
The Dragon of Shenandoah wasn't supposed to be calling. Wulf von Dunstig was so far down the succession list, he wasn't even spare to the heir! But calling it was. As the third son of the ruler of the Mark of Shenandoah, Wulf should not have inherited the ruler's complete bond with the giant dragon that lay under his land. He was into reading sagas and ranger lore, after all. Visions and rule were for his brother Otto. Yet when Wulf is secretly compelled to bond with the land-dragon, he finds himself thrust into a terrible new reality.
Darkness is rising.
Wulf's one chance to halt an invasion of evil is a weapon forged in the heart of a dragon and lost to the world centuries ago. Find it and hope for freedom remains. Lose it, and the dragons—along with the world they made—will fall into endless darkness. That weapon's name?
When Monster Hunter International's top hunter, Owen Zastava Pitt, was given a tip about some hunters who had gone missing in action, he didn’t realize their rescue mission would snowball into the single biggest operation in MHI's history. Their men are being held prisoner in a horrific nightmare dimension, and the only way to reach them is through the radioactive ruins of a monster-infested war zone.
As if that wasn't bad enough, it’s also the home base of the powerful creature behind the devastating attacks on the Last Dragon and Copper Lake. It turns out ancient gods of chaos really hate trespassers. But this god picked a fight with the wrong crew, and now MHI wants payback. Calling on their allies, a massive expedition is formed, and with the odds stacked against them, a legion of hunters goes to war.
Jason Thanou has fought for the continued existence of humanity across the centuries. As a special operations officer of the Temporal Regulatory Authority, he’s traveled though time to thwart the Transhumanists—genetically and mechanically enhanced beings that seek to destroy humanity—and their alien allies, the Teloi.
But for all his work, the Transhumanist Underground has never been defeated. In possession of the same time travel technology as the Temporal Regulatory Authority, the Transhumanists have been busy planting “time bombs” throughout recorded history. Time bombs that are set to go off on The Day, when the secret history the Transhumanists have planted will be revealed, resulting in the overthrow of humanity.
Now, Jason Thanou, along with fellow TRA agents Alexandre Mondrago and Father Julian Casinde, must travel through Earth’s bloody history to ensure the survival of the human race. They’ll find themselves in Italy, two days before the death of Pope John Paul I. Father Casinde has reason to believe that something much more sinister than a simple heart attack is behind the death of the Holy Father.
Racing against—and through—time, Jason and his fellow officers must defeat the Transhumanists and their Teloi allies. Meanwhile, back in Jason’s home time of the 24th century, The Day grows ever closer!
Destruction is in Jame Knorth’s nature. Literally. She is the avatar a god known as That-Which-Destroys, the god of chaos and ruin. Yet Jame is also a noblewoman within an ancient race, and the designated heir of her twin brother Torisen Knorth, High Lord of the Kencyrath. Jame’s people are fleeing, world by world, from a terrible enemy that has pursued them through a multitude of universes. Its name is Perimal Darkling.
Obeying instructions from her brother, Jame sets out with a force of Southron warriors to reestablish the long-fallen castle keep of Tagmeth. By Jame’s side is Lyra, a devious Kencyrath noble girl who is determined not to be forced into a marriage with a man she despises. Jame’s old friends Mark and Brier Iron-thorn stand with her, as well: Marc, steward and organizer of Jame’s household and Brier, the only captain under her command wholly sworn to support Jame no matter the cost. Jame finds more allies in the forest surrounding the ancient keep where the wild people of the woodlands, the Merikit, hold court. And Jame’s adopted mother, Gran Cyd, matriarch and queen of the Merikit, may once again provide the voice of calm that Jame requires to survive her own tempestuous nature.
Jame sets about establishing Tagmeth as an outpost against the gathering power of Perimal Darkling. But Tagmeth hides a secret, a gateway to a mystery that may save this world from eternal darkness—or plunge it to destruction and ruin all the sooner. It is up to Jame to find her way through Perimal Darkling’s traps, and to come to terms with the god of pandemonium and destruction within her who grows stronger every day. If she succeeds it may be that Perimal Darkling can finally be defeated after eons of fear and flight. And if she fails, yet another world will fall to darkness forever.
A NEW NOVEL IN THE NATIONALLY BEST-SELLING RCN MILITARY SF SERIES! Leary and Mundy are back in another military science fiction adventure as they undertake a mission to a distant but critical star system.
IT'S JUST A REBELLION IN A DISTANT STAR CLUSTER.
Captain Daniel Leary thinks that his marriage will allow him to slip into the quiet role of a naval officer in peacetime. His friend, the spy and cybrarian Adele Mundy, is content to be collating data in her library. But high officials of both superpowers are involved! Those who want Daniel and Adele to become involved in the Tarbell Stars claim that only they can prevent a war between the Republic of Cinnabar and its great rival, the Alliance of Free Stars. The conflict is political, but at the sharp end it means blazing warfare and cold-blooded murder. Daniel and Adele will be at the sharp end.
The odds in ships and guns are badly in the enemy's favor. Daniel, Adele, and the crew of the Princess Cecile will do everything humanly possible, but that may not be enough against an enemy battleship. And even if Daniel and his companions succeed in battle, they can't be sure whether their employers really wanted them to win—or whether they even want them alive. All they can do is to race forward, hoping to come through into DEATH'S BRIGHT DAY.
Larry Correia 
