The Ring of Fire Series Continues! The United States of Europe finds itself embroiled in international intrigue, as the up-timers attempt to establish an embassy in Ming Dynasty era China.

The newly formed United States of Europe, created by an alliance between the time-displaced Americans from the town of Grantville and the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, decides to send an embassy to the Chinese empire. One of the main purposes of the embassy is to establish trade in order to gain access to critical resources. The mission is a gamble—some might say, a long shot. The Ming dynasty is on the verge of collapse and China’s rulers are suspicious of foreigners.

The mission experiences one setback after another, but presses on. And they gain an important ally along the way: Zheng Zhilong, a former pirate now an admiral for the Ming navy and the head of an extremely wealthy Fujian province trading family. He knows through his Jesuit missionary connections that according to Grantville's history books, the Ming dynasty is in danger, from famines, bandit armies and barbarian invaders. And he is determined that, one way or another, he and his family will survive and even prosper.

The embassy is joined as well by a young scholar, who helps them make inroads into China’s complex and often dangerous society. Can the up-timers and their friends persuade the imperial dynasty and its mandarins to establish trade and diplomatic relations with the USE? They have one great asset: their knowledge may be the key to saving China from decades of mass suffering and civil war.

STORIES FROM THE FIRST NAME IN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY! Fifteen stories spanning the SF/F genres—all by a "David." Includes stories by David Drake, David Weber, Gregory Benford & David Brin, D.J. Butler—and more!

Science Fiction and Fantasy with Maximum Dave

The history of science fiction and fantasy is littered with stories by Davids of distinction. Now, for the first time, an anthology by people named David, for everyone.

Read along as editor David Afsharirad guides you through the strange, wondrous imaginations of the great Davids of the field, past and present. Fifteen tales by David Weber, David Drake, Gregory Benford & David Brin, David B. Coe, D.J. Butler, Avram Davidson, David H. Keller, and many more.

Herein you will find: a Depression-era magic man who comes face-to-face with an ancient evil. A once-promising filmmaker whose fate depends on a movie-producing AI. A shape-shifting detective on the trail of a pack of werewolves. A sentient tank who must confront one of its own. And a diner regular who gets more than he bargained for when he orders the soup du jour.

Featuring David-inspired cover art by celebrated artist David Mattingly, The Chronicles of Davids delivers maximum Dave!

Remember: with a name like "David," it has to be good!

Contributors:
David Weber
David Drake
D.J. Butler
Gregory Benford & David Brin
David B. Coe
Barry N. Malzberg
Dave Freer
Avram Davidson
D.L. Young
David Boop
Hank Davis
Dave Bara
David H. Keller
David Carrico
David Hardy

THE UNION JACK TAKES TO SPACE! All-new alternate history science fiction from New York Times best-selling author Steve White.

In an alternate future where the British empire never crumbled, the space ships of Her Majesty’s Navy work to keep the spaceways safe. Commander Robert Rogers of the Royal Space Navy is a defense intelligence officer known for his unconventional ways. Rogers is American born-and-raised, a loyal citizen of the Viceroyalty of North America. He’s a descendant of the founder of the highly effective, pro-British Rogers’ Rangers during the Colonial unpleasantries of 1776, and he’s inherited his ancestor’s intelligence and drive in spades.

But there are those among the stars who are not so happy being subjects of the British Empire. In the Tau Ceti system, a cauldron of trouble brews as a terrorist faction of the rebellious Sons of Arnold attacks the empire from within, and warships of the theocratic Caliphate enter the system, prepared to do their worst to destroy the hated empire head on. Yet standing against the coming anarchy and tyranny is one intrepid spy prepared to risk all for queen and empire:

COMMANDER ROBERT ROGERS, HER MAJESTY’S AMERICAN

The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington's entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she's achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.

She's prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor's worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.

But Manticore's enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won't be going alone.

A New Novel From Award-Winning Master of Fantasy and Science Fiction Tim Powers. A modern ghost story as only Tim Powers can write it.

Something weird is happening to the Los Angeles freeways—phantom cars, lanes from nowhere, and sometimes unmarked offramps that give glimpses of a desolate desert highway—and Sebastian Vickery, disgraced ex-Secret Service agent, is a driver for a covert supernatural-evasion car service. But another government agency is using and perhaps causing the freeway anomalies, and their chief is determined to have Vickery killed because of something he learned years ago at a halted Presidential motorcade.

Reluctantly aided by Ingrid Castine, a member of that agency, and a homeless Mexican boy, and a woman who makes her living costumed as Supergirl on the sidewalk in front of the Chinese Theater, Vickery learns what legendary hell it is that the desert highway leads to—and when Castine deliberately drives into it to save him from capture, he must enter it himself to get her out.

Alternate Routes is a fast-paced supernatural adventure story that sweeps from the sun-blinded streets and labyrinthine freeways of Los Angeles to a horrifying other world out of Greek mythology, and Vickery and Castine must learn to abandon old loyalties and learn loyalty to each other in order to survive as the world goes mad around them.

A mercenary outcast with a perversion no one cared to think about. 

A holy leader, who knows her people are on the verge of great upheaval—and who wants to know more about this new tribe of demons. 

A battle-mother, possibly the greatest battle-mother who ever lived—if the rules of her tribe don't force her into a battle even she can't win. 

A keeper of the secrets of history who would control the tides of fate—if only she could. 

A paleobiologist with a terrible sense of humor.

They are all revolutionaries, but none of them expected anything like what they're about to experience.

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

NEW STORIES AND ESSAYS FROM TOP AUTHORS AND EXPERT SCIENTISTS. Explorations of how interstellar travel may affect humanity by best-selling authors and scientists.

The stars will change us.

STELLARIS: PEOPLE OF THE STARS is a collection of original science fiction stories and nonfiction essays speculating about humanity’s far-term expansion into the universe beyond the limits of our solar system—with an emphasis on the changes humans will undergo as a species as we make this happen. Is interstellar travel so far beyond our current imaginings that it will take a fundamental transformation of humanity in order to make it possible? And, if so, will we remain Homo sapiens or become a new and unique species: Homo stellaris (the People of the Stars)?

Herein are original science fiction stories by award-winning authors such as Kevin J. Anderson, William Ledbetter, Todd McCaffrey and Sarah A. Hoyt, supplemented by accessible nonfiction essays describing the science behind the fiction from people who should know—Sir Martin Rees (Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom), Mark Shelhamer (Chief Scientist for the NASA’s Human Research Program), and more.

This collection of original stories and essays was inspired by a gathering of scientists, science fiction authors, and futurists at a series of annual meetings held by the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop. Let their speculations, imaginations and boundless sense of what’s possible take your own journey beyond the edge of the solar system in STELLARIS: PEOPLE OF THE STARS!

Stories and Provocative Speculation from
Sir Martin Rees
Kevin J. Anderson
Sarah A. Hoyt
Mike Massa
William Ledbetter
Todd McCaffrey
Kacey Ezell and Philip Wohlrab
Dan Hoyt
Les Johnson
Robert E. Hampson
Mark Shelhamer
Brent Roeder
Jim Beall
Cathe Smith

Larry Correia, the New York Times best-selling author of the wildly popular Monster Hunter International and Grimnoir Chronicles series of no-holds-barred urban fantasy and the Dead Six trilogy of military adventure novels, now sets his sights on the short story form.

Together for the first time, fourteen action-packed tales of demons, monsters, vampires, and cosmic horrors too terrible to name—and the men and women who take them all down. Oh, and toss in an interdimensional insurance salesman for good measure.

You’ll also find: An elven princess from the pages of Monster Hunter International on a mission to redeem her people. A samurai pirate with a blood vendetta against an extremely large sea beast. And a magic-wielding P.I. who walks the mean streets of Detroit.

Journey back to the origins of Monster Hunter International in “Bubba Shackleford’s Professional Monster Hunters.” Uncover the origin of one of Dead Six’s central characters in “Sweothi City.” And celebrate the holidays with the Grimnoir Chronicle’s own Jake Sullivan in “Detroit Christmas.”

Discover why it always pays to hire the very best when it comes to fighting a war when Correia takes on David Drake’s genre-defining Hammer’s Slammers series. And find out just how much damage a vampire can do when he was a Green Beret before he became one of the undead as Correia tackles Jonathan Maberry’s V Wars universe.

Includes three stories never before in print! “Murder on the Orient Elite” and “The Adventures of Tom Strange, Interdimensional Insurance Salesman” have previously only been available in audio format (narrated by Adam Baldwin of Firefly fame). And “Blood on the Water” makes its first appearance.