. ."Stranded in a hellish alien desert, stripped of their strategic systems, quick reaction force, and supporting arms, and carrying only a day's water ration, Marine Staff Sergeant Charlie Bass and his seven-man team faced a grim future seventy-five light-years from home. The only thing between his Marines and safety was eighty-five miles of uncharted, waterless terrain and two thousand bloodthirsty savages with state-of-the-art weapons in their hands and murder on their minds. But the enemy didn't reckon on the warrior cunning of Marines' Marine Charlie Bass and the courage of the few good men who would follow him anywhere--even to death. . .

    But even if the lost home world can be found, there may be no place for humans on it anymore. The once-lowly creatures who are now the sole inhabitants, and which mankind dominated in ages past, have been raised to a high level of intelligence and the future they plan is not one with any room for the former rulers of the planet. This future saga is here assembled for the first time, as well as several bonus short novels in a huge volume of highly original space adventure.

    The only problem is that the Confederacion needs him as one of its twelve Prime Operators for its secret service, the TBII. The TBII wants him as a spy, thief & assassin. It's not, of course, a problem for the Confederacion, which simply uses immersion therapy & hypnotic personality overlay for Otto's training, then sends him out in deep cover, encased in plastiflesh, on a variety of dangerous missions on a number of bizarre worlds. But for him, it's a different matter: what he has to witness & what he's forced to do take a terrible toll. Always he returns to his original self--his conscience stabbed by the memory of all those he'd killed in the service of interstellar harmony.

    Now he expands his magnificent epic into the volatile 1960s, when the space race is in its infancy and humanity must face its greatest challenge: alien colonization of planet Earth.Yet even in the shadow of this inexorable foe, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany are unable to relinquish their hostilities and unite against a massive new wave of extraterrestrials. For all the countries of the world, this is the greatest threat of all. This time, the terrible price of defeat will be the conquest of our world, and perhaps the extinction of the human race itself.

    And, to some extent, that was true. Anakin was dead. From the site of Anakin Skywalker s last stand on the molten surface of the planet Mustafar, where he sought to destroy his friend and former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi a fearsome specter in black has risen. Once the most powerful Knight ever known to the Jedi Order, he is now a disciple of the dark side, a lord of the dreaded Sith, and the avenging right hand of the galaxy s ruthless new Emperor. Seduced, deranged, and destroyed by the machinations of the Dark Lord Sidious, Anakin Skywalker is dead . . . and Darth Vader lives. Word of the events that created him the Jedi Council s failed mutiny against Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the self-crowned Emperor s retaliatory command to exterminate the Jedi Order, and Anakin s massacre of his comrades and Masters in the Jedi Temple has yet to reach all quarters. On the Outer Rim world of Murkhana, Jedi Masters Roan Shryne and Bol Chatak and Padawan Olee Starstone are leading a charge on a Separatist stronghold, unaware that the tide, red with Jedi blood, has turned suddenly against them. When the three narrowly elude execution and become the desperate prey in a hunt across space it s neither clone soldiers, nor the newly deployed stormtroopers, nor even the wrath of the power-hungry Emperor himself they must fear most. The deadliest threat rests in the hideously swift and lethal crimson lightsaber of Darth Vader behind whose brooding mask lies a shattered heart, a poisoned soul, and a cunning, twisted mind hell-bent on vengeance. For the handful of scattered Jedi, survival is imperative if the light side of the Force is to be protected and the galaxy somehow, someday reclaimed. Yet more important still is the well-being of the twin infants, Leia and Luke Skywalker, the children of Anakin and his doomed bride, Padme Amidala. Separated after Padme s death, they must be made safe at all costs, lest the hope they represent for the future be turned to horror by the new Sith regime and the unspeakable power of the dark side. From the Hardcover edition."

    But one day Willis unwittingly tuned into a treacherous plot that threatened all the colonists on Mars, and it set Jim off on a terrfying adventure that could save--or destroy--them all!From the Paperback edition.

    In the twenty-third century pioneers have escaped the crowded earth for life in self-sustaining orbital colonies.  One of the colonies, Rotor, has broken away from the solar system to create its own renegade utopia around an unknown red star two light-years from Earth:  a star named Nemesis.  Now a fifteen-year-old Rotorian girl has learned of the dire threat that nemesis poses to Earth's people--but she is prevented from warning them.  Soon she will realize that Nemesis endangers Rotor as well.  And so it will be up to her alone to save both Earth and Rotor as--drawn inexorably by Nemesis, the death star--they hurtle toward certain disaster.

    Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?Among those operatives are Temudjin Oh, of mysterious Mongolian origins, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice under snow; Adrian Cubbish, a restlessly greedy City trader; and a nameless, faceless state-sponsored torturer known only as the Philosopher, who moves between time zones with sinister ease. Then there are those who question the Concern: the bandit queen Mrs. Mulverhill, roaming the worlds recruiting rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, under sedation and feigning madness in a forgotten hospital ward, in hiding from a dirty past.There is a world that needs help; but whether it needs the Concern is a different matter.

    Set in the aftermath of the Dominion War, Avatar heralds both a new threat and a discovery which will profoundly affect the lives of all the crew. Meantime in Abyss, Dr. Julian Bashir faces his darkest nightmare when Section 31, the black ops division of Starfleet, tries to compel him to eliminate one of their own. And in Demons of Air and Darkness, Colonel Kira Nerys and some unexpected allies fight to close down the alien Gateways and avert destruction on a planetary scale. Dark secrets, divided allegiances, treachery and, ultimately, hope - these four tales are Deep Space Nine at its best.

    It's prime real estate for criminals, unscrupulous corporations, and invaders from beyond Federation space. But in Hub space, a citizen is expected to stand up for herself, blaster in hand; so when Trouble comes Hubward in large doses, there's an armed citizenry waiting for it.

    But millennia passed and techniques improved. By the time of the Romans a lucky bolt might impale a file of infantry. By the dreadful 20th century the very existence of the race - we still were earth-bound, then - was at risk. But somehow, even though the weapons grew ever more terrible, that risk was averted and humanity gained first the planets and then the stars. And still the weapons grew, until the very universe has cause to fear the wrath of Man...Contents:Reflex by Larry Niven and Jerry PournelleSpanish Man's Grave by James Warner BellahMarius by Poul AndersonThe Threat by Advisory CommissionEnder's Game by Orson Scott CardA Death in Realtime by R.S. McEnroeOverdose by Spider RobinsonSaul's Death by Joe HaldemanHigh Frontier by Robert A. Heinlein and Lt. General Daniel GrahamTwo Poems by Jon PostDiasporah by W.R. YatesHis Truth Goes Marching On by Jerry PournelleTHOR by Weapons Committee of the Citizens' Advisory Coucil on National Space PolicyThe Defenders by Philip K. DickUnlimited Warfare by Hayford PierceThe Battle by Robert SheckleyMilitary Virtue by Jerry PournelleRanks of Bronze by David DrakeI Am Nothing by Eric Frank RussellCall Him Lord by Gordon R. DicksonQuiet Village by David McDanielStrategy of Technology by Jerry PournelleWidow's Party by Rudyard Kipling

    The a body with two holes in its neck and no blood left turned up at his back door, and he found himself dealing with the kind of information that can get a man killed, or worse, much worse.Being chased by things out of myth and nightmare, Jason has only two weapons: his best friend, and his won quick wits.In a battle against darkness, the brightest weapon is the light of reason.

    Dennis Nuel is a physicist who, during his research, develops a machine that allows him to explore alternate realities, each of which sport some very strange scientific properties.

    Now an even greater danger has surfaced: a threat to the existence of the universe itself.At the very heart of the galaxy is the Void, a self-contained microuniverse that cannot be breached, cannot be destroyed, and cannot be stopped as it steadily expands in all directions, consuming everything in its path: planets, stars, civilizations. The Void has existed for untold millions of years. Even the oldest and most technologically advanced of the galaxy’s sentient races, the Raiel, do not know its origin, its makers, or its purpose.But then Inigo, an astrophysicist studying the Void, begins dreaming of human beings who live within it. Inigo’s dreams reveal a world in which thoughts become actions and dreams become reality. Inside the Void, Inigo sees paradise. Thanks to the gaiafield, a neural entanglement wired into most humans, Inigo’s dreams are shared by hundreds of millions–and a religion, the Living Dream, is born, with Inigo as its prophet. But then he vanishes.Suddenly there is a new wave of dreams. Dreams broadcast by an unknown Second Dreamer serve as the inspiration for a massive Pilgrimage into the Void. But there is a chance that by attempting to enter the Void, the pilgrims will trigger a catastrophic expansion, an accelerated devourment phase that will swallow up thousands of worlds. And thus begins a desperate race to find Inigo and the mysterious Second Dreamer. Some seek to prevent the Pilgrimage; others to speed its progress–while within the Void, a supreme entity has turned its gaze, for the first time, outward. . . .From the Hardcover edition.

    Now, deep in Coruscant's Blackpit Slums, Jax ekes out a living as a private investigator, trying to help people in need while concealing his Jedi identity and staying one step ahead of the killers out for Jedi blood. And they're not the only ones in search of the elusive Jax. Hard-boiled reporter Den Dhur and his buddy, the highly unorthodox droid I-5YQ, have shocking news to bring Jax-about the father he never knew. But when Jax learns that his old Jedi Master has been killed, leaving behind the request that Jax finish a mission critical to the resistance, Jax has no choice but to emerge from hiding-and risk detection by Darth Vader-to fulfill his Master's dying wish.Don't miss the continuing adventures in the Coruscant Nights series, coming this Fall!