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....

    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.

    “Ah, the wealth o’ the treasure planet be beyond the dreams of Man or the hopes o’ Kzin!” On Wunderland, a generation after Liberation, memories of the bloody kzin conquest and Occupation have faded, and men and kzin live largely in peace. But the fabulous treasure of the kzin pirates, hidden on a distant world, remains a magnet for freebooters. Young Peter Cartwright and his kzinrett friend Marthar receive information and map from a most unlikely source and soon themselves fighting the most ruthless pirates in Known Space for an unimaginable prize.About the Man-Kzin War Series:“[The Man-Kzin Wars series is] excellent . . .gripping . . .and expands well on Larry Niven’s universe. . . .” –Locus

    We have only one option: create time-transfer technology ourselves, find the opposition's ancient source...and take it dawn.When small-time criminal Ross Murdock and Apache rancher Travis Fox stumble separately onto America's secret time travel project, Operation Retrograde, they are faced with a challenge greater than either could have imagined possible. Their mere presence means that they know too much to go free. But Murdock and Fox have a thirst for adventure, and Operation Retrograde offers that in spades.Both men will become time agents, finding reserves of inner heroism they had never expected. Their journeys will take the battle to the enemy, from ancient Britain to prehistoric America, and finally to the farthest reaches of interstellar space...

    The world is a paradise - and then, in a moment, it ends. The council that controls the Net falls out and goes to war. Everywhere people who have never known a moment of want or pain are left wondering how to survive.

    Pity the poor private eye (or official investigator, for that matter), who has to solve a case which may involve death by black magic, evidence that may have been altered or planted by an itinerant sorcerer, and supernatural entities.

     War is everywhere. Not only among the firefights, in the sweat dripping from heavy armor and the clenching grip on your weapon, but also wedging itself deep into families, infiltrating our love letters, hovering in the air above our heads. It's in our dreams and our text messages. At times it roars with adrenaline, while at others it slips in silently so it can sit beside you until you forget it's there. Join Joe Haldeman, Linda Nagata, Karin Lowachee, Ken Liu, Jay Posey, and more as they take you on a tour of the battlefields, from those hurtling through space in spaceships and winding along trails deep in the jungle with bullets whizzing overhead, to the ones hiding behind calm smiles, waiting patiently to reveal itself in those quiet moments when we feel safest. War Stories brings us 23 stories of the impacts of war, showcasing the systems, combat, armor, and aftermath without condemnation or glorification. Instead, War Stories reveals the truth. War is what we are. Table of Contents: Foreword -- Gregory Drobny Graves -- Joe Haldeman Part 1: Wartime Systems In the Loop -- Ken Liu Ghost Girl -- Rich Larson The Radio -- Susan Jane Bigelow Contractual Obligation -- James L. Cambias The Wasp Keepers -- Mark Jacobsen Non-Standard Deviation -- Richard Dansky Part 2: Combat All You Need -- Mike Sizemore The Valkyrie -- Maurice Broaddus One Million Lira -- Thoraiya Dyer Invincible -- Jay Posey Light and Shadow -- Linda Nagata Part 3: Armored Force Warhosts -- Yoon Ha Lee Suits -- James Sutter Mission. Suit. Self. -- Jake Kerr In Loco -- Carlos Orsi Part 4: Aftermath War Dog -- Mike Barretta Coming Home -- Janine Spendlove Where We Would End a War -- F. Brett Cox Black Butterfly -- T.C. McCarthy Always the Stars and the Void Between -- Nerine Dorman Enemy States -- Karin Lowachee War 3.01 -- Keith Brooke Cover art by Galen Dara.

    Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans. For more than thirty years, the Liaden Universe® novels by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have captivated readers with their unique blend of action adventure, science fiction, and romance. In addition to twenty-one novels (and counting) Lee and Miller have written dozens of shorter works based in the Liaden Universe®, featuring the strong characterization, detailed world-building, wit, and derring-do that readers of the series adore. This fourth volume collecting Lee and Miller’s shorter Liaden Universe® stories features four novelettes, two novellas, and two short stories—including the celebrated linked stories, "Block Party" and "Degrees of Separation." Sure to delight longtime fans and newcomers alike, these tales highlight why the nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados, with detailed world-building, strong characterizations, compelling romance, and edge-of-the-chair action in stories that range from cosmic to comic. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).Contents:Street cred --Due diligence --Friend of a friend --Cutting corners --Block party --Degrees of separation --Excerpts from two lives --Revolutionists.

    A religious conference has been called in nearby Rudolstadt which will determine doctrine for all the Lutherans in the nation. The hard-fought principle of religious freedom is at stake, threatened alike by intransigent theologians and students rioting in the streets.As if that weren't bad enough:* the up-time American Lutherans are themselves divided;* a rambunctious old folk singer is cheerfully pouring gasoline on the flames;* and a Calvinist "facilitator" from Geneva is maneuvering to get the U.S. involved with the developing revolutionary movement in Naples.Stories include:* Portraits by Eric Flint* Anna's Story by Loren Jones* Curio and Relic by Tom Van Natta* The Sewing Circle by Gorg Huff* The Rudolstadt Colloquy by Virginia DeMarce* Radio in the 1632 Universe by Rick Boatright* They've Got Bread Mold, So Why Can't They Make Penicillin? by Robert Gottlieb* Horse Power by Karen Bergstralh

    Genellan -- the sole refuge for a ship's crew and a detachment of spacer marines, abandoned by a fleet fleeing from alien attackers. Now winter is coming, and the savage bear people are returning, bent on destroying every human -- but not before stealing the secret of hyperlight drive, the key to interstellar flight . . . .

    He might look like Falstaff and talk in a steady stream of malapropisms, but anybody who might take him for a bumbling buffoon would quickly find themselves taken—to the cleaners! In Nick Van Rijn, Poul Anderson created one of the most memorable and popular characters in science fiction, and now, for the first time, all the stories of Van Rijn and the Polesotechnic League will be published in chronological order in three volumes. This first volume includes the classic novel, The Man Who Counts, in which Van Rijn and two associates are stranded on a planet inhabited by a winged race, two factions of which happen to be at war with each other. The planet has no food that is not poisonous to humans, and the three humans have only a small supply of food in their wrecked ship. Somehow the humans must get to another continent, where a human outpost is, before they starve, in spite of the planet’s inhabitants being too busy fighting a war to bother with the troubles of these three odd-looking wingless aliens. An impossible problem? Not for Nick Van Rijn! Also included are more stories of Van Rijn flamboyant exploits, plus stories set elsewhere in the Polesotechnic universe.

    The Fleet is humanity's last chance: a multi-world, multi-national task force assembled to hold the line against the aliens' overwhelming technology and firepower. Enter Harrison Barlow, who like so many young men of wars past, simply wants to serve his people and partake of the grand adventure of military life. Only, Harrison is not a hot pilot, nor a crack shot with a rifle. What good is a Chaplain's Assistant in the interstellar battles which will decide the fate of all? More than he thinks. Because while the mantis insectoids are determined to eliminate the human threat to mantis supremacy, they remember the errors of their past. Is there the slightest chance that humans might have value? Especially since humans seem to have the one thing the mantes explicitly do not: an innate ability to believe in what cannot be proven nor seen: God. Captured and stranded behind enemy lines, Barlow must come to grips with the fact that he is not only bargaining for his own life, but the lives of everyone he knows and loves. And so he embarks upon an improbable gambit, determined to alter the course of the entire war.

    The bestselling saga of Falkenberg's legion, complete in one huge volume, this contains stories that were originally published in four parts as "Falkenberg's Legion, Prince of Mercenaries, Go Tell the Spartans" and "Prince of Sparta."

    Now Shiva V has entered the Solar System and there's only one way to defeat it: get inside and kill it. An intriguing look at what the world wide web may become.--Vernor Vinge.

    The wizards of Erchanen have been searching all the worlds to find a hero, and Vixen the Slayer is the last name on their list.The Warmother, imprisoned a thousand years before by Ginnas the Warkiller, has broken free of her ancient chains. If a hero can't be found somewhere in all the universes to fight for them, the people of Erchanen are toast. But is it Glory they're looking for... or Vixen?It all seemed to be a perfectly straightforward misunderstanding when Belegir was explaining it in Glory's dressing room. The reality—if you could call it that—isn't just fighting for her life. Faced with a challenge like that, what can a girl do but pick up her magic sword and her stuffed elephant and give her trademark battle cry:"Hi-yi-yi-yi! Come, Camrado! Evil wakes!"At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (DRM Rights Management).Can be found online at Baen Free Library