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.

    Air Force weapons expert Mike Kupari, co-author of Dead Six and Swords of Exodus, offers up a science fiction adventure. When privateer Captain Catherine Blackwood is enlisted to rescue her brother from a treacherous warlord, she finds herself on her most dangerous mission yet.It's been years since Catherine Blackwood left the stodgy, repressive colony world of Avalon. Now the captain of the privateer vessel Andromeda, she is the master of her own destiny. But Catherine soon finds herself back on Avalon after receiving a plea for help from a most unlikely source: her estranged father, esteemed Avalon Council member Augustus Blackwood. It seems Catherine's brother, the heir to the Blackwood aristocracy, has gone off in search of treasure on the failed, chaotic world of Zanzibar. But Cecil Blackwood's plans have gone very, very wrong, and he has been taken hostage and held for ransom by a fearsome local warlord. Augustus, knowing his daughter is the only one who can be trusted to return his son safely, swallows his pride and hires Catherine to bring her brother home. Catherine takes the job—but it won't be easy. Just getting to Zanzibar proves treacherous. And once she arrives, things only get worse. If she is to save her brother, Catherine Blackwood must face down danger at every turn and uncover a mystery four million years in the making. About Her Brother's Keeper: "After cowriting Dead Six and Swords of Exodus with Larry ­Correia, Kupari makes his solo debut with this space opera that is bound to attract fans of Mike ­Shepherd’s Kris Longknife series or Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War books. An excellent choice for both teen and adult sf readers."—Library Journal "[P]age-turning action . . . may be Kuperi's best book yet."—Galveston County Daily News “A big, sweeping space adventure, with heroic characters you care about. Mike Kupari is an awesome storyteller.”—Larry Correia

    Book One of a new Series (Year's Best Military and Adventure SF), featuring the best stories of the year from the top magazine and online venues with a military and adventure science fiction theme. With an introduction by best-selling military science fiction author David Drake and selected by editor David Afsharirad from the top short story markets in the field, here are the most thrilling, pulse-pounding, and thought-provoking stories of the past year. Stories of future military men and women, space opera on a grand scale, and edge-of-your-seat adventure tales in the pulp tradition, from giants of the genre to brilliant up-and-comers.Contents: Preface (The Year's Best Military SF & Space Opera) • essay by David Afsharirad Excitement! Adventure! Science Fiction! • essay by David Drake Codename: Delphi [The Red] (2014) / short story by Linda Nagata Persephone Descending (2014) / novelette by Derek Kunsken The End of the Silk Road (2014) / novelette by David D. Levine Picket Ship (2014) / novelette by Brad R.Torgersen Decaying Orbit (2014) / short story by Robert R. Chase Morrigan in the Sunglare (2014) / short story by Seth Dickinson Light and Shadow (2014) / short story by Linda Nagata Icarus at Noon (2014) / short story by Eric Leif Davin Soft Casualty [Freehold Short Fiction] (2014) / short story by Michael Z. Williamson Palm Strike's Last Case (2014) / novelette by Charlie Jane Anders Brood (2013) / novelette by Stephen Gaskell Stealing Arturo (2014) / novelette by William Ledbetter Rules of Engagement (2014) / novelette by Matthew Johnson Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind) (2014) / novelette by Holly Black War Dog (2014) / short story by Mike Barretta [as by Michael Barretta].

    It may be that we have to get out of Dodge before the lights go out on Earth.  How can we accomplish this? Wonderful questions.  Now get ready for some answers.  Here is the science behind interstellar propulsion: reports from top tier scientists and engineers on starflight propulsion techniques that use only means and methods that we currently know are scientifically possible. Here are in-depth essays on antimatter containment, solar sails, and fusion propulsion. And the human consequences?  Here is speculation by a magnificent array of award-winning SF writers on what an interstellar voyage might look like, might feel like—might be like.  It’s an all-star cast abounding with Hugo and Nebula award winners: Ben Bova, Mike Resnick, Jack McDevitt, Michael Bishop, Sarah Hoyt and more. Comprehensive Teacher's Guide available.

    Or even their planet. Pity the poor aliens, whose shape-changing ability should let them take over the planet Earth before the humans even know they’re there—if it weren’t for all that omnipresent pollution. Or consider another set of invaders, from a planet where the weather is always mild and the changing of the seasons is hardly noticeable. They land in force and their weapons are more powerful than those of the primitive humans—but they’ve never before had to deal with below-zero temperatures, flash floods or tornados—not to mention volcanoes. Then there were the aliens who noticed how belligerent humans were, and gave them the “gift” of TV-like devices which would show anything anywhere on Earth, which was sure to lead to war. Imagine how surprised the aliens were when the humans took the gadgets apart, improved them, and started spying on everything the aliens were up to, all over the galaxy. Humans don’t make sense, they don’t fight fair, and they’re making aliens throughout interstellar space think seriously about pulling up stakes and moving to another galaxy!

    But there is always a loophole… Harmon Tomeral wanted nothing more than to go to space. Sent to an orphanage when his parents were killed in a sandstorm, the odds were stacked against him. Despite that, he made it to the academy and graduated in the top ten percent of his class…only to find out the fleet did what it wanted, regardless of regulations, and he came from the wrong planet. He didn’t give up his dream, though, because where there’s a will, there’s a loophole, and Harmon and his friends found their loophole in the Top Fleet Marine competition—the winner would get 100,000 credits, which would just be enough to start their own salvage company. If they could build a mech and win the competition, they would be set. But the fleet had already shown they didn’t want him in space, so it would be an uphill fight. Good thing his friends and crew were very much against fleet regulations.

    

    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.

    Reprint.

    Jillian Sayles saw the concept one random night where insomnia was present while strolling Pinterest. She asked her friends to fly in for dinner and surprisingly, everyone obliged. This short story by National Best-Selling Author, Nako is pleasantly sweet and to the point. NAKO sheds light and emphasis on the importance of friendship centered around black women. If reading short stories are not your thing, please pass over this story. Happy Thanksgiving!

    Dick Award winning author of The Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides.POWERS OF THE IMAGINATION! Twenty-one pulse-pounding, mind-bending tales of science fiction, twisted metaphysics, and supernatural wonder from the two-time World Fantasy and Philip K. Dick Award-winning author of The Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides. A complete palette of storytelling colors from Powers, including acclaimed tale “The Bible Repairman,” in which a psychic handyman who supernaturally eliminates troublesome passages of the Bible for paying clients finds the remains of his own broken soul on the line. Time travel takes a savage twist in “Salvage and Demolition,” where the chance discovery of a long-lost manuscript throws a down-and-out book collector back in time to 1950s San Francisco where he must prevent an ancient Sumeric inscription from dooming millions in the future. And obsession and vengeance survive on the other side of death in “Down and Out in Purgatory,” where the soul of a man lusting for revenge attempts to eternally eliminate the killer who murdered the love of his life. Wide-ranging, wonder-inducing, mind-bending—these and other tales make up the complete shorter works of a modern-day master of science fiction and fantasy.  Praise for Down and Out in Purgatory: "Powers creates tales of dark, thought-provoking drama that are just frightening enough to make you keep the lights blazing but not enough to give you nightmares. . . . This is a treat for fans and newbies alike; hand it to readers who enjoy genre-blending authors as varied as Jim Butcher, Dean Koontz and China Mieville."—Booklist “Powers is a writer whose senses and soul are attuned to a cosmic symphony most of us would not hear without his deft channeling of the music.”—Paul di Filippo, Locus About Tim Powers: "Powers writes in a clean, elegant style that illuminates without slowing down the tale. . . . [He] promises marvels and horrors, and delivers them all."—Orson Scott Card ". . .  immensely clever stuff.... Powers' prose is often vivid and arresting . . . All in all, Powers' unique voice in science fiction continues to grow stronger.”—Washington Post Book World “Powers is at heart a storyteller, and ruthlessly shapes his material into narrative form.”—The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction “On Stranger Tides . . . immediately hooks you and drags you along in sympathy with one central character's appalling misfortunes on the Spanish Main, [and] escalates from there to closing mega-thrills so determinedly spiced that your palate is left almost jaded."—David Langford "On Stranger Tides . . . was the inspiration for Monkey Island. If you read this book you can really see where Guybrush and LeChuck were -plagiarized- derived from, plus the heavy influence of voodoo in the game. . . .  [the book] had a lot of what made fantasy interesting . . .”—legendary game designer Ron Gilbert “Powers's strengths [are] his originality, his action-crammed plots, and his ventures into the mysterious, dark, and supernatural.” Los Angeles Times Book Review "[Powers’ work delivers] an intense and intimate sense of period or realization of milieu; taut plotting, with human development and destiny . . . and, looming above all, an awareness of history itself as a merciless turning of supernatural wheels. . . . Powers' descriptions . . . are breathtaking, sublimely precise . . . his status as one of fantasy's major stylists can no longer be in doubt.”—SF Site

    So with the help of a wizard, King Jorian escaped. Unfortunately, his wife had been left behind. In order to pull off a rescue, Jorian would have to locate a trove of ancient spells, deal with an enemy wizard, steal an item from a 500-year-old princess, and then some. Contains three complete novels: The Goblin Tower, The Clocks of Iraz, and The Unbeheaded King

    Gladiators, as they are better known, are genetically modified human champions who meet Klethos d’relle in the combat ring when the Klethos issue a challenge for a human world. Win, and the planet stays in human possession; lose, and not only do they lose their lives, but the world as well. With the Klethos much more advanced and militarily powerful, able to defeat humanity in an all-out war, the challenge ring is the only way to retain at least some of the worlds of man. While life as a gladiator is full of celebrity status and the gratitude of humanity, it comes with a heavy price. Not only is there the real risk of death in the ring, if a gladiator survives that, the “Brick,” or Boosted Regeneration Cancer, will claim her life within a few years. Lance Corporal Veal, who has found a home in the Marines, has to decide whether to accept the nomination. She would have to leave her brothers and sisters in the Corps, be assigned to the combined human gladiator course, and undergo extreme genetic modification that will leave her almost unrecognizable from the woman she was before. Becoming a gladiator will enable her to serve humanity to a far greater extent than anything else she could do as a Marine grunt, but at a tremendous personal cost. Author’s note: For those readers familiar with my other Marine-related books, this one is a little different in that there is far less combat action, particularly from a Marine unit standpoint. This novel, which is the first of three planned books that follow three different women serving as United Federation Marines or as a Navy corpsman, is more about duty, sacrifice, and what it means to serve in defense of others.

    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.

    Known for his New York Times best-selling alternate history novels, Flint is equally a master of shorter forms, and this large volume gathers the best of Flint's shorter works. This generous selection includes: several stories and short novels set in Flint's celebrated Ring of Fire alternate history series; two stories from Flint's Joe's World humorous fantasy series; a story with Dave Freer, set in their popular rats, bats and vats series; a short novel set in Flint and David Drake's Belisarius series; and several shared-universe stories set in David Drake's Foreign Legions universe, and a story set in David Weber's best-selling Honor Harrington universe.In addition to the fiction, Eric Flint has written an overall introduction, plus an introduction for each story, telling how it came to be written, which will make this an irresistible book for the thousands of Eric Flint fans.