Search Worlds Without End

A new alternate history of America from the author of The Peshawar Lancers, the bestselling novel the Chicago Sun-Times called "a pleasure to read" and Harry Turtledove hailed as "first-rate adventure all the way."

1945: An ex-marine has discovered a portal that permits him to travel between the America he knows-and a virgin America untouched by European influence. 21st century: The two realities collide...

New York Times best-selling Author S. M. Stirling's first collection gathers his most interesting and evocative short stories, drawn from the length of his professional career. More than 100,000 words of fiction, including an original story, make this book a must for fans of Stirling's work. Whether Stirling is exploring alternate histories, chronicling military sf exploits, or off-kilter contemporary settings, his insightful characterizations and compelling plots are distinct and memorable.

Table of Contents:

• Riding Shotgun to Armageddon - (1998) - novelette
• The Three Walls--32nd Campaign - (2001) - novelette
• Cops and Robbers - (1986) - shortstory
• Roachstompers - (1989) - novelette
• Constant Never - (1994) - novelette
• Taking Freedom - (1999) - novelette
• Lost Legion - [Bolo] - (1993) - novelette
• Ancestral Voices - (1994) - novelette
• The Sixth Sun - (1997) - novella
• The Apotheosis of Martin Padway - (2005) - novelette
• Compadres - (2002) - shortstory and Richard Foss
• The Charge of Lee's Brigade - (1998) - shortstory
• Something for Yew - (2007) - novelette

Now, in this startling new anthology, S. M. Stirling invites the most fertile minds in science fiction to join him in expanding his rich Emberverse canvas. Here are inventive new perspectives on the cultures, the survivors, and the battles arising across the years and across the globe following the Change.

In his all-new story "Hot Night at the Hopping Toad," Stirling returns to his own continuing saga of the High Kingdom of Montival. In the accompanying stories are fortune seekers, voyagers, and dangers--from the ruins of Sydney to the Republic of Fargo and Northern Alberta to Venetian and Greek galleys clashing in the Mediterranean.

These new adventures revisit beloved people and places from Stirling's fantastic universe, introduce us to new ones, and deliver endlessly fascinating challenges to conquer, all while unfolding in a "postapocalyptic landscape that illuminates both the best and the worst of which our species is capable," "a world you can see, feel, and touch."

Table of Contents:

• "Hot Night at the Hopping Toad" by S. M. Stirling
• "Rate of Exchange" by A. M. Dellamonica
• "Tight Spot" by Kier Salmon
• "Against the Wind" by Lauren C. Teffeau
• "The Demons of Witmer Hall" by M. T. Reiten
• "Bernie, Lord of the Apes" by John Jos. Miller
• "The Seeker: A Poison in the Blood" by Victor Milán
• "Grandpa's Gift" by Terry D. England
• "Fortune and Glory" by John Birmingham
• "The Venetian Dialectic" by Walter Jon Williams
• "The Soul Remembers Uncouth Noises" by John Barnes
• "Topanga and the Chatsworth Lancers" by Harry Turtledove
• "The Hermit and the Jackalopes" by Jane Lindskold
• "The New Normal" by Jody Lynn Nye
• "A Missed Connection" by Emily Mah Tippetts
• "Deor" by Diana Paxson

In the mid-1870s, a violent spray of comets hits Earth, decimating cities, erasing shorelines, and changing the world's climate forever. And just as Earth's temperature dropped, so was civilization frozen in time. Instead of advancing technologically, humanity had to piece itself back together....

In the twenty-first century, boats still run on steam, messages arrive by telegraph, and the British Empire, with its capital now in Delhi, controls much of the world. The other major world leader is the Czar of All the Russias. Everyone predicts an eventual, deadly showdown. But no one can predict the role that one man, Captain Athelstane King, reluctant spy and hero, will play....

Struggling for freedom, New Empire officer Bren Morkaarin and rancher's daughter Kara Grenlaarin find their destinies intertwined as they battle side-by-side through the Imperial Sea toward the capital of the wizard kings.

Four award-winning authors. Four amazing alternate histories.

In this collection of novellas, four masters of alternate history turn back time, twisting the facts with four excursions into what might have been.

Bestselling author Harry Turtledove imagines a different fate for Socrates (now Sokrates); S. M. Stirling envisions life "in the wilds of a re-barbarized Texas" after asteroids strike the earth in the 19th century; Sidewise winner Mary Gentle contributes a story of love (and pigs) set in the mid-15th century, as European mercenaries prepare to sack a Gothic Carthage; and Nebula nominee Walter Jon Williams pens a tale of Nietzsche intervening in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Table of Contents:

• The Daimon - novella by Harry Turtledove
• The Real History Behind "The Daimon" - essay by Harry Turtledove
• Shikari in Galveston - novella by S. M. Stirling
• Why Then, There - essay by S. M. Stirling
• The Logistics of Carthage - novella by Mary Gentle
• 1477 and All That - essay by Mary Gentle
• The Last Ride of German Freddie - novella by Walter Jon Williams
• Afterword to "The Last Ride of German Freddie" - essay by Walter Jon Williams

The Narn have been greatly wronged by the Centauri. During the domination of their world by that sophisticated and ruthless people, the Narn were slaves in all but name; forced to watch as their world was stripped of everything of value. And when at last they succeeded in driving the hated dictators from Narn space, they were left with little but their freedom.

The first novel in a brand-new alternate history series where Teddy Roosevelt is president for a second time right before WWI breaks out, and on his side is the Black Chamber, a secret spy network watching America's back.

1916. The Great War rages overseas, and the whole of Europe, Africa, and western Asia is falling to the Central Powers. To win a war that must be won, Teddy Roosevelt, once again the American president, turns to his top secret Black Chamber organization--and its cunning and deadly spy, Luz O'Malley Aróstegui.

On a transatlantic airship voyage, Luz poses as an anti-American Mexican revolutionary to get close--very close--to a German agent code-named Imperial Sword. She'll need every skill at her disposal to get him to trust her and lead her deep into enemy territory. In the mountains of Saxony, concealed from allied eyes, the German Reich's plans for keeping the U.S. from entering the conflict are revealed: the deployment of a new diabolical weapon upon the shores of America...

The second novel in an alternate history series where Teddy Roosevelt is president once more right before WWI breaks out, and on his side is the Black Chamber, a secret spy network watching America's back.

After foiling a German plot to devastate America's coastal cities from Boston to Galveston, crack Black Chamber agent Luz O'Malley and budding technical genius Ciara Whelan go to California to recuperate. But their well-deserved rest is cut short by the discovery of a diabolical new weapon that could give the German Imperial Navy command of the North Sea.

Luz and Ciara must go deep undercover and travel across a world at war, and live under false identities in Berlin itself to ferret out the project's secrets. Close on their trail is the dangerous German agent codenamed Imperial Sword, who is determined to get his revenge, and a band of assault-rifle equipped stormtroopers, led by the murderously efficient killer Ernst Röhm. From knife-and-pistol duels on airships to the horrors of the poison-gas factories to harrowing marine battles in the North Sea, the fight continues--with a world as the prize.

The third novel in a World War I alternate history series where America's greatest weapon against Germany is Black Chamber secret agent Luz O'Malley and technical genius Ciara Whelan. Only they can protect America's best hope of winning the war.

The Great War is at a stalemate, and the only thing stopping Germany from striking America is the threat of the United States using their own Annihilation Gas against them. But America's supply is quickly decaying and the Central Powers know it.

A plant is under construction in the remote highlands of Mexico so that America can make their own supply. President Teddy Roosevelt assigns crack agent Luz O'Malley and her technical genius Ciara Whelan to watch over the plant operating under cover identities.

But German agent Horst von Duckler has escaped from the POW camp in El Paso, and he's heading in the same direction--bent on revenge against Luz, and sabotage that will deprive America of its deterrent and kill tens of thousands.

The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable. What follows is the most terrible global catastrophe in the history of the human race-and a Dark Age more universal and complete than could possibly be imagined.

The national bestselling alternate history epic continues...

Ten years after The Change rendered technology inoperable throughout the world, two brave leaders built two thriving communities in Oregon's Willamette Valley. But now the armies of the totalitarian Protectorate are preparing to wage war over the priceless farmland.

In the tenth year of The Change, the survivors in western Oregon have learned how to live in a world without technology. But a confrontation between the forces of those who would rebuild the world peacefully and the feared Protector, who will use whatever means at his command to extend his power, threatens to plunge the entire region into open warfare.

Rudi MacKenzie has grown up knowing that he will one day assume leadership over the survivors of the technological disaster known as the Change. But a prophecy made at his birth spoke of an even greater destiny-a destiny that is about to be fulfilled. A mysterious traveler from Nantucket, long rumored to be the source of the Change, arrives on a mission to bring Rudi back with him. And between him and his destiny lies the the cult of a madman determined to stop him...

Rudi MacKenzie continues his trek across the land that was once the United States of America. His destination: Nantucket, where he hopes to learn the truth behind The Change that rendered technology across the globe inoperable.

During his travels, Rudi forges ties with new allies in the continuing war against The Prophet, who teaches his followers that God has punished humanity by destroying technological civilization. And one fanatical officer in the Sword of The Prophet has been dispatched on a mission-to stop Rudi from reaching his destination by any means necessary.

Rudi Mackenzie has journeyed far across the land that was once the United States of America, hoping to find the source of the world-altering event that has come to be known as The Change. His final destination is Nantucket, an island overrun with forest, inhabited by a mere two hundred people who claim to have been transported there from out of time.

Only one odd stone house remains standing. Within it, Rudi finds a beautifully made sword waiting for him-and once he takes it up, nothing will ever be the same...

With The Sword of the Lady, Rudi Mackenzie's destiny was determined. Now he returns to Montival in the Pacific Northwest, where he will face the legions of the Prophet. To achieve victory, Rudi must assemble a coalition of those who had been his enemies a few months before and forge them into an army that will rescue his homeland.

Only then will Rudi be able to come to terms with how the Sword has changed him, as well as the world, and assume his place as Artos, High King of Montival...

Rudi McKenzie-now Artos, the High King of Montival-must fulfill his destiny. He wields the sword crafted for him before he was born. He has made friends of his enemies. He has won the heart of the woman he loves.

And now he must defeat the forces of the Church Universal and Triumphant, knowing he may lose his life in the final battle...

Rudi Mackenize, now Artos the First, High King of Montival, and his allies have won several key battles against the Church Universal and Triumphant. But still the war rages on, taking countless lives, ravaging the land once known as the United States of America. Artos and his Queen, Mathilda, must unite the realms into a single kingdom to ensure a lasting peace.

If the leaders of the Changed world are to accept Artos as their ruler, he will need to undertake a quest to the Lake at the Heart of the Mountains, and take part in a crowning ceremony--a ceremony binding him to his people, his ancestors, and his land.

Then, once he has secured his place and allegiances, Artos can go forward, and lead his forces to the heart of the enemy's territory....

Rudi Mackenzie has won the battle that expelled the enemy from the new High Kingdom of Montival. Now he must free the people who live in the state once known as Idaho from occupation by the legions of the Church Universal and Triumphant and pursue them to their lair over the mountains. There he will finally confront the forces behind the Church--the Powers of the Void.

Yet even a victory will not end the conflict forever. The Powers of the Void are malevolent and infinitely patient, and the struggle is one that involves the entire world. They threaten Rudi not only in the present, but also in the future represented by his children, Órlaith and John. Rudi knows this.

And as his heir Princess Órlaith grows up in the shadow of her famous father, she also realizes that the enemy will do anything to see that she does not live to fulfill her parents' dream....

A new generation faces its own challenges in the world the Change has made.

Princess Órlaith, heir to Rudi Mackenzie, Artos the First, High King of Montival, now wields the Sword of the Lady--and faces a new enemy. Fortunately, she also has a new ally in Reiko, Empress of Japan, who has been pursued to America by a conquering army from Asia.

To combat their mutual foe, Órlaith and Reiko embark on a quest to find the fabled Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword, one of the three great treasures of the Japanese Imperial House. But dreams have revealed that the road to Kusanagi lies through the meganecropolis of the City of Angels, the greatest and most perilous of the dead cities...and beyond it, to a castle in the fearful Valley of Death. And their relentless enemy will stop at nothing to prevent them from succeeding.

For across the Pacific, the great arc of land that stretches from the dark kingdom of Korea to the realm of Capricornia in Australia is threatened by war. Now all the survivors of the Change must choose sides....

Reiko, Empress of Japan, has allied herself with Princess Órlaith, heir to the High Kingdom of Montival, to find the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword, a legendary treasure of an ancient dynasty that confers valor and victory to its bearer. Órlaith understands all too well the power it signifies. Her own inherited blade, the Sword of the Lady, was both a burden and a danger to her father, Rudi Mackenzie, as it failed to save the king from being assassinated.

But the fabled sword lies deep with the Valley of Death, and the search will be far from easy. And war is building, in Montival and far beyond.

As Órlaith and Reiko encounter danger and wonder, Órlaith's mother, Queen Matildha, believes her daughter's alliance and quest has endangered the entire realm. There are factions both within and without Montival whose loyalty died with the king, and whispers of treachery and war grow ever louder.

And the Malevolence that underlies the enemy will bend all its forces to destroy them.

John Arminger Mackenzie wanted to be a troubadour, but fate made him the son of the king of Montival. His sister Princess Órlaith will deservedly inherit the throne of the High Kings, and it will only pass unto him in the event of her death, leaving the young Prince on an unknown path to discover his true role in the family.

The opportunity to prove his mettle comes when John's ship, the Tarshish Queen, is caught in the fierce storm raised against the enemies of the alliance. When the clouds recede and the skies clear, John and his crew find themselves on the other side of the Pacific, in the island chains of the Ceram Sea, fighting to survive against vicious pirates and monstrous creatures of the deep, meeting new allies and mysterious enemies of this world and another.

Now, Prince John must seize his birthright and lead his people in battle against the darkest forces man and nature can conjure against them.

The spirit of troubadour Prince John, the brother of Crown Princess Órlaith, has fallen captive to the power of the Yellow Raja and his servant, the Pallid Mask. Prince John's motley band of friends and followers--headed by Captain Pip of Townsville and Deor Godulfson--must lead a quest through realms of shadow and dreams to rescue Prince John from a threat far worse than death.

Meanwhile, across the sea, Japanese Empress Reiko and Órlaith, heir to the High Kingdom of Montival, muster their kingdoms for war, making common cause with the reborn Kingdom of Hawaii. But more than weapons or even the dark magic of the sorcerers of Pyongyang threaten them; Órlaith's lover, Alan Thurston, might be more than he appears.

From the tropical waters off Hilo and Pearl Harbor, to the jungles and lost cities of the Ceram Sea, a game will be played where the fate of the world is at stake.

Military SF fans of the Falkenberg legion saga will need to be in fighting trim to lug home The Prince, by Jerry Pournelle and S.M. Sterling. This hefty compendium includes the four novels Falkenberg's Legion, Prince of Mercenaries, Go Tell the Spartans and Prince of Sparta.

As all in her tribe, Shkai'ra was trained from childhood with one goal in mind--efficiency in the arts of war. At the age of 19, Shkai'ra is given a mission by the elders of her tribe--cross the steppes and enslave a Mintzan city or die in disgrace.

Sword-bearer Shkai'ra and her companion, Megan, dagger-wielding thief and mistress of illusion, are caught in a life-or-death struggle between rival magical powers as a deadly secret threatens to destroy the balance of peace and the Fehinnan Empire.

This book has been revised and republished as Saber and Shadow.

Habiku destroyed the trading house Megan had built from nothing and sold her into slavery, tearing down everything she valued. But Megan was not to be best ed, and with the barbarian Shkai'ra and others, she planned to wreak her vengeance in the most horrible way she could imagine--with the Cage.

After learning that her kidnapped son has at last been traced to Arko, currently under siege by the multinational forces of brilliant young general Chevenga Lion's Heart, Megan Thane becomes a mercenary in Chevenga's motley army. It's only a matter of time before Chevenga's army defeats the Arkans.

Jimmy the Hand, boy thief of Krondor, lived in the shadows of the city. The sewers were his byways and a flea-ridden, rat-infested cellar his home. Although gifted beyond his peers, he was still but a nimble street urchin, a pickpocket with potential. Until the day he met Prince Arutha.

Aiding the Prince in his rescue of Princess Anita from imprisonment by Duke Guy du Bas-Tyra, Jimmy runs afoul of Black Guy's secret police. Given the choice of disappearing on his own or in a weighted barrel at the bottom of Krondor's harbor, Jimmy flees the only home he's ever known, venturing south to the relatively safe haven of Land's End. Suspecting that the rural villagers have never encountered a lad with his talent and nose for finding wealth-other people's wealth-he's fairly optimistic about his broadening horizons. But Jimmy is completely unprepared for what greets him.

For Land's End is home to others who tread the crooked path, and more, to a much darker secret: a dangerous presence unknown even to the local thieves and smugglers. And Jimmy's youthful bravado and courage will plunge him deep into the maw of chaos and even-if he isn't careful-death.

The fastest way to get ahead in Kzin society is to cut through the endless challenges and duels to the death--and take on your father. But Chuut-Riit, Planetary Governor of occupied planet Wunderland, is teaching his kits a new way--the way of the humans. And the humans don't like it, at all. Expanded from parts of Man-Kzin Wars II and Man-Kzin Wars III.

Two complete novels of the top-selling Man-Kzin Wars in one hugh volume: The Children's Hour by Jerry Pournelle and S.M. Stirling: As the war rages on between the mighty felinoid warriors from the planet Kzin and the wimpy leaf-eating monkey-boys from Earth, one Kzin commander has decided to learn from the monkeys and cooperate to conquer. But the humans know how to get the rivals of an enemy to cooperate, too. Cathouse by Dean Ing: In another corner of the galaxy, Carroll Locklear is stranded on a planet with a group of prehistoric Kzinti. To survive, he must find common cause, if not with the males, then with the females of that antiques species...

Table of Contents:

• Cathouse - (1988) - novella by Dean Ing
• Briar Patch - (1989) - novella by Dean Ing
• The Children's Hour - (1991) - novel by Jerry Pournelle and S. M. Stirling

Born and bred to hunting, they had never encountered a species they couldn't treat as prey - until they met the canny pseudo-pacifists from Planet Earth. They nearly overwhelmed humanity on first contact, but fast as you can say "Ghengis Khan" or "Alexander the Great" the seemingly harmless monkey boys were all over the pussycats like ugly on an ape, with space fleets and strategic thinking that left the Warrior Race quite dazzled.

But that was then and this is now.

The pain of lost battles has faded and the Kzinti are back, spoiling for a fight, Larry Niven's Known Space is again aflame with war.

Contents:

• vii - Introduction (The Man-Kzin Wars II) - essay by Larry Niven
• 3 - Briar Patch - [Man-Kzin Wars] - novella by Dean Ing
• 136 - The Children's Hour - [Man-Kzin Wars] - novella by Jerry Pournelle and S. M. Stirling

After losing three significant battles to the humans, the Kzin begin to wonder if their combative diplomatic style is working and decide to reevaluate their strategy.

Contents:

• 7 - In the Hall of the Mountain King - [Man-Kzin Wars] - novel by Jerry Pournelle and S. M. Stirling
• 205 - Hey Diddle Diddle - [Man-Kzin Wars] - novella by Thomas T. Thomas

It's spring on Nantucket and everything is perfectly normal, until a sudden storm blankets the entire island. When the weather clears, the island's inhabitants find that they are no longer in the late twentieth century...but have been transported instead to the Bronze Age! Now they must learn to survive with suspicious, warlike peoples they can barely understand and deal with impending disaster, in the shape of a would-be conqueror from their own time.

Against the Tide of Years continues the adventures of the Nantucket residents who have been transported through time to the Bronze Age. In the years since their arrival, the fledging Republic of Nantucket has striven to better the primitive world in which they now exist. Their prime concerns are establishing a constitution and handling the waves of immigrants from the British Isles. But a renegade time traveler plans his own future by forging an empire for himself based on conquest by modern technology. The Republic has no alternative but to face the inevitable war brought on by one of their own....

Ten years ago, inhabitants of the twentieth century and the Bronze Age were tossed together by the Event. But as two worlds converge, only one can be the victor in a battle to lead this strange new world.

Eons ago, the powerful Homo Nocturnis ruled the earth. While their numbers have been greatly reduced, they still exist-though not as purebreds. Adrian Breze is one such being. Wealthy and reclusive, he is more Shadowspawn than human. But he rebelled against his kind, choosing to live as an ordinary man. Now, to save humanity, he must battle the dark forces of the world-including those in his own blood...

Adrian Breze has long defied his pure-bred Shadowspawn heritage as part of an ancient race of shapeshifters who once reigned supreme. But when his ruthless sister Adrienne kidnapped his human lover Ellen, he emerged from seclusion to rescue her.

Before her defeat, Adrienne revealed that the Council of Shadows was marshalling its strength to rule the world once again. To stop them, Adrian and Ellen must ally with the Brotherhood, a resistance group dedicated to breaking the Council's hold on humankind.

In the coming confrontation, Adrian must fight not only the members of the Council but also his own nature...and, he will come to suspect, traitors within the Brotherhood itself...

She's back....

Near-purebred Homo nocturnus Adrian Brézé and his human mate, Ellen, thought they had dealt with his twin sister, Adrienne. In fact, they thought she was dead.

But she survived and now leads a faction of the Shadowspawn--the ancient, shape-shifting, blood-drinking breed who secretly control the world--that wants to leave just enough of the human race alive to satisfy their hunger and serve their needs. She has nothing but hatred and contempt for her brother, who remains on the side of humanity, fighting with the Brotherhood against the Shadowspawn.

To defeat him, she has suborned his mentor--the greatest warrior of the Brotherhood. The man thinks he's bringing a weapon to the Council of Shadows that will wipe out the Shadowspawn's leaders. In truth, his actions will make Adrienne demon-goddess of the world...unless Adrian and Ellen can turn him back in time.

In an alternate universe, the rise of the Nazis has forced the United States and its allies to make common cause with the Draka--an empire originating in South Africa that has reduced all of the African continent and much of Asia to slavery. The allies desperately need the Draka's courage and military might. But they have made a devil's bargain, for the Draka have their own agenda beyond crushing the Nazis: first reduce all of the nations of Europe that they "liberate" to slavery--then enslave the rest of the world.

Tanya von Shrakenberg established a plantation, Chateau Retour, in formerly-French Touraine Province. She purchases as serfs Marya Sokolowska, formerly a Polish nun, Chantal Lefarge, a French Communist and Chantal's sister Therese. The three are escorted from the security holding compound by Yasmin, a senior serf belonging to Tanya. During the journey to the plantation, the convoy is attacked by French partisans who are defeated by forces in the convoy, including Tanya, Yasmin's father Tom and by a Draka response force. The partisans are tortured to death.

The Stone Dogs is the third of four books of S.M. Stirling's alternate history series, The Domination.

During the cold war between the Alliance and the Domination, Frederic and Marya work for the OSS as spies and assassins. During the Draka conquest of India, Marya Lefarge is taken prisoner. She becomes a serf to Yolande Ingolfsson, who after torturing her repeatedly with a neural weapon, forces her to become a "brooder" (i.e. a surrogate mother) for her offspring, Gwendolyn. Yolande also swears vengeance on Fred Lefarge after he kills her lover, Myfanwy Venders, during the Indian Incident.

As both superpowers expand into space, they prepare different doomsday weapons. The Alliance's weapon is a computer virus ("comp plague") secretly planted in Draka military computers by spies; the Draka's is a biological virus called the Stone Dogs that causes infected personnel to go insane. Yolande discovers Marya, who has contacted the OSS, planting the comp-plague and allows her to escape with knowledge of the Stone Dogs. This forces her uncle, Archon Eric von Shrakenberg, to use the weapon prematurely. The Draka win the resulting conflict; however, their incomplete victory leads to Eric negotiating an arrangement whereupon the Alliance is allowed to launch its generation ship "The New America" and the remaining Alliance survivors in space are granted limited Draka citizenship.

Gwendolen Ingolfsson, hurled into a parallel Earth filled with billions of unaltered, antique humans when the molehole experiment she was working on malfunctioned, is very clear where her duty lies. As a member of the Draka, genetically engineered to dominate crude, unmodified humans, her task is to build a molehole device in this universe and establish a bridgehead for the Race to come through. It had been some time since the Draka last had such an opportunity for conquest...

As for Detective-Lieutenant Henry Carmaggio, he'd seen plenty of blood, both in Cambodia and in twenty years of police work. But he'd never seen anything like this. Something was loose in his city, something inhuman that walked among us, killing with the easy precision of a leopard in a flock of sheep. And unless he could track it down it would kill and kill again - until the whole world was its hunting ground.

THINK ABOUT HISTORY. NOW MAKE IT WORSE...

The Domination of the Draka begins as a British possession in Africa, but soon becomes far more. Absorbing refugees after the American Revolution, and later the Civil War, the Draka become a people bred to rule with an iron fist. They permanently enslave the peoples of Africa, when they do not simply kill them.

But this does not slake the Draka thirst for power. Sweeping across the world, the Draka empire engulfs nation after nation, shackling into servitude all who are not Draka. Europe, Asia, and finally all the Earth and its colonies throughout the Solar System fall before the might of the Draka.

But empires are not faceless monoliths; they are made of individuals, complex humans with their own hopes and dreams. And so one might ask: Who are the Draka? What sort of people does the Domination rule? The Draka would have many different answers...

On planet Bellevue, isolated for centuries after the collapse of interstellar civilization, a sentient computer still functions. When it and Raj, a young military officer, discover each other, a spark is struck which offers hope to benighted Bellevue. But first Raj must become the General.

A monolithic computer is using General Raj Whitehall to reunite the planet and start humanity back on the road to technological achievement, but armies of musket- and saber-wielding barbarians stand in the way.

With the aid of a sentient battle computer, Raj Whitehall and his band of sworn Companions struggle to reunite the entire planet of Bellevue and find their mission impeded by Barholm Clerett.

On a mission to reunite the planet Bellvue, Raj Whitehall and his men must conquer a group of barbarians or else his civilization could plunge into an era of darkness.

Undertaking a mission to conquer the last of the barbarian nations and restore the Federation on the planet Bellevue, Raj Whitehall finds a desperate challenge in paranoid overlord Barholm Clerett, who is determined to kill Raj.

Picking up where their highly successful sreies The General leaves off, The Chosen follows the further adventures of Raj Whitehall and Battle Central--this time to the stars! Working with an ancient battle computer in order to prepare hundreds of planets for membership in the Second Federation of Man, Raj Whitehall encounters the militarist planet of Visigar, where racial practices are used to prevent unity.

After the collapse of galactic civilization, the computer named Center still functioned and launched electronic copies of itself and its human agent, Raj, to the thousands of worlds still waiting for the light of civilization to dawn. On Hafardine, civilization had fallen further than most. That men came from the stars was not even a rumour of memory in Adrian Gellert's day. A philosopher and Student of the Grove, Adrian's greatest desire was a life of contemplation in the service of wisdom. Until the day he touched the holy relic that contained the discarnate minds of Center and Raj Whitehall ...From that day on his life became one of action, from the law-courts of the Empire of Vanbret to the pirate cities of the Archipelago, on battlefields bloodier than any he'd learned of in history - where the prize at stake was the future of humanity.

Marc Vitrac was born in Louisiana in the early 1960's, about the time the first interplanetary probes delivered the news that Mars and Venus were teeming with life--even human life. At that point, the "Space Race" became the central preoccupation of the great powers of the world.

Now, in 1988, Marc has been assigned to Jamestown, the US-Commonwealth base on Venus, near the great Venusian city of Kartahown. Set in a countryside swarming with sabertooths and dinosaurs, Jamestown is home to a small band of American and allied scientist-adventurers.

But there are flies in this ointment - and not only the Venusian dragonflies, with their yard-wide wings. The biologists studying Venus's life are puzzled by the way it not only resembles that on Earth, but is virtually identical to it. The EastBloc has its own base at Cosmograd, in the highlands to the south, and relations are frosty. And attractive young geologist Cynthia Whitlock seems impervious to Marc's Cajun charm.

Meanwhile, at the western end of the continent, Teesa of the Cloud Mountain People leads her tribe in a conflict with the Neanderthal-like beastmen who have seized her folk's sacred caves. Then an EastBloc shuttle crashes nearby, and the beastmen acquire new knowledge... and AK47's.

Jamestown sends its long-range blimp to rescue the downed EastBloc cosmonauts, little suspecting that the answer to the jungle planet's mysteries may lie there, among tribal conflicts and traces of a power that made Earth's vaunted science seem as primitive as the tribesfolk's blowguns. As if that weren't enough, there's an enemy agent on board the airship...

Extravagant and effervescent, The Sky People is alternate-history SF adventure at its best.

In the parallel world first introduced in S. M. Stirling's The Sky People, aliens terraformed Mars (and Venus) two hundred million years ago, seeding them with life-forms from Earth. Humans didn't suspect this until the twentieth century, but when the first probes landed on our sister worlds, and found life--intelligent life, at that--things changed with a vengeance. By the year 2000, America, Russia, and the other great powers of Earth are all contending for influence and power amid the newly-discovered inhabitants of our sister planets.

Venus is a primitive world. But on Mars, early hominids evolved civilization earlier than their earthly cousins, driven by the needs of a harsh world growing still harsher as the initial terraforming runs down. Without coal, oil, or uranium, their technology was forced into different paths, and the genetic wizardry of the Crimson Dynasty united a world for more than twenty thousand years.

Now, in a new stand-alone adventure set in this world's 2000 AD, Jeremy Wainman is an archaeologist who has achieved a lifelong dream; to travel to Mars and explore the dead cities of the Deep Beyond, searching for the secrets of the Kings Beneath the Mountain and the fallen empire they ruled.

Teyud Zha-Zhalt is the Martian mercenary the Terrans hire as guide and captain of the landship Intrepid Traveller. A secret links her to the deadly intrigues of Dvor il-Adazar, the City That Is A Mountain, where the last aging descendant of the Tollamune Emperors clings to the remnants of his power... and secrets that may trace their origin to the enigmatic Ancients, the Lords of Creation who reshaped the Solar System in the time of the dinosaurs.

When these three meet, the foundations of reality will be shaken--from the lost city of Rema-Dza to the courts of the Crimson Kings.

Simeon was the "brain" running a peaceful space station--but when the invaders arrived, his only hope of protecting his crew was to become "the city who fought". Previous titles in this bestselling series include "The Ship Who Searched, The Ship Who Won", and "PartnerShip".

It's ten years later, and Joat, the eleven year old techno-demon from "The Ship Avenged," is an adult herself, and by hook, crook, and blackmail (with an assist from Rand, her very own Artificial Intelligence), she's become one of the youngest commercial ship owners in human space.

Using the good ship WYAL (for While You Ain't Looking) for various motley "transport" jobs, she has quickly gained a reputation as a trustworthy courier with a flexible approach to the rules. Which is why Centrals Worlds Security haas recruited Joat and the WYAL to determine the present whereabouts of the Kolnari space raiders, with whom Joat has an old score to settle.

But Belazair of the Kolnari has his own plans for revenge through an incurable and highly infectious disease that quickly destroys the higher brain functions, leaving the body a mindless husk. Belazair needs to find a carrier ship to spread the infection - and the carrier he has hired is Joat, who is completely unaware that she is receiving a deadly cargo which could destroy civilization throughout the galaxy!

This is the first anthology of stories set in the Honorverse. The stories in the anthologies serve to introduce characters, provide deeper, more complete backstory and flesh out the universe of the main series. David Weber, author of the mainline Honor Harrington series, serves as editor for the anthologies, maintaining fidelity to the series' canons.

Table of Contents:

"A Beautiful Friendship" by David Weber: The story of the first meeting between humans (Stephanie Harrington) and treecats (Climbs Quickly). This story was later expanded to a full length young adult novel, published in 2011.

"A Grand Tour" by David Drake: A story with few links to any other in the Honorverse setting. Careful reading may reveal similarities to the first novel in his RCN Series, in the characters, style, and attitude. Both were published in 1998. Indeed Drake confirms that "A Grand Tour" is the conceptual antecedent of With the Lightnings.

"A Whiff of Grapeshot" by S. M. Stirling: This story serves as background to the "Leveler Uprising" mentioned in the early chapters of In Enemy Hands. A radical Havenite faction stages an uprising against the rule of the Committee of Public Safety, wreaking havoc in the Havenite capital city of Nouveau Paris. With the Committee's security forces in complete disarray following an attack on its information network, the only forces able to intervene and restore order are Navy ships under the command of Admiral Esther McQueen, even though the Admiral is not precisely a supporter of the Committee and has an agenda of her own.

"The Universe of Honor Harrington" by David Weber: A "deep background" essay covering such diverse topics as the physics of space travel, the mechanics space colonization and politics of various "star nations", such as Manticore, Haven and the Solarian League.