Search Worlds Without End

A Tale Of Revenge

Vulcan was a factory planet, centuries old, Company run, ugly as sin, and unfeeling as death.

Vulcan bred just two types of native -- complacent or tough... and Sten was tough.

When his family died in a mysterious "accident," Sten rebelled, harassing the Company from the metal world's endless mazelike warrens.

Sten would have ended up just another burnt-out Delinquent if he hadn't rescued a mysterious stranger who turned out to be his ticket off Vulcan -- and an express ride back!

The Eternal Emperor ruled countless worlds across the galaxy. Vast armies and huge fleets awaited his command. But when he needed a "little" job done right, he turned to Mantis Team and its small band of militant problem solvers.

Just then the Emperor needed to pacify the Wolf Worlds, the planets of an insignificant cluster that had raised space piracy to a low art.

And Mantis Team could use all the men it needed -- as long as it needed no more than two.

Sten had fought his way up from slave laborer on a factory world to commander of the Eternal Emperor's bodyguard, the Imperial Gurkhas.

But during the first three months on Prime World, the most dangerous weapons Sten encountered were the well-phrased lies of Court politicians. It seemed no place for an honest fighting man. Then a bomb turned a spaceport bar and three strangers into scraps and well-mixed hamburger. The clues said "plot" and pointed right to the imperial staff.

Only quick -- and bloody -- work by Sten, Alex Kilgour, and a tough female detective would keep the Empire together and the Eternal Emperor alive.

Sten's luck was finally running out.

He had barely scraped through Imperial flight school when he was assigned a tac division in the Fringe Worlds, where the Imperial officers were more concerned with the perfect fit of their dress whites than with honing their fighting skills.

The enemy Tahn couldn't have picked a better time or place to launch their long-planned attack against the Empire. Sten and his men were outgunned, outmanned, and outfought -- and no reinforcements could be expected from the besieged Eternal Emperor.

It looked like Sten's number was up. But if he had to go, he didn't intend to go alone...

Sten had fully expected to die in a blaze of glory, taking his Emperor's greatest foe with him. Instead he was a slave laborer in a P.O.W. camp deep in the heart of enemy territory.

But sitting out the action had never been Sten's style. And now that the war was building to a climax, the Eternal Emperor needed him more than ever. Not even the toughest prison in the known universe could keep Sten from his mission...

The Privy Council who ruled in place of the dead Eternal Emperor needed to find his secret source of Anti-Matter Two. Unfortunately, the only man who knew where it could be wasn't talking. He had an agenda of his own and was willing to destroy the universe if he couldn't get his way....

The Eternal Emperor had returned at last from the dead, to pick up the pieces of his crumbling Empire. But even that great leader could not halt the Empire's decline alone. And so Sten, master spy, military strategist, and assassin, found himself appointed Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Altaic Cluster, where a brewing civil war threatened the stability of the Empire itself.

Quelling a civil war was nothing new for Sten. But as one thing after another went wrong, he began to suspect that he was up against more than a mere local disturbance. Someone -- operating in deepest cover, with the highest authority -- was working behind the scenes to manipulate events and escalate disaster. And that someone wanted nothing more than to see Sten dead...

At last! The explosive finale of Sten's adventures as the eternal emperor's most trusted friend, bodyguard, troubleshooter... and assassin!

See Sten undertake the ultimate treasure hunt, as he and his comrades seek out the source of the Eternal Emperor's power: Anti-Matter Two.

Learn the secret of the Eternal Emperor's past: Who is he? Where did he come from? And how did he become immortal?

Watch as the loyal Sten turns traitor at last, turning on the Eternal Emperor to save his own skin...and the Empire itself!

Eternity is doomed to end. And if sten has his way, it will end sooner than later!

Contents:

• Sten - [Sten - 1] - (1982) - novel
• The Wolf Worlds - [Sten - 2] - (1984) - novel
• The Court of a Thousand Suns - [Sten - 3] - (1986) - novel

Contents:

• Fleet of the Damned - [Sten - 4] - (1988) - novel
• Revenge of the Damned - [Sten - 5] - (1989) - novel
• The Return of the Emperor - [Sten - 6] - (1990) - novel

Contents:

• Vortex - [Sten - 7] - (1992) - novel
• Empire's End - [Sten - 8] - (1993) - novel

The Far Kingdoms...a place of bright sunlight surrounded by dark, deadly wilderness. A place where the princes and magicians were kind and wise beyond all imagination. A place where wine and song were always sweet, every purse was fat with gold, and every heart at ease. The Far Kingdoms... said to lie in the distant east, across the straits of the Narrow Sea, beyond the benighted Pepper Coast, in uncharted territory. The Far Kingdoms... a place no one could reach even if it were real - which surely it wasn't.

Young, pampered Amalric Antero cared only for real places and possible dreams. The time had come to Find His Tradewind, to make the traditional journey seeking out new lands, new riches, new customers as his merchant father, and his father's father, had done before him. He meant only to do as all young traders did: travel to the known lands in the west and return home having proved himself able to deal well with his father's customers. Nothing more was expected. But then he met Janos Greycloak, a dashing soldier who dabbled in forbidden magic and who carried on him proof of riches and mysteries beyond imagination. And suddenly Amalric found himself setting out on the adventure of a lifetime, a daring and perilous quest through unknown lands peopled by nightmares, to seek the ultimate in fables... The Far Kingdoms!

Captain Rali Emilie Antero came from an illustrious family of traders, wizards, and adventurers. But Rali cared little for magic, and even less for journeying. She was a soldier, captain of the elite Maranon Guard, staunch defenders of the majestic city of Orissa. But her family legacy was about to catch up with her. For the Guard's latest mission was sheer suicide: a sea-going odyssey in search of an evil master wizard--the last Archon of Lycanth--who had fled with a secret doomsday spell that could destroy all of civilization. It would be Rali's greatest challenge: a desperate pursuit, raging across the great Western Sea to the fire reefs that marked the end of the world--and beyond, to places unmarked even in legend. But only in the uncharted territories of her own soul--and the heritage of the Anteros--would Rali find the power to defeat the Archon and return to Orissa in triumph.

Ever since Amalric Antero returned from the legendary Far Kingdoms, bringing with him magic and riches, the people of Orissa believed they lived in a golden age. Even Amalric did not suspect the truth: that dark forces from another world threatened his beloved city. Then a beautiful stranger arrived claiming to be the great-granddaughter of Janos Greycloak, master-wizard and betrayer of Amalric's youth. And Amalric learned that the idyllic lands he had thought were the Far Kingdoms were not - and that the real Far Kingdoms, the Kingdoms of the Night, were all that stood between civilization and unimaginably evil powers from another world.

For those who thrill to the adventure and wonder of The Anteros, here is the book in which all the secrets from Kingdoms of the Night are finally, dazzlingly, revealed. For new initiates, this tale stands alone, entry to a world of intrigue, high drama, derring-do... and, most of all, magic!

All of Orissa believed that Rali Emilie Antero, legendary warrior and sorceress extraordinaire, was dead, lost at sea during some grand adventure gone wrong. In fact, Rali was not dead, but left entombed in ice to dream for eternity--until a goddess needed her for one last quest. Novari, a beautiful succubus intent on achieving ultimate power, had swept the world by storm. All the Anteros had been assassinated--save one: a golden, magical child named Emilie. Novari had succeeded in taking Orissa. Now she had only to sieze little Emilie, as well. But she never counted on the return of Rali Antero.

King of Kings, Lord over Men and Demons Alike: Only one ruler had ever held that title, and now Iraj Protarus, an orphaned prince exiled to a small village high in the Valley of the Clouds, dreamed of being the next great conqueror.

The key to his destiny would be Safar Timura, a youth with an awesome gift for sorcery, whose visions foretold Iraj's rise to power. And in those visions, Safar stood at Iraj's side, his soul-blasting spells enabling his friend to attain his dreams.

But Safar had other visions with darker portents, and his spellbound knowledge raised secrets better left buried. The road the two men followed would be rich in titles and fortunes, but it would also be rich in death and disaster, in intrigue--and in unforgivable betrayal...

A nameless evil stalks the land, preying on all that lives, human and demon alike. Only one man has the power to stem the ravening tide: Safar Timura, greatest wizard of the age, whose matchless magic once raised Iraj Protarus to the throne of all Esmir... and then, when king turned tyrant, destroyed him.

Now Safar is done with the deadly intrigues of courts and kings. Back in his mountain home of Kyrania, he wants only to be left alone. But when a brutal murder smashes his solitude, Safar must lead his people on a desperate trek to safety--a perilous journey to fabled, far-off Syrapis guided only by a magical vision and the words of a sorcerer long dead. The road leads straight through dark Caluz, a once-proud land now fallen beneath the sorcerous yoke of an unspeakable darkness.

But there is no going back. Close at Safar's heels another evil follows like a rapacious wolf: Iraj Protarus. For the King of Kings has returned from the dead, hideously transformed--and thirsting for Safar's blood.

Enter lands of mystery, magic, and danger in the triumphant epic fantasy inspired by The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám!

The realm is tormented by catastrophe. Lord Safar Timura, the great wizard, is trapped in the doomed world of Hadin, condemned to suffer and die, over and over again. It is up to his wizard son, Prince Palimak, to stop the disaster slowly poisoning land and sea.

Though he is half human and half demon, even Palimak may not possess the awesome powers needed to free Safar and discover the great lost tomb, guarded by a fierce she-beast who holds secrets to halt the terror.