Search Worlds Without End

The Centran Empire was both benevolent and complacent. Benevolent, even as it overwhelmed every new inhabited planet it encountered with its military might--but once the planet was pacified, its inhabitants were uplifted to Centran standards of living and the benefits of membership in the Empire. Complacent, because the Empire had long been expanding without encountering more than minor obstacles. And then they came across Pandora's Planet, that is, Earth....

In spite of the Centran superiority in technology, the conquest of Earth took over three months, when the invaders were used to wrapping things up in less than two weeks. But "conquest" might be too optimistic a term to use, since the locals were still waging guerrilla warfare and sabotage, and the Centrans were hanging on by their equivalent of fingernails. And then the Centran scientists tested a group of humans and found that the humans were more intelligent than the Centrans.

One Centran leader had an idea that might save the Centrans from being ignominiously kicked off the planet again. Since the humans were good at war, why not put together teams of humans to go out to the fringes of Centran space and handle planets that were proving difficult The teams performed magnificently--but back in the heart of the Empire, humans and their weird new ideas were spreading like wildfire, and if something weren't done soon, the humans would end up running the former Centran Empire....

Contents

• Pandora's Planet
• Able Hunter
• Pandora's Envoy
• Pandora's Unlocked Box
• The Toughest Opponent
• Contagious Earthitis
• Trap
• Pandora's Galaxy
• Sweet Reason
• Afterword (Pandora's Legions) - essay by Eric Flint

Maaron Denthurion is a Televox, a legate deputed with the authority and power of the Metastable Order, a human empire that has ruled over a quarter of the galaxy for fifty thousand years, despite the fact that neither faster than light travel nor communication are possible. Televoxes are agents of anti-change, traveling the Metastable Order in starships, making sure that everything is in proper order, that everything stays exactly as it was, forever.

Now, Denthurion comes to the ancient colony world of Olam, ruled by an all-powerful theorcracy that dominates both humans and the downtrodden Hodai natives, warning them with a single word: Prepare! The Televox can do anything he wants with their world, up to and including its complete and utter destruction. It all depends on what he finds on the ground.

Gary Connoway had heard rumors of a mysterious Cult of Death even before he arrived in San Mario, but nothing could have prepared him for the unspeakable evil that stalked him now. He had come to the primitive Caribbean island for rest and instead found love in the arms of Juana, a beautiful island girl. Now in the jungle they both faced a relentless, oncoming horror that only the awesome power of voodoo could have raised and only the power of voodoo could stop.

Somewhere on the outer rim of the universe, a mass of decaying world-ships known as the Legion is traveling in the seams between the stars. For generations, a war for control of the Legion has been waged, with no clear resolution. As worlds continue to die, a desperate plan is put into motion.

Zan wakes with no memory, prisoner of a people who say they are her family. She is told she is their salvation - the only person capable of boarding the Mokshi, a world-ship with the power to leave the Legion. But Zan's new family is not the only one desperate to gain control of the prized ship. Zan finds that she must choose sides in a genocidal campaign that will take her from the edges of the Legion's gravity well to the very belly of the world.

Zan will soon learn that she carries the seeds of the Legion's destruction - and its possible salvation. But can she and her ragtag band of followers survive the horrors of the Legion and its people long enough to deliver it?

Hugo Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, April 2003. The story can also be found in the anthologies Science Fiction: The Best of 2003, edited by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan, and The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF (2013) edited by Mike Ashley. It is included in the collections The Dog Said Bow Wow (2007) and The Best of Michael Swanwick (2008).

Karl Wagner wrote this pastiche of Robert E. Howard's pictish king, Bran Mac Morn, during the heyday of Howard reprints in paperback.

Wagner wove a tale of swords and sorcery around the very real disappearance of the Roman 9th Legion in Britain.

Set in the earliest days of Britain, Legion from the Shadows chronicles the efforts of Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts, to hold the land against Roman invaders. But soon Bran Mak Morn must lead his folk not only against the Romans but also against the dreaded People of the Dark.

He had destroyed his punchcards and changed his face. There was no credit card, birth record, or passport for him in the International Data Bank. His names were many... any he chose. His occupation was taking megarisks in the service of a vast global detective agency. His interworld assignments were highly lucrative, incalculably vital, and terrifyingly deadly. And more often then not, his life was a living hell!

Table of Contents:

• The Eve of RUMOKO - (1969)
• 'Kjwalll'kje'k'koothaïlll'kje'k - (1973)
• Home is the Hangman - (1975)

On the colony planet of Terra Nova, Carrera has achieved his revenge, destroying those who had destroyed his life by killing his wife and children in a terrorist strike. And, with this help of his second wife, he has thwarted an attempted coup that would have restored the rule of the oligarchy and undone his hard-won victory. But his fight is not over yet...

The problem of the Tauran Union's control of the Transitway between Terra Nova and Earth remains, as does the problem of the nuclear armed United Earth Peace Fleet, orbiting above the planet. The Taurans will not leave, and the Balboans--a proud people, with much recent success in war – will not tolerate that they should remain.

And yet, with one hundred times the population and three or four hundred times the wealth, the Tauran Union outclasses little Balboa in almost every way, even without the support of Old Earth. Sadly, they have that support. Everything, everyone, will have to be used to finish the job of freeing the country and, if possible, the planet. The children must fight. The old must serve, too. And the women?

This is their story, the story of Balboa's Tercio Amazona, the Amazon Regiment.

One of the strangest adventurers in the history of science fiction. It is millennia from now and mankind has vanished from the Earth, under mysterious circumstances...

But he has left a legacy behind him: a host of intelligent species artificially enhanced by means of humanity's genetic science. Aldair is one such product, an intelligent, upright pig.

Bombed to the brink of oblivion, the planet Centauri Prime is starting the slow and painful process of rebuilding, under the watchful eye of Emperor Londo Mollari. But Londo is in turn being watched -- and manipulated -- by the conquest-hungry Drakh. The malevolent beings are reshaping the Centauri Republic into a secret seat of power from which to strike out at their enemies -- especially the Interstellar Alliance.

All but helpless to resist, Londo watches as his beloved Homeworld is transformed into a ruthless police state. And the Drakh have willing allies, including one of Londo's own countrymen -- Durla, a powerful official with his own sinister agenda.

As the abuses of the repressive new Republic escalate, the double-edged Drakh master plan begins to unfold. Their goal is to smash the Interstellar Alliance by assassinating its president, John Sheridan, and to obliterate Earth, using a fabled, monstrous Shadow weapon known as a Planet Killer...

The Drakh have assaulted Earth with deadly Shadow technology -- but the worst is yet to come in this stunning continuation of the Babylon 5 epic adventure.

Centauri Prime has been infiltrated by malevolent allies of the Shadows, creatures known as the Drakh. While Centauri citizens continue to rebuild their war-torn planet, their secret masters work feverishly toward one ultimate goal: to crush the Interstellar Alliance once and for all. As the Drakh carry out their horrific plans, Emperor Londo Mollari languishes on his throne, a puppet of the Drakh-bred keeper, an insidious creature that monitors his every thought, word, and action. While the emperor broods, the power-obsessed Lord Durla -- an unwitting Drakh pawn -- follows his own agenda.

But Drakh control is not absolute. Vir Cotto -- a most unlikely hero -- has begun a resistance movement, and Alliance President John Sheridan has sent his most trusted troubleshooter, Michael Garibaldi, to investigate. Yet this move may prove costly, and though the Centauri continue to build a new military machine, the Alliance avoids any overt confrontation, hoping the problem will go away.

Blind to the fact that he is a pawn in the Drakh's deadly strategy, Centauri prime minister Durla launches an overwhelming blitzkrieg, sending Centauri warships to devastate other races' homeworlds and pave the way for total conquest. Yet Durla is forced to fight a war on two fronts: even as he mobilizes the massive space fleet for its glorious attack, resistance leader Vir Cotto works feverishly to counter the Drakh's evil influence on Centauri Prime.

Emperor Londo Mollari possesses the key that can reveal the presence of the Drakh, but to do so would spell disaster, so he is forced to remain silent. But when the Drakh bring another pawn into play -- David Sheridan, son of Alliance president John Sheridan -- the time for silence may be past. If Vir and the Resistance are to prevail, it will be only through action, and with help from very strange allies...

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty. The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.

Jandar the alien tortured by his love for the magnificent Princess Darloona in the savage and primitive world of Thanator, devises an incredible plan to infiltrate the ranks of the barbaric and merciless Black Legion who hold both the city of Shondakor and the Princess - in their relentless power.

It is a plan of inconceivable daring, fraught with dangers unthinkable by the human mind... and when the gates of the city lock behind him, Jandar realizes that death might be their only way out...

Every hero needs a villain. But not all villains are dangerous -- some are incompetent, comical, or just... weird. In his follow-up to The League of Regrettable Superheroes, author Jon Morris presents over a hundred of the strangest, most stupefying supervillains to ever see print in comics. Meet D-list rogues like Brickbat (choice of weapon: poisonous bricks), Robbing Hood (steals from the poor to give to the rich), Swarm (a crook made of bees; Nazi bees), and many more.

Drawing on the entire history of the medium, The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains affectionately and hilariously profiles oddball criminals from the history of comics.

A thrilling new Victorian-era urban fantasy for fans of Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles, the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and the Sherlock Holmes movies featuring Robert Downey, Jr.

With a flood of dark magic about to engulf Victorian London, can a handful of heroes vanquish a legion of the undead?

When monster-hunter Malcolm MacFarlane comes across the gruesome aftermath of a ritual murder in a London church, he enlists the help of magician-scribe Simon Archer and alchemist extraordinaire Kate Anstruther. Studying the macabre scene, they struggle to understand obscure clues in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics carved into the victim's heart--as well as bizarre mystical allusions to the romantic poetry of William Blake. One thing is clear: Some very potent black magic is at work.

But this human sacrifice is only the first in a series of ritualized slayings. Desperate to save lives while there is still time, Simon, Kate, and Malcolm--along with gadget geek Penny Carter and Charlotte, an adolescent werewolf--track down a necromancer who is reanimating the deceased. As the team battles an unrelenting army of undead, a powerful Egyptian mummy, and serpentine demons, the necromancer proves an elusive quarry. And when the true purpose of the ritual is revealed, the gifted allies must confront a destructive force that is positively apocalyptic.

The remnants of the Clan of the Seven Stars are returning to their long abandoned homeworld . . . but not as friends. The elves, led by the conjurer Laromendis, flee the relentless demon hordes sweeping through their galaxy—and the conquest of war-weary Midkemia is the Clan's sole hope for survival . . . if the Dread Legion does not pursue them through the rift.

The magician Pug knows what horrors will surely follow the elven invasion, for slaughter alone will sate Demon King Maarg's minions. For the death tide to be turned, Midkemia's constant defender must somehow unite bitter foes and vengeful former lovers—because failure to do so will mean annihilation.

The entire city of New York is swept up in a wave of terror, as an evil international conspiracy devises a crime so sinister that only Doc Savage and his five mighty cohorts can halt its fiendish plan. Led by a phantom master criminal with stupefying supernatural powers, the conspiracy sets trap after trap for Doc. Finally, in a fantastic underground empire, the fearless bronze giant and his courageous crew must fight for their lives against a diabolical enemy that cannot even be seen.

Lester Dent authored this book under the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.

For too long the iron legions of the evil empress of Hamal have devastated the neighboring lands and islands of Kregen. Under the twin suns of Antares, that planet of marvels has been made a scene of carnage, rapine, and death. Dray Prescot, Earthman transported to Kregen, battled Empress Thyliss all the way, and at long last found himself nearing the showdown of his long campaign on his new homeland. Gathering about himself old allies and former enemies, Dray prepares to challenge the empress at the very doors of her capital city, until he discovers that she is about to spring her secret weapon: the super-science of the mad wizard of Loh.

A young boy is found horribly murdered in a mock crucifixion. Is the murderer the elderly woman who witnessed the crime? A neurologist who can no longer bear the pain life inflicts on its victims? A psychiatrist with a macabre sense of humor and a guilty secret? A mysterious mental patient, locked in silent isolation?

Lieutenant Kinderman follows a bewildering trail that links all these people, confronting a new enigma at every turn even as more murders surface. Why does each victim suffer the same dreadful mutilations? Why are two of the victims priests? Is there a connection between these crimes and another series of murders that took place twelve years ago—and supposedly ended with the death of the killer?

Legion is a novel of breathtaking energy and suspense. But more than this, it is an extraordinary journey into the uncharted depths of the human mind and the most agonizing questions of the human condition.

Contains:

• The Mercenary
• West of Honor

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, July 1972. The story can also be found in the anthology War and Peace: Possible Futures from Analog (1983) edited by Stanley Schmidt. It was incorporated in the fixup novel The Mercenary (1977).

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.

The seeds of contradiction that lay at the heart of the Soviet-American alliance are bearing their final fruit. Soon they will rip the Codomminium apart - and Earth will die.

In the face of that inevitability the fate of humanity lies with the Colony Worlds - a few of which are equipped for more than barest survival. Thrown upon their own resources, their futures seem as limited as their pasts. They - and humanity - have one hope: that somehow, someone will have both the vision and the strength to grasp the tattered remnants of civilization and weld them into a single galaxy-spanning society.

John Christian Falkenberg, a young captain in the CoDominium marines, leads his troops to the planet Arrarat, where there's a violent rebellion.

A fixup of The Mercenary, Peace with Honor and Sword and Sceptre.

Angels are falling from the sky in New York, struck down by a vicious, unknown force.

Vampires are dying impossibly of disease.

Guild hunter Elena Deveraux and the Archangel Raphael must discover the source of the wave of death before it engulfs their city and their people, leaving New York a ruin and Raphael's Tower under siege by enemy archangels.

Yet even as they fight desperately to save the city, an even darker force is stirring, its chill eyes trained on New York...and on Raphael. Rivers of crimson and nightmares given flesh, the world will never again be the same...

Julius Caesar gathers his legions in an alternate universe in order to defeat the devil and conquer hell.

The human Confederation empire stretches across the endless night between the stars, slowly rotting from within even as it faces threats from without. And at its farthest reaches stand the forgotten men and women of the Last Legion - all that stands between the empire and chaos.

As violence between factions escalates and the Legion strives to keep the peace, a planet on the edge of nowhere will set the stage for the empire's final stand...

On a distant planetary system, the post-civil-war cleanup has begun. But the Confederation empire's government remains silent, without help or advice. It's up to the men and women of the Last Legion to protect the fragile system against the intrigues of the alien Musth, bent on domination.

As the Musth make their way through the streets of the planets' cities, the Last Legion will fight them its way - with brutal guerrilla warfare against the oppressors. Against the odds.

Amid swirling allegiances and changing loyalties at the outer reaches of the Confederation empire, the Lost Legion struggles to keep the peace and prevent the planets from falling to a ruthless dictator. Protector Alena Redruth will stop at nothing to add the dual system of Larix and Kura to his holdings.

And the Legion's intelligence officer, Njangu Yoshitaro, will let nothing get in his way of infiltrating the system's upper echelons of government. Within the delicately played game of spying, there are plots within plots within plots...

The Lost Legion, in a valiant fight, has reclaimed the Cumbre star system. But still no word comes from Confederation empire - the power that holds more than a thousand systems under its sway, the government the Legion serves.

To find the reason for this ominous silence, the Legion travels from one galaxy to the next, seeking information. But even as they do so, sinister forces are stirring. And the blow, when it comes, will be delivered by an unexpected source.

Stephen Leeds is perfectly sane. It's his hallucinations who are mad.

A genius of unrivaled aptitude, Stephen can learn any new skill, vocation, or art in a matter of hours. However, to contain all of this, his mind creates hallucinatory people--Stephen calls them aspects--to hold and manifest the information. Wherever he goes, he is joined by a team of imaginary experts to give advice, interpretation, and explanation. He uses them to solve problems... for a price.

His brain is getting a little crowded, however, and the aspects have a tendency of taking on lives of their own. When a company hires him to recover stolen property--a camera that can allegedly take pictures of the past--Stephen finds himself in an adventure crossing oceans and fighting terrorists. What he discovers may upend the foundation of three major world religions--and, perhaps, give him a vital clue into the true nature of his aspects.

Brandon Sanderson is one of the most significant fantasists to enter the field in a good many years. His ambitious, multi-volume epics ("Mistborn," "The Stormlight Archive") and his stellar continuation of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series have earned both critical acclaim and a substantial popular following. In "Legion," a short, distinctly contemporary novella filled with suspense, humor, and an endless flow of invention, Sanderson revealed a startling new facet of his singular narrative talent. In the stunning sequel, Legion: Skin Deep, that talent is on full display.

Stephen Leeds, AKA "Legion," is a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate a multitude of personae: hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal characteristics and a vast array of highly specialized skills. As the new story begins, Leeds and his "aspects" are hired by I3 (Innovative Information Incorporated) to recover a corpse stolen from the local morgue. But there's a catch. The corpse is that of a pioneer in the field of experimental biotechnology, a man whose work concerned the use of the human body as a massive storage device. He may have embedded something in the cells of his now dead body. And that something might be dangerous...

What follows is a visionary thriller about the potential uses of technology, the mysteries of the human personality, and the ancient human need to believe that death is not the end. "Legion: Skin Deep" is speculative fiction at its most highly developed. It reaffirms Sanderson's place as one of contemporary fiction's most intelligent--and unpredictable--voices.

Stephen Leeds, AKA "Legion," is a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate a multitude of personae: hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal characteristics and a vast array of highly specialized skills. The story begins with two seemingly unrelated events: the disappearance of Armando, one of Stephen's many "aspects," and an unexpected cry for help from Sandra, the woman who, many years before, helped him learn to live with his condition. These events lead Stephen, along with several of his aspects, to a sinister high-tech firm specializing in advanced methods of human incarceration.

The Legion of Space, the fate of the universe is in their hands....

They are the Legion, fighters of the Revolution, sworn to defend the new democracy against all foes. But an alien solar system threatens the human planets with terror, deadly treason, and the conquering Medusae - slimy, tentacled, merciless.

Now John Star and his Legionnaires must rescue the beautiful woman who guards AKKA - The ultimate, the only weapon that can save the Universe... if they survive the Belt of Peril, where death and madness lurk!

In this, the second of Jack Williamson's Legion of Space series, the reader will encounter such marvels as a spaceship twelve million miles long... the secret weapon that controls the universe... a superhuman traitor to all mankind... and of course, the greatest trio of swashbuckling adventurers in all of science fiction, the Legionnaires of Space themselves.

Thrill to their breathtaking adventures as they defy mortal peril and fantastic danger in the fight against the dread powers of the invincible Cometeers and a monstrous threat to the security of the Solar System...

VENGEANCE IN SPACE

"I am omnipotent and omniscient. I want every man on every planet to shudder and grow pale when he thinks of Me. For I have suffered fross injuries that must be avenged..."

This cryptic message--and a loathsome serpentine trademark--were the only clues the Legion had to the identity of Mankind's most evasive and horrible enemy. Meanwhile, He/It had meticulously begun to destroy the world...

She was a woman whose secret gift challenged the deadly serets of the Great Hawkshead Nebula!

Contains two short stories in the Legion Universe: The Legion of Time and Aftwer World's End.

The hope of a future utopia hangs literally on a thread of probability. Instead, armageddon lies almost certainly in the future of humanity. Only the Legion of Time can alter the future course of history. Only Denny Lanning can decisively help them. But to do so, he must first die--for the Legion is composed of dead men--and second, he must kill one of the two women that he loves. . .

After World's End, a short novel, is another saga of time-adventure, also included in this volume. An American astronaut helplessly orbits the solar system as millennia pass. And on Earth, humanity's bright future is destoryed by war with an enemy they themselves created.

In the future, the terminally ill can prolong life by surrendering their consciousness to a cybernetic life form that is then recruited into the notorious Legion of the Damned, an elite fighting unit charged with protecting humanity.

The Confederacy is threatened by an uprising of the Hudathans, an unfeeling cyborg race that has built up its forces through stolen technology, and their only opponents are the members of the Legion.

The new techno-thriller from the author of Legion of the Damned and The Final Battle

It takes more than guts to win a war...

In a Legion gone lax, Colonel Bill Booly, with his mixed blood and by-the-book attitude, is a misfit. So when he steps on some important toes, his punishment is assignment to the worst post in the galaxy: Earth.

But Booly and his troops will turn out to be Earth's best line of defense, when a Legion-led military coup topples the government.

It's Legionnaire against Legionnaire in a struggle that will be won by strength, by courage, and...

Having stopped a mutiny against Earth's government, General Bill Booly and his troops face an even greater challenge: a battle for the future of every living being in the universe, against a fanatical human and his killer technology.

You're only a hero until your next battle.

Legion General Bill Booly knows that peace is just a pause between wars. He's just crushed one uprising, and now a new rebellion is already brewing on a remote world light years away--spawning a web of terrorism that is close enough to catch the vulnerable Confederacy in its grasp.

To ensure the survival of The Confederacy, the Legion of the Damned must establish a new capital on the planet Algeron--and seize faster-than-light technology from alien forces before it can be used against them.

From the NATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR of When Duty Calls.

Captured by the alien Ramanthians, diplomat Christine Vanderveen must protect the Confederacy's President from both their captors and fellow prisoners. But rescue is on the way, led by Lieutenant Tonio Sanchez, Vanderveen's former lover, who must try to set aside his personal feelings for the sake of the mission.

The gripping new Legion of the Damned novel—from the national bestselling author of When All Seems Lost.

As the war with the Ramanthian continues, Captain Antonio Santana and his force of biobods and cyborgs find themselves surrounded by enemy forces, faced with annihilation at every turn.

On the home front, Santana's love--diplomat Christine Vanderveen--copes with growing shortages, treacherous allies, and her own emotions. Yet when she meets the charismatic newly elected president of the Clone Republic, she finds herself torn between old love and new loyalty.

As Christine fights her own divided heart, light years away, Santana is in a battle for his life. And this battle may be his last…

The all-new, thrilling conclusion to the Legion of the Damned series from the national bestselling author of When Duty Calls.

Earth has fallen. And the men, women, and cyborgs of the Confederacy must dig deep within their warrior hearts to make one final stand against an alien aggressor...

On a rim world, Captain Antonio Santana is reunited with diplomat Christine Vanderveen to protect the severely wounded Ramanthian Queen, who has fled there to avoid assassination. And they'll risk everything to save the Confederacy, billions of lives-and their future together.

Hundreds of years in the future, much has changed. Advances in medicine, technology, and science abound. Humanity has gone to the stars, found alien life, and established an empire. But some things never change...

All her life, Lady Catherine Carletto--Cat--has lived for the next party, the next lover, the next expensive toy. Until, in a bloodthirsty power grab, Imperial Princess Ophelia and her cadre of synth assassins murder her brother, the emperor, and go on to purge the galaxy of his friends and allies--including Cat's family.

Now Cat is on the run. And, like countless others before her, she finds sanctuary among the most dangerous of society's misfits--the Legion. Cat becomes Andromeda McKee: a woman with a mission--to bring down Empress Ophelia--or die trying.

In a different world, Lady Catherine "Cat" Carletto would never have left her pampered life behind. But when Princess Ophelia became Empress Ophelia in a coup that claimed the lives of the princess's brother and all who supported him, including the Carletto family, Cat had to hide--or die.

She became Legionnaire Andromeda McKee, and now she's a battle-scarred veteran who knows how to kill. And when she's summoned to Earth to receive the Imperial Order of Merit from the Empress herself, Andromeda realizes that the moment is coming when her revenge will be at hand...

Now a platoon leader, Legionnaire Andromeda McKee seems to have successfully left behind her true identity of Lady Catherine "Cat" Carletto, one of the last two surviving members of the Carletto family targeted for death by Empress Ophelia.

After failing at her one shot at vengeance, Andromeda had been questioning her own resolve. But now her uncle has been killed in a government raid back on Earth, leaving her as the last Carletto standing--and the family's only chance for justice…

A chance that comes when the empress's ship crashes on a hostile planet and Andromeda is assigned to head up the rescue mission. As a legionnaire, Andromeda McKee has countless kills under her belt. But when faced with her greatest enemy, it will be Cat Carletto who has to pull the trigger on the one who really matters…

"I've come too far to surrender now..."

Eledan's nightmare has been unleashed upon the worlds and with Oberon gone, only the messenger crew stand in its way. Kellee, Talen, Sirius, Sota, and Kesh. Together, they are stronger, but there are forces on Faerie who do not want the worlds saved, forces that would see the Messenger and her crew torn apart.Queen to Faerie's new king, Messenger and more to the saru, lover to some and a weapon to others, but who is Kesh Lasota really? A guiding light or an unwitting puppet?Answers are coming. The time for lies has passed. And Kesh will soon learn some battles can't be won alone.

When hunters from around the world gather in Las Vegas for a conference, a creature left over from a World War Two weapons experiment wakes up and goes on a rampage across the desert. A not-so-friendly wager between the rival companies turns into a race to see who can bag the mysterious creature first.

Only there is far more to this particular case than meets the eye, and as Hunters fall prey to their worst nightmares, Owen Zastava Pitt and the staff of Monster Hunter International have to stop an ancient god from turning Sin City into a literal hell on earth.

A blistering sequel to the acclaimed Bodyguard of Lightning takes you into a world full of wonder, magic, and encroaching dark. In the land of Maras Dantias, peace once reigned. Then the humans came, wreaking destruction, killing the enchantment, and bringing war. Even the climate changed, with once-warm summers now autumnal. Of all the races in Maras Dantias, the Orcs, led by Stryke, were the most ferocious. Now, he and his troops have become renegades, chased by his own people as well as the humans. Only a long-lost relic can save them now--and the rest of Maras Dantias, too. But, time is running out and a new foe endangers them all.

The village had been called Town Central, where people learned to live with androids, and androids learned to live like humans. It had been an experiment to bolster a dying population, and it might have worked, given the chance.

But there was the Plaguewind.

And there was the Dying...

Lots of Soldiers Work for Civilians They don't Like, but these Romans had It Worse than Most -- Their Commanders were Blue-Skinned Aliens!

The guilds of star-traveling merchants had strict rules to prevent their technology from falling into the hands of the natives of planets they were exploiting: military operations had to be carried out with weaponry no more complex than swords and bows.

That was no handicap to merchant princes with a galaxy to scour for military slaves to do their fighting for them. Some came to Earth for soldiers and returned to the stars with the best the planet had to offer. For over two thousands years the aliens thought they'd succeeded brilliantly--but then things changed!

Set in the universe of Ranks of Bronze, masterful new novellas by:

• David Drake
• Eric Flint
• S. M. Stirling
• Mark L Van Name
• and David Weber

explore the bleeding edge between human courage and the science of alien slavemasters. The right man with a sword is just as deadly as a technician with a laser -- And not all the blood spilled is red!

Yesterday they were the best infantry on Earth -- Now they're going to take on the whole galaxy.

• 1 - Introduction (Foreign Legions): Well It Happened This Way... - essay by David Drake
• 5 - Ranks of Bronze - (1975) - short story by David Drake
• 17 - Sir George and the Dragon - novella by David Weber
• 101 - Lambs to the Slaughter - novella by David Drake
• 165 - A Clear Signal - novella by Mark L. Van Name
• 217 - The Three Walls--32nd Campaign - novelette by S. M. Stirling
• 243 - Carthago Delenda Est - novella by Eric Flint

This a classic novel of adventure reflecting the tangled milieu of the Middle East just after World War I. It is a flying adventure story reflecting the enthusiasm for air travel and constantly improving technology of the period. The super aircraft of the Flying Legion, The Eagle of the Sky, could come, in effect, from the magazine covers of Science and Mechanics of the period.

If you like first rate derring do, cliff hanging situations, heroic characters fighting down to the last ditch against impossible odds, this is it!

They call them Savages. Brutal. Efficient. Expendable.

The empire relies on them. The Savages are the greatest weapon they ever developed. Culled from the streets of their cities, they take the ones no one will miss and throw them, by the thousands, at the empire's enemies. If they live, they fight again. If they die, there are always more to take their place.

Evie is not a Savage. She's a warrior with a mission: to find the man she once loved, the man who holds the key to exposing the secret of the Savage Legion and ending the mass conscription of the empire's poor and wretched.

But to find him, she must become one of them, to be marked in her blood, to fight in their wars, and to find her purpose. Evie will die a Savage if she has to, but not before showing the world who she really is and what the Savage Legion can really do.

The Excoriators seem powerless to protect the small cemetery world of Certus Minor from the berserk World Eaters, but their salvation soon comes from a wholly unexpected quarter...

Following the trajectory of a blood-red comet, the berserk World Eaters blaze a path of destruction across the galaxy in its wake. The small cemetery world of Certus Minor appeals to the Space Marines of the Excoriators Chapter for protection, but the force dispatched to deal with this grim threat is far too small and their losses against the renegades are high. Just as all seems lost, salvation is borne out of legend itself as sinister spectral warriors descend upon this planet of the dead, and the enemies of the Imperium come face to face with those who have already travelled beyond the realm of the living...

Young Dion Starfire is the ruler of a galaxy that is finally at peace after years of strife and bloodshed. Yet the peace is an uneasy one. Dion has fallen desperately in love with a woman who is not his queen, and suddenly the fragile alliances that rest of his marriage are threatened. Then real violence erupts as an illegitimate son of the dead king, in hiding on a forgotten planet, plots Dion's overthrow. At his command is an army of unseen "ghosts"--alien presences that can roam the galaxy and kill at will.

Dion must turn to an old mentor and enemy, Derek Sagan, as the one man who can help him battle the bastard prince and his dark minions. And at Derek's side hovers the powerful, shadowy presence of his lost love, Lady Maigrey. If Dion can only win their aid, he may have one last chance to preserve his throne--and peace for the galaxy.

Four hundred years in the future, the most dangerous criminals are kept in suspended animation aboard prison ships and "rehabilitated" in a shared virtual reality environment. But Miska Corbin, a thief and hacker with a background in black ops, has stolen one of these ships, the Hangman's Daughter, and made it her own. Controlled by explosive collars and trained in virtual reality by the electronic ghost of a dead marine sergeant, the thieves, gangsters, murderers, and worse are transformed into Miska's own private indentured army: the Bastard Legion. Are the mercenaries just for fun and profit, or does Miska have a hidden purpose connected to her covert past?

It is the twentieth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius Caesar Augustus. The Empire spans the known world. No power is greater, and nothing can threaten the peace it brings. And no one must know of the horrors that haunt it.

Aemilius thought he would die heroically in battle like his forefathers, mourned by a loving wife and many children, but he's barely a man when a harpy flies down out of the old myths and knocks him from his horse. Stunned and helpless, he waits for his end... and is saved.

Formed on the bloody battlefield of Teutoburg, the Hidden Legion are an order of soldiers, magicians, and rogues so secret that the Empire itself would hunt them down if they were exposed. And now Aemilius is one of them.

A darkness is growing across the Empire, and someone is setting traps for the Legion themselves. Aemilius and his new comrades set off on the hunt for an unknown enemy...

From the Bestselling author of the Lord of the Isles...

In this novel of magical menace to the survival of all humanity, David Drake introduces a new fantasy world, Carce, based on Europe during the later Roman Empire.

Far in the north, a group of magicians perform a strange dance on a volcanic island intended to open a gateway for supernatural creatures that will allow them to devastate the whole Earth and destroy all life. Not knowing the cause, two young men, Corylus and Varus, and two women, Hedia and Alphena, each separately pursue the answer to mysterious and threatening happenings that prefigure disaster in the great city of Carce, the center of civilization. Through magical voyages in other realities where fantastic creatures, and even gods, help or hinder them, each of them must succeed or not just the city but the world will end in fire.

The Legions of Fire is the first of a fantasy quartet set in the world of the city of Carce.

Survival is the only currency...

For centuries, the vast Ironship Trading Syndicate relied on drake blood--and the extraordinary powers it confers to those known as the Blood-blessed--to fuel and protect its empire. But when the drake blood lines began to fail, a perilous expedition was mounted to secure them.

Claydon Torcreek survived the fraught mission through uncharted lands in pursuit of a myth that might have secured his people's future. Instead he found a nightmare. The legendary White Drake was awoken from a millennia-long slumber, with a thirst to reduce the world of men to ashes, and the power to compel an army of Spoiled slaves to do it.

Spurred on by a vision he desperately hopes he can trust, Clay and rebel naval officer Corrick Hilemore hijack a warship and head towards the icy southern seas, searching for an ancient secret that may give them and their allies a fighting chance.

They are aided on another front by Blood-blessed agent Lizanne Lethridge. The spy and assassin will use her diplomatic status to infiltrate deep into enemy territory on a quest for a device to save them all.

As the world burns around them, and the fires of revolution are ignited, these few Blood-blessed are the last hope for all of civilisation.

A dragon stolen.
A love betrayed.
A legion lost to time...

Des is a mess.

The sellsword has been betrayed yet again by her ex-lover, and separated from her bonded dragon, Squid. And now she's been turfed out of her last sanctuary. Lost without her dragon, her only comfort lies at the bottom of a glass of ale. Or nine.

But as much as she might long for it, her death would only give the Emperor what he wants: the opportunity to bond with her dragon and use its power to become immortal. To mount a rescue, Des must cross a militarised border. When her oldest friend appears carrying permission to travel to Ascelin, she knows she'll do whatever it takes to get her dragon back - even play the man she couldn't marry.

In Ascelin, though, she finds everything she's ever held dear is at risk. The Emperor's avarice will no longer be satisfied with using the dragons' mastery of time only to avoid death, and he's turning to conquest. Des must save Squid, confront old mistakes and unravel the threads of time to find the secret at the heart of the world before the Emperor uses the force of history to wreak his will.

If you love the kind of story that draws you deep into magic, mystery, dragons, romance and betrayal, grab your copy of The Timeless Legion today!

For the first time, all of the short fiction set in James S. A. Corey's New York Times bestselling Expanse series is available in this collection--including a brand new novella.

Contents:

• The Butcher of Anderson Station
• Gods of Risk
• Drive
• The Churn
• The Vital Abyss
• Strange Dogs
• Auberon
• The Sins of Our Fathers

A Great War is coming, and it will engulf the Imperium of Man. The Space Marines of the Alpha Legion, the last and most secretive of all the Astartes brotherhoods, arrive on a heathen world to support the Imperial Army in a pacification campaign against strange and uncanny forces. But what drives the Alpha Legion? Can they be trusted, and what side will they choose when the Great War begins?

Loyalties are put to the test, and the cunning schemes of an alien intelligence revealed in this latest instalment of the ground-breaking SF series by Dan Abnett, as the fate of mankind hangs in the balance.

Massive anthology of short stories themed around the guerrilla war waged by the remnants of the three Space Marine Legions massacred at Isstvan V.

Driven almost to the brink of self-destruction at Isstvan V, the Iron Hands now seek vengeance for the murder of their primarch Ferrus Manus. Gathering survivors from the Raven Guard and the Salamanders aboard any vessels capable of warp travel, these Shattered Legions wage a new campaign of annihilation against the traitor forces across the galaxy--a campaign masterminded by legendary warleader Shadrak Meduson.

This Horus Heresy anthology contains ten short stories by authors including Dan Abnett, Chris Wraight and John French. Also included is the novella The Seventh Serpent, where author Graham McNeill revisits the ragtag crew of the starship Sisypheum as they are drawn into a war of subterfuge against the Alpha Legion.

Following Artefact, Legion is the second book of the Lazarus War, an explosive new space adventure series from one of the brightest new stars in science fiction - perfect for fans of The Edge of Tomorrow, Alien and James S. A. Corey's Expanse series.

Conrad Harris is the legend known as Lazarus, and he has died hundreds of times. Using simulant bodies, he runs suicide missions in the depths of space. But he always comes back.

As commanding officer of the Lazarus Legion, Harris and his elite Simulant Operations team are humanity's last line of defence against the hostile alien race known as the Krell.

Having survived their ordeal on Helios, they're now leading a large-scale mission to the perilous, unexplored region of the Damascus Rift. There, another Artefact has been discovered. It is the product of an ancient alien life form - and a possible weapon to be used against the Krell.

This Artefact could finally help humanity win the war. But what Harris and the Lazarus Legion will discover there is from their worst nightmares...

Discover the Lazarus War - the thrilling new space opera series of elite space marines and galactic empires, from one of the most exciting new voices in science fiction.

As they faced one another in a duel of survival, the Roman tribune Marcus Scaurus held the spell-scribed sword of a Druid priest, and the Celtic chieftain Viridovix held a similar sword, bespelled by a rival Druid sorcerer. At the moment they touched, the two found themselves under a strange night sky where no stars were familiar and where Gaul and Rome were unknown. They were in an outpost of the embattled Empire of Videssos--in a world where magic and dark sorcery would test their skill and courage as no Roman legion had ever been tested before.

Foul sorcery had slain the Emperor. Now the army of Videssos, betrayed by one man's craven folly, fled in panic from the savage victors. But there was no panic in the Legion, mysteriously displaced from Gaul and Rome into this strange world of magic.

Wearily, Tribune Marcus Scaurus led his men through the chaos and enemy hordes in search of winter quarters, to regroup and seek to join up with Thorisin Gavras, now rightful ruler of Videssos.

But in Videssos the city, capital of the beleaguered realm, Ortaias Sphrantzes, whose cowardice had caused their defeat, now sat upon the throne. There, behind great walls that had always made the city impregnable to storm or siege, he ruled with the support of evil sorcery. Overthrowing him seemed impossible.

Grimly, Marcus Scaurus began the long march through hostile country toward that seemingly hopeless attempt.

Since the Roman legion had been mysteriously transported to this world of magic, tribune Marcus Scaurus had served the rulers of war-torn Videssos well. He had been largely responsible for ousting the Pretender and putting Thorish Gavras on the throne. That, of course, made him a hero.

Rome or Videssos, however, Fortune was a fickle goddess.

Now he and the legion were returning in triumph to Videssos the city after defeating a well-entrenched army of rebel mercenaries. But Marcus, betrayed by the one closest to him, was returning to be seized, dragged before the Emperor, and questioned under truth-drug like a traitor.

Of the court, only Alypia Gavra stuck by him -- but consorting with the Emperor's niece was dangerous. It could lead to exile -- or death!

Yet Alypia was attractive. And Marcus was lonely...

In Videssos the city, tribune Marcus Scaurus was bored. The legion that had been magically transported to this strange world was far away. But the Emperor's niece Alypia was near -- and willing.

When their secret trysts were betrayed, Emperor Thorisin Gavras was forced to condemn Marcus as a traitor -- but with a promise of freedom and Alypia, if he could reclaim a rebel province from a fanatic usurper, with no military aid. With only centurion Gaius Philippus, Marcus set out to try the seemingly impossible task.

But the fates conspired against them, driving them further westward, into the innermost sanctum of Videssos' great enemy Yezd -- and toward the torture chambers of the evil, deathless wizard-prince Avshar.

But behind them, without orders, the men of the legion were on the march!

The Time Commandos face a new generation of General Drakov's bio-engineered humanoids - but just how deadly could these tiny enemies be? Just six inches tall, the Lilliputian warriors are armed with laser rifles and a vast technology that threatens the existence of two universes!

In eighteenth-century London, Doctor Lemuel Gulliver's tale of the deadly little people is disbelieved by all but that mad author, Jonathan Swift...and the observers of the Temporal Intelligence Agency. now the Time Commandos wage a vicious battle that rages across a thousand years!