"Captain Pausert just can’t catch a break!
First, he became the mortal enemy of his fiancée, his home planet, the Empire—and even the Worm World, the darkest threat to mankind in all of space. All because he helped rescue three slave children from their masters. Of course, these three young women were the universally feared Witches of Karres—but how was he to know that?!
And after he defeated the Worm World (with the help of the witches, of course), the Empress herself had sent him on a secret mission to stop a nanite plague that was raging across the galaxy. But an enemy had somehow convinced the Imperial Fleet that he was actually a wanted criminal, so after a battle leaving his ship in urgent need of repairs, Pausert and the witches of Karres joined an interstellar traveling circus in order to save the galaxy.
Now Pausert and the witches of Karres roam the spaceways again, this time dealing with a slaver-culture that somehow makes slaves happy to be in servitude, and a quest for a long-lost alien pet, during which the youngest witch, The Leewit, begins to come to her full powers as a healer—and of course generates chaos in her wake.
For Pausert, it’s all in a day’s work. But would it be too much to ask for a vacation?"
"As Captain Pausert had often had occasion to observe, life just wasn't fair! Hadn't he (with the help of the notorious witches of Karres, of course) outmaneuvered the deadliest of space pirates and eliminated the threat of the Worm World (as told in The Witches of Karres), after which, at the least, he deserved some time off. No such luck, though, as the Empress herself sent him on a secret mission to stop the nanite plague, but an enemy had somehow convinced the Imperial Fleet that he was actually a wanted criminal, so after a battle leaving his ship in urgent need of repairs all three of them joined an interstellar traveling circus (don't ask!) in order to save the galaxy once again (as told in The Wizard of Karres).
Time for a vacation? Don't be ridiculous—there's a new urgent mission that has Captain Pausert's name on it! This new novel finds the long-suffering Captain and the two young Karres witches—Goth, who vows she will marry him when she grows up, and her younger sister The Leewit—being sent off to investigate mysterious and ominous events in the notorious Chaladoor region of space. Goth soon becomes aware that unknown but surely inimical forces are tracking them, and in order to foil them she takes a desperate route to travel back in time and meet Pausert as a young boy. Meanwhile, the Captain and the Leewit find themselves in the middle of their own desperate situation in the Chaladoor.
Whoever it was who said that a change was as good as a vacation never met any of the Witches of Karres—nor experienced their amazing talent for getting Captain Pausert into trouble."
"The witches of Karres are back—and now there's also a wizard!
It just wasn't fair! Captain Pausert had foiled the deadliest of space pirates and eliminated the threat of the Worm World, yet his troubles kept piling up.
Sent on a secret mission to stop the nanite plague, a self-aware disease that could devastate whole worlds, he quickly found that someone had convinced the Imperial Fleet that he was actually a wanted criminal, which led to a battle leaving
his ship in urgent need of repairs. And while Goth and the Leewit, two of the notorious witches of Karres, could do amazing things, ship repair was not in their line. So he stopped at the next planet for repairs, but found that somehow his
bank account had been cut off, and the authorities were looking for someone matching his description.
There was only one thing to do—join the circus! An interstellar traveling circus, that is. All the galaxy loves a clown—as long as Pausert, Goth and the Leewit can keep their disguises from slipping. The show must go on—or the galaxy is doomed!"
"Orkise is loose. The snake-god of plague has been awakened by Lucia del Maino, the bastard daughter of the recently overthrown duke of Milan, Phillipo Visconti. With the
venomous magic of Orkise at her command, Lucia plots to marry and then murder the usurper who now rules Milan, the condottiere Carlo Sforza—known to friend and foe alike as the Wolf the North.
Other trouble is brewing as well. Sforza has his own bastard, Benito Valdosta, who is returning to Venice after having conquered the Byzantine empire. Benito has a score to
settle with his father, and he will have the help of his half-brother Marco, who is the embodiment of ancient Etruria’s mighty Winged Lion of Saint Mark.
Adding further to Sforza’s predicament, yet another power has entered the fray. The terrifying sorcerer Count Mindaug has decided to settle in Milan. Will he ally with Sforza, or
oppose him? Either will bring trouble, for if Mindaug aids the usurper he will arouse the fury of the Holy Roman Empire and the Knights of the Holy Trinity. Both of those great
forces have sworn to destroy Mindaug and anyone who shelters him.
On his side, Sforza has only the skill and cunning of his physician, Francisco Turner—who is on good terms with the Valdosta brothers and may be able to neutralize Venetian
hostility. But even if he can, will that be enough to save the Wolf of the North? For out there in the countryside of northern Italy, Orkise is uncoiling all the plagues of hell."
"In an alternate Renaissance where magic works, a captain of Italian forces must deal with gods, goddesses and warfare in order to save his daughter at the siege of Constantinople—and prevent a new dark age.
In an alternate 15th century where magic still is part of life, the Holy Roman Empire rules Europe. Constantinople is under siege by the Venetians and their allies. Hekate, Goddess of Crossroads,
presides over the conflict and carnage as alternate visions of civilization collide. And since Constantinople is the crossroad city of east and west, it is here that Italian captain Benito Valdosta must
deal with the powerful magical manifestation of the Weeping Woman, a disguised Hekate, in order to save his daughter and to destroy the fleets of the Chernobog assembling in the Black Sea before they can cut into the soft underbelly of Europe.
With land battles, naval action, cunning assassinations, and heartbreak aplenty—not to mention the ongoing conflict between Lord of the Dead and Benito for the love of a woman, civilization is
at the crossroads and choices must be made that will bring victory and freedom for centuries to come—or a new Dark Age."
"In the sequel to Rats, Bats & Vats, the team of mentally gifted bats and rats, accompanied by their human leader, sets out to persuade an incompetent military bureaucracy that they are about to be invaded by a powerful alien conspiracy, joining forces with Fluff, the pet of one of the colony's ruling class, to save the world.
Contains mature themes."
"Prince Manfred and his mentor and bodyguard, the deadly warrior Erik, survived dangers and enemies both natural
and supernatural, and if they thought that their new mission was going to be anything but more of the same, they soon
gave up on that hope. Returning from Jerusalem, they and their escort of knights of the Holy Trinity are escorting an
envoy of II Khan Mongol to the lands of the Golden Horde—between the Black Sea and the Carpathians, which happen
to be eastern bastion against their old enemies, the demon Chernobog and his possessed puppet, the Jangellion.
Unfortunately, what began as a diplomatic mission leads to Manfred and his knights being caught up in an inter-clan
civil war, rescuing a fugitive woman and her injured brother, and becoming involved in the problems of Prince Vlad,
Duke of Valahia, who has been held as a hostage by King Emeric of Hungary until freed by Countess Elizabeth Batholdy
to use as bait to capture a group of nonhumans. Instead, the wolflike nonhumans, who masquerade as gypsies, free Prince
Vlad, and help him to return to his homeland to raise revolt against Hungary and to renew age-old magics.
Manfred and Erik are forced into an alliance of convenience between the Golden Horde and the ancient magical
forces of Valahia, as directed by the troubled Vlad. The magic calls for blood and Vlad is deathly afraid of it—and at the
same time, is irresistibly drawn toward it …"
"Chip Connolly was a conscripted grunt in trouble. Here he was, stuck behind enemy lines with a bunch of cyber-uplifted rats and bats. Rats with human speech, but with rat values. Rats that knew what was worth fighting for: sex, food, and strong drink. True, they were holed up on a ruined wine-farm with enough brandy to swim in. Trouble was, there wasn't much food. And with shrew-metabolism the rats had to eat. He was next on the menu. The bats were no help: they were crazy revolutionaries planning to throw off the yoke of human enslavement with high explosive. As if that wasn't bad enough, there was the girl they'd rescued. Rich. Beautiful. With a passionate crush on her heroic rescuer. She came with added extras: a screwball Alien tutor, and a cyber-uplifted pet galagoa tiny little lemur-like-critter with a big mouth and delusions about being the worlds greatest lover.
So: he'd volunteered for a suicide mission. Of course things only got worse. The whole crew decided to come along. Seven rats, five bats, a galago, two humans, a sea-urchin-like alien and an elderly vineyard tractor without brakes . . . against several million inimical aliens. He was going to die. Mind you, not dying could be even more terrible. That girl might get him.
Contains mature themes."
"A mysterious pyramid appears in Chicago, oozing fantastic creatures and sucking humans into our own mythological past. It's an alien invasion from within!
When a special forces team sent to capture an AWOL official gets into deep trouble with a certain one-eyed Norse god, redoubtable comparative mythologist Jerry Lukacs must rescue them, strike a deal with the droll and dangerous Loki, and risk bringing on Ragnarok itself to once again save human myth from alien domination.
Contains mature themes."
"Make Tracks to the Stars!
0 Ye civilized of Earth: send forth your outcasts, your primitive throwbacks, your religious fundamentalists, your sexual separatists—and heck, you can even toss in your totalitarian crackpots in the bargain. Pack them all in sealed habitats, rocket them into space, and pronounce good riddance to those lunatics, oddballs, and losers!
But if you happen to be an alien explorer stranded on that ship and looking to find a way home Well then, your one chance lies in seeking out the true iconoclasts in a sea of nutcase societies—for verily, it is only the absolutely original and terminally weird who shall inherit the stars!
Contains mature themes."
"An alien pyramid has appeared on Earth, squatting in the middle of Chicago. It is growing, destroying the city as it does and nothing seems able to stop it, not even the might of the US military. Somehow, the alien device is snatching people and for unknown reasons transporting them into worlds of mythology. Dr. Lukacs is one of the victims. Granted, he's an expert on mythology. But myths are not something he'd thought to encounter personally. Or wanted to! Sure, he has a couple of tough paratroopers along with him, as well as a blonde Amazon biologist and a very capable maintenance mechanic. Unfortunately, modern weapons don't work, and the Greek gods are out to kill the heroes.
Well, yes, they've got Medea and Arachne and the Sphinx on their side (both Sphinxes, actually the Greek version as well as the Egyptian). And at least some of the Egyptian gods seem friendly.
But that can be a very mixed blessing, to say the least. Oh, and whatever you don't mention dwarf-tossing.
Contains mature themes."
"Tasmarin is a place of dragons, a plane cut off from all other worlds, where dragons can be dragons and humans can be dinner. It's a place of islands, forests, mountains and wild oceans, filled with magical denizens. Fionn-the black dragon-calmly tells anyone who will listen that he's going to destroy the place. Of course he's a joker, a troublemaker and a dragon of no fixed abode. No one ever believes him. He's dead serious. Others strive to refresh the magics that built this place. To do so they need the combined magics of all the intelligent species, to renew the ancient balance and compact. There is just one problem. They need a human mage, and dragons systematically eliminated those centuries ago. Their augury has revealed that there is one, and they seek her desperately. Unfortunately, she's fallen in with Fionn, who really doesn't want them to succeed. He has his own reasons and dark designs. The part he hadn't worked out is that she will affect his plans too. Chaos, roguery, heroism, theft, love, kidnapping, magic and war follow. And more chaos."
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