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?
#3 in the "Witches of Karres" homage series, this is a rollicking romp through the outer reaches of the galaxy. If he'd known he was getting stuck with a pair of psi-wielding super-beings, even straight-laced do-gooder Captain Pausert might have thought twice about rescuing his two young "witch" charges from slavery on a dark planet. But what's done is done-and with galactic peace once again threatened in the mysterious and pirate-ridden Chaladoor region, only a dangerous mission backward in time can save the present and-maybe-get stalwart-but-obtuse Pausert to see one of these young "witches" as more than just a friend.
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!
NEW FANTASY BY NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR ERIC FLINT. 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 St. 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.
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.
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.
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 Hordebetween 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 itand at the
same time, is irresistibly drawn toward it
Return to the Alternate Universe of 1632 and 1633 as the Top Writers of Alternate History and Military SF Join Forces in the Shared-Universe Volume of the Year The battle between democracy and tyranny is joined, and the American Revolution has begun over a century ahead of schedule. A cosmic accident has shifted a modern West Virginia town back through time and space to land it and its twentieth century technology in Germany in the middle of the Thirty Years War. History must take a new course as American freedom and democracy battle against the squabbling despots of seventeenth-century Europe. Continuing the story begun in the hit novels 1632 and 1633, the New York Times best-selling creator of Honor Harrington, David Weber, the best-selling fantasy star Mercedes Lackey, space adventure author K. D. Wentworth, Dave Freer, co-author of the hit novels Rats, Bats & Vats and Pyramid Scheme (both Baen), and Eric Flint himself combine their considerable talents in a shared-universe volume that will be a must-have for every reader of 1632 and 1633.
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.
