Short stories by a master of science fiction. Includes over a dozen stories by SF legend Jerry Pournelle, and remembrances by Pournelle collaborators and admirers.
For the better part of five decades, Jerry Pournelle's name has been synonymous with hard-hitting science fiction. His Falkenberg's Legion stories and Janissaries series helped define the military sf genre, as did his work as editor on the There Will Be War series of anthologies. With frequent collaborator Larry Niven, he cowrote the genre-defining first contact novel The Mote in God's Eye, which was praised by Robert A. Heinlein as 'possibly the greatest science fiction novel I have ever read.'
Now, for the first time, all of Pournelle's best short work has been collected in a single volume. Herein you will find over a dozen short stories, each with a new introduction by editor and longtime Pournelle assistant John F. Carr, as well as essays and remembrances by Pournelle collaborators and admirers.
The long-awaited conclusion of the Heorot series from genre legends Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes
Avalon was thriving. The cold sleep colonists from Earth had settled on a verdant, livable world. The fast and cunning predators humans named “grendels” were under control, and the mainland outposts well established. Avalon’s new mainland hydroelectric power station was nearly complete, and when online would compensate for the nuclear power systems lost in the Grendel Wars. Humans would have power, and with power came the ability to make all the necessities for life. They would survive.
They would not survive as a spacefaring people.
What they were losing faster than they knew was the ability to get to space. But unbeknownst to the planet-bound humans, something was moving out there in the stars, decelerating at a rate impossible for a natural object. And its destination was Avalon. The most probable origin was Earth’s Solar System.
This is a novel of first contact—between the human Starborn and the self-named Godsons who followed on, between the first generation of Avalon-born humans and their descendants, and between humans and the almost ineffably alien species native to their new world …
The Giants of Speculative Fiction Present the Bestselling New Sci-Fi & Fantasy Short Stories of the Year
- 27 Award-Winning short stories and illustrations
- Three short stories from New York Times bestselling authors: L. Ron Hubbard - Brandon Sanderson - Jody Lynn Nye
- Essays on writing and illustration by: L. Ron Hubbard - Orson Scott Card - Jerry Pournelle - Ciruelo
- 16-page color gallery of artwork
Your search for something new and different in sci fi and fantasy ends here. Enjoy this year's collection of fresh voices, fabulous worlds, and fantastic new characters.
Each year, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contests' blue-ribbon judges search the world to discover and introduce to you the very best new talent in sci fi and fantasy.
Created by L. Ron Hubbard, whose commitment to help new writers and artists gave rise to the annual Writers of the Future anthologies-a launching pad for writers and artists who are sure to command our attention for decades to come. Read them today. Discover the future now!
The adventure begun in Janissaries continues.
Kidnapped from Earth as they were about to die in battle, Rick Galloway and his band of mercenaries, like the other human slaves on the planet Tran, will not be missed. Subjects of the Shalnuksi slave masters, they are forced to harvest the priceless drug surinomaz. Now, even as slaves, Earth’s transplanted warriors are locked in battle—against each other. But an epoch is ending. As the Demon Star sweeps toward its devastating apex, the slave masters flee the planet to await its annihilation in safety. Soon all life on the planet will cease, leaving it ripe for repopulation.
“Jerry Pournelle is one of science fiction’s great storytellers.”—Poul Anderson, praise for the author
For the first few years, Rick Galloway and his band of mercenaries were doing well just to survive. They’d been swept off a hilltop in Africa by a flying saucer and deposited on an alien world where the other inhabitants were human—but from various and unfriendly periods of history, all collected by flying saucer raids.
Rick has faced facts: this place is going to be home, permanently. To create a safe society for themselves and the families they are gradually building, they need to do more than just survive; they must convince the others that a unified, peaceful society is better than a collection of warring tribes. Force would not be Rick’s chosen method of persuasion, but on a planet where the other dominant culture is one brought straight from ancient Rome, force may be the only way.
“Jerry Pournelle is one of science fiction’s great storytellers.”—Poul Anderson, praise for the author
Return to the "vivid and unusual" (Kirkus Reviews) world of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Burning City, where the fire god has retreated into myth, leaving the residents of Tep's Town unprotected for the first time in their history.
Unfortunately, a fiery fate isn't the only danger Tep's Town is facing. Monsters are coming forth from the desert-great birds with blades instead of wings, driven by some unknown force. Although they can be killed, the threat these "terror birds" pose is worse than death. Danger on the roads means no trade; no trade means the extinction of Tep's Town.
Sent to discover the source of the terror birds, Lord Sandry and his beloved, Burning Tower, must travel into a world where magic is still strong-and where someone or something waits to destroy them.
Filled with the sweeping adventure, memorable characters, and imaginative world-building that have defined the novels of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Burning Tower is another triumph.
"A splendid adventure, full of colorful characters and cultures, frustrated romance, and just a hint of cautionary satire."-Locus
This novella by three celebrated authors in the science fiction genre is set between the events of The Legacy of Heorot-which Tom Clancy called "outstanding"-and Beowulf's Children.
The oldest children of the settlers on Avalon are now in their late teens and want independence from their parents and guardians. And they especially don't want them around for the initiation ceremony held on Black Ship Island for the younger children just reaching their teens. But when previously unknown creatures make their deadly appearance, things go horribly wrong.
Some days it just doesn't pay to be a soldier. Captain Rick Galloway and his men had been talked into volunteering for a dangerous mission only to be ruthlessly abandoned when faceless CIA higher-ups pulled the plug on the operation. They were cut off in hostile territory, with local troops and their Cuban "advisors" rapidly closing in-and then the alien spaceship landed.
Rescued from certain death, they now must fight another world's war.
"Jerry Pournelle is one of science fiction's great storytellers."-Poul Anderson
Some days it just doesn't pay to be a soldier. Captain Rick Galloway and his men had been talked into volunteering for a dangerous mission only to be ruthlessly abandoned when faceless CIA higher-ups pulled the plug on the operation. They were cut off in hostile territory, with local troops and their Cuban 'advisors' rapidly closing in—and then the alien spaceship landed.
Rescued from certain death, they now must fight another world's war.
Each an acclaimed author in his own right, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle have collaborated on some of the biggest bestsellers in science fiction history, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Footfall. Here Niven and Pournelle have combined their award-winning talents and imaginations to produce a masterpiece of epic fantasy that rivals the works of Robert Jordan and David Eddings.
Set in the world of Larry Niven's popular The Magic Goes Away, The Burning City transports listeners to an enchanted ancient city bearing a provocative resemblance to our own modern society. There, Yangin-Atep, the volatile and voracious god of fire, alternately protects and destroys the city's denizens. In Tep's Town, nothing can burn indoors, and no fire can start-except when the Burning comes upon the city. At that time the people, possessed by Yangin-Atep, set their own town ablaze in a riotous orgy of destruction that often comes without warning.
Whandall Placehold has lived with the Burning all his life. Fighting his way to adulthood in the mean but magical streets of the city's most blighted neighborhoods, Whandall dreams of escaping the god's wrath to find a new and better life. But his best hope for freedom may lie with Morth of Atlantis-the enigmatic sorcerer who killed his father.
Both gritty and exotic, The Burning City is a fantasy tale unlike any you have read before.
"Niven and Pournelle are in fine form."-Locus
Bestselling science fiction superstars Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle combine their talents with those of Steven Barnes in an extraordinary adventure of humankind's first outpost in the farthest reaches of space.
Light years from Earth, colonists land on a planet they name Avalon. It seems like a paradise-until native creatures savagely attack. It will take every bit of intelligence, courage, and military-style discipline to survive.
"Outstanding!...The best ever, by the best in the field...The ultimate combination of imagination and realism."-Tom Clancy
A powerhouse trio of science fiction greats has united to further explore the planet Avalon, first introduced in their classic novel The Legacy of Heorot.
"Once upon a long, long time ago, our parents and grandparents left a place called Earth. They traveled across the stars in a ship called Geographic to find paradise."
A new generation is growing up on the island paradise of Camelot, ignorant of the Great Grendel Wars fought when their parents and grandparents first arrived on Earth. Setting out to explore the mainland, this group of young rebels feels ready to fight any grendels that get in their way. On Avalon, however, there are monsters that dwarf the ones their parents fought, and as the group will soon learn, monsters also dwell in the human heart.
Avalon does not give up her secrets easily, and some of those mysteries are wicked as sin and blacker than the grave.
"Few writers have a finer pedigree than those here...As one might suspect, Beowulf's Children is seamless...An absorbing, substantial, and finally rather masterful novel."-Los Angeles Times
