Excerpt: I drove up the gravel shoulder to the edge of the highway and held my steering wheel as the giant vehicle trained its guns on me. I tried to look friendly. I gave a quick wave to go with my biggest, fake smile. As the road train thundered past, the gun crew waved back and then I held on as my van rocked in the wash of the twenty-six car chain of gray and black composite.

Excerpt: Star guard introduction: the mercenaries when the dominant species of a minor nine planet system revolving about a yellow sun known as ?sol??situated close to the fringe of the galaxy?gained knowledge of space flight and came out into our lanes of travel there arose a problem which central control had to solve, and speedily. These ?men,? as they called themselves, combined curiosity, daring, and technical skill with a basic will-to-compete against other races an...

Excerpt: Windows of the soul Paul chafe for Christian, with love transport tunnel nineteen is one of thirty-two that run the fifty-kilometer length of tiamat's axis to link the docking hubs. Normally it's full of twenty-meter cargo containers, gliding in virtual weightlessness. Last night a roller jammed in section a near the down-axis hub. The port authority shut the tunnel down and sent in a tech. The problem was a body. That's when I got involved. Pathology said it ha...

Excerpt: Prologue the new nesot (near earth space object tracking) satellite paid dividends less than three months after its launch. The computerized system spat a data stream on the incoming object to norad. It did this for any detected object which would enter the earth's atmosphere.

Excerpt: How many worlds does this make? The dialogue took place before a wall sized view screen. The image was not one to make for happy conversion.

Excerpt: She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me she loves me not!!! Eight large ships came individually out of the darkness between the stars that was their sea, and began to move about the planet noorhut in a carefully timed pattern of orbits. They stayed much too far out to permit any instrument of space-detection to suspect that the noorhut might be their common center of interest. Though the men who crewed the eight ships bore the people of noorhut no ill will,...

Excerpt: Terry vs. Flap-jack ?let me congratulate you,? the voice said. Retief turned. An immense flap-jack, hung with crimson trappings, rippled at his side. ?your skirmish-forms fight well. I think we will find in each other worthy adversaries.?

Excerpt: To be seen is to be hit horsip went off to see his planetary integration staff, now working happily on plans for final integration of the planet earth into the integral union, and moffis went along. Horsip described the appalling number of wrecked and sabotaged ground-cars.

Excerpt: Acknowledgments by dave freer this book owes a great deal to the advice of several people: conrad chu, for his tolerant explanations of technical aspects, our fellow author john ringo for his input on military matters, and aubrey rautenbach for his patient advice on tractors and cropsprayers. I must also thank my longsuffering biologist/scientist peers, Drs. Ware, Wolber, Baker, Collins and Hawkes, for their help in solving the biological conundrums involved in ...

Excerpt: Ross Murdock wouldn?t have seemed formidable to any one glancing casually at him as he sat within the detention cell. He was a little above average height, but not enough to make him noticeable. His brown hair was cropped conservatively and there was nothing remarkable about his unlined boy?s face?unless one noted those light-gray eyes and caught the chilling, measuring expression that showed now and then for an instant in their depths.

Excerpt: One: the parting of friends ?are you sure you really want to do this?? Beth asked eric for roughly the five hundredth time in the past month.

Excerpt: Prologue the mystery would never be solved. It would simply join others, like the tunguska event or the square crater on callisto, in the catalogue of unexplained occurrences. The initial worldwide excitement waned within a few months, as it became clear that no quick answers would be found. For a few years grieving relatives would, with some success, press officialdom to maintain the studies and inquiries. But there were no lawyers to keep the fires stoked. The...

Excerpt: Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington David Weber ?that looks like your snotty, senior chief.?

Excerpt: His inner beast was human, all too human?Heyoka?s vision cleared just as skal came at him again. He caught tiny flashes of black-and-white fur as the other dropped in and out of blueshift, creating a series of startling static images. He was playing with him, Heyoka realized, as he struck uselessly at empty air where skal had just been again and again. ?this is pointless!? Heyoka said. ?Our enemy is the flek, not each other!?

Excerpt: If at first you don?t succeed . . . Nile heard a series of clanging metallic sounds, partly muffled by the wind. Somebody was down there, perhaps engaged in forcing open her aircar?s doors.

Excerpt: Chapter One ?His Royal Highness, Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang Macclintock!?

Excerpt: ?To the contrary,? demurred greyboar, toying with his mug, ?the secret lies entirely in the fingerwork.?

Excerpt: Chapter one Hansen saw the blast bubble like an orange puffball above the building roofs three kilometers away. He stuck his head out the side-window of his chauffeured aircar and heard the whump! Over the rush of wind.

Excerpt: For clay, who listened to my stories long before anyone else black/on/black ?black/on/black!? All around him, the chant began again, softly at first, then louder, building into a ear-splitting litany he could not shout down. ?black/on/black!?

Excerpt: Prologue to c. S. Forester, with thanks for hours of enjoyment, years of inspiration, and a lifetime of admiration.