Raymund Eich

Solitary spacejock Landry Krieger eked out a living transporting data throughout the Settled Galaxy--and boosted his income by smuggling people into and out of star systems past the watchful eyes of governments, in hiding places he built in his ship, Midnight Angel. When the priests of Tao Pacem sought his services, he resisted. Brown robes? Yin-yang symbols? A plan to sneak the reincarnation of their spiritual leader to their conquered homeworld, to spark a rebellion against their oppressors? After earlier experiences with religious leaders, he would need far more than three hundred thousand galaxycoins to say yes. He got it when an arrogant agent of the oppressors tried to scare him into turning down the job. But little did Landry expect this job would challenge him, from both outside and in, and call into question all he knew about his place in the worlds of humankind.

When Melanchthon arrived at the dim red star after a forty-year journey, Theodore awoke from suspended animation eager to implement the Lutheran Interstellar Terraforming Society's plan to transform a barren rocky world into New Augsburg, a refuge for faith and life.A challenging plan: move an icy asteroid billions of miles, quickly convert the asteroid into new seas and a breathable atmosphere for the rocky world, then seed the surface with life. Yet Theodore felt confident in his team's ability to complete the mission.A challenging plan, made more challenging by other members of his own expedition.

You know, ni a, Big Bend used to be very different. No lakes, no forests, no pygmy triceratops and stegosaurs roaming the countryside. No, honest, ni a, I wouldn't lie to you. Back at the turn of the century, Big Bend was the dustiest corner of Texas. How did it change? Well...Characters from American, Mexican, and Native folklore meet in southwestern Texas in the 21st century, in this whimsical fantasy by the author of NEW CALIFORNIA and the Confederated Worlds series.

In these pages, you can......race against time to solve mysteries hidden in a planet's vast desert-and in a woman's heart...learn the true story of a president's assassination...journey 14,000 miles to a high-tech fountain of youth...win or go "home"-to an Earth you've never seenand explore six other worlds created by a distinctive voice in twenty-first century science fiction.

After Marqus escaped the constricting Afrocentric culture of his home habitat and joined the Coronado's crew, the ship set off on a mission promising huge profits: harvesting helium from the sun to deliver to the Venus terraforming project. But the promise of profit existed because Venus' enemies, forces from the moons of Jupiter, hunted and destroyed helium haulers around the solar system. Forces who might control a spy onboard Coronado.Could Coronado survive the photosphere of the sun? Could the ship sell its valuable cargo in time? Most of all, could Marqus prove he belonged on board to the rest of the crew-and to himself?

After the human exploration ship Bascom Hall crash-landed on the Hspa Nki's homeworld, the aliens allowed the survivors to settle on a high plateau with air too thin for the aliens-but just right for humans. For decades, the two races lived apart but at peace.When a ship from Earth blazed through the skies, the Hspa Nki journeyed up to the plateau and demanded a retroactive land tax the settlers could not pay. But the aliens took a keen interest when they saw settlers playing ultimate flying disc, and the aliens loved to gamble. They offered to cancel the tax-if the settlers could beat them at the game.Now, Connor and a team from the settlement journey to the thick air of the planet's lowlands, into a crowded alien city, with one mission: win or go "home"-to an Earth the young team had never seen.

Earth barely survived the 21st Century.Now, in the 22nd, after unifying Earth, the UN controls all human colonies scattered through the galaxy by means of wormholes, warpdrive ships, and ruthless operatives. Operatives working to strengthen the UN.Or destroy it. Operative: Stone ChalmersCodename: HybridCover Story: ImprovisedMission: Feed false intelligence to aide of Secretary-General Back in New York after his mission to Minerva, Stone must make contact with a UN insider playing a double game. If he succeeds, he will bring to fruition a plan months in the making across thousands of light-years. A plan that will transform Earth and every human world forever.

Earth barely survived the 21st Century.Now, in the 22nd, after unifying Earth, the UN has rediscovered the colony of Minerva. Prosperous and technologically advanced, Minerva quickly submits to UN supremacy.Surprisingly quickly... Operative: Stone ChalmersCodename: HybridCover Story: Hypnotically implantedMission: Investigate newly-rediscovered colony world On Minerva, while workers prepare to place a wormhole link to Earth, Stone infiltrates a secretive cult, and unearths a plot to shake to the core the foundations of the United Nations' power over the settled galaxy. And shake Stone to his own core as well.

Earth barely survived the 21st Century.Thousands fled the chaos on rogue warpdrive ships to settle colony planets. When Earth reunified in the 22nd, its fleets rediscovered the colonies and hunted down the warpdrive ships.Every warpdrive ship but one. Operative: Stone ChalmersCodename: HybridCover Story: Hypnotically implantedMission: Find and neutralize missing ship(Joint task force with ITB operative Caitlyn Fredriksen) Undercover on Trinity, Stone and Caitlyn must earn the trust of religious fanatics who will stop at nothing to find the last warpdrive ship. A ship that, if sent on a suicide mission, could devastate Earth. A ship, but who will fly it?

" A] thriller-style science fiction tale that's a quick and fun read.... A good start to a promising series." - Sfreader.comEarth barely survived the 21st Century.To maintain order in the 22nd, the UN forces undesirables through artificial wormholes onto colony planets. Everyone benefits... except the planets' original colonists.Now, the newly rediscovered colony of New Moravia knows the UN's plan and fights back.UN operative Stone Chalmers--spy, killer, seducer--travels to New Moravia. Armed with a small arsenal and a cover story hypnotically implanted in his mind, can Stone defeat the rebel colonists before tens of thousands die?

A thousand years from now, while Earth sleeps in virtual reality, three polities-the Confederated Worlds, the Unity, and the Progressive Republic-strive to connect the scattered, terraformed worlds of humankind by artificial wormholes. When they meet, they clash, in a decades-long struggle of arms that will embroil every human world, in which dedication to duty liberates worlds-and oneself.The first three novels in The Confederated Worlds series are now available in one volume.TAKE THE SHILLINGThe Confederated Worlds implanted in his brain the skills to make him a soldier. Tomas had to learn for himself how to survive interstellar war.OPERATION IAGOThe Confederated Worlds lost the war. Can Lt. Tomas Neumann win the peace against elusive, deceptive foes out to turn the Confederated Worlds against itself?A BODYGUARD OF LIESAssigned to the halls of power, only Capt. Tomas Neumann can save the Confederated Worlds from the ultimate treachery.

From tundra to desert, from prairies to rainforests, the trade routes of Ganelerdos converge at Sparrenfor, Larpektis, Enelarmos, and Torg-ra-Honnet-the Merchant Cities. Fair exchange offers prosperity to the creative and industrious, both human and elemental... and unearned riches to the ambitious and greedy.Scorned by his father, mocked by his older brother, Woldirek Hansar rides with a caravan into a desolate wasteland. He emerges with a bold plan to make House Hansar the most prosperous family in the Merchant Cities. A plan transforming the continent of Ganelerdos forever.Full of magical creatures, intrigue, battles, and true love, A River Through Earth brings readers into a fully realized fantasy world.

A king inclined contrary to nature.A foreign-born queen confined to the palace.A kingdom desperately needing an heir.Two courtiers ask Keladon, retired battlemage and the king's bastard half-brother, to impregnate the queen. His sense of duty to the kingdom sends him to her bedchamber, where he finds Queen Lilera to be a woman of both beauty and intellect, deserving a far better fate.But secretly fathering the heir to the throne is just the beginning. Under attack from all sides, Keladon must battle a conspiracy of magic and murder threatening the kingdom's survival -- and the woman he comes to love.

"I'm reminded of Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry series, or more recently, Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Anniversary Day saga."-AnalogAssigned to the halls of power, only Capt. Tomas Neumann can save the Confederated Worlds from the ultimate treachery. After bold action brings him the favor of the Confederated Worlds' new president, Tomas finds himself in an arena more dangerous than combat: Politics. Battling assassins, spies, and pervasive surveillance, Tomas discovers a shocking secret. A desperate mission takes him from luxurious temples to secret police brain scanning chambers. Could he prevent the destruction of the Confederated Worlds, or would he die trying?

From 21st century asteroid settlements to World War II Transylvania, from an Earth dominated by immortal aliens to Christ's empty tomb, a fresh, distinctive voice in science fiction will take you on journeys to the photosphere of the sun, the coding regions of DNA, and the complexities of the human psyche.

After the destruction of Washington, D.C. by nuclear terrorists on June 19, 2019, the country turned to the America United movement and elevated the movement's leader, Gov. Everton, to the Presidency. A veneer of normalcy returned to the country, undercut by rumors of secret prison camps and mass arrests of suspected enemy combatants.Neuroscientist Clay Shieffer tried to ignore the growing police state. Then a mysterious hacker provides evidence of Clay's unwitting complicity in the crimes that made Everton President.From Texas mansions, to isolated psychiatric hospitals, and to the gates of New Washington itself, Clay runs from Federal agents and the U.S. Army, and forges a rag-tag alliance to overthrow the tyrant.But President Everton now wields a weapon more formidable than a hydrogen bomb: Clay's latest neuroscience invention....

"Military science fiction concentrating] on the psychology and politics of societies in conflict."-Analog, on the Confederated Worlds seriesThe Confederated Worlds implanted in his brain the skills to make him a soldier. He had to learn for himself how to survive interstellar war.Tomas Neumann sought escape from his backwater planet and overbearing mother, and a mentor to replace his long-dead father. "Taking the shilling"-enlisting in the Confederated Worlds military-promised both.But despite the soldier's skills implanted in his brain, combat still threatened to destroy him, in body and in spirit. Grieving for lost comrades, demoralized by a spiral of atrocities, could Tomas learn what he needed to survive, before facing his war's ultimate challenge?

"Military science fiction concentrating] on the psychology and politics of societies in conflict."-Analog, on the Confederated Worlds seriesThe Confederated Worlds lost the war. Can Lt. Tomas Neumann win the peace?By the terms of the peace treaty, the citizens of the planet Arden will vote to stay in the Confederated Worlds or join the victorious Progressive Republic.Newly-minted Lieutenant Tomas Neumann leads his overstretched and demoralized Confederated Worlds Ground Force platoon in a mission that pushes men and machines to their limits, against elusive, deceptive foes out to tilt Arden to the Progressive Republic-and turn the Confederated Worlds against itself.

Decades ago, cooperating as members of the Apostolic League of Earth Communities of Spirit--ALECS--Darren, Purcell, Nesbitt, and Juliette-came to Elard to share their messages of spiritual and social uplift with the planet's primitive, fractious natives. Under the scorching rays of Elard's fiery sun, their friendship dissolved into illicit affairs and an unexplained disappearance.Darren returns to Elard for one final mission. In only thirty days, he must solve mysteries buried in the planet's vast desert-and hidden in a woman's heart.

After New California's founder committed suicide, two men vied to rule the colony.Ashwin George, supported by the colony's elite and Ti n Qu n, the Chinese company whose hyperdrive ships and intelligent robots dominated half the settled galaxy.Desmond Park, nanotechnology engineer, armed with a shrewd intellect, the loyalty of the colony's disaffected youth, and the most formidable weapon of all.A single idea.