Military Action

January 1946: Two WACs leave an officers' club in Munich, and four Soviet NKGB agents kidnap them at knifepoint in the parking lot and shove them in the back of an ambulance. That is the agents' first mistake, and their last. One of the WACs, a blond woman improbably named Claudette Colbert, works for the new Directorate of Central Intelligence, and three of the men end up dead and the fourth wounded.

Wars come to an end. But then new ones begin. Just weeks after Hitler's suicide, Cletus Frade and his colleagues in the OSS find themselves up to their necks in battles every bit as fierce as the ones just ended. The first is political-the very survival of the OSS, with every department from Treasury to War to the FBI grabbing for its covert agents and assets. The second is on a much grander scale-the possible next world war, against Joe Stalin and his voracious ambitions.

The Coalition is reeling. New Vega and its other worlds have fallen beneath the boot of the newly allied Savage marines, and the death count continues to rise at a staggering rate. One thing is clear: The war to come will be a fight for the very survival of the species. For both sides in this conflict, now is the time to become what fate, and victory, demand. The Savages - post-human monsters who believe themselves to be gods - are intent on remaking civilization in their own violent and pathological image. Yet their alliance is tenuous.

The red-baked mountains of New Mexico offer a peaceful interlude for Ryan Cawdor and a reunion with Jak Lauren. But in the violent post-holocaust world of Deathlands, survival is a blood-soaked game — and Ryan's idyll becomes a mission of revenge. The quarry is the General and his band of paramilitary killers. Roving and plundering the Southwest, the General travels with an unsurpassed armory, his troops unchallenged, his agenda unstoppable.

Despite political foes, professional jealousies, and the scandal which drove her into exile, Capt. Honor Harrington has been offered a chance to reclaim her career as an officer of the Royal Manticoran Navy. But there's a catch. She must assume command of a "squadron" of jury-rigged armed merchantmen with crew drawn from the dregs of her service and somehow stop the pirates who have taken advantage of the Havenite War to plunder the Star Kingdom's commerce.

Chaya Lindner is a teenager living in Nazi-occupied Poland. Simply being Jewish places her in danger of being killed or sent to the camps. After her little sister is taken away, her younger brother disappears, and her parents all but give up hope, Chaya is determined to make a difference. Using forged papers and her fair features, Chaya becomes a courier and travels between the Jewish ghettos of Poland, smuggling food, papers, and even people. Soon Chaya joins a resistance cell that runs raids on the Nazis' supplies. But after a mission goes terribly wrong, Chaya's network shatters.

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by despatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory to the government. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought in the French intelligence network in the New World, and the attentions of two privateers soon become menacing. The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is as thrilling, as tense and as unexpected in its culmination as anything Patrick O'Brian has written.

The Adriatic Sea, AD 45. Cato and Macro, centurions of the Roman army, are horrified to learn that they face possible execution after the death of their commanding officer. Fortunately, the Emperor's secretary is willing to offer them an alternative: to join the marines and hunt down a band of brutal pirates who are decimating not only Rome's reputation, but also a critical supply chain. As they discover the true horror of battle at sea, Macro and Cato must also remember their real mission: to recover from those pirates a set of scrolls that hold secrets vital to the future of the Roman Empire. Rome will do anything to get them back....

Esslemont's all-new prequel trilogy takes readers deeper into the politics and intrigue of the New York Times bestselling Malazan Empire. Dancer's Lament focuses on the genesis of the empire, and features Dancer, the skilled assassin, who, alongside the mage Kellanved, would found the Malazan empire.

The number-one threat to our nation’s security is in cyberspace. The new US president wants to tackle the urgent problem head-on and launches a top secret line of defense: Net Force. But before the organization can be announced, the country is hit by an unprecedented, two-pronged terror attack.

Lerris has settled into being a woodworker and building a life with Krystal. But this newfound peace is endangered when both Candar and Recluce come under the threat of invasion from the Empire of Hamor. Despite the imminent possibility of destruction, the lands of Candar will not unite and Recluce will not heed the peril. Lerris is faced with the challenge of becoming the greatest wizard of all time - or seeing his whole world destroyed.

Erik and Rugrat’s abilities will be pushed to the limit, honing their skills and allowing them to grow in new ways, ways they might not have thought of before. They stand to gain more than simple strength, and more power. Here they might learn the purpose of the realms, how it was formed, why it was formed, and the three races that weaved their fates together against the darkness.

Spring 1792. A troubled peace with France means that even a frigate captain as famous as Richard Bolitho is forced to swallow his pride and visit the Admiralty daily to plead for a ship. But, as the clouds of war begin to rise once more over the Channel, all he is offered is command of three topsail cutters. His task is to track down deserters, but the 'Brotherhood' he comes up against are brutal and dangerous.

Eric Steele is the best of the best - an Alpha - an elite clandestine operative assigned to a US intelligence unit known simply as the "Program". A superbly trained Special Forces soldier who served several tours fighting radical Islamic militants in Afghanistan, Steele now operates under the radar, using a deadly combination of espionage and brute strength to root out his enemies and neutralize them.

The Republic world of Kima has fallen with shocking speed to the renewed forces of the Mid-Core Rebellion, and General Chhun must lead the rebuilt and enhanced 131st Legion - along with Marines, Dark Ops, Navy, and Kimbrin Resistance - onto the planet to violently check their assault. But timing is of the essence, and Chhun can’t do it alone. Bear, working undercover, unearths the treachery of a resurgent Nether Ops still working their dark influence from the shadows. Masters has his hands full just staying alive while he evades deadly pursuers.

Archaon, the Everchosen, is the most powerful and feared of all the great Champions of the Dark Gods. Warlords of immense cruelty, who have waged innumerable campaigns of suffering and slaughter, thirst to fight by his side. Such Knights of Ruin are known as the Varanguard. Though Vanik the Black Pilgrim’s blade drips with the blood of conquered empires, he is yet to prove himself worthy of ascension into the Fifth Circle of the Varanguard. At last, he faces his final quest.

Airborne mage armies traverse enemy territory in utter secrecy. Vast city-liches conspire to influence events from afar, while city-states and archmages unleash strange new magics in a rapidly accelerating magical arms race. Nations and great powers that have remained quiescent for years have begun reaching out into the growing power vacuum. Magical superweapons and giant monsters are wielded by every side in a deadly tangle of alliances and factions, as each squabbling force spirals in towards their inevitable final conflict.

Draw near and listen, or else time is at an end. The watering holes of the Plain are drying up, the fearsome fanghorn grow more numerous, and bad omens abound. Wulfgar, a leader of the Altaii people, must contend with twin queens, warlords, prophets, and magic in hopes of protecting his people and securing their future. Elspeth, a visitor from another world, holds the answers, but first Wulfgar must learn to ask the right questions. But what if the knowledge that saves the Altaii will also destroy them?

Rys is still shaking dust from his hair after a thousand years of sleep, and he already finds himself in a two-front war. The sorcerers of the Malus League are summoning a demon lord, while his northern neighbor marches south. Now that Rys has claimed a kingdom, he needs to keep it. Naturally, he'll expand his territory while crushing his new enemies. Behind the scenes, the many spy networks of his opponents wage a continuous war. Rys gets his hands on his own spymaster, a pliable and energetic fox who is desperate to prove herself.

In the first weeks after World War II, a squeaky-clean new second lieutenant named James D. Cronley Jr. is spotted and recruited for a new enterprise that will eventually be transformed into something called the CIA. One war may have ended, but another one has already begun, against an enemy that is bigger, smarter, and more vicious: The Soviet Union. The Soviets have hit the ground running, and Cronley's job is to help frustrate them, harass them, and spy on them any way he can.