Military Opera

For small-time street hustler Cam Alvarez, the choice is simple. He has no family, no friends, no place in the world...nothing to lose. When his latest con results in the death of a cartel hitman, Cam opts to join the Marines and leave Earth to fight a vicious alien enemy.

A war-weary Battle Group Praxis arrives at the Knight world of Kamidar, ruled by the Iron Queen Orlah, to return the queen's slain daughter and heir, who died in Guilliman's name. In truth, the Imperium's mission here is twofold: to strip Kamidar of its resources in order to resupply the flagging armada, and to prepare the Ironhold Protectorate to become part of the defensive Anaxian Line, a crucial bulwark for the Indomitus Crusade.

The People's Republic of Haven made a tiny mistake when it announced the execution of Honor Harrington. It seemed safe enough. After all, she was already dead. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Now Honor has escaped from the prison planet called Hell and returned to the Manticoran Alliance with a few friends. Almost half a million of them, to be precise including some who know what really happened when the Committee of Public Safety seized power in the PRH.

Starting a war with an enemy 100 times stronger is insane. It’s desperate. And it’s Earth’s only hope. A massive alien power looms over humanity, claiming Earth as its territory and humanity as its slaves. The Hegemony has already taken over one colony, yoking hundreds of thousands under their brutal rule. Every tactical exercise, every war game, and every simulation gives humanity zero chance in a defensive campaign.

Ragnar Blackmane is unique among the Space Wolves in ascending to the Wolf Guard without ever being a Grey Hunter. But how did he manage such a feat? The beginnings of that story are told here. When the Spear of Russ, an ancient relic of the Space Wolves once wielded by Leman Russ himself, is stolen, the Chapter seeks its return on the world of Garm. But when the forces of Chaos ambush them, the enraged Space Wolves learn that there is more to the attack than they could have guessed, for an ancient enemy of the Chapter is prophesied to be reborn.

Rocked by the death of a critical team member and haunted by the sudden disappearance of another, Magnus and Awen fight to rally the remaining Gladio Umbra in the wake of their raid on Worru. They’re forced to solicit support from some of the galaxy’s most unlikely sources. But when Moldark’s forces show up unexpectedly, Magnus and Awen are torn between rescuing a missing gladia and protecting the larger mission. New revelations about the Paragon surface, forcing the fledgling rebel resistance to find a way onto Moldark’s command ship, the notorious Black Labyrinth.

The former warship Trouble Dog and her crew of misfits is called upon by the House of Reclamation to investigate a distress call from the human starship the Lucy's Ghost. Her crew abandon their crippled ship and seek refuge aboard an abandoned, slower-than-light generation ship launched 10,000 years before by an alien race. However, the enormous ship contains deadly secrets of its own.

Held captive by Dark Horse Company, Captain Axel Finn is faced with a mission to humanity’s ancestral home after all contact with the planet is lost. Learning his mother might be hiding there, Axel agrees to help his adversaries, and deploy on Vengeance, the last Steward ship. But his decision might lead to his downfall if the Wrath have already arrived on Earth. On the treacherous Wooly planet of Dari, bounty hunter Rangnar Soki becomes the prey, finding himself the target in a deadly game of survival. His path to rejoin Axel’s crew hinges on passing a test of Dari’s most revered guardian.

One hundred years before Ender's Game, the aliens arrived on Earth with fire and death. Earth Afire by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston is the story of the First Formic War. Victor Delgado beat the alien ship to Earth, but just barely. Not soon enough to convince skeptical governments that there was a threat. They didn't believe that until space stations and ships and colonies went up in sudden flame. And when that happened, only Mazer Rackham and the Mobile Operations Police could move fast enough to meet the threat.

We are the last humans. We are hunted. We are refugees. We must return to Earth. The alien scorpions attack us across the galaxy. They butcher millions. Humans are now an endangered species. But we have not given up. We still have a few starships. We still have some hope. And we have a map home. On Earth, we can be free again. On Earth, we can stand tall. On Earth, we can rebuild what we have lost. Earth is but an echo, calling from beyond the darkness. We will answer her call. We will find our lost world. We will defeat our enemies. We will rise again!

For Van and his crew, danger is no longer just among the stars. On earth, the Fafnir has drawn the attention of the most dangerous predator known to humanity—Bureaucrats. Between human enemies and alien allies, Van finds himself on the edge of a powerful change in his career. From the depths of his family history, an old enemy returns with plans for power at any cost. Just as his grandfather did fifty years earlier, Van will meet and challenge the threat of an ancient empire that spans deserts, stars, and time.

Of all the Emperor’s sons who fell to Chaos, it is perhaps Magnus the Red whose tale is the most tragic. Sanctioned because of his desire for knowledge, chastised, judged, and shattered to his very elements – there is much for the Crimson King to feel vengeful for. Yet revenge is not the only thing that draws him to Terra alongside the Warmaster’s besieging armies. He seeks something, a fragment, the missing piece of himself that lies within the most impregnable place on the planet – the inner sanctum of the Imperial Palace.

Xenocide is the third installment of the Ender series. On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequeninos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought. But Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus which kills all humans it infects, but which the pequeninos require in order to transform into adults.

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

The revelations Mark Tudor unearthed on Tactus Ares were profound. The Piraxians fell victim to the aggressive, expansionist Eridani Federation. That same confederacy funded and facilitated the Lyrae. They made Stillness. And the Guild was complicit. How does one bring exposure to something the galaxy at large would rather forget? And how does an honorable man remove corruption when its gravity consumes all? A plan is hatched in secret.

Long before the coming of the Imperium, the realm of Ultramar was ruled by Roboute Guilliman, the last Battle King of Macragge. Even after learning of his true heritage as a primarch son of the Emperor of Mankind, he strove to expand his domain as efficiently and benevolently as possible, with the XIII Legion Ultramarines as his alone to command.

Sometimes it seems a Jedi’s work is never done, and Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker know this only too well. Despite the bond they share in the Force, the Jedi Master and his wife are still learning the ropes of being a couple after three years of marriage—and struggling to find time together between the constant demands of duty. But all that will change when they’re united on an unexpected mission: They must pool their exceptional skills to combat an insidious enemy and salvage a part of Jedi history. Whatever may await, the Skywalkers will not face it alone.

The human race is at War with the "Buggers," an insect-like alien race. As Earth prepares to defend itself from total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable enemy, all focus is on the development of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win. The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth--they have time to train these future commanders up from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high orbital facility called the Battle School.

One man's epic story of loyalty, perseverance, and hope in a galaxy at war. Now in a single volume. Alliance Navy Commander Grayson Stone is patrolling a nearby space station when a mysterious starship appears. It emerges from a storm of fire, its shields impenetrable, its weapons overwhelming, attacking without provocation and annihilating everything in its path.

It's hard to give peace a chance when the other side regards conquest as the only option and a sneak attack as the best means to that end. That's why the Kingdom of Manticore needs allies against the Republic of Haven, and the planet Grayson is strategically situated to make a very good ally indeed. But Her Majesty’s Foreign Office overlooked a “minor cultural difference” when they chose Honor Harrington to carry the flag: women on the planet of Grayson are without rank or rights and Honor’s mere presence is an intolerable affront to every male on the planet.