The alien fleet orbited Penum IV and used colorful incinerating death rays on the planet rotating below. When the inhabitants of the globe were annihilated and everything left worth pillaging stowed on black-hulled plunder ships, the fleet moved on to the next inhabited human world, unopposed except by. The warship Preceptor, commanded by Pier Norlin, a junior officer on a ship with only a skeleton crew. The ship lacks proper armament, the crew is mismatched and fighting among themselves--and the mission is not sanctioned by the Empire. For Norlin, these are only small obstacles to be...

Pier Norlin and his misfit crew aboard the Empire warship Preceptor have scored the first victory over the mysterious invading Alien Death Fleet. The Fleet destroys the life on entire planets, then loots them of anything of value. Norlin has one small advantage other ships of the Empire lack: he has a captured alien energy weapon. But even this energy cannon is worthless against the waves of decadence flowing from the Emperor's Court where the magnitude of the threat is ignored. Rebellion is brewing among the frontier worlds and Norlin finds his sympathies increasingly lie with them although...

From a sheriff embroiled in a mystery at the Arizona Renaissance Faire, to a homesick beer-drinking alien, to an aging king and a newly risen zombie, this volume features twenty-one tales that will intrigue, humor, an send a few shivers. The author of a hundred books in the fantasy, science-fiction, mystery, and western genres, Vardeman takes you from the edge of death, to a UFO-hunted desert, to fantasy worlds rich with god-fire and mysticism. This collection is filled with some of his favorite gems, stretching from three decades past to the present.

Sail enchanted seas and cross swords with a crew of award-winning fantasy authors in the first book of the exciting new Blue Kingdoms world Within these pages, you'll find enchanted islands, angry sea gods, mysterious magic, and pirates galore in a treasure trove of tales by: Robert E. Vardeman, J. Robert King, Lorelei Shannon, Lester Smith, Marc Tassin, Kathleen Watness, James M. Ward, Paul Genesse, Brandie Tarvin, Steve Winter, Dean Leggett, Jason Mical, Kelly Swails, and Jean Rabe & Stephen D. Sullivan.

Sir Francis Barstow has unlimited funds from the alchemist's dream--he can transmute lead into gold with a special ray confined to a Cornish coal mine. To exhaust generated fumes from the electrical equipment, he uses a strange black portal only a foot in diameter--the portal opens onto an entire new dimension, the World of Rust. Other, larger holes have appeared across the world. The Kaiser uses one to smuggle contraband from the United States into Switzerland in preparation for launching a great war, but he is opposed by a brilliant scientist unwilling to thrust the world into such...