The launch sequence has been set. The engines are bucking and ready to blast out of the stable. This is it, pardnas! The final trek into the outer limits of known space, where some might find oblivion, and others, serenity. Lift off to adventure with David Boop’s third space western anthology featuring bestselling authors Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Mark L Van Name, Chesya Burke, Kevin Ikenberry, David Mack, John Stith, and more! It’s been a long journey via Gunfight on Europa Station and High Noon on Proxima Centuri B, but Boop brings the series to conclusion (for now) with a collection of brilliantly crafted stories focusing a Western-theme lens onto established series like the Liaden Universe, the Four Horseman Universe, and Johnny & Lobo. Returning favorite authors such as D.J. Butler, and Mel Todd, are joined by new favorites David Afsharirad, Lezli Robyn, Chris Smith, Kelli Fitzpatrick, and M. Tod Gallowglas (who regales readers with his epic “The Ballad of the Junk Heap Man and Mistress Bullet!”) Thirteen stellar stories from every known quadrant of the universe, as told by an amazing crew of authors. So, book your passage on The Last Train Outta Kepler-283c before it’s too late!

First contact with the seemingly impossible human civilization at Proxima Centauri is not going well. The Earth ships sent to render aid have not been able to reverse the contagion ravaging their population and, worse, many Proximans are now wondering if the humans from Earth are there for other, not so charitable, reasons. Can the extinction-level disaster faced at Proxima be reversed by the combined ingenuity of scientists from both worlds working together? Unsettling discoveries in the Proxima Centauri planetary system beg the questions: What if the evil gods depicted in Proxima’s ancient mythologies were real and far more powerful than even the humans from Earth with their late 21st century technologies? What if their ancient oppressors never truly left?

Plan B is now in effect! Wanted fugitives Val Con yos'Phelium and Miri Robertson have jumped from the frying pan directly into the fire, hotly pursued by friends, family, and the nefarious Department of the Interior. While the duo make the risky dash for Lytaxin, seeking safety among Miri's kin, the Department is moving on Val Con's family, Clan Korval, intending to subvert or destroy it. Understanding their danger, Korval's first speaker invokes Plan B, ordering Clan members to scatter to prearranged safe-places. Meanwhile, Miri and Val Con discover that Lytaxin may not be the safe harbor they had supposed . . and that Miri's retirement from the mercenaries may have been premature.

This is a ghost story. It is a story about werewolves, and things that go bump in the night. It is a story of an ill-fated land, the pathless moors of Northern England so well chronicled in Wuthering Heights. And it is the story of a real family whose destiny it is to deal with this darkly glamorous and dangerous world. When young Emily Brontë helps a wounded man she finds at the foot of an ancient pagan shrine in the remote Yorkshire moors, her life becomes contentiously entwined with his. He is Alcuin Curzon, embittered member of a sect working to eradicate the resurgent plague of lycanthropy in Europe and northern England. But Emily’s father, curate of the Haworth village church, is responsible for having unwittingly brought a demonic werewolf god to Yorkshire forty years ago—and it is taking possession of Emily’s beloved but foolish and dissolute brother. Curzon must regard Emily’s family as a dire threat. In spite of being at deadly odds, Emily and Curzon find themselves thrown together in fighting werewolves, confronting pagan gods, even saving each other from the lures of moorland demons. And in a final battle that sweeps from the haunted village of Haworth to a monstrous shrine far out on the moors, the two of them must be reluctant allies against an ancient power that seems likely to take their souls as well as their lives.

The Solar System ain’t what it used to be! In the far distant future, Saturn’s rings are gone, Mercury is a gas giant, and Earth is remembered only as a unit of measure. Nearly godlike AIs reshaped the Solar System in eons past, but they too are now nothing more than a fading memory. Captain Nathaniel Kade cares for none of that. He’s but a simple freelancer from the orbital ring of Neptune, struggling to make ends meet and to keep his understaffed spaceship from falling apart. All he wants is a decent, uneventful job to help put his finances back in order. What he receives instead is Vessani S’Kaari, a mysterious and beautiful cat girl who tried—and failed—to steal a ship belonging to a band of space pirates. Vessani’s in over her head and is clearly more trouble than she’s worth, but she also has a lead on what may be the greatest treasure trove of lost technology the Solar System has ever seen. Nathan pulls her butt out of the fire, and together they begin to assemble a team to seek out this long-lost bounty. But other interested parties have their eyes on the same prize; the Jovian Everlife has dispatched a fleet of warships with one of their elite, many-bodied agents in command, and he’d like a few words with Nathan and his new crewmember.

A young gentlewoman, Margaret de Beauchamp, finds her fate twisted into the lives of the up-timers when she meets the Americans imprisoned in the Tower of London. In exchange for her help, Rita Simpson and Harry Lefferts give her a huge sum of money to keep her family’s manor and its woolen trade from falling into the hands of the crown and its unscrupulous minister, Lord Cork. But Margaret’s troubles are not at an end. Her family’s fortunes are in a downward spiral. Her trip to Grantville brings unexpected dangers and a possible up-time solution. Inspired by books in the Grantville library, Margaret has an idea to restore her family’s fortunes with an innovation never before seen in fabric design. With the help of Aaron Craig, an up-timer programmer using aqualators, water-powered computers, they teach her father’s craftsmen to create a combination machine loom that can produce a new type of woolen cloth. The ornate and perfect patterns quickly trend among the nobility. However, the Master Weavers of the county’s Weaver’s Guild aren’t happy about being overshadowed by the changes to the status quo, and take their grievance to Lord Cork, who is still looking for the people who helped the Americans escape from the Tower. Cork isn’t interested in squabbles between mere tradesmen, but he is very interested in taking over the new calculating machine that is fueling the upsurge in the de Beauchamp fortunes. He sends agents ordered to stop at nothing to secure it for his own ends. Margaret has to protect her new business, and prevent anyone from discovering that up-timers are in the country to assist her, but she still has to deal with an uprising at home.

Owen Zastava Pitt, accountant turned professional monster hunter, managed to stop the nefarious Old One’s invasion plans last year, but as a result made an enemy out of one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Now an evil death cult known as the Church of the Temporary Mortal Condition wants to capture Owen in order to gain the favor of the great Old Ones. The Condition is led by a fanatical necromancer known as the Shadow Man. The government wants to capture the Shadow Man and has assigned the enigmatic Agent Franks to be Owen’s full time bodyguard, which is a polite way of saying that Owen is monster bait. With supernatural assassins targeting his family, a spy in their midst, and horrific beasties lurking around every corner, Owen and the staff of Monster Hunter International don’t need to go hunting, because this time the monsters are hunting them. Fortunately, this bait is armed and very dangerous. The Monster Hunter series by Larry Correia: Monster Hunter International Monster Hunter Vendetta Monster Hunter Alpha Monster Hunter Legion Monster Hunter Nemesis Monster Hunter Siege Monster Hunter Guardian (with Sarah A. Hoyt) Monster Hunter Bloodlines Monster Hunter Memoirs: Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge (with John Ringo) Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinner (with John Ringo) Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saints (with John Ringo) Monster Hunter Memoirs: Fever (with Jason Cordova)

The Terran Republic. The Terran League. Genocidal enemies. Members of the Five Hundred don’t care. They are the social elite of the Heart Worlds, light-years from any threat of attack. Rear Admiral Terrence Murphy is of the Five Hundred. There is no end to how high he can rise in the Republic’s power structure. But the powers-that-be have miscalculated. For Terence Murphy is a man of honor. He intends to stop the killing. Terrence will end fifty-six years of bloodshed and slaughter—and Hell itself rides with him.

HE NEVER WANTED TO BE A REBEL The Five Hundred, the elite families who rule the Terran Federation, control its political power and its wealth, and they've grown steadily wealthier and more powerful, thanks to the war against the Terran League. War may be hard on the people who get caught in its path, but it's very good for business, and the Five Hundred own the shipyards that build the Navy's ships. They own virtually all the industry that produces the weapons and matériel the war consumes so voraciously . . and they've made damn sure someone else does the dying. True, there are a few flies in the Five Hundred's ointment. There's the growing hatred and resentment of the Fringe Worlds, whose children do eighty percent of the dying in the Five Hundred's war. But the Five Hundred have made sure the Fringe knows what will happen to any system that goes "out of compliance." There are the lunatic conspiracy nuts who insist that the alien Rishathan Sphere is secretly aiding the League's military, but the Five Hundred have forced them to keep their mouths shut where it matters. And then there's Terrence Murphy, a man of honor who loves the Federation, who springs from the Five Hundred, yet knows it for what it is and is determined to speak for its victims. But the five hundred have dispatched ample force to deal with him and his handful of lunatic followers. Unfortunately, the Fringe has paid enough of its children's lives, and it no longer cares what may happen if it dares to defy the Five Hundred. Worse, the lunatic conspiracy nuts were right, and the Rish have planned carefully for the Federation’s destruction. And, worst of all, the Five Hundred have fatally underestimated Terrence Murphy.

WELCOME TO KISH Indrajit and Fix are the founding partners of the Protagonists, a jobber company in Kish. Since the seven great families of Kish farm out all tasks they and the city need doing, a jobber might one day unblock a well; the next, man a tollgate for the fair; and on the third, hunt down a murderer on the loose, all in a corrupt old city that isn’t so much governed as kept barely in bounds. Indrajit is a poet of a dying race, looking for his successor. Fix is a failed monk, pining for his lost love. They ’re swordsmen and thinkers, heroes in their hearts and in their deeds. They also recover stolen documents, unravel financial fraud, escort shipwrecked diplomats, and hunt in the ruins beneath the city for missing academics. Meanwhile, the criminals they investigate, rival jobbers, sorcerers, spies, assassins, and other mysterious parties get more and more reason to want the Protagonists dead. Welcome to Kish. Praise for Witchy Winter: “Butler follows Witchy Eye with a satisfying second tale of a magic-filled early America. . Deep and old magic influences both places and characters, and the story is tightly focused on the determined Sarah . Fans of epic and alternate historical fantasy will savor this tale of witchery and intrigue.” —Publishers Weekly ”For readers who love history-based fantasy, steampunk, or urban fantasy . this series that gives the genre a new twist.” —Booklist Praise for Witchy Eye and D.J. Butler: “. you can’t stop yourself from taking another bite . and another . I didn’t want to stop reading. Kudos!” —R.A. Salvatore “Excellent book. I am impressed by the creativity and the depth of the worldbuilding. Dave Butler is a great storyteller.” —Larry Correia “Witchy Eye is an intricate and imaginative alternate history with a cast of characters and quirky situations that would make a Dickens novel proud.” —Kevin J. Anderson ”Butler’s fantasy is by turns sardonic and lighthearted; ghoulish shadows claw into the most remote areas and heroism bursts out of the most unlikely people. Sarah is the epitome of the downtrodden hero who refuses to give up until she gets what she needs, and her story will appeal to fantasy readers of all stripes.” —Publishers Weekly ”David’s a pro storyteller, and you’re in for a great ride.” —Larry Dixon ”. a fascinating, grittily-flavored world of living legends. Hurry up and write the next one, Dave.” —Cat Rambo ”This is enchanting! I’d love to see more.” —Mercedes Lackey “Goblin Market meets Magical Musketpunk . A great ride that also manages to cover some serious cultural terrain.” —Charles E. Gannon ”Witchy Eye is a brilliant blend of historical acumen and imagination, a tour-de-force that is at once full of surprises and ultimately heart-warming. This is your chance to discover one of the finest new stars writing today!” —David Farland “A gritty, engrossing mash-up of history, fantasy, and magic. Desperate characters careen from plot twist to plot twist until few are left standing.” —Mario Acevedo ”Captivating characters. Superb world-building. Awesome magic. Butler fuses fantasy and history effortlessly, creating a fascinating new American epic. Not to be missed!” —Christopher Husberg ”[A] unique alternative-history that is heavily influenced by urban and traditional fantasy and steeped in the folklore of the Appalachians. Fans of urban fantasy looking to take a chance on something with a twist on a historical setting may find this novel worth their time.” —Booklist

MEN, MACHINES, AND TOMORROW’S BATTLEFIELDS War is planned violence . . or, at least, it starts out that way. And even if plans go awry, the violence is indispensable. Today’s soldiers have far more firepower on a per-man basis than the doughboys of a century ago, and there is no reason to believe that this trend will not extend into the future. Imagine a revival of suits of armor, but with structural strength undreamed of by medieval knights, and powered by built-in motors, giving each soldier the invulnerability of a tank, but even more mobility, and mechanical muscle strong enough to carry light artillery, rocket launchers, laser cannon, and weapons not even on the drawing boards yet. Add on the ability to fly, or at least jump for a kilometer at a time, using rocket boosters, or even powerful leg motors, or a combination of both. The stuff that superheroes are made of, hanging in every fighting man or woman’s closet, ready to wear. If it’s possible, history teaches us, it will be done. But don’t expect a nation or planet possessing such battalions of super-powered soldiers to not worry about attack by an enemy . there’s no reason why the enemy won’t have its own armored infantry. Keep the midnight oil burning and the R&D rolling. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek by expert dreamers putting the battle-hardened reader at the sharp end of tomorrow. Praise for anthologies edited by Hank Davis and David Afsharirad: “This intriguing anthology explores the human race’s violent potential [but] also bends toward exploration and the triumph of the human spirit, with brave tales [that] take the reader on a fascinating, thoughtprovoking, enjoyable journey . .” —Publishers Weekly on The Year’s Best Military SF and Space Opera, starred review

THE GODDESS OF WAR RIDES, HERALDED BY STORM FURIES The oni have invaded Pittsburgh on Elfhome. And, so far, it looks like they are winning. All this is according to prophecy. But the prophecy is big on symbols and light on specifics. Tinker and her allies are doing the best they can to defend the city and the civilians caught in the crossfire of a war between elves that’s been brewing for centuries. But the enemy has no hesitation whatsoever in involving innocents. All the pieces in this deadly game are in place—and everyone trusts Tinker will save them. All she needs is a plan. And then the lights go out, and the storm begins to rage. .

A CITY DIVIDED For centuries Selei City—the capital of the Imperialate and one of the most desired locales in all of the Skolian Empire—has been held together by the thinnest of threads. While the “haves” live in great luxury, the “have-nots” scrape by, eking out what existence they can in the Undercity. Major Bhaajan, formerly of the Imperial Army, knows both worlds. Born into the Undercity, she nevertheless has made a name for herself in the Imperialate. And now, she has the chance to help her people. HOPE FOR RECONCILIATION For the first time, a member of the Royal class wants to extend an olive branch to the Undercity. Hoping to build bridges, Colonel Lavinda Majda recruits Major Bhaajan and her Dust Knights to act as guides and bodyguards as she makes her way into the Undercity on a mission of goodwill. THE DOWN DEEP But the problems of the Undercity run deeper than Major Bhaajan or Lavinda know. If there is to be lasting peace, the Dust Knights must reach the very lowest rungs of society, known only as the Down Deep, where the scars from years of enmity and distrust are greatest. There they will face an unseen enemy that may destroy the lives of all citizens of Selei City—and threatens the fragile peace forever.

It’s been nearly a century since Thomas Rimor last battled Yvag knights. In that time his wife and daughter have grown old and died, and he has discovered that he ages not at all. The elven world believes him long dead. In his grief, he has retreated to the depths of Sherwood and Barnsdale Forests and become a hermit, lost in his memories, his grief. But when a dying outlaw arrives on his doorstep with items stolen from an Yvag skinwalker, it sets in motion events that thrust Thomas back into the world and force him into combat with Queen Nicnevin’s soldiers once again, including this time his late sister’s changeling daughter and the Queen’s own grotesque offspring, Bragrender. As Thomas takes on two sheriffs of Nottingham and a horde of Yvag raiders, he enlists the aid of outlaws Little John and Will Scathelocke, and the Keeper of Sherwood Forest herself, Isabella Birkin, who sets him on a path back to humanity. To keep his true identity hidden from the Yvags, he creates an alter-ego named Robyn Hoode, whose exploits, unbeknown to Thomas, are about to become the stuff of legend.