FIRESHIP Ethan Ring was an incredible synthesis of man (to be candid, not much of one) and computer (superior to anything ever before de-vised). Unhappily, his talents had made Earth too hot for him, to the tune of a half-million-dollar price on his head, and he fled to Mars for seclusion, safety, and a little fling at the fabulous casino of Khorram Kabir. For a superman, Ring had no luck—a lovely black-mailer found him and pressured him into agreeing to penetrate Kabir's planet-wide computer network. That wasn't a problem but staying alive after he did it was.... MOTHER AND CHILD The king of the Neaane saw and desired the Kotaane priestess Etaa and had her brutally taken from her husband. His joy was great when she gave birth—but the child she bore was not his... and was fated to be a major piece in an incomprehensible game that spanned the stars and would change the face of his world and its people forever. These two short novels show the diverse and wondrous talents of one of today s most remarkable new writers.