In the end, the only political systems that seem to work are those based on freedom. The Inner World leaders of the Terran Federation seem to have forgotten this simple truth. After fighting the Khanate—with the Fringe Worlds to supply the raw material and the fighting men—the Inner Worlds found it hard to give up the powers they had seized during the war. So they decided not to—rather than allow the rapidly expanding Fringe Worlds representation in the Federation, they are inviting the Khanate in, to keep the colonial upstarts in their place. The Fringers have only one answer to that:

The Prodigal's Return Neither side having proved capable of pressing their conflict to a successful conclusion, the Human-Orion war to end all interstellar wars has collapsed into an uneasy peace. But it is a peace filled with fear, hatred and mistrust on both sides. Then from out of a warp point notorious for devouring space ships, appears a ship from the dim mists of half-forgotten history. It responds to hails from patroling Orion sentry using ancient human codes from a long lost colony. And it opens fire on the Orions, igniting the fires of interstellar war anew, in a quest to free Holy Mother Terra...

The Bugs have a superior drive technology, overwhelming numbers, and a strategy that's mind-numbingly alien. But they have finally encountered a food source that's too stubborn to go down easy. For the humans and Orions of the Grand Alliance choosing their strategy was easy—the only possible objective in the Fourth Interstellar War was the complete extermination of the Bugs.

In the long-awaited sequel to In Death Ground, the Grand Alliance of Humans, Orions, Ophiuchi, and Gorm continue their galactic battle against the Arachnids—a carnivorous legion of insects that regard any competing sentient species as a food source. With billions of civilians already slaughtered and their armed forces ravaged beyond repair, the Grand Alliance may be forced to their last resort—the devastating Shiva Option.

Once before, the sentient races in the known part of the galaxy, humans, Orions, Ophiuchi and Gormhad, united to defeat alien invaders. The bugs were as incomprehensibly alien as they were revoltingly evil, using all other living things, intelligent or not, as food, and they had been defeated at a terrible cost. Decades have since passed and the gallant warriors of the battle against the bugs have grown old, while new generations have grown complacent . . . dangerously so. Long ago, much of the population of an entire planet had built a huge fleet of ships, each ship larger than a city, and fled their world before its sun went nova. Those slower-than-light ships traversed many light years, and have now arrived at the world they intend to make their new home. They regard the fact that the planet is already colonized by humans as a mere inconvenience, the more so since their mode of communication is so different from anything humans use that they do not consider humans and their allies to be truly intelligent. And the arriving aliens knowor, at least, they believethat when they die they will be reincarnated, so they do not hesitate to attack humans and their allies with suicidal fury. This time, the intelligent races of the old alliance will not have to worry about becoming an invaders mealbut that will be small comfort if the invaders decide that genocide is justified for their own survival...

The New Sequel to Exodus and the New York Times Best Seller, The Shiva Option . Once before, the sentient races in the known part of the galaxy—humans, Orions, Ophiuchi and Gorm—had united to defeat alien invaders. Decades later, the member planets of the alliance had grown complacent—until a huge fleet of ships, each ship larger than a city, arrived, fleeing the loss of their home planet when their star went nova. They have traveled for centuries, slower than light, and now that they have arrived at the world they intend to make their new home. They regard the fact that the planet is already colonized by humans as a mere inconvenience, the more so since their mode of communication is so different from anything humans use that they do not consider humans and their allies to be truly intelligent. And the arriving aliens know—or, at least, they believe—that when they die they will be reincarnated, so they do not hesitate to attack humans and their allies with suicidal fury. And, if necessary, they will exterminate all humans and their allies, if that’s what it takes to occupy the planet. That was their attitude on arrival, but the conquerors have learned from human technology. They now know all about reactionless drives, so much more efficient than rocket engines. And they have learned about the jump points which make faster-than-light travel possible. With that knowledge, they plan to conquer the entire inhabited region of the galaxy—unless the old alliance of humans and other being can stop them ...

ORIGINAL TRADE PAPERACK. Steve White, co-author with David Weber of the New York Times best-seller The Shiva Option, joins with Compton Crook Award Winner Charles E. Gannon to carve another notch in the Starfire adventure saga. The war with the Arduans—profoundly alien invaders who originally arrived in STL ships—is over. Most of those attackers are now probationary (and very productive) citizens of the Rim Federation. However, many among the Arduans’ warrior caste have neither accepted defeat, nor the personhood of any of the other intelligence races. Their leader, the ruthless admiral of the second Arduan exodus—Amunsit—is in firm control of the Zarzuela system. Along with a fifth column among the peaceable Arduans, she hopes to find allies in subsequent refugee fleets that abandoned their race's now-dead home system long ago. But as the victors’ diplomats attempt to soothe tensions with these warlike neighbors, two heroes of the last war—veteran Admiral Ian Trevayne and young trouble-shooter Ossian Wethermere—suspect they have stumbled upon a deeper Arduan plot: one which could shatter the Pan-Sentient Union, and perhaps interstellar civilization itself. About Extremis: “Vivid. . .Battle sequences mingle with thought-provoking exegesis . . .”–Publishers Weekly About Steve White and David Weber’s The Shiva Option: “[Leaves] the reader both exhilarated and enriched.” –Publishers Weekly About Steve White: “White offers fast action and historically informed world-building.”–Publishers Weekly About Steve White’s Forge of the Titans: “. . . recalls the best of the John Campbell era of SF. White's core audience of hard SF fans will be pleased . . .”–Publishers Weekl

WHITE AND GANNON RETURN WITH A NEW ENTRY IN THE STARFIRE SERIES, co-created by New York Times best-selling authors Steve White and David Weber. STAND AGAINST THE ALIEN INVADER APOCALYPSE! The war with the profoundly alien Arduans has ended, and the Arduans have come to call humanity their allies. Most of them—the Arduan warrior caste refuses to accept defeat. Now known as the Kaituni, they are waging a war of extermination against all members of the pan-Sentient Union, human and Arduan alike. What’s more, the Kaituni have an unexpected weapon in their the alien Arachnids, once thought driven to extinction. The Kaituni drive the Arachnid fleet ahead of them, inflicting untold damage. The war has been marked by retreat on the side of the pan-Sentient Union. It seems the best they can do is minimize their losses. But now the Arachnids and the Kaituni are at the doorstep to the Heart Worlds, Sol, and Alpha Centauri. The odds look bleak. But Admiral Ian Trevayne and Commodore Ossian Wethermere have faced down long odds in the past. It’s time to take a stand, for Earth, for humanity . . . and for the pan-Sentient Union! At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About “Vivid. . .Battle sequences mingle with thought-provoking exegesis . . .”–Publishers Weekly About Steve White and David Weber’s The Shiva “[Leaves] the reader both exhilarated and enriched.” –Publishers Weekly About Steve “White offers fast action and historically informed world-building.”–Publishers Weekly About Charles E. "The plot is intriguing and then some. Well-developed and self-consistent; intelligent readers are going to like it."—Jerry Pournelle "[A] strong [writer of] . . . military SF . . . [much] action going on in his work, with a lot of physics behind it. There is a real sense of the urgency of war and the sacrifices it demands." —Locus Vietnam veteran Steve White is the author of numerous science fiction and fantasy novels including Wolf Among the Stars, St. Anthony’s Fire, and Blood of Heroes and the coauthor of Exodus, the immediate prequel to Extremis. With David Weber, White collaborated on Starfire series novels Insurrection, Crusade, In Death Ground, and New York Times bestseller The Shiva Option. Charles E. Gannon is the author of Compton Crook Award winning, Nebula nominated Fire with Fire, Trial by Fire, and Raising Caine, in the Caine Riordan series. He is the coauthor with Eric Flint of 1636: The Papal Stakes and 1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indiesin Eric Flint's best-selling Ring of Fire series. With best-selling Steve White, Gannon is the coauthor of Starfire series entries Extremis,and Imperative. Gannon is also the author of multiple short stories. He is a member of SIGMA, the "SF think-tank" which has advised various intelligence and defense agencies since the start of the millennium. Chuck lives near Annapolis, Maryland with his wife and children.