TALES OF THIEVES AND WARRIORS, WRITTEN BY FAN FAVORITES! FIND THE MARK The dragon’s hoard. The dwarves’ hidden mine. The mage’s secret library overflowing with enchanted relics. The world is brimming with treasures—if you’re bold enough to claim them. PLAN THE JOB Waltzing in with a broadsword and demanding the crown jewels? That’s a fast track to the dungeon. A true master thief needs a strategy—one with style, cunning, and just the right amount of risk. ASSEMBLE THE TEAM It is dangerous to go alone. You’ll need the best in the business—whether they be fae tricksters, goblin lockpickers, elven illusionists, or human masterminds. PULL OFF THE HEIST But even the most flawless plans have a way of unraveling. When the stakes are high and the odds are stacked, only the cleverest and most daring will make it out with the prize. Thirteen daring tales of fantasy heists and high-stakes capers—where charm is as sharp as steel, and the score of a lifetime is just one misstep away. With stories by Christopher Ruocchio, Wen Spencer, A. Lee Martinez, Edward M. Erdelac, Jim Zub, John C. Hocking, James Enge, Tim Akers, Mark Finn, Bill Willingham, Adrian Simmons, Tracy S. Morris, and Stephen Aryan. Christopher Ruocchio Wen Spencer A. Lee Martinez Edward M. Erdelac Jim Zub John C. Hocking James Enge Tim Akers Mark Finn Bill Willingham Adrian Simmons Tracy S. Morris Stephen Aryan David Afsharirad At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). David Afsharirad was an Associate Editor at Baen Books. For five years, he was the editor of Baen's The Best Military and Adventure SF series; he also edited the all-Davids anthology The Chronicles of Davids. His short fiction has appeared in various anthologies and magazines. He lives in Austin, TX. Mark Finn is an author, an editor, and a pop culture critic, recently named one of the top movie reviewers in Texas by the Associated Press Managing Editors. A nationally recognized authority on Robert E. Howard, his work has appeared in publications for the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, Dark Horse Comics, Boom! Comics, The Cimmerian, Two-Gun Raconteur, The Howard Review, Wildside Press, Centipede Press, The University of Texas press and elsewhere. Finn’s fiction can be found in Rayguns Over Texas, Road Trip, Tails of the Pack, Empty Hearts, Fight The Adventures of Sailor Tom Sharkey, and elsewhere. When he is not waxing eloquent about popular culture, he writes comics and fiction, performs community theater, and runs a small-town movie theater in North Texas.
Authors
Tim Akers was born in deeply rural North Carolina, the only son of a theologian. He moved to Chicago for college, where he lives with his wife of thirteen years and their German shepherd. He splits his time between databases and fountain pens.
- PyrSF
Christopher Ruocchio is the author of The Sun Eater, a space opera fantasy series, as well as the Assistant Editor at Baen Books, where he has co-edited four anthologies. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University, where he studied English Rhetoric and the Classics. Christopher has been writing since he was eight and sold his first novel, Empire of Silence, at twenty-two. To date, his books have been published in five languages. Christopher lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, Jenna. He may be found on both Facebook and Twitter with the handle ‘TheRuocchio.’
Edward M. Erdelac is the author of thirteen novels including the acclaimed Judeocentric/Lovecraftian weird western series Merkabah Rider, Rainbringer: Zora Neale Hurston Against The Lovecraftian Mythos, Conquer, Monstrumfuhrer from Comet Press, Terovolas from JournalStone Publishing, and Andersonville from Random House/Hydra. Born in Indiana, educated in Chicago, he lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and a bona fide slew of kids and cats.
In the late 1970s to early 1980s he drew fantasy ink pictures for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic and Expert game rulebooks. He first gained attention for his 1980s comic book series Elementals published by Comico, which he both wrote and drew. However, for reasons unknown, the series had trouble maintaining an original schedule, and Willingham's position in the industry remained spotty for many years. He contributed stories to Green Lantern and started his own independent, black-and-white comics series Coventry which lasted only 3 issues. He also produced the pornographic series Ironwood for Eros Comix. In the late 1990s Willingham reestablished himself as a prolific writer. He produced the 13-issue Pantheon for Lone Star Press and wrote a pair of short novels about the modern adventures of the hero Beowulf, published by the writer's collective, Clockwork Storybook, of which Willingham was a founding member. In the early 2000s he began writing extensively for DC Comics, including the limited series Proposition Player, a pair of limited series about the Greek witch Thessaly from The Sandman, and most notably the popular series Fables
John W. Campbell Award Winner Wen Spencer resides in paradise in Hilo, Hawaii with two volcanoes overlooking her home. Spencer says that she often wakes up and exclaims "Oh my god, I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific!" This, says Spencer, is a far cry from her twenty years of living in land-locked Pittsburgh. The Elfhome series opener, Tinker, won the 2003 Sapphire Award for Best Science Fiction Romance and was a finalist for the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Fantasy Novel. Wolf Who Rules, the sequel to Tinker, was chosen as a Top Pick by Romantic Times and given their top rating of four and a half stars. Other Baen books include space opera thriller Endless Blue and Eight Million Gods.
I’m a lifelong fan of fantasy and science fiction. It started with The Hobbit, The Belgariad, the Earthsea books, the Shannara books, DragonLance and then David Gemmell, who was a huge influence on my writing. My novels include:- The Nightingale and the Falcon trilogy The Judas Blossom (July 2023) The Judas Blossom 2 (July 2024) The Judas Blossom 3 (July 2025) The Quest for Heroes duology -The Coward (June 2021)
- The Warrior (August 2022) Age of Darkness (first trilogy)
- Battlemage
- Bloodmage
- Chaosmage Age of Dread (second trilogy) -Mageborn -Magefall -Magebane A prequel novella to everything, Of Gods and Men, was published in February 2018. I am represented by Juliet Mushens of Mushens Entertainment.
Jim Zub is a writer, artist and art instructor based in Toronto, Canada. Over the past fifteen years he’s worked for a diverse array of publishing, movie and video game clients including Disney, Warner Bros., Capcom, Hasbro, Bandai-Namco and Mattel. He juggles his time between being a freelance comic writer and Program Coordinator for Seneca College‘s award-winning Animation program.
