The first novel of War World. Three hundred years before, the last of the gene-engineered Soldiers and Cyborgs from the deathworld Sauron came to Haven. To the Saurons, humans were merely cattle—to be raided for tribute and breeding females. Now a new myth comes to Haven. A call to a Holy War that will unite the tribes before the Sauron Citadel—to begin the final bloody struggle to reclaim their world.

Three hundred years ago, the last survivors of the genetically engineered Sauron super warriors arrived on the planet Haven. Since then, the history of Haven has been a horror story, but now old enemies have been united by their hatred of the Sauron overlords, and it just may be possible for the humans to take back their world. This book is a collection of short stores by various authors on this theme.

THE SAURONS STRIKE BACK! War World: The Battle of Sauron by John F. Carr and Don Hawthorne documents the pivotal point of the First Empire of Man, depicting the final clash of arms between the Imperial forces and the genetically-spawned Sauron Super Soldiers, as their battle fleets collide in the Sauron System. This battle between the First Empire of Man and the Sauron Coalition of Secession will determine whether mankind will be supplanted by a race dedicated to the military arts, or if the Empire of Man will continue to reign triumphant over the disparate and far flung worlds of man. Vessel Commander, Galen Diettinger, of the Sauron battlecruiser Fomoria, is placed in command of the entire Sauron fleet and charged with saving the Homeworld. Will his military genius be enough to reverse the tide of the War? Or will Sauron be destroyed by Imperial military might? The fates of millions depend upon Diettinger’s success.

War World: Discovery, edited by John F. Carr, is the 9th book in the on-going War World Saga, which includes 3 novels, the most recent being War World: The Battle of Sauron by John F. Carr & Donald Hawthorne published in 2008. The War World series is a shared-world universe created by Jerry E. Pournelle & John F. Carr and is set in Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium/Empire of Man future history. The moon Haven contains the harshest environments for life among the seventy habitable planets within the CoDominium sphere. After Haven's discovery, this distant moon quickly becomes the center of a major lawsuit over its ownership. When the New Church of Universal Harmony buys the Charter, the big mining companies send their agents to find a way to muscle their way in. The Harmonies quickly find themselves on the defensive. Behind the lines, some of the biggest industrial magnates, the Bronson and DeSilva families, are pulling strings to secure rights to strip-mine Haven of its resources and mineral wealth. This battle only intensifies when shimmer stones, the most valuable gems in the known universe, are discovered on Haven. The Bureau of Relocation sees Haven, more than a year's spaceship journey from Earth, as the perfect dumping ground for political dissidents and criminals. Within the CoDominium, there's a fracture between U.S. and Soviet interests; both powers want to use Haven for their own means. Meanwhile, the New Church of Universal Harmony is finding its lands overwhelmed with undesirables from Earth who neither want to work or live a meditative life. This conflict quickly turns violent as the newcomers scheme to steal food and goods from the non-violent Harmonies, who see their culture undergo a major shift to confront the new realities brought by the displaced transportees from Earth. When Kennicott and Dover Mineral Development send their agents to fight over the newly discovered hafnium and shimmer stone deposits, the violence and bloodshed is ratcheted up. Finally, the CoDominium Marines are sent in to save the day-but for whom: the Harmonies, the miners, the convicts, or their puppet masters back on Earth?

WAR WORLD: TAKEOVER is the second volume in a grand reissue of War World that will present Haven’s history in a chronological fashion for the very first time. Takeover is a trade hardcover volume and includes eight new stories as well as two previously published yarns. On Earth, overpopulation and rising nationalism require the resettlement of millions of troublesome minorities or the fragile peace between the USSR and the USA will go down in flames. It is up to the CoDominium to solve this problem and it just so happens the Bureau of ReLocation has discovered the perfect dumping ground for millions of unwanted minorities and religious fanatics while the mining companies exploiting Haven’s considerable resources need a cheap and expendable labor pool. One hand washes the other, thus the CD Bureau of Intelligence gives orders to subvert Harmony rule and turn Haven into a CoDominium Protectorate. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Haven are having their own problems due to too many transportees from Earth, too few resources, too few live births and the most inhospitable environment known to sustain life—just barely. If that’s not enough, now they have to face a hostile takeover by the very people they left Earth to escape! For more info, visit our new War World web site at: www.warworldcentral.com

The battle between the Sauron Coalition of Secession and the First Empire of Man in the twenty-seventh century ended in a war of extermination and the all-out bombardment of the planet Sauron. The only surviving Sauron spaceship, the Fomoria, is commanded by Vessel First Rank Galen Diettinger. Fleeing Imperial pursuit, the Saurons land on Haven, a hardscrabble world of extreme temperatures, hard radiation, deadly flora and fauna and wastelands containing some of the toughest humans in occupied space. Born in rebellions and civil war, life on Haven is a constant struggle against the harsh moon’s environment, as well as its other occupants—animal and human—all desperate to carve out their own niche. On this desolate moon, the Sauron Soldiers not only have to fight off the human inhabitants, but face a mutiny in their own ranks, as the Cyborg Super Soldiers make a bid to rule the last surviving colony. The Cyborgs are the ultimate product of Sauron’s millennium-long eugenics program and as such are the end-point in the Race’s military development. To the Super Soldiers it is unthinkable that a mere Soldier—no matter how brilliant—should command the new Sauron Homeworld.Meanwhile, Brigadier Gary Cummings, commander of the Haven Volunteers, has lost both his headquarters and military forts. But Brigadier Cummings has fought the Saurons before and knows that the Saurons have no mercy for human norms; this is a war of total domination. The Saurons want to own Haven and use her population as breeding stock for future Soldiers. To fight back, the Brigadier is starting a guerilla campaign in the outback. Castell City and Lermontovgrad have been bombed back to the stone age, but the humans of War World have been tested before…. The one thing the Saurons hadn’t anticipated was a mutiny in their own ranks leading to a three-cornered war.

THE SAURONS ARE COMING! The New Harmonies were original owners and settlers of Haven until the CoDominium decided any place that inhospitable would make an excellent dumping ground for political exiles, troublesome minorities and garden variety criminals. Over a year from Earth, by way of the old Bureau of Relocation deportee ships, Haven was the end of the line of CoDominium occupied space. During the Imperium, Haven was used as a recruiting ground for the Imperial Marines and became one of the first worlds abandoned when the war against the Sauron dominated Coalition of Secession got ugly. Although humanity has annihilated the Sauron Homeworld, the cost was high: the First Empire is beginning its long spiral into a Dark Age and the secret of interstellar travel will soon be lost for centuries. When a shipload of Saurons bent on conquest arrive unexpectedly, War World goes from pest-hole to Hellhole. Born of rebellion and civil war, cut off from the rest of humanity after the Secession Wars, Haven is bombed back to barbarism by the Sauron invaders. The Saurons, in fear of Imperial revenge, have vowed to cut Haven off from the rest of the Empire while they slowly absorb the superior human norms into their own perverted gene pool. Any and all who resist will die. The Haveners should have been easy pickings for the superhuman newcomers. However, what the Saurons hadn’t anticipated was the Haven is a world forever at war, each with all—and all against the Saurons.