On the planet Hafardine, civilization must rediscover progress or collapse. Adrian, guided by disembodied electronic mentors from space, has brought gunpowder and steam power to the Kingdom of the Isles to break the stranglehold of the Empire. But he will have to avoid being killed by the suspicious King he serves, by the barbarians he must recruit, and even by his insanely vengeful brother.
COLONEL ALOIS HAMMER: He welded five thousand individual killers into a weapon more deadly than any other in the human universe. When a planetary government faces unfriendly natives, guerrilla insurgents, or ruthless terrorists, they do the only thing that
might save them— they hire
Hammer's Slammers, the toughest, meanest bunch of mercs who ever wrecked a world for pay. Known throughout the galaxy for their cold, ruthless ferocity, the men of Colonel Hammer's indomitable armored brigade routinely accept impossible missions. Again and again, they go up against overwhelming forces, or fight a two-front war against ferocious opposition, all without atomizing their civilian employers. Can they keep doing it? Not if they abide by the rules of civilized warfare...but nobody ever said the Hammers were
nice. Even when their chances are not good—those who oppose them have no chance at all!
The Centran Empire was both benevolent and complacent. Benevolent, even as it overwhelmed every new inhabited planet it encountered with its military might—but once the planet was pacified, its inhabitants were uplifted to Centran standards of living and the benefits of membership in the Empire. Complacent, because the Empire had long been expanding without encountering more than minor obstacles. And then they came across Pandora's Planet, that is, Earth....
In spite of the Centran superiority in technology, the conquest of Earth took over three months, when the invaders were used to wrapping things up in less than two weeks. But "conquest" might be too optimistic a term to use, since the locals were still waging guerrilla warfare and sabotage, and the Centrans were hanging on by their equivalent of fingernails. And then the Centran scientists tested a group of humans and found that the humans were more intelligent than the Centrans.
One Centran leader had an idea that might save the Centrans from being ignominiously kicked off the planet again. Since the humans were good at war, why not put together teams of humans to go out to the fringes of Centran space and handle planets that were proving difficult? The teams performed magnificently—but back in the heart of the Empire, humans and their weird new ideas were spreading like wildfire, and if something weren't done soon, the humans would end up running the former Centran Empire....
How to Write What You Want & Sell What You Write is one of two books Skip Press has written for writers. He has recently completed the Writers Guide to Hollywood Producers, Directors and Screenwriting Agents. His class in the UCLA Extension Writers Program has given his students a high success rate in selling their own works.
Daniel Leary is a lieutenant in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy with no money and no prospects since he quarreled with his ruthless, politically powerful father.
Adele Mundy is a scholar with no money and no prospects since her family was massacred for conspiring against the Government of Cinnabar.
Kostroma is a wealthy planet which depends on diplomacy to stay independent in a galaxy whose two great powers, Cinnabar and the Alliance, battle for supremacy.
In a few hours, diplomacy is going to fail Kostroma. Daniel, Adele, and the scratch crew they gather aren't much to stand in the way of a powerful invasion fleet, but just possibly they're enough.
Men and women who hold courage cheap and honor more dear than life itself face impossible odds in a novel of color, intrigue and slashing action. From the corridors of a treason-ridden palace through the perils of unknown seas and hellish jungles to a final blazlng climax in space, the heroes never bow and the action never flags.
