In an era of genetic engineering, Lieutenant Henry Gallant is the only Natural (non-genetically enhanced) officer left in the fleet. In spite of his superiors’ concerns that he is not up to the challenge, his unique mental abilities have proven essential to the defense of the United Planets in its fight against the Titan invaders.
Serving on the first FTL prototype, the Intrepid, on its maiden voyage to Tau-Ceti, Gallant finds a lost human colony on the planet Elysium. Elysium’s leader, Cyrus Wolfe, has allied himself with an ancient Artificial Intelligence which had lain dormant on the planet for millennia, but is now willing to protect the colonists against the Titans.
Gallant allies himself with Alaina Hepburn, the leader of the democratic opposition. With Alaina’s help, he discovers that the ancient AI has a sinister ulterior motive and he must match his exceptional mind against the complexity of machine intelligence to escape the ultimate trap and prevent the extermination of humanity.
In Lieutenant Henry Gallant, one man pits the naked human mind against the perspicacity of machine intelligence.
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-a Delta Force romance story- Military War Dog handler Liza Minot finally lands her big chance. A Delta Force mission requires her and Sergey's specialty—tracking explosives. When assigned to Master Sergeant Garret Conway's squad, her past confronts her. Back in high school days, he ran over her first dog. Rex's old age and failing health made it a cruelty or a mercy—she still can't decide which. However, Conway the boy and Conway the man are two very different problems. Only with her war dog's help can they both break free of their past to track down Her Heart and the "Friend" Command. Views: 14
The ninth shared-world anthology laid in Niven's Known Space universe during the wars against those fighting felinoids, the alien Kzin, offers four notably readable long stories. In the late Poul Anderson's "Pele," a human couple on a research expedition rescue a Kzin with more courage than sense. Hal Colebatch's "His Sergeant's Honor," probably the book's strongest entry, features a Kzin who backs up his race's fanatical concept of honor with keen tactical sense. In Paul Chafe's "Windows of the World," a member of the UN police, ARM captain Joel K. Allson, and Allson's Kzin partner confront a mysterious murder aboard an orbital habitat, along with several conspiracies and a beautiful suspect. Niven's own "Fly-By-Night" features Beowulf Shaeffer rescuing the title character from another Kzin with vaulting ambitions and a keen eye for legal loopholes. For action and military SF fans, these four tales intelligently develop the Kzin, who still have all the ferocity of their carnivorous, predatory ancestors but have assumed more complexity as they carry their civilization into space. At a time when mindless brutality may strike a somewhat negative note with many readers, more sophisticated Kzin will add to the audience for these well-wrought aliens and their human friends and foes. Stephen Hickman's menacing, prosthetically enhanced catlike hero from "His Sergeant's Honor" almost jumps off the jacket. Views: 14
A would-be magus with studying on her mind must deal with a possible suitor and her feisty hellkitten.
Imara made it through her first term without too many issues, but now that she is in the second term, a magic-draining fiend is stalking the students, and her familiar is bored with guiding her through the early stages of magic. He has taken to giving her misinformation to see if she can use her own judgments. It is a challenge she doesn’t really need.
XIA agents are taking courses at the college, and one of them ends up next to Imara during her ethics course. A few conversations lead to a lunch date, and now, she must determine if a social life is worth more than her scholastic one.
Mr. E just likes going on lunch dates. The servers swoon over his cute fuzziness. He is no help at all. Views: 14
