Farncis is skilled at deception and trickery, but he might have gone too far this time. Not only is he trying to swindle the Emperor, but he's impersonating one of the most powerful and ill-tempered mages in the land to do it. If only he hadn't fallen for Princess Mindra, he might have set his odds for success at fifty-fifty. Now he must push his charm and quick wit to the limit to avoid a very unpleasant and drawn-out death. Will his talents, and help from an unlikely source, be enough to...

Tarton's colony has survived an alien attack. He and his settlers may not have time to pick up the pieces, because the horde of knife-limbed swarmers aren't intelligent, and didn't come from their planet. Without any clues about who or what unleashed the attack, he may need to swallow his pride and call on Gianna, his ex, for help. But even her psionic gift may not be enough to reveal the magnitude of the threat to humanity.

Jack is a winner who grinds his competitors into the dirt. His wife's lover is about to find that out in the harshest way possible. But Jack finds out he's been playing by the wrong set of rules...

Hal's got a dream job, making exciting advances with cutting edge technology. True, he's complicated matters by starting up an affair, but can you blame a guy who's stationed on a barren planet several light-years from his family? The developments he's seen with nanoscale robots and their impact on cellular growth is worth the sacrifice and risk.At least, it was until the risk made itself all too clear.Hal was attracted to his coworker because her brilliance equaled his own. ...

The town wall in the middle of a frigid January night is no place for a scared kid to be. But Mikey understands his town faces many threats. The man who approaches the perimeter wearing a dark, ragged cloak surely can't be all that dangerous. But he gets the creeping sense that this is no ordinary stranger.

The crew of the Leavenworth discover a century-old satellite in a sector of deep space where it doesn't belong. Even worse, there's a frozen body stuffed inside that satellite. Can they thaw him out and get some answers? And if they can, will they wish they hadn't?

The Narixan people have rebelled, but the Empire has quickly crushed them. As punishment for their insurrection, they must be scattered throughout the vast imperial lands. Toval, one of many soldiers tasked with enforcing the decree, is part of a unit responsible the remnants of the Narixan royal family, and he can't ignore Princess Indrah. Can he resist her charms, or will she turn him into a rebel as well?

Turlock and Marve go to Tramin, a Podunk town, to let things cool off for a while. They stumble across the perfect assassin. Worse yet, Turlock gets a text informing him he'll be killed in five minutes.If he can survive, he and Marve must find out where the killer came from--and what it will take to keep more of them from being produced.

For the first humans on Mars, everything is a challenge. But nobody on the team expected the most vicious struggles to be against the politicians back home. Mission funding is threatened, and asking for fresh supplies may cause the plug to be pulled on the whole thing. This is no time for Curtis to discover he has feelings for Molly. And it's certainly no time to discover a crisis that may leave the new Martians too dead to care about their budget.

If the long-feared war has truly started, Seattle sits in the path of destruction. Mayor Ray Huang is as prepared as any bureaucrat can be, but he knows even the best plans rarely make it past the first shot. His citizens will survive, at least: in a slick new era of technological and economic warfare, there's no need to kill people, and combat robots go out of their way to avoid bloodshed. But Ray quickly learns that no matter how efficient and safe machines are, it's the people who can't...

Azad and his brother Mikar are about to become very rich men...provided the mob doesn't come for their money right away and the gigawatts of electricity they're playing with don't fry them. All they have to do is go where no human can survive and make a trade with aliens they've never met. Azad might be more optimistic about their chances if he'd had time for a trial run.

Having killed for a total stranger, Imperial soldier Toval must now run for his life. He can navigate the forest as skillfully as any wolf, but the rebel woman fleeing with him cannot. If only he weren't infatuated, he would do the smart thing and leave her to her own fate. Without weapons or coin, they must avoid the nightmarish Black Cloaks and escape the Empire.