Fan's Recommend Works by Other Authors

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Try not to bore us with well known classics that everyone has heard of - i.e.: Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, etc.

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wolfbreed.swann Wolfbreed by S. Andrew Swann - 978-0553807387 - Spectra; Original Edition (August 25, 2009) ~ When a monk inadvertently discovers a lair of werewolf young, he unleashes what will become the Church’s most powerful—and secret—weapon. Clandestinely raised by the Teutonic Order, these lupine creatures serve as instruments of God against pagan unbelievers. Trained to slip into villages cloaked in human form, they are all but unstoppable. Only one, called Lilly, has cunningly fled her brutal master.
Uldolf is too young to remember the massacre eight years earlier that claimed his village, his arm, and his kin. But he knows the pain of loneliness. When he sees what appears to be a beautiful young woman, injured and cowering in the woods, he races to her aid. Uldolf and his adoptive family will do anything to protect the terrified girl, but the danger is greater than they can possibly imagine. For death is the only life Lilly has ever known—and if their humanity can’t pierce the darkness Lilly harbors in her soul, they’ll soon come to know it, too.

The Moreau Quartet: by S. Andrew Swann
In Forests of the Night: 978-0886775650 - DAW 1993 ~ When Nohar accepts a commission from a frankenstein to investigate the death of the campaign manager of a local politico, all hell breaks loose. Nohar finds himself targeted by everyone from local cops to federal agents to a drug-running gang to an assassin with a 100% kill rate.
In Emperors of the Twilight: 978-9994935086 - DAW 1994 ~ Evi is a frankenstein—the next step beyond human, her physiology bioengineered to make her the best Agency special operative in the business. When she’s forced to go on the run from an unidentified hit team ready to destroy a skyscraper just to take her out, Evi’s only hope is to evade her stalkers long enough to make contact with her superiors. But she soon discovers that even the Agency may not be able to save her.
In Specters of the Dawn: 978-0886776138 - DAW 1994 ~ A moreau of rabbit stock, Angel Lopez is the last survivor of a Cleveland street gang. A tough street fighter in search of a haven, she’s come to “tolerant” San Francisco only to find that even the old-fashioned kind of humans aren’t keen on moreaus. Still, she thinks she’s found a home and safety until Byron the fox barges into her life, dragging her into the deadly underground of information-peddling, and a series of confrontations that may blow not just San Francisco but the whole planet wide open.
In Fearful Symmetries: - 978-0886778347 - DAW 1999 ~ Nohar retired from the private eye business ten years ago, and just wants to spend his remaining time in the peace and quiet of his wilderness homestead. So when a human lawyer asks him to take on a missing moreau case, he refuses—and soon after is attacked by a paramilitary team. Now Nohar must find the missing moreau and discover why some- one wants him dead.

The Dragon Princess Trilogy by S. Andrew Swann ~ In this humorous and offbeat fantasy, magic is rarely perfect, heroes are rarely honorable, and you just might wake up in a body that's not your own…

Dragon Princess - 978-0756409579 - DAW 2014 ~ Frank Blackthorne's most recent heist did not end optimally. The sacrificial virgin survived, but the whole incident left Frank, a respectable career thief, on the run from a kingdom full of evil cultists eager to replace their sacrifice.
So, when the Court Wizard of Lendowyn, Elhared the Unwise, comes to him intending to hire someone to save Lendowyn’s princess from an evil dragon in return for riches, glory, and help with the bloodthirsty cultists problem, Frank is rightfully suspicious. Frank is also not in a position to refuse.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Frank’s rescue fails—in an explosion of spectacularly misapplied magic. When the dust settles, all parties involved find themselves body-swapped. Frank is left stranded in the Princess Lucille’s body, halfway across the kingdom. The understandably angry Princess Lucille finds herself inhabiting the body of the dragon. In order to set things right, they will have to team up and face down thugs, slavers, elvish bookies, knights in shining armor, an evil Queen, and the hordes of the Dark Lord Nâtalc.
Dragon Thief - 978-0756410131 - DAW 2015 ~ All Frank Blackthorne wants is a little vacation from being the princess. The involuntary swap in gender has been bad enough, but being a figurehead for the Royal Court of Lendowyn is becoming downright oppressive. In a fit of drunken self-pity, Frank turns to using a cursed artifact, hoping to become a man again, if only temporarily.
The good news is he becomes a man again, a kingdom away from Lendowyn court.
The bad news is the man whose body he now occupies belongs to a notorious thief wanted by every kingdom in the known world. A man of ruthless ambition who has left unimaginable destruction in his wake. A man who Frank has inadvertently deposited in the middle of the Lendowyn court in the body of the princess.
Now he’s stranded, his only allies a group of outcast teenage girls convinced that he’s the legendary master thief Snake. He must get back to Lendowyn—avoiding the armies of thieves, mercenaries, and assassins after the bounty on his new head.
Dragon Wizard - 978-0756411244 - DAW 2016 ~ It has been a year since former thief Frank Blackthorne became Princess of Lendowyn and married a dragon. He's coming to terms with his new life, but during the royal anniversary banquet, an elven prince reads a scroll of evil magic and Frank's world is turned upside-down. Again.
The scroll's spell causes a murderous rampage in a palace full of noble dignitaries, so it's no surprise Frank's visitors are angry. The Elf-King Timoras threatens war but Frank can't do anything about it: because of the same bit of scroll magic, the ex-Dragon Lucille has taken over the princess's body, unaware that Frank is still there, locked in her skull. And worst of all, the fate of everyone may soon rest on the shoulders of the man responsible for the whole mess, someone who should be safely dead...

Novels of the Cleveland Portal by S. Andrew Swann ~ Kline Maxwell was a serious political reporter. He wasn't interested in working on "fuzzy gnome" stories, or any of the other unbelievable tales that should end up only in sensationalist rags. But twelve years ago a magical Portal had opened into Cleveland, a Portal that had ruined much of Cleveland's modern-day technology even as it released magical energy all over town. And suddenly there was a shift in the population as humans fled the burg while dwarves, elves, dragons, ogres, gnomes, mages, and every other denizen of the fantasy realm on the other side of the Portal began moving into town.
And whether he wanted to or not, Maxwell had found himself covering stories that sometimes took him far from his political beat and into way too much danger both magical and mundane. Still, he took his job seriously, and when he was assigned to cover a dragon's death by crash-landing into the Cuyahoga, he headed over to the accident site with only a few curses. But what should have been a simple accident report soon led Maxwell in search of a much bigger story—one that would see him kidnapped by elves, framed for murder, holding secret meetings with dragons, and fleeing not only from the cops but from pretty much everybody!
The Dragons of the Cuyahoga - 978-0756400095 - DAW 2001 ~ Sent to cover a story about the death of a dragon who had crash-landed in the Cuyahoga River, Kline Maxwell, a reporter for the Cleveland Press is introduced to a strange and magical world of the Portal as he is kidnapped by elves, framed for murder, holds secret rendezvous with dragons, and becomes a fugitive.
The Dwarves of Whiskey Island ~ 978-0756403157 - DAW 2005 ~ In this sequel to "The Dragons of Cuyahoga," political reporter Kline Maxwell receives information about the unexplained suicide of the former City Council President, drawing Kline into a case that has dark spells, destruction, and death written all over it.

And anything else by S. Andrew Swann

Star of the Guardians by Margaret Weis
The Lost King - 0553286005 - Bantam Spectre 1990 ~ A galactic revolution has toppled the Starfire dynasty, and swept into power the harsh Democratic Republic. To support the murdered king is now punishable by death. But on distant worlds, the few surviving Guardians carry a dangerous secret: Somewhere in the galaxy, they shield the rightful heir to the throne.
Stalking the hidden king is the Warlord, a ruthless Republican general who wields the bloodsword. Only a few brave rebels dare to oppose him: young Dion, who fights to find his destiny; the mercenary Tusk; the outlaw commander Dixter; and the beautiful Lady Maigrey, the only person alive who can match the Warlord’s cunning. Theirs is the ultimate battle against a star-spanning corruption—the ultimate sacrifice for the glory of the lost king’s throne.
Kings Test - 0553763431 - Bantam Spectre 1991 ~ By calling a temporary truce, Derek Sagan and the rebels thwarted the alien Corasian invasion. Enemies once again, the rebels have resumed their defiance and Sagan has retumed to his campaign to topple the corrupt galactic government. He plans to set up Dion as king of the Starfire dynasty—and to place himself as the ruling power behind the throne.
On a remote planetary sinkhole of sin and corruption, a small weapon-barely ten centimeters on a side—is hidden. If activated, this seemingly harmless crystal cube could tear a hole in the universe . . . and destroy the fabric of creation. Sagan wants it. Lady Maigrey wants it. And so does Abdiel, a cruel genius who commands a drugged army of mindless slaves. And now Dion is caught in this momentous struggle as he faces his greatest trial yet in his battle to gain the interstellar throne.
Kings Sacrifice - 055376344X - Bantam Spectre 1991 ~ The spellbinding conclusion to the star-spanning saga of adventure and intrigue. At the end of King's Test, Sagan--the man who overthrew Dion's father--pledged his allegiance to Dion as the new king. Now, Dion battles alien and human enemies, and must give up both his lover and one of his men as he learns what it truly means to be king.
Ghost Legion - 0553763458 - Bantam Spectra 1993 ~ Young Dion Starfire is the ruler of a galaxy that is finally at peace after years of strife and bloodshed. Yet the peace is an uneasy one. Dion has fallen desperately in love with a woman who is not his queen, and suddenly the fragile alliances that rest of his marriage are threatened. Then real violence erupts as an illegitimate son of the dead king, in hiding on a forgotten planet, plots Dion's overthrow. At his command is an army of unseen “ghosts”—alien presences that can roam the galaxy and kill at will.
Dion must turn to an old mentor and enemy, Derek Sagan, as the one man who can help him battle the bastard prince and his dark minions. And at Derek's side hovers the powerful, shadowy presence of his lost love, Lady Maigrey. If Dion can only win their aid, he may have one last chance to preserve his throne—and peace for the galaxy.

Phaid the Gambler by Mick Farren - 0441662323 - ACE 1981 ~ When tomorrow's Earth is divided into savage belts of extreme cold and unbearable heat... When the human race mutates into three distinct, and often dangerous, life forms... When reactionary androids dream of playing the exhilarating, but forbidden, Life Games... When telepathic cats and dogs watch your every move... Then it is time to play against the odds - and gamble with your life - in tomorrow's deadliest game of survivial.
Citizen Phiad by Mick Farren - 0441106021 - ACE 1981 ~ When a gambler named Phaid hustles across the fractured zones of tomorrow's Earth... When a convict named Phaid bust out of the toughest cooler in the world... When a rebel named Phaid is hailed as a low-life hero of future legend... Then it's time to lay the cards on the table - and call all the bluffs - before "Citizen Phaid" plays his final and deadliest game.

Forbidden Boarders by W. Michael Gear ~ This rich and exciting sci-fi trilogy follows the search of one man—raised to be the ultimate general, the penultimate killing machine—for his own humanity and for the son he's never known.
Requiem for the Conqueror - 978-0886774776 - DAW 1991 ~ The final conflict is about to begin....
The Forbidden Borders form a seemingly unassailable gravity-powered barrier, cutting humankind off from the wider universe, confining rival empires to a few star systems, and leaving them to strive endlessly against one another for total control. But now the weakest have fallen, only two mighty empires remain, and each must once again turn to the man both fear more than they fear one another. The man each is determined to hire—or, failing that, to assassinate—Staffa kar Therma, Lord Commander of the Companions.
Trained to be the ultimate killing machine, the penultimate general, Staffa has led his crack Companion mercenary troops to victory time and again. Throughout the human worlds, the Lord Commander is cursed as the Star Butcher, bringer of death and destruction. And never before has he turned his back from undertaking a new contract. But along with his most recent victory has come a discovery that will have repercussions throughout all the star systems within the Forbidden Borders. For Staffa has learned that the son stolen from him in infancy may still be alive, and nothing will stand between Staffa and the search for his son—even though his quest may well lead to his own destruction....
Relic of Empire - 978-0886774929 - DAW 1992 ~ Seeking to blackmail Staffa into fighting for them, The Regans kidnap Skyla Lyma, Staffa's second-in-command and the women he loves. And suddenly Staffa is forced to choose between Skyla's life and the possible end of the universe. Yet perhaps the choice will not be left to him at all. For Sinklar, the son stolen from the Lord Commander as an infant, now a general who has become Staffa's sworn enemy, is already mobilizing his own forces for the inevitable conflict.
But others, too, are weaving strategies of intrigue and betrayal as they reach out to sieze control of the known worlds. And only time will tell if anyone will survive to claim the title of victor....
Counter-Measures - 978-0886775643 - DAW 1993 ~ In the stunning conclusion to Gear's remarkable sci-fi trilogy, the rift between father and son—both trained killing machines—will reach an explosive climax.
The Forbidden Borders—an unassailable gravity-powered barrier—confines rival human empires to a few star systems, leaving them to strive endlessly against one another for domination. Now the long-dreaded final war between Rega and Sassa, the last surviving empires, has been fought, and Staffa kar Therma, Lord Commander of the Companions, the finest of mercenary soldiers, is struggling to keep what remains of human civilization alive long enough to find a way to break free of the alien-created Forbidden Borders.
But Staffa’s own son and former enemy hasn’t decided whether to stand against the Lord Commander or to rally to Staffa’s cause. And the only two women Staffa has ever loved may soon become his unwitting betrayers as pawns of the one opponent who will stop at nothing to destroy the Lord Commander.
Yet beyond all these dangers waits the greatest challenge of Staffa’s career—the Mag Comm, the alien-created computer that has spread its net through all of human-inhabited space. The Mag Comm, which could make Staffa its unwilling slave—or free all of mankind from this alien prison.

The Spider Trilogy by W. Michael Gear
The Warriors of Spider - 0886772877 - DAW 1988 ~ The Directorate was run by the powerful few—genetically-altered humans permanently linked with the GI-net, the massive computer network that contained everything there was to know about the planets and space stations claimed by humankind. For centuries, the Directorate had ruled over countless star systems, its authority absolute and unquestioned. But now stirrings of rebellion were being felt in the far-flung commercial empire.
And at this crucial time, the Directorate had discovered a planet out beyond its farthest reaches, a place known only as World, where the descendants of humans stranded long ago by a starship crash had survived by becoming a race of warriors, a race led by its Prophets, men with the ability to see the many possible pathways of the future. Men who had already foreseen the coming of the Directorate’s Patrol ship Bullet—and were preparing their warriors for this first contact in which even one wrong choice could destroy both World and empire....
The Way of the Spider - 0886773180 - DAW 1989 ~ Rebellion on Sirius threatened to become the spark that would set the galaxy ablaze, bringing on the destruction of the Directorate-run empire—a tyranny powered by an elite corps of human, computer-linked brains. The Directorate’s only hope of overthrowing the Sirian rebels rested with three of its once-mighty but now battle-damaged Patrol ships, three backup warships, and a rate of primitive, long planet-bound warriors—the Romanans.
For the Directorate had spent many centuries breeding initiative and the capability for violent action out of the human race. And only on the lost colony of World did true warriors of spider still exist. But would the Romanans willingly join the cause of the star men who had once attempted to destroy their world? And even if they did, could warriors so newly exposed to the weapons of deadly technology defeat a world and a leader ready to utilize legendary tools of destruction more lethal than any humankind had ever known?
The Web of Spider - 0886773563 - DAW 1989 ~ The Sirian rebellion had proved the catalyst for the rise of two powerful new forces in the galaxy. Ngen Van Chow, leader of the failed rebellion, had fled to a distant world, establishing a base from which he would launch an interstellar holy war of destruction, a war fueled by the discovery of a long-hidden technology that could transform ordinary men and women into fanatical soldiers of Deus.
While on the long-lost colony planet of World, the Romanans, known as the warriors of Spider, and their Patrol allies—formerly part of the military and police force that kept order among the worlds and stations controlled by the computer network of the Directorate—prepared for civilization’s final stand against this seemingly unstoppable conqueror.

The Rings of the Master series by Jack L. Chalker
Lords of the Middle Dark - 978-0345325600 - DEL REY 1986 ~ Grave Reservations: Long ago, the machines had rebelled, wiping out most of humanity and exiling the survivors in widely scattered reservations where they lived according to their ancient cultures. Master System ruled unchallenged, since the key to breaking its control--five microchips disguised as gold rings--was long forgotten. And Master System was careful to keep it that way.
Then an Amerindian called Hawks stumbled across information about the five rings and their purpose. And the other side of the world, A Chinese girl genious dared to interfere with a computer system to avoid an unhappy future as a humble and obedient Oreiental wife.
Suddenly Master System was after them both--and it loked as if their only hope lay in fidding the ring themselves...
Pirates of the Thunder - 978-0345325617 - DEL REY 1987 ~ Unsafe Haven: Hawks had refused to help the ambitious Lazlo Chen in his quest to find the five gold rings that could break Master System's hold over humankind--and that refusal had landed him on the deadly prison planet Melchior.
But when Hawks and some fellow prisoners engineered a bold escape, it seemed almost too easy. Hawks guessed that Chen was pulling the strings, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was another, greater power involved. And that scared him.
Now the stakes were rising, and Hawks was more determined than ever to find the gold rings. But Master System was out to capture him, and Chen was trying to follow him--and the only place his small band of rebels could hide was smack in the middle of pirate territory...
Warriors of the Storm - 978-0345325624 - DEL REY 1987 ~ Guardian Devil: For centuries, Master System ruled mankind unchallenged. Then a small band of renegades commandeered the spaceship Thunder and fled into pirate territory. Now they were prepared to sieze the five coded rings that together could shut down Master System--and return human destiny to human control.
With them went the one variable that didn't figure in Master System's equations: Vulture, a shapechanger capable of absorbing the body and memories of any other organic being. Without the information Vulture could collect, the rebels could never infiltrate the worlds where the rings hidden.
Each ring was better protected than the last. And as each ring drew the band further into Master System's web, Vulture became aware of a possibly more insidious danger. An unknown entity with the power to elude Master System seemed to be giving the rebels an unseen hand. But the question was--whose side was it on...
Masks of the Martyrs - 978-0345343093 - DEL REY 1988 ~ Enigmatic Solution: Even before the renegade pirates of the giant spaceship Thunder had collected all five of the rings that would eliminate the threat of Master System forever, Hawks knew that they still faced even greater problems.
The shapechanger, Vulture, was lost on the waterway planet of Chanchuk, his fate unknown. Master System's space fleet dogged the renegades' every step. Hawks suspected that the group was harboring a traitor, but he was powerless to act. And, most important, the rebels had not yet figured out how the rings were used--a riddle that seemed to have no solution!
Somewhere back on Earth lay the original computer interface, and somewhere in the distant past lay the secret to Master System's demise. As a historian, Hawks had the knowledge to solve the riddle; yet he had to be absolutly sure--for one mistep would destry them all.

G.O.D. INC. (Triligy) by Jack L. Chalker
The Labyrinth of Dreams - 978-0812508628 - TOR 1987 ~ Spade and Marlowe Never Took a Case Like This!
I'm Sam Horowitz, My wife Brandy and I are private eyes--and belly-up broke. That's why we agreed to trace Martin Whitlock, a hotshot banker who'd skipped town with over two million dollars in launered drug money. Not ourusual case, but even filthy mob lucre pays bills.
Whitlock's trail led from a posh mansion to a hick burg called McInerney, Oregon--and to G.O.D. Inc., those geeks who hawk overpriced garbage on lat night TV. That's where we found our boy...too often. There were three Marty Whitlocks: same prints. But one female. One was dead. We got busted. That wasn't the worst.
The mob ripoff was only one move in a caper to take over crime--not the Mafia, but something a hell of a lot bigger. Because two-bit McInerney, Oregon, wasn't just off the map... it was off the edge of the earth.
And Brandy and I were being taken for a ride--into "The Laybrinth of Dreams"
The Shadow Dancers - 978-0812533088 - TOR 1987 ~ the Ultimate Case:To Stop the Ultimate Drug...
I'm Horowitz. Brandy HoIrowitz. My husband Sam and I are private eyes who take cases for G.O.D. Inc.--the outfit that runs the Labyrinth to infinite alternate earths filled with crime, danger...and murder.
Power-mad fanatics are running a narcotic V.D. that spreads like a bug, works like a drug, and one touch hooks you for good. You don't become a junkie, you become a zombie. 'Cause this monkey's not just on your back, but in your brain, it's got a mind, and if you kick it, it kicks back with madness and death.
So the beautiful black PI and wonderful Jewish sleuth have to smash the source before the drug-bug reaches our client's Home World. But the opposition's got fake Sams and Brandys set up in headquarters on two worlds that hold any possible leads: one that never heard of civil rights... And one ruled by the Nazis.
The Mirror in the Maze - 978-0812533170 - TOR 1989 ~ Infinite Murder: I'm Horowitz. Private eye. I work for G.O.D. Inc.--the Company that rules the Layrinth between infinite alternate Earths. Only now I've got new clients--vengeful rebels ot to wreck the Labyrinth. But their Big Plans on hold: one of the inner circle's dead, leaving eight conspiritor/prime suspects on eight private worlds.
And finding the killer's the least of my problems. The rebel play for high stakes--and I know too much to live. If I succeed, they'll will kill me. If I stall, they'll blow up a planet--ours. If I escape, the Company will kill me. If I stop the rebel scheme, my wife and child will be turned into mindless drug-sex slaves.
But if I don't stop them, they'll unleash a force that might well cremate Earths. All Earths. In all universes. Throughout all creation...

Riverworld by Phillip Jose Farmer
To Your Scattered Bodies Go - 0425064883 - Berkley 1971 ~ Reborn. All huanity--including Sir Richard Burton, Alice in Wonderland and yourself!--on the banks of a ten million mile river. And so begins the search for rge Ethicals, and the most incredable voyage ever undertaken...
The Fabulous Riverboat - 042550122 - Berkely 1971 ~ It is the day after death. All humanity has awakened on the banks of of a 10 million mile river, where the famous and the obscure--from Sam Clemmens to cavemet to yourself!--are throne together in the search for Existence itself..
The Dark Design - 0425055469 - Berkely 1977 ~ Welcome to Riverworld. Where everyone who ever died, from Karl Marx to Tom Mix to Joan of Arc, wakes up the day after death on the banks of a giant river, to take part in what many consider to be the greatest adventure in all Science Fiction.
The Magic Labyrinth - 042506219 - Berkely 1980 - You are in this book. So is everyone else who ever lived or ever will--all humanity simultaneously reincarnated on the banks of the 10 million mile river that forms the setting for what many consider to be crowning achievement of modern science fiction.
Gods of Riverworld - 042507448X - Berkely 1983 ~ Pillip Jose Farmer's previous bestseller, The Magic Labyrinth, climaxed but did not conclude the saga of Riverworld, where everyone who has ever lived-- including Tom Mix, Alice in Wonderland and even yourself!--awakens in a mysterious world. In this exciting sequel to one imaginative literature's grandest creations, some of the mysteries of Riverworld have been solved...but even stranger one have arisen...

Dayworld by Phillip Jose Farmer - 0425084744 - Berkly 1985 ~ Just one day. That's all you get. The world's crowded, and the government appreciates your cooperation. Your allowed one day a week to live your life. The rest of the week, your "Stoned"-frozen solid.
Unless, of course, you're a daybreaker. Then youcan live every day of the week. You can assume seven different personalities and work seven different jobs. You can slip from culture to culture, in seven different worlds.
Unless of course, you get caught...or go crazy.
Dayworld Rebel - 0441140025 - ACE 1987 ~ Jeff Caird was once a daybreaker: a criminal who avoided government-required suspended animation by living seven different identities. Now he goes by the name William St.-George Duncan, and he’s suppressed the memory of his past, and even his real identity, in order to avoid harsh punishment by the government of the Organic Commonwealth of Earth. But the danger is far from over, and the authorities continue to hunt him—because among the things he’s forgotten there’s something very important . . .
In the wilderness of northern New Jersey, Dunc has fallen in with a group of rebel daybreakers. As he struggles to retrieve the memory that’s so valuable—and dangerous—to the government, he learns from his new allies that there’s a larger movement to break free from the control of the corrupt World Council that limits citizens to one day of consciousness per week. And the knowledge buried deep within him may be the key to their success.
Hugo award–winning Science Fiction Grand Master Philip José Farmer returns to the Dayworld universe for the second installment of his richly imagined trilogy, in which Earth’s overpopulation has led to the most stringent government restrictions on personal freedom imaginable.
Dayworld Breakup - 0812508890 - TOR 1990 ~ Before the dawn of the New Era, the world was divided into nations with separate governments that engaged in wars, and populations ravaged by poverty, starvation, and disease. After a final bloody conflict, a single government emerged and took drastic measures to control the dangerous overpopulation in the Organic Commonwealth of Earth: Each citizen is “stoned” in suspended animation for six days each week and closely monitored at all times. Thus, resources are plentiful, and there’s peace and prosperity—or is there?
It seems the World Council has been lying. Now, rebel daybreaker Jeff Caird and Panthea Snick, formerly of the organic police force, must risk their lives to expose the truth about the corrupt government and rally the citizens of Earth to rise up against the powers that are robbing them of their freedom—and their lives. But what will become of Jeff and his multiple identities as the struggle draws to a close?
The breathtaking finale in the Dayworld Trilogy reveals the truth about the perverse government of Earth in the New Era, and the ramifications of its fall, along with a deeper understanding of the man who dares to challenge it.

A Barnstormer in OZ by Phillip Jose Farmer - 0425062740 - Berkley 1982 ~ Hank had a Felling he wasn't in Kansas anymore:
Hank Stover was one of the two people in the world who knew that OZ really existed...but he never expected to go there. He Never expected his plane would be forced down by a green cloud that April day in 1923. Nor that he would meet the witch who had befriended his mother. Dorothy. Nor that she would be so beautiful...

The Giants Novels - 978-0345388858 - DEL REY 1994 ~ Discover the first three books in the ground-breaking 21st century hard-science fiction saga by James P. Hogan:
Inheret the Stars
The skeletal remains of a human body are found on the moon. His corpse is 50,000 years old, and nobody knows who he was, how he got there, or what killed him.
The Gentle Giants of Ganymede
A long-ago wrecked ship of alien giants is discovered by Earth's scientists on a frozen satellite of Jupiter. Then, spinning out of the vastness of space, a ship of the same strange, humanoid giants has returned....
Giants' Star
Humans finally thought they comprehended their place in the universe...until Earth found itself in the middle of a power struggle between a benevolent alien empire and a cunning race of upstart humans who hated Earth!

The World is Round by Tony Rothman - 0345273137 - DEL REY 1978 ~ The Planet of Starless Nights:
Their world was 50 times bigger than any world had a right to be.
Their days were a year long. They had no moon. Normal seasons didn't exist, and when the natives weren't worried about being roasted alive they lived in dread of freezing to death. Paddlelack wasn'y a native of Patra-Bannk, but he had been trapped there long enough to hate its insanity with every fiber of his being.
Then a crew from far-off Two-Bit arrived to search for a fantastic city and its fabulous treasures. Paddelock greeted them with a vengeance and begged for passage off this crazy world. But the mission commander had something else in mind, and he needed Paddlelack's help.
So Paddelack stayed on the world he hated, an unwilling captive of a mercenary band. Together they traversed the face of this bizarre planet--plagued by unpredictable natives, beset by irrational weather, and thorougly confused by the enormity of their predicament.

The Starwolf Trilogy by Edmond Hamilton - 0441784240 - ACE 1982 (pictured 1968 covers) ~ The Only Mercy a Starwolf could expect was death...
Morgan Chane was a Starwolf--a member of the most infamous band of interstellar pirates in the gallaxy. He had flown with the raiding packs, rockets screaming, to plunder the rich and slaughter the helpless.
But Morgan Chane was also a Terran, adopted as a child into the Starwolf clan. And when a quarrel erupted, Chane discovered that the Starwolves weighed his alien birth more heavily than all the years of comradeship. Now he is cast out of the clan, and running for his lfe.
But where, in all the galaxy, can a Starwolf expect to find refuge?

The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
Over Sea, Under Stone - 978-0689840357 - McElderry - 1965 ~ On holiday in Cornwall, the three Drew children discover an ancient map in the attic of the house that they are staying in. They know immediately that it is special. It is even more than that -- the key to finding a grail, a source of power to fight the forces of evil known as the Dark. And in searching for it themselves, the Drews put their very lives in peril.
The Dark is Rising - 978-0689829833 - McElderry Books - 1973 ~ On the Midwinter Day that is his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton discovers a special gift -- that he is the last of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to keeping the world from domination by the forces of evil, the Dark. At once, he is plunged into a quest for the six magical Signs that will one day aid the Old Ones in the final battle between the Dark and the Light. And for the twelve days of Christmas, while the Dark is rising, life for Will is full of wonder, terror, and delight.
Greenwitch - 978-0689840340 ~ McElderry Books - 1974 ~ Simon, Jane, and Barney, enlisted by their mysterious great-uncle, arrive in a small coastal town to recover a priceless golden grail stolen by the forces of evil -- Dark. They are not at first aware of the strange powers of another boy brought to help, Will Stanton -- nor of the sinister significance of the Greenwitch, an image of leaves and branches that for centuries has been cast into the sea for good luck in fishing and harvest.
Their search for the grail sets into motion a series of distubing, sometimes dangerous events that, at their climax, bring forth a gift that, for a time at least, will keep the Dark from rising.
The Grey King - 978-0689829840 - McElderry Books - 1975 ~ There is a Welsh legend about a harp of gold, hidden within a certain hill, that will be found by a boy and a white dog with silver eyes -- a dog that can see the wind. Will Stanton knew nothing of this when he came to Wales to recover from a severe illness. But when he met Bran, a strange boy who owned a white dog, he began to remember. For Will is the last-born of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to saving the world from the forces of evil, the Dark. And it is Will's task to wake-with the golden harp -- the six who must be roused from their long slumber in the Welsh hills to prepare for the last battle between the Dark and the Light.
Silver On the Tree - 978-0689840333 - McElderry Books - 1977 ~ The Dark is rising in its last and greatest bid to control the world. And Will Stanton -- last-born of the immortal Old Ones, dedicated to keeping the world free -- must join forces with this ageless master Merriman and Bran, the Welsh boy whose destiny ties him to the Light. Drawn in with them are the three Drew children, who are mortal, but have their own vital part in the story. These six fight fear and death in the darkly brooding Welsh hills, in a quest through time and space that touches the most ancient myths of the British Isles, and that brings Susan Cooper's masterful sequence of novels to a satysfying close.

The Green Rider Series by Kristen Britain
The Green Rider - 978-0886778583 - DAW 2000 ~On her long journey home from school after a fight that will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G'ladheon ponders her uncertain future. As she trudges through the immense Green Cloak forest, her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves, as a galloping horse bursts from the woods.
The rider is slumped over his mount's neck, impaled by two black-shafted arrows. As the young man lies dying on the road, he tells Karigan he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of the king of Sacoridia.
Before he dies, he begs Karigan to deliver the “life and death” message he bears to King Zachary. When she reluctantly he agrees, he makes her swear on his sword to complete his mission, whispering with his dying breath, "Beware the shadow man...".
Taking on the golden-winged horse brooch that is the symbol of the Green Riders, Karigan is swept into a world of deadly danger and complex magic, her life forever changed. Compelled by forces she cannot understand, Karigan is accompanied by the silent specter of the fallen messenger and hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination.
First Rider's Call - 978-0756401931 - DAW 2004 ~ Karigan G'ladheon was once a Green Rider, one of the king of Sacoridia's elite magical messengers. In the messenger service, she was caught up in a world of deadly danger, and though she defeated the rogue Eletian who cracked the magical D'Yer Wall—which had protected Sacoridia for a thousand years from the dark influence of Blackveil Forest, and Mornhavon the Black's evil spirit imprisoned within it—she had nonetheless been tainted by his wild magic.
Exhausted in body and spirit, and determined to take control of her own destiny, Karigan returned to her home in Corsa. But even Karigan's stubborn determination is no match for the Rider's call. Ghostly hoofbeats echo in the deep regions of her mind. When she awakes to find herself on horseback, halfway to Sacor City in her nightgown, she finally gives in.
Karigan returns to the court, only to find the Green Riders weakened and diminished. Rider magic has become unreliable, and she herself has ghostly visions of Lil Ambriodhe, First Rider, and founder of the Green Rider corps.
But why is the First Rider appearing to Karigan? And will Karigan be able to seek the help of a woman who has been dead for a thousand years?
The High Kings Tomb - 978-0756405885 - DAW 2009 ~ More than a thousand years ago, the armies of the Arcosian Empire, led by sorcerer Mornhavon the Black, crossed the great sea and tried to conquer the land of Sacoridia using terrible dark magic. Eventually, Mornhavon was captured, and his evil spirit imprisoned in Blackveil Forest.
Since that day, the perimeter of Blackveil—now a dark and twisted land—has been protected by the magical D’Yer Wall. But in the centuries since the war’s end, knowledge of the working of magic disappeared from Sacoridia, due to the fear and prejudice of a people traumatized by Mornhavon’s sorceries.
Karigan G’ladheon is now a seasoned Green Rider—a member of the magical messenger corps of the king. But during her first year as a Rider, a rogue magician cracked the mighty D’Yer Wall. The spirit of Mornhavon, sensing the weakness, began to wake, seeking vengeance, and causing frightening aberrations throughout the land.
Karigan managed to transport the spirit of Mornhavon into the future, buying valuable time for her king and country. But how far in the future is Mornhavon now? A hundred years? Ten? Only one year? There is no way to tell.
And though Karigan and her fellow Riders have scoured the land searching for lost magical knowledge, and members of Clan D’Yer are camped at the wall, hoping to uncover its lost secrets, they were unaware of a threat to their kingdom that lay far closer.
For there were Arcosian soldiers who survived the Long War, and the descendants of those ancient enemies spent generations honing their powers of dark magic—a force against which the Sacoridians have no defense....
Blackveil - 978-0756407087 - DAW 2012 ~ Over a millennium ago, Mornhavon the Black, heir to the Arcosian Empire, crossed the great sea hoping to conquer Sacoridia. Mornhavon and his armies were defeated—but not before their general had resorted to desperate, dark magic that rendered his twisted spirit immortal. Finally, Mornhavon was captured and imprisoned in Blackveil Forest, and the forest’s perimeter was sealed by the magical D’Yer Wall.
In the many centuries since, knowledge of magic has disappeared from Sacoridia due to the fear and prejudice of a people traumatized by the memory of Mornhavon’s terrifying sorceries. Even the protective magic that created and maintained the D’Yer Wall has been lost, and the once-impermaeable barrier has been breached, allowing Blackveil’s malignant influence to seep into the lands beyond once again.
Karigan G’ladheon is a Green Rider—a seasoned member of the elite messenger corps of King Zachary of Sacoridia. But Karigan is no ordinary Rider, for she can traverse the barriers of time and space. Because of this extraordinary ability, she was able to transport the spirit of Mornhavon into the future, buying precious time for her country. During the window of relative safety, King Zachary decides to send Karigan and a small contingent of scouts, accompanied by a small group of Eletians—a magical race who once lived in the lands now tainted by Mornhavon’s magic—into Blackveil Forest.
Though Mornhavon is gone, the forest is still a treacherous and unnatural place filled with monstrous creatures and deadly traps. Plus, no one knows how far in the future Mornhavon has been sent—Ten years? One? Maybe even less.
And unbeknownst to the band of Eletians and Sacoridians, another small group has entered the forest—Arcosian descendants who have kept Mornhavon’s dark magic alive in secret for centuries, and who now plan to avenge their long-ago defeat by bringing Sacoridia to its knees.
Mirror Sight - 978-0756409845 - DAW 2016 ~ Karigan G’ladheon is a Green Rider—a seasoned member of the elite messenger corps of King Zachary of Sacoridia. King Zachary sends Karigan and a contingent of Sacoridians beyond the edges of his nation, into the mysterious Blackveil Forest, which has been tainted with dark magic by a twisted immortal spirit named Mornhavon the Black.
In a magical confrontation against Mornhavon, Karigan is jolted out of Blackveil Forest and wakes in darkness. She’s lying on smooth, cold stone, but as she reaches out, she realizes that the stone is not just beneath her, but above and around her as well. She’s landed in a sealed stone sarcophagus, some unknown tomb, and the air is becoming thin.
Is this to be her end? If she escapes, where will she find herself? Is she still in the world she remembers, or has the magical explosion transported her somewhere completely different? To find out, she must first win free of her prison— before it becomes her grave. And should she succeed, will she be walking straight into a trap created by Mornhavon himself?
Firebrand - 978-0756411565 - DAW 2019 ~ Zachary Davriel Hillander, High King of Sacoridia, rues how much he has had to give up to lead his realm, including the freedom to live and love as he chooses. When an embassy from Eletia arrives to propose a joint venture between their realms to seek out an old ally in the north, he is dismayed to learn that the one Sacoridian they have in mind to accompany their guide is the woman he truly loves but cannot have: Green Rider Karigan G’ladheon.
Karigan has only just returned from a dark future where Sacoridia has been conquered and is ruled by a despotic emperor, and she has not recovered in heart or mind. As if that is not enough, the castle ghosts won’t leave her alone. Though Zachary is loath to part from her so soon after her return, he knows she is the best choice to undertake the mission to the north.
Each step on their journey places Karigan and her companions closer to enemy territory and danger, for northward lie the forces of Second Empire, Sacoridia’s longtime foe, and Grandmother, the necromantic leader of Second Empire, has not been idle. She uses her magic to summon a wild elemental spirit to wreak havoc upon Zachary and his wife, Queen Estora.
At first the Sacoridians succeed in fending off the creature, but it so covets Estora that it can’t stay away. It abducts Zachary, assuming his form and his place at Estora’s side—but when it is finally ousted, Zachary is still missing. Estora, alone and heavy with twins, must prepare her realm for the coming conflict from the confines of her bedchamber.
Meanwhile, the danger only deepens for Karigan and her companions as they journey north. When she finds herself caught in the midst of a clash between forces, Karigan must rescue and protect her king before she falls into a trap set by Grandmother—a trap that could give Second Empire the power to control the dead and all the demons of the hells.

Sword of Shadow Series by J. V. Jones (Julie Victoria)
A Cavern of Black Ice - 978-0446608176 - Aspect/Warner Books 2000 ~ As a newborn Ash March was abandoned--left for dead at the foot of a frozen mountain. Found and raised by the Penthero Iss, the mighty Surlord of Spire Vanis, she has always known she is different. Terrible dreams plague her and sometimes in the darkness she hears dread voices from another world. Iss watches her as she grows to womanhood, eager to discover what powers his ward might possess. As his interest quickens, he sends his living blade, Marafice Eye, to guard her night and day.
Raif Sevrance, a young man of Clan Blackhail, also knows he is different, with uncanny abilities that distance him from the clan. But when he and his brother survive an ambush that plunges the entire Northern Territories into war, he yet seeks justice for his own . . . even if means he must forsake clan and kin.
Ash and Raif must learn to master their powers and accept their joint fate if they are to defeat an ancient prophecy and prevent the release of the pure evil known as the End Lords.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A Fortress of Grey Ice - 978-0765345493 - TOR 2004 ~ And Jones lives up to that praise in the highly charged epic adventure of Ash March and Raif Sevrance, two outcasts whose fate are entwined by ancient prophecies and need, in the cold, dark world that threatens to be torn asunder by a war to end all wars.
Isolated by their birthrights, they are but two who fight the dreaded Endlords, and their strength and courage will be needed if the world is to be saved from darkness."
Raif, wrongly accused and cut off from his clan by the treachery of their new headsman, has a talent for killing that is part of his curse and his burden. But he bears another burden of greater weight.
Ash is a sacred warrior to the Sull, an ancient race whose numbers have declined. Raised as a foundling, never knowing her true history, she must learn to accept the terrible gifts of her heritage.
But as Ash learns more of her greater fate, Raif's task looms dark and desperate, for he must journey through the nightmare realm of the Want, a place where even the Sull now fear to tread. For deep within the Want is the Fortress of Grey Ice, and there he must heal the breach in the Blindwall that already threatens the world. Should he fail, not even Ash's powers can save them. . . .
A Sword from Red Ice - 978-0765345509 - TOR 2008 ~ A thousand years ago, war shook the land. Now, chaos has erupted. Clans vie for dominance; dangerous, arrogant clan chiefs urge their followers into frenzied battles, killing each other and plotting the defeat of their rivals despite those among them who seek unity. But for all the vicious contention among the clans, a darker threat comes from Spire Vanis, a city with a black heart of evil, whose rulers have long sought to control the clanholds. In the midst of the chaos, a few extraordinary people wrestle with personal demons: A born killer with only love and loyalty in his heart; a young woman whose mystical destiny is shrouded in her unknown past; a young man betrayed by his own brother; and a clanswoman who would do anything to save her folk. Each alone seeks only survival, but together they hold the keys to a world's salvation.
Watcher of the Dead - 978-0765359308 - TOR 2011 ~ In this powerful saga of redemption and renewal, J. V. Jones brings to vivid life the magnificent tapestry of a world at once desperately fighting for survival against supernatural monsters and rent by internecine warfare. The frozen land at the north of the world was once ruled by a legendary nation of superhuman warriors. But that age has passed, leaving ancient clans to struggle for dominance as supernatural forces beyond their control threaten their very existence.
Amid the chaos of world-changing violence, unlikely heroes emerge. An unwanted warrior, a forsaken woman of power, the betrayed widow of a slain clan chief: these are the heroes rising to claim what has been taken from them and to reshape the world.
In a sharply observed narrative that illuminates these riven lives, Jones has crafted a human drama full of the excitement, suspense, and sheer storytelling power that have made the Sword of Shadows a fantasy series that transcends genre to become a memorable tale of human striving and triumph that speaks to readers as have few others.

The Farseer Triliogy by Robin Hobb
Assassin's Apprentice - 978-0553573398 - Bantam Spectre 1996 ~ Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father's gruff stableman. He is treated like an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him sectetly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz's blood runs the magic Skill--and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family. As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom.
Royal Assassin - 978-0553375633 - Bantam Spectre - 1996 ~ Fitz has survived his first hazardous mission as king's assassin, but is left little more than a cripple. Battered and bitter, he vows to abandon his oath to King Shrewd, remaining in the distant mountains. But love and events of terrible urgency draw him back to the court at Buckkeep, and into the deadly intrigues of the royal family. Renewing their vicious attacks on the coast, the Red-Ship Raiders leave burned-out villages and demented victims in their wake. The kingdom is also under assault from within, as treachery threatens the throne of the ailing king. In this time of great danger, the fate of the kingdom may rest in Fitz's hands--and his role in its salvation may require the ultimate sacrifice. Praise for Robin Hobb and Royal Assassin " Robin] Hobb continues to revitalize a genre that often seems all too generic, making it new in ways that range from the subtle to the shocking." -- Locus " Royal Assassin ] reaches astonishing new heights. . . . The Farseer saga is destined for greatness--a must-read for every devotee of epic fantasy." -- Sense of Wonder
Assassin's Quest - 978-0553565690 - Bantam Spectre - 1998 ~ King Shrewd is dead at the hands of his son Regal. As is Fitz--or so his enemies and friends believe. But with the help of his allies and his beast magic, he emerges from the grave, deeply scarred in body and soul. The kingdom also teeters toward ruin: Regal has plundered and abandoned the capital, while the rightful heir, Prince Verity, is lost to his mad quest--perhaps to death. Only Verity's return--or the heir his princess carries--can save the Six Duchies. But Fitz will not wait. Driven by loss and bitter memories, he undertakes a quest: to kill Regal. The journey casts him into deep waters, as he discovers wild currents of magic within him--currents that will either drown him or make him something more than he was.

The Wraith King Triliogy by Grace Draven
Radiance - 978-1506119717 - Self Published 2015 ~ ~THE PRINCE OF NO VALUE~
Brishen Khaskem, prince of the Kai, has lived content as the nonessential spare heir to a throne secured many times over. A trade and political alliance between the human kingdom of Gaur and the Kai kingdom of Bast-Haradis requires that he marry a Gauri woman to seal the treaty. Always a dutiful son, Brishen agrees to the marriage and discovers his bride is as ugly as he expected and more beautiful than he could have imagined.
~THE NOBLEWOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE~
Ildiko, niece of the Gauri king, has always known her only worth to the royal family lay in a strategic marriage. Resigned to her fate, she is horrified to learn that her intended groom isn’t just a foreign aristocrat but the younger prince of a people neither familiar nor human. Bound to her new husband, Ildiko will leave behind all she’s known to embrace a man shrouded in darkness but with a soul forged by light.
Two people brought together by the trappings of duty and politics will discover they are destined for each other, even as the powers of a hostile kingdom scheme to tear them apart.
Eidolon - 978-1533263650 - Self Published 2016 ~ **Sequel to RADIANCE and Book #2 in the Wraith Kings series**
In a bid for more power, the Shadow Queen of Haradis unleashes a malignant force into the world. Her son Brishen, younger prince of the Kai royal house, suddenly finds himself ruler of a kingdom blighted by a diseased darkness. His human wife Ildiko must decide if she will give up the man she loves in order to save his throne.
Three kingdoms on the verge of war must unite to save each other, and a one-eyed, reluctant king will raise an army of the dead to challenge an army of the damned.
A tale of alliance and sacrifice.
The Ippos King - 978- - Self Published 2020 ~ The WRAITH KINGS saga continues.
The demonic horde that threatened to devour the world has been defeated, but at great cost.
Plagued by guilt and nightmares, Serovek Pangion sets out to deliver the soulless body of the monk Megiddo to the heretical Jeden Order for safekeeping. Accompanying him is sha-Anhuset, the Kai woman he admires and desires most--a woman barely tolerant of him.
Devoted to her regent, Anhuset reluctantly agrees to act as a Kai ambassador on the trip, even though the bold margrave known as the Beladine Stallion gets under her skin like no other, and Anhuset fears he'll worm his way into her armored heart as well.
But guilt and unwelcome attraction are the least of their problems. The demons thought vanquished are stirring again, and a warlord with blood-soaked ambition turns a journey of compassion into a fight for survival. When the Beladine king brands Serovek a traitor, Anhuset must choose between sacrificing the life of a man she's grown to love and abandoning lifelong fealty to the Kai people.
A tale of loyalty and acceptance.

The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Dragon Wing - 978-0553286397 - Bantam - 1990 ~ Ages ago, sorcerers of unmatched power sundered a world into four realms--sky, stone, fire, and water--then vanished. Over time, magicians learned to work spells only in their own realms and forgot the others. Now only the few who have survived the Labyrinth and crossed the Death Gate know of the presence of all four realms--and even they have yet to unravel the mysteries of their severed world...
In Arianus, Realm of Sky, humans, elves, and dwarves battle for control of precious water--traversing a world of airborne islands on currents of elven magic and the backs of mammoth dragons. But soon great magical forces will begin to rend the fabric of this delicate land. An assassin will be hired to kill a royal prince--by the king himself. A dwarf will challenge the beliefs of his people--and lead them in rebellion. And a sinister wizard will enact his plan to rule Arianus--a plan that may be felt far beyond the Realm of Sky and into the Death Gate itself.
Elven Star - 978-0553290981 - Bantam - 1990 ~ On steamy Pryan, never-ending sunlight and plentiful rain have created a jungle so vast that humans and elves dwell high in the trees and only dwarves live anywhere near the ground. From the treetops the aristocratic elves sell weapons to the other races, whose incessant warfare sends a steady steam of profits and essential resources skyward. Now, generations of dissent and race hatred will not heal -- not even under the threat of annihilation at the hands of legendary Titans. Armed with little more than their wits and prophecy, an elf, a human, and a dwarf must unite to try to save the world from destruction.
Fire Sea - 978-0553295412 - Bantam - 1991 ~ Abarrach, the Realm of stone. Here, on a barren world of underground caverns built around a core of molten lava, the lesser races -- humans, elves, and dwarves -- seem to have all died off. Here, too, what may well be the last remnants of the once powerful Sartan still struggle to survive. For Haplo and Alfred -- enemies by heritage, traveling companions by necessity -- Abarrach may reveal more than either dares to discover about the history of Sartan... and the future of all their descendants."
Serpent Mage - 978-0553561401 - Bantam - 1992 ~ After the four worlds Alfred has at last found his people on Chelstra, the realm of sea. But his travels have taught him to be cautious... and Alfred soon realizes his caution is justified, even among his own kind. The one person Alfred can trust is, strangely, Haplo the Patryn. But Haplo's lord has decreed all Sartan to be the enemy, and Haplo dares not go against his lord. Now the companions have arrived in a land where humans, elves, and dwarves have learned to live in peace. Unaware of an even greater threat to all the realms, it is Sartan and Patryn who will disrupt this alliance of the lesser races in their struggle to gain control of all four worlds. Only Alfred and Haplo realize that they have a much older -- and more powerful -- enemy than each other...
The Hand of Chaos - 978-0553563696 - Bantam 1993 ~ Chaos is everywhere as the Lord of the Nexus orders his servant Haplo and the human child known as Bane to further their master's work on Arianus, the realm of air. But their one time companion Alfred has been cast into the deadly Labyrinth. And somehow the assassin Hugh the Hand has been resurrected to complete his dark mission. More important, the evil force that Haplo and Alfred discovered on Arianus has escaped. As Haplo's doubts about his master grow deeper, he must decide whether to obey the Lord of the Nexus or betray the powerful Patryn...and endeavor to bring peace to the universe.
Into the Labyrinth - 978-0553567717 - Bantam - 1993 ~ From his army of the undead, Xar, Lord of the Nexus, learns of the existence of the mysterious Seventh Gate. It is said that this gate grants whoever enters it the power to create worlds—or destroy them. Only Haplo knows its location—but he doesn't know he knows it. Now an ex-lover has been sent to betray Haplo and bring back his corpse. Meanwhile, the assassin Hugh the Hand is also after Haplo, wielding the Accursed Blade. With his old companion Alfred, Haplo must seek sanctuary in the Labyrinth—a deadly prison maze whose inhabitants are condemned to death.
Millennia ago a battle raged between the Sartan and the Patryn, and the Sartan sundered the world into four realms—air, fire, stone, and water—and then vanished. But now the two races have rediscovered each other through the magic of the Death Gate—and war is about to erupt anew.
The Seventh Gate - 978-0553573251 - Bantam - 1994 ~ The Seventh Gate is the thrilling conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. In this tale of treachery, power, and heroism, Alfred, Haplo, and Marit embark on a journey of death and discovery as they seek to enter the dreaded Seventh Gate. Encountering enemies both old and new, they unleash a magic no power can control, damning themselves to an apocalypse of unimagined proportion in a final struggle between good and evil.

The Darkover Series by Marion Zimmer Bradley (1st 4 listed out of 24 plus titles)
Darkover Landfall - 978-0879970369 - DAW 1972 ~ Darkover, planet of wonder, world of mystery, has been a favorite of science fiction readers for many years. For it is a truly alien sphere--a world of strange intelligences, of brooding skies beneath a ruddy sun, and of powers unknown to Earth. In this novel, Marion Zimmer Bradley tells of the original coming of the Earthmen, of the days when Darkover knew not humanity. This is the full-bodied novel of what happened when a colonial starship crashlanded on that uncharted planet to encounter for the first time in human existence the impact of the Ghost Wind, the psychic currents that were native only to that world, and the price that every Earthling must pay before Darkover could claim him for itself.
Stormqueen! - 978-0879973810 - DAW 1978 ~ The great epic of Darkover did not begin with the Terrans' arrival. For in those years, the power of the matrix was first learned--and misused in a power struggle that could have made Darkover a duplicate of Terra.
Hawkmistress! - 978-0879977627 - DAW 1982 ~ She had rejected her noble birthright and embraced the freedom only a man could claim. She was Romilly who lived among the beasts of hill and forest and communicated with them, who tried humanity and turned it down for its evils and jealousies. She had the MacAran Gift, the rare Laran that conferred mastery over hawk and horse.
Two to Conquer - 978-0879975401 - DAW 1980 ~ What forces would operate if there were two objects that were absolutely identical in form and substance? This problem has occupied both workers in magic and the scientists of physics and psychology. It is the pivot of Marion Zimmer Bradley's novel of Darkover during the final flaming days of the Ages of Chaos.
This is the story of the era when the planet of the Bloody Sun was divided into a hundred warring kingdoms and civilization teetered on the edge of oblivion.
It is the story of Bard di Asturien, ambitious soldier-outlaw, and of his opponent, Varzil the Good, who struggled to establish the Compact. And it is also the story of a man from distant Terra named Paul Harrell who was the exact duplicate of Varzil's enemy.
Two to Conquer is a novel of social forces in combat, of the use and misuse of science, of war, of rape, and of witchcraft.

Falcons of Narabedla by Marion Zimmer Bradley - 978-0441225774 - ACE 1979 ~ Mike Kenscott is having a really bad vacation. One minute he's camping in the Sierra Mountains with his brother Andy, and the next minute he's on a different world - or in a different time - or both. He's also in a different body.
Now he's Adric, Lord of the Crimson Tower, of the Rainbow City of Narabedla. He has to cope with his fellow Narabedlans: the Dreamer Rhys, the mysterious veiled Gamine, the dwarf Idris, his brother Evarin the Toymaker (whose Toys are deadly), and Karamy, the golden witch, who is either his lover or his greatest enemy - with most of both his and Adric's memories gone, he's having trouble knowing what she is. Then there are the people outside the city, led by the man called Narayan. Mike/Adric knows that they are important to him, but he desperately needs to remember why.

Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper
Little Fuzzy - 978-0843959116 - AVON 1962 ~ The chartered Zarathustra Company had it all their way. Their charter was for a Class III uninhabited planet, which Zarathustra was, and it meant they owned the planet lock stock and barrel. They exploited it, developed it and reaped the huge profits from it without interference from the Colonial Government. Then Jack Holloway, a sunstone prospector, appeared on the scene with his family of Fuzzies and the passionate conviction that they were not cute animals but little people.
Fuzzy Sapians aka; The Other Human Race - 978-0441261963 - AVON 1964 ~ Are Fuzzies People?
Pendarvis' Decision had finally declared the Fuzzies to be intelligent beings, and that meant some drastic changes for the Earthmen who had colonized their planet, changes that a lot of people weren't going to accept easily. But why worry? said others.
The Fuzzies seemed lovable, fun-loving creatures, only two feet high, and covered with soft, golden fur. Give them plenty of extee-three and they'd do anything you asked.
What ruling race of invaders could ask for a more ideal native population?
Fuzzies and Other People - 978-0441261772 - ACE 1984 ~ The friendship between human Jack Holloway and the small, golden-furred creatures of the planet Zarathustra has a profound impact on both Holloway and the Fuzzies.

Silverglass books by J. F. Rivkin
Silverglass - 978-0441766000 - ACE 1986 ~ The life of a sword-for-hire was often uncertain, but brazen and beautiful Corson brenn Torisk would have no other.
When Corson's services as a guard were engaged by the Lady Nyctasia, it seemed that fortune was finally smiling upon her. The Lady had a ready wit, an open purse and a reputation for sorcery which she assured Corson was quite undeserved.
While Corson had little liking for magic and still less for magicians, it seemed too good an opportunity to refuse. But when her employer's enemies proved to be as numerous as her coins, Corson decided that any aid was welcome--even the Lady's sorcery.
Web of Wind - 978-0441878833 - ACE 1987 ~ Riddles, Treasure, and Sorcery
"Here is a web to catch the wind And a loom to weave a lay. Riddles play on words, my friend-- Play on these and play you may."
This simple riddle was the clue that started the sword-for-hire Corson and her sorceress companion, the Lady Nyctasia, on a hunt for the greatest treasure ever hidden.
But this long-abandoned treasure is the hoard of the dread Cymvelan Circle, whose scattered members are coming together again to claim what is theirs...
Witch of Rhostshyl - 978-0441766833 - ACE 1989 ~ With only her sorcerer's powers and the swordswoman Corson to protect her, the lady Nyctasia was forced to flee her beloved city of Rhostshyl. Solving riddles and casting spells, fighting pirates and helping escaped slaves, sword and sorcery have stood back-to-back dueling with advfenture.
But now, Nyc's beloved city needs her. This is no street brawl, but a civil war, which Nyc must win...or all is lost!
Mistress of Ambiguities - 978-0441766017 - ACE 1991 ~ Her beloved city in dire straits after a bloody civil war, the spellcasting Lady Nyctasia is forced to seek alliance with a neighboring state. But the rumored marriage-treaty has loyal swordswoman Corson whetting her blade...matrimony being no proof against murder.
Between Nyc and the cloaked assassins stands only a tormented nobleman--whose enigmatic past bears close examination indeed...

Honor Harrington books by David Weber (1st 4 listed out of 33 plus titles)
On Basilisk Station - 978-0671721633 - BAEN 1993 ~ Honor Harrington in trouble: Having made him look the fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her. Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station. The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens. Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling, the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called "Republic" of Haven is Up to Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system.
But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad!
The Honor of the Queen - 978-0671721725 - BAEN 1993 ~ It's hard to give peace a chance when the other side regards war as a prelude to conquest. That's why Manticore needs allies against Haven, and planet Grayson is placed to make a good ally. But the Foreign Office overlooked a cultural difference when they sent Honor Harrington to carry the flag.
The Short Victorious War - 978-0671875961 - BAEN 1994 ~ The proles are revolting.
The families who rule the People's Republic of Haven are in trouble. The treasury's empty, the Proles are restless, and civil war is imminent.
But the ruling class knows what they need to keep in power; another short, victorious war to unite the people and fill the treasury once more. It's a card they've played often in the last half-century, always successfully, and all that stands in their way is the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its threadbare allies.
Only this time the Peeps face something different. This time they're up against Captain Honor Harrington and a Royal Manticoran Navy that's prepared to give them a war that's far from short...and anything but victorious.
Field of Dishonor - 978-0671876241 - BAEN 1994 ~ HONOR BETRAYED
The People's Republic of Haven's sneak attack on the Kingdom of Manticore has failed. The Peeps are in disarray, their leaders fighting for power in bloody revolution, and the Royal Manticoran Navy stands victorious.
But Manticore has domestic problems of its own, and success can be more treacherous than defeat for Honor Harrington. Now, trapped at the core of a political crisis she never sought, betrayed by an old and vicious enemy she'd thought vanquished forever, she stands alone.
She must fight for justice on a battlefield she never trained for in a private war that offers just two choices: death . . . or a ''victory'' that can end only in dishonor and the loss of all she loves.

The Darksword Trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Forgeing the Darksword - 978-0553268942 - Bantam 1988 ~ In the enchanted realm of Merilon, magic is life.
Born without magical abilities and denied his birthright, Joram is left for dead. Yet he grows to manhood in a remote country village, hiding his lack of powers only through constant vigilance and ever more skillful sleight-of-hand.
Forced to kill a man in self-defense, Joram can keep his secret from the townspeople no longer: he has no magic, no life. Fleeing to the Outlands, Joram joins the outlawed Technologists, who practice the long forbidden arts of science. Here he meets the scholarly catalyst Saryon, who has been sent on a special mission to hunt down a mysterious "dead man" and instead finds himself in a battle of wits and power with a renegade warlock of the dark Duuk-tsarith caste.
Together, Joram and Saryon begin their quest toward a greater destiny--a destiny that begins with the discovery of the secret books that will enable them to overthrow the evil usurper Blachloch...and forge the powerful magic-absorbing Darksword.
Doom of the Darksword - 978-0553271645 - Bantam 1988 ~ Born without magic, Joram was one of the Dead, denied the throne of Merilon. For years, he lived among outlaws, surviving by wit and sleight-of-hand. Now, wielding the powerful, magic absorbing Darksword, Joram retums to the enchanted Kingdom that once was his home to win revenge and claim his birthright. Here he will test Bishop Vanya and his fierce army of Duuk-tsarith in a battle unlike any their world has known. Joined by the scholarly catalyst Saryon, the young mage Mosiah, and the trickster Simkin, Jorma confronts the shattering secret of his past and discovers the ancient prophecy that puts the fate of the world in his hands--the hands that forged the Darksword.
Triumph of the Darksword - 978-0553274066 - Bantam 1988 ~ Joram and his wife, Gwendolyn, return from beyond the Border to reclaim their rightful place in Merilon. Rejoined by Saryon, Mosiah and Simkin, Joram must confront the evil sorcerer, Menju, and his army of Technologists in a final apocalyptic battle to fulfill the ancient prophecy of the Darksword--to either save the world.

Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny (1st 4 listed out of 10 plus titles)
Nine Princes in Amber - 978-0380014309 - Doubleday 1970 ~ Amber, the one real world, wherein all others, including our own Earth, are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin's blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne. From Arden to the blood-slippery Stairway into the Sea, the air is electrified with the powers of Eric, Random, Bleys, Caine, and all the princes of Amber whom Corwin must overcome. Yet, his savage path is blocked and guarded by eerie structures beyond imagining; impossible realities forged by demonic assassins and staggering horrors to challenge the might of Corwin's superhuman fury.' to 'Awakening in an Earth hospital unable to remember who he is or where he came from, Corwin is amazed to learn that he is one of the sons of Oberon, King of Amber, and is the rightful successor to the crown in a parallel world.
The Guns of Avalon - 978-0380000838 - Doubleday 1972 ~ Across the worlds of Shadow, Corwin, prince of blood royal, heir to the throne of Amber, gathers his forces for an assault that will yield up to him the crown that is rightfully his. But, a growing darkness of his own doing threatens his plans, an evil that stretches to the heart of the perfect kingdom itself where the demonic forces of Chaos mass to annihilate Amber and all who would rule there.
One of the most revered names in sf and fantasy, the incomparable Roger Zelazny was honored with numerous prizes—including six Hugo and three Nebula Awards—over the course of his legendary career. Among his more than fifty books, arguably Zelazny’s most popular literary creations were his extraordinary Amber novels. The Guns of Avalon is the second book of The Chronicles of Amber.
Sign of the Unicorn - 978-0380008315 - Doubleday 1975 ~ He who rules Amber rules the one true world. He who thwarts Amber invites the wrath of Amber betrayed.
An unseen enemy of immense strength has seized a Prince of the Blood, and now threatens the perfect kingdom by striking at the very core of its power - the secret knowledge of Shadow.
When Corwin summons forces to defend the throne, he finds himself challenged by royal conspirators, hideous demons, supernatural patterns and the ominous unknown that suddenly transcends all he ever suspected about the true nature of Amber.
One of the most revered names in sf and fantasy, the incomparable Roger Zelazny was honored with numerous prizes—including six Hugo and three Nebula Awards—over the course of his legendary career. Among his more than fifty books, arguably Zelazny’s most popular literary creations were his extraordinary Amber novels.
The Hand of Oberon - 978-0380016648 - Avon 1977 ~ Across the mysterious Black Road, demons swarm into Shadow. The ancient, secret source of the royal family's power is revealed, & an unholy pact between a prince of the realm & the forces of Chaos threaten all the known worlds with absolute obliteration. The hour of battle is at hand. Now Corwin and the remaining princes of Amber must call upon all their superhuman powers to defeat their brother-turned-traitor before he can walk the magical Pattern that created Amber and remake the universe in his own image.

The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock (1st 4 listed of at least 9 titles)
Elric of Melnibone aka; The Dreaming City - 978-0099077909 - DAW - 1972 ~ Elric of Melniboné is a requisite title in the hard fantasy canon, a book no fantasy fan should leave unread. Author Michael Moorcock, already a major player in science fiction, cemented his position in the fantasy pantheon with the five-book Elric saga, of which Elric of Melniboné is the first installment. The book's namesake, the brooding albino emperor of the dying nation of Melniboné, is a sort of Superman for Goths, truly an archetype of the genre.
The youthful Elric is a cynical and melancholy king, heir to a nation whose 100,000-year rule of the world ended less than 500 years hence. More interested in brooding contemplation than holding the throne, Elric is a reluctant ruler, but he also realizes that no other worthy successor exists and the survival of his once-powerful, decadent nation depends on him alone. Elric's nefarious, brutish cousin Yrkoon has no patience for his physically weak kinsman, and he plots constantly to seize Elric's throne, usually over his dead body. Elric of Melniboné follows Yrkoon's scheming, reaching its climax in a battle between Elric and Yrkoon with the demonic runeblades Stormbringer and Mournblade. In this battle, Elric gains control of the soul-stealing Stormbringer, an event that proves pivotal to the Elric saga.
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate - 978-0879972707 - DAW 1976 ~ Leaving his cousin Yrkoon sitting as regent upon the Ruby Throne of Melnibone, leaving his cousin Cymoril weeping for him and despairing of his ever returning, Elric sailed from Imrryr, the Dreaming City, and went to seek an unknown goal in the world of the Young Kingdoms where Melniboneans were at best, disliked.
The Weird of the White Wolf (collection of shorts) - 978-0879972868 - DAW 1977 ~ "We must be bound to one another then. Bound by hell-forged chains and fate-haunted circumstance. Well, then - let it be thus so - and men will have cause to tremble and flee when they hear the names of Elric of Melnibone and Stormbringer, his sword. We are two of a kind - produced by an age which has deserted us. Let us give this age cause to hate us."
Imrryr, the dreaming city; Yyrkoon, the hated usurper; Cymoril, the beloved... all had fallen to the fury and unearthly power of the albino prince and his terrible sword. An Elric faced at last the fate that was to be his in this haunted era - that he must go forth, sword and man as one, and havoc and horror would be forever at his forefront until he found his Purpose that was yet obscured to him.
The Vanashing Tower aka; The Sleeping Sorceress - 978-0441860395 - DAW - 1972 ~ Elric of Melniboné, proud prince of ruins, last lord of a dying race, wanders the lands of the Young Kingdoms in search of the evil sorcerer Theleb K'aarna. His object is revenge. But to achieve this, he must first brave such horrors as the Creatures of Chaos, the freezing wilderness of World's Edge, the golden-skinned Kelmain hordes, King Urish the Seven-fingered with his great cleaver Hackmeat, the Burning God, the Sighing Desert, and the terrible stone-age men of Pio. Although Elric holds within him a destiny greater than he could ever know, and controls the hellsword Stormbringer, stealer of souls, his task looks hopeless - until he encounters Myshella, Empress of the Dawn, the sleeping sorceress...

Eternal Champion Trilogy by Michael Moorcock
The Eternal Champion - 978-0440123835 - Dell - 1970 ~ John Daker dreams of other worlds, and a name: Erekosë. He finds the strength to answer the call, travelling to a strange land ruled by the aging King Rigenos of Necranal. Humanity is united in a desperate fight against the inhuman Eldren, and he must fight with them. But the actions of his brethren turns his loyalties, and as Erekosë he will take a terrible revenge.
Phoenix in Obsidian aka; The Silver Warriors - 978-0440179948 - Dell - 1970 ~ Erekose (a.k.a. John Daker) has finally found happiness with his true love Ermizhad . . . but for how long? Of course, soon he is swept away to another part of the multiverse to save the day as the eternal champion named Count Urlik Skarsol. The story adds notable details to the multiverse concept, the nature of the eternal champion, and his nemesis/ally, the black sword. Also, the book is a good, fast read with great images and nice studies of the supporting characters.
The Dragon in the Sword - 978-0441166091 - ACE 1986 ~ Trapped in a timeless existence, doomed to fight forever, John Daker is the Eternal Champion. Haunted by memories of too many battles waged during infinite lifetimes, he has taken Fate into his own hands. He searches for Ermizhad, and for the key that will free him from psychic captivity. On a dark ship piloted by a blind helmsman, the Eternal Champion must stand and fight the darkest battle in the history of the world.

The Company Saga by Kage Baker (1st 4 listed out of at least 9 titles)
In the Garden of Iden - 978-0380731794 - AVON - 1997 ~ This is the first novel in what has become one of the most popular series in contemporary SF, now back in print from Tor. In the 24th century, the Company preserves works of art and extinct forms of life (for profit of course). It recruits orphans from the past, renders them all but immortal, and trains them to serve the Company, Dr. Zeus. One of these is Mendoza the botanist. She is sent to Elizabethan England to collect samples from the garden of Sir Walter Iden.
But while there, she meets Nicholas Harpole, with whom she falls in love. And that love sounds great bells of change that will echo down the centuries, and through the succeeding novels of The Company.
Sky Coyote - 978-0380731800 - AVON - 1999 ~ Facilitator Joseph is quite a guy. He's sailed with the Phoenicians, and he's been an Egyptian priest, an Athenian politician, and secretary to a Roman senator. After all, his employer, the twenty-fourth-century Company, sends immortal cyborgs like Joseph all over the world and all over time. But now Joseph finds himself in 1699, in the Mayan jungle's Lost City (actually a spa for the Company's operatives) with his protegee, the Botanist Mendoza, who still hasn't forgiven him for that unfortunate incident in Elizabethan England. And he has to save an ancient people from encroachment by the coming white men -- even if it means convincing the entire pre-Columbian village to step into the future.
Mendoza in Hollywood - 978-0380819003 - AVON EOS - 2000 ~ This is the third novel in what has become one of the most popular series in contemporary SF, now back in print from Tor. In the 24th century, the Company preserves works of art and extinct forms of life, for profit, of course. It recruits orphans from the past, renders them all but immortal, and trains them to serve the Company, Dr. Zeus. One of these is Mendoza the botanist. The death of her lover has been followed by centuries of heartbreak. She spends a period of time in early twentieth century Hollywood in the days of D.W. Griffith, and then Mendoza is in the midst of the Civil War, and runs into a man that looks disturbingly similar to her lost love. She is about to find love again, and be in more trouble than she could ever have imagined.
The Graveyard Game - 978-0765311849 - TOR - 2001 ~ Mendoza is a Preserver for The Dr. Zeus Company, living in the past to collect species for the future. But when she kills six people in California in 1863, The Company makes her disappear.
Joseph, a senior Preserver, loves Mendoza as the daughter he never had. Drunk on chocolate and fueled by rage, he's determined to find her however long it takes. Being an indestructible, immortal cyborg gives him an unlimited well of patience.
What begins as a rescue mission uncovers a conspiracy stretching across fifty centuries of recorded history. Behind it lie genocide, graveyards filled with Company agents, and the roots of the ominous Silence that falls across the world in 2355.

The Keltaid saga by Patricia Kennealy
Tales of Aeron
The Copper Crown - 978-0451143945 - Signet 1986 ~ WHEN EARTH MEETS KELTIA WILL STAR EMPIRES FALL?
When lore became legend on ancient Earth and the powers of magic waned, the Kelts and their allies fled the planet for the freedom of distant star realms.
But the stars were home to dangerous foes, and millenia later, the worlds of Keltia still maintained uneasy truce with two enemy empires -the Imperium and the Phalanx. Then, at the start of the reign of Aeron, mistress of high magic and queen of all the Kelts, an Earthship made contact with her long-fled children. And while Earth and Keltia reached out to form alliance, the star fleets of the enemy mobilized for final, devastating war....
The Throne of Scone - 978-0451148216 - Signet 1986 ~ Aeron, Queen of the Kelts, has fled to the stars on a desperate mission to find the fabled Thirteen Treasures of King Arthur, hidden from his Keltic descendants for fifteen hundred years. Her search will lead from the depths of space, where worlds are born, to the heart of an ancient enemy's stronghold and on to a trial of courage and magic that even the Queen of the Kelts may not survive!
And while Aeron pursues her destiny among the stars, all the forces of Keltia are mobilizing for a war that could set the very worlds ablaze - a war that can only be won if Aeron returns triumphant from her doom-shadowed quest.
The Silver Branch - 978-0451162779 - Signet 1989 ~ In this era, the enemies of the Keltic worlds are already beginning to dream of destroying this mighty space empire hidden behind its seemingly impenetrable magic-fueled Curtain Wall. And chief among these foes of Keltia is Bres, lord of Fomor, who, betrayed by his own queen, has sworn an eternal vow of vengeance. Yet it will be many long years before Bres can hope to carry out his threats, years of uneasy peace during which Aeron Aoibhell, heir to the throne of Keltia, will grow to adulthood and to the fulfillment of her prophesied powers of sorcery—powers which will change the destinies of friends and foes alike when war finally explodes across the starways.
The Silver Branch is Aeron’s tale—from the events long before her birth, which would shape the worlds and the burden she would inherit…to her first discovery of the magic that could move the very sun from its path…to the dangerous rites of passage that would make her sorcerer, warrior, avenger, and ultimately queen. It is a recounting of forbidden passion and of honor betrayed, of jealousies that will plant the seeds of future treachery, of love and loyalty tested to the very limits of the great Abyss.
Tales of Arthur
The Hawk's Gray Feather - 978-0451450531 - Signet/ROC 1991 ~ This first installment of a trilogy describes Arthur's education by Merlynn, his gathering of followers to campaign against theocratic tyranny in his homeland of Keltia and his turbulent, jealous relationship with cousin Gweniver.
The Oak Above the Kings - 978-0451454515 - Signet/ROC 1995 ~ Taliesin, chief Bard of Keltia, brother in sword and deed and marraige to Arthur the king, sets his magical seeings into fated words. He tells how Arthur, the lost prince, overthrows the evil, uprising Archdruid and at last comes to his own kingship. But it is a double throne which he must share by law and love with the one woman in all Keltia fit o share it with him. She is Gweniver, princess and priestess, his own cousin---and his wife.
The Hedge of Mist - 978-0061056048 - HarperPrism 1997 ~ To all bards in spirit, the making of triads--things grouped in threes for poetic purpose--is the essence of the bardic art. In this volume of the Tales of Arthur, Taliesin Qlyndour, chief poet of the distant star-realm of Keltia, mate of Morgan the sorceress, brother and friend to Arthur the King, wholly Kett yet half a son of Earth, brings to high completion the mightiest Triad of all...
In THE HEDGE OF MIST, Patricia Kennealy-Morrison continues her spacegoing Arthurian legend with this triumphant tale--a Qraal Quest unlike any other, the betrayal of the King by his own sister, the doomed fight of a loyal knight for the Queen he once loved, the going of Arthur and his true Companions to the hidden refuge where they shall sleep until their prophesied return--framing all in the timelessness and endlessness of a once and future tale.

Morgaine Novels by C. J. Cherryh
Gate of Ivrel - 978-0879972264 - DAW 1976 ~ Scattered about the galaxy were the time-space Gates of a vanished but not forgotten alien race. In their time, long before the rise of the native civilizations, they had terrorized a hundred worlds—not from villainy but from folly, from tampering with the strands that held a universe together.
Now the task was to uproot these Gates, destroy their potency for mischief, take horror out of the hands of the few who hungered for power by misuse of the Gates.
This is the story of one such Gate and one such world.
Well of Shiuan - 978-0879973711 - DAW 1978 ~ "The world of Shiuan was doomed. Rising waters and shattering earthquakes due to the coming of a vast and strange new satellite had sealed the fate of its peoples—flee or die with their world. Their sole escape routes were the Gates, the passages between worlds established by a forgotten cosmic race. And just as this knowledge dawned on the desperate tribes and cities there appeared the woman Morgaine—whose mission was to seal Shiuan's Gates."
Winner of the John W. Campbell Award for the best new writer of the year.
This is the story of Morgaine, and of her henchman, Nhi Vanye, and of their relentless enemy, Chya Roh, who followed them to the drowning planet.
Fires of Azeroth - 978-0879974664 - DAW 1979 ~ The Gates were relics of a lost era. The Union Science Bureau surmised that they had once linked a whole network of civilizations throughout the galaxy-an empire ruled by a ruthless race known as the qhal. This qhal empire had spanned both Space and Time, for their Gates warped time, enabling qhal travelers to step from point to point across light-years unaged. It was even possible to travel into the future. However, intervention in backtime could affect entire worlds and civilizations, could change the course of galactic history, could destroy empires and possibly even implode time itself...and this was what the Science Bureau believed had happened-sometime, somewhere in the unreachable past, an arrogant power-drunk qhal had done the unthinkable, and warped the very fabric of space and time.
Morgaine: pale in coloring and as tall as the tallest men, it seems clear that this mysterious traveler is a descendent of the long-vanished qhal. Aided by a single warrior honor-bound to serve her, it is her mission to travel from world to world sealing the ancient Gates whose very existence threatens the integrity of the universe. But will she have the power to follow her quest to its eventual conclusion-to the Ultimate Gate or the end of time itself?
Exile's Gate - 978-0886772543 - DAW 1988 ~ Morgaine must meet her greatest challenge—Gault, who is both human and alien, and also seeks control of the world and its Gate. She will meet the true Gatemaster—a mysterious lord with power as great, or greater, than her own.

Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey (1st 3 listed of 16 plus titles)
Dragonflight - 978-0345022462 - Ballantine 1968 ~ On a beautiful world called Pern, an ancient way of life is about to come under attack from a myth that is all too real. Lessa is an outcast survivor—her parents murdered, her birthright stolen—a strong young woman who has never stopped dreaming of revenge. But when an ancient threat to Pern reemerges, Lessa will rise—upon the back of a great dragon with whom she shares a telepathic bond more intimate than any human connection. Together, dragon and rider will fly . . . and Pern will be changed forever.
Dragonquest -978-0345022455 - Ballantine Books 1971 ~ Since Lessa and Ramoth, her golden queen dragon, traveled into the past to bring forward a small army of dragons and riders to save their world from deadly alien spores, fear and desperation have spread across the land. But while the dragonriders struggle with threats both otherworldly and human, a young rider named F’nor and his brown dragon, Canth, hatch a bold plan to destroy the alien scourge at its source—the baleful red star that fills the heavens and promises doom to all.
The White Dragon - 978-0345253736 - Ballantine/Del Rey 1979 ~ Never in the history of Pern has there been a dragon like Ruth. Mocked by other dragons for his small size and pure white color, Ruth is smart, brave, and loyal—qualities that he shares with his rider, the young Lord Jaxom. Unfortunately, Jaxom is also looked down upon by his fellow lords, and by other riders as well. His dreams of joining the dragonriders in defending Pern are dismissed. What else can Jaxom and Ruth do but strike out on their own, pursuing in secret all they are denied? But in doing so, the two friends will find themselves facing a desperate choice—one that will push their bond to the breaking point . . . and threaten the future of Pern itself.

Harper Hall of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
Dragonsong - 978-0553120448 ~ Bantam Books 1977 ~ It was not Threadfall that made Menolly unhappy. It was her father who betrayed her ambition to be a Harper, who thwarted her love of music. Menolly had no choice but to run away. She came upon a group of fire lizards, wild relatives of the fire-breathing dragons. Her music swirled about them; she taught nine to sing, suddenly Menolly was no longer alone.
Dragonsinger - 978-0553118353 - Bantam Books 1978 ~ Pursuing her dream to be a Harper of Pern, Menolly studies under the Masterharper learning that more is required than a facility with music and a clever way with words.
Dragondrums - 978-0553131895 Bantam Books 1979 ~ Dragondrums is the coming of age story of Piemur, a small, quick, clever apprentice at Harper Hall. When Piemur's clear treble voice changes at puberty, his place among the Harpers is no longer certain.

Angel's Luck by Joe Clifford Faust
Desperate Measures - 978-0345350206 - Ballantine/Del Rey 1989 ~ Angel's Luck is the name of his spaceship, and Captain James May is having a hard time making his installment payments to the Yueh-sheng (think Asian Yakuza) who owns the title. He gets into trouble, and barely manages to get out of it again, usually by making things worse.
Precious Cargo - 978-0345360885 - Ballantine/Del Rey 1990 ~ When Angel's Luck was blown to space junk, trader James May and his crew could not collect their reward for retrieving the stolen Essence Phials, which held the extracted minds of humanity's greatest geniuses. So they were grateful to be rescued by the luxury liner Hergest Ridge, even if the commander was May's ex-wife, who had made it plain she never wanted to see him again.
Commander Margaret O'Hearn had problems. Among her passengers was a delegation of Arcolians, aliens only recently at peace with humanity. And there were rumors of an anti-Arcolian blockade along her route and the possibility of terrorists on board her ship. So the last thing Maggie needed aboard was her ex-husband and his crazy copilot Duke, who had sampled an Essence Phial and was now possessed by a second—and extremely xenophobic—personality.
Somehow May had to help Maggie prevent the outbreak of another human-alien war, while protecting Duke from himself and saving his own precious cargo...
The Essence of Evil - 978-0345360892 - Ballantine/Del Rey 1990 ~ Duke battles his possession by famous pilot Eric Dickson, while he and May attempt to steer clear of the Essence Corporation and find resolution to their problems.

The Goblin Emperor by Sarah Monette (as Katherine Addison) - 978-0765365682 - TOR 2015 ~ The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.
Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.
Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend... and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne – or his life.

The Grisha Universe by Leigh Bardugo
The Gathering Dark aka; Shadow and Bone - 978-1780621104 - Indigo 2012 ~ Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.
Siege and Storm - 978-1780621135 - Indigo 2013 ~ Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her—or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.
Ruin and Rising - 978-1780621166 - Indigo 2014 ~ The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.
Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.
Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.
Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

Six of Crows - 978-1780622279 - Orion 2015 ~ Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . . A convict with a thirst for revenge - A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager - A runaway with a privileged past - A spy known as the Wraith - A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums - A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes -

Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.
Crooked Kingdom - 978-1780622309 - Orion 2016 ~ Welcome to the world of the Grisha.
Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives.
Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties.
A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets - a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.
King of Scars - 978-1510104457 - Orion 2019 ~ Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.
Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried—and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.
Rule of Wolves - 978-1510109186 - Orion 2021 ~ The Demon King. As Fjerda's massive army prepares to invade, Nikolai Lantsov will summon every bit of his ingenuity and charm—and even the monster within—to win this fight. But a dark threat looms that cannot be defeated by a young king's gift for the impossible.
The Stormwitch. Zoya Nazyalensky has lost too much to war. She saw her mentor die and her worst enemy resurrected, and she refuses to bury another friend. Now duty demands she embrace her powers to become the weapon her country needs. No matter the cost.
The Queen of Mourning. Deep undercover, Nina Zenik risks discovery and death as she wages war on Fjerda from inside its capital. But her desire for revenge may cost her country its chance at freedom and Nina the chance to heal her grieving heart.
King. General. Spy. Together they must find a way to forge a future in the darkness. Or watch a nation fall.

Warlock Saga by Christopher Stasheff (1st 4 listed of 27 plus titles)
Escape Velocity - 978-0441216031 - ACE 1987 ~ Democracy is crumbling in the Interstellar Dominion Electorates and if Dar and Samantha can't get their message to Terra in time, a coup is inevitable. What's more, every police ship in space has just been alerted that Dar and Samantha are dangerous telepaths to be shot on sight.
The Warlock in Spite of Himself - 978-0441873029 - ACE 1982 ~ In an interstellar romp that proves science and sorcery can mix, only hard-headed realist Rod Gallowglass can save the people of Gramarye from their doom by becoming--The Warlock in Spite of Himself--if only he believed in magic.
King Kobold Revived - 978-0441444915 - ACE 1984 (originally 1971) ~ Here's Gramarye, a gentle planet where, in the Thirty-first Century, people choose the life-style of medieval England; except they're prejudiced against and persecute their witches and warlocks (espers, naturally).
Rod Gallowglass (dubbed High Warlock in spite of himself) is stationed there as an agent of the intergalactic DDT--Decentralized democratic Tribunal--to protect the precious esper colony from its primitive fellow Gramaryans, and to insure a gradual integration.
This already whacky society is stirred up with a batch of paranoid esper Neanderthals led by the strange King Kobold, brought in by alien futurians to destroy those espers so vital to DDT's future.
When this unhealthy mess starts brewing, our warlock-cum-everyman is the one to watch.
The Warlock Unlocked - 978-0441873258 - ACE 1982 ~ In Gramarye, where everyone who is anyone is a witch, and where Rod Gallowglass has only just begun to learn of the awesome powers he possesses, a battle between worlds has begun. In the fight to preserve freedom, Rod is about to learn if his strength will be enough to save his precious world--and all democracy--from destruction.

Howl's Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Howl's Moving Castle - 978-0416074420 - Methuen 1988 ~ Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there's far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.
Castle in the Air - 978-0064473453 - Greenwillow 1991 ~ Far to the south of the land of Ingary, in the Sultanates of Rashpuht, there lived in the city of Zanzib a young and not very prosperous carpet dealer named Abdullah who loved to spend his time daydreaming. He was content with his life and his daydreams until, one day, a stranger sold him a magic carpet.
That very night, the carpet flew him to an enchanted garden. There, he met and fell in love with the beauteous princess Flower-in-the-Night, only to have her snatched away, right under his very nose, by a wicked djinn. With only his magic carpet and his wits to help him, Abdullah sets off to rescue his princess....
House of Many Ways - 978-0061477959 - Greenwillow 2008 ~ Charmain Baker is in over her head. Looking after Great-Uncle William's tiny cottage while he's ill should have been easy. But Great-Uncle William is better known as the Royal Wizard Norland, and his house bends space and time. Its single door leads to any number of places—the bedrooms, the kitchen, the caves under the mountains, the past, and the Royal Mansion, to name just a few.
By opening that door, Charmain has become responsible for not only the house, but for an extremely magical stray dog, a muddled young apprentice wizard, and a box of the king's most treasured documents. She has encountered a terrifying beast called a lubbock, irritated a clan of small blue creatures, and wound up smack in the middle of an urgent search. The king and his daughter are desperate to find the lost, fabled Elfgift—so desperate that they've even called in an intimidating sorceress named Sophie to help. And where Sophie is, can the Wizard Howl and fire demon Calcifer be far behind?
Of course, with that magical family involved, there's bound to be chaos—and unexpected revelations. No one will be more surprised than Charmain by what Howl and Sophie discover.

The Snow Queen Cycle by Joan D. Vinge
The Snow Queen - 978-0708880753 - Orbit - 1980 ~ The imperious Winter colonists have ruled the planet Tiamat for 150 years, deriving wealth from the slaughter of the sea mers. But soon the galactic stargate will close, isolating Tiamat, and the 150-year reign of the Summer primitives will begin. Their only chance at surviving the change is if Arienrhod, the ageless, corrupt Snow Queen, can destroy destiny with an act of genocide. Arienrhod is not without competition as Moon, a young Summer-tribe sibyl, and the nemesis of the Snow Queen, battles to break a conspiracy that spans space. Interstellar politics, a millennia-long secret conspiracy, and a civilization whose hidden machineries might still control the fate of worlds all form the background to this spectacular hard science fiction novel from Joan D. Vinge.
World's End - 978-0708881446 - Orbit - 1984 ~ Hot on the heels of The Summer Queen, this novel is a must-read for fans of Vinge's Hugo Award-winning series. BZ Gundhalinu, a policeman who became an outcast after saving the future Summer Queen, quits his job to follow his ne'er-do-well brothers into the godforsaken waste, World's End, to prospect. BZ's odyssey will set the stage for The Summer Queen.
The Summer Queen - 978-0765304469 - TOR - 1991 ~ A story that spans millennia, from the ruins of an ancient interstellar empire to the planets of the Hegemony that rules human space, The Summer Queen is the multi-layered story of Tiamat, a world where the dolphin-like mers are harvested for the youth-prolonging serum extracted from their blood. But Tiamat is much more, for beneath Carbuncle, its capital, lies the old empire's greatest secret: an enormous forgotten technology which, though decaying, continues to affect the fates of the fallen empire's remnant cultures via the sybil-network--a data bank that binds the past and the future in its web of knowledge, As the Smith, genius mastermind of the hidden interstellar Brotherhood, tries feverishly to unlock its secrets, BZ Gundhalinu desperately strives to save the Hegemony, while the Summer Queen herself dares to create a new future for her people and her planet. And though each is acting alone, their fates will entwine in an astonishing climax that will change the universe forever.
Tangled Up in Blue - 978-0812576368 - TOR 2000 - Set during the time of The Snow Queen, BZ Gundhalinu is a by-the-book "Blue" on the trail of high corruption within the force. When a police raid goes horribly awry, BZ finds himself teamed up with Nyx LaisTree, a hard-nosed cop with no respect for the rules, and Devony Seaward, a beautiful hooker with a heart of gold. Together these three must fight the corruption of Tiamat and try to expose it before they all end up dead.
This novel marks the exciting return to the much-loved Snow Queen Universe. While taking place during events in The Snow Queen, this novel is a stand-alone masterpiece of noir suspense--taking a story you think you know, and showing you just how deep and vast the waters really run.

Gentleman Bastard Sequence by Scott Lynch
The Lies of Locke Lamora - 978-0575079755 - Gollancz - 2006 ~ An orphan’s life is harsh—and often short—in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But young Locke Lamora dodges death and slavery, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentleman Bastards, Locke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game—or die trying.
Red Seas Under Red Skies - 978-0553903584 - Bantam 2007 ~ After a brutal battle with the underworld that nearly destroyed him, Locke Lamora and his trusted sidekick, Jean, fled the island city of their birth and landed on the exotic shores of Tal Verrar to nurse their wounds. But even at this westernmost edge of civilization, they can't rest for long---and they are soon back doing what they do best: stealing from the undeserving rich and pocketing the proceeds for themselves.
This time, however, they have targeted the grandest prize of all: the Sinspire, the most exclusive and heavily guarded gambling house in the world. Its nine floors attract the wealthiest clientele - and to rise to the top, one must impress with good credit, amusing behavior...and excruciatingly impeccable play. For there is one cardinal rule, enforced by Requin, the house's cold-blooded master: it is death to cheat at any game at the Sinspire.Brazenly undeterred, Locke and Jean have orchestrated an elaborate plan to lie, trick, and swindle their way up the nine floors...straight to Requin's teeming vault. Under the cloak of false identities, they meticulously make their climb - until they are closer to the spoils than ever.
But someone in Tal Verrar has uncovered the duo's secret. Someone from their past who has every intention of making the impudent criminals pay for their sins. Now it will take every ounce of cunning to save their mercenary souls. And even that may not be enough.
The Republic of Thieves - 978-0553804690 - Del Rey 2013 ~ With what should have been the greatest heist of their career gone spectacularly sour, Locke and his trusted partner, Jean, have barely escaped with their lives. Or at least Jean has. But Locke is slowly succumbing to a deadly poison that no alchemist or physiker can cure. Yet just as the end is near, a mysterious Bondsmage offers Locke an opportunity that will either save him or finish him off once and for all.
Magi political elections are imminent, and the factions are in need of a pawn. If Locke agrees to play the role, sorcery will be used to purge the venom from his body - though the process will be so excruciating he may well wish for death. Locke is opposed, but two factors cause his will to crumble: Jean's imploring - and the Bondsmage's mention of a woman from Locke's past: Sabetha. She is the love of his life, his equal in skill and wit, and now, his greatest rival.
Locke was smitten with Sabetha from his first glimpse of her as a young fellow orphan and thief-in-training. But after a tumultuous courtship, Sabetha broke away. Now they will reunite in yet another clash of wills. For faced with his one and only match in both love and trickery, Locke must choose whether to fight Sabetha - or to woo her. It is a decision on which both their lives may depend.
The Thorn of Emberlain - 978-0575079588 - Gollancz 2021 ~ Locke Lamora, thief, con-man, pirate, political deceiver is back, and now he must become a soldier.
A new chapter for Locke and Jean and finally the war that has been brewing in the Kingdom of the Marrows flares up and threatens to capture all in its flames.
And all the while Locke must try to deal with the disturbing rumours about his past revealed in The Republic of Thieves. Fighting a war when you don't know the truth of right and wrong is one thing. Fighting a war when you don't know the truth of yourself is quite another. Particularly when you've never been that good with a sword anyway...

Hainish by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rocannon's World - 978-0441732968 - ACE - 1966 ~ A world shared by three native humanoid races - the cavern-dwelling Gdemiar, elvish Fiia, and warrior clan, Liuar - is suddenly invaded and conquered by a fleet of ships from the stars. Earth scientist Rocannon is on that world, and he sees his friends murdered and his spaceship destroyed. Marooned among alien peoples, he leads the battle to free this new world - and finds that legends grow around him even as he fights.
Planet of Exile - 978-0441669516 - ACE - 1966 ~ The Earth colony of Landin has been stranded on Werel for ten years--& ten of Werel's years are over 600 terrestrial years. The lonely & dwindling human settlement is beginning to feel the strain. Every winter--a season that lasts for 15 years--the Earthmen have neighbors: the humanoid hilfs, a nomadic people who only settle down for the cruel cold spell. The hilfs fear the Earthmen, whom they think of as witches & call the farborns. But hilfs & farborns have common enemies: the hordes of ravaging barbarians called gaals & eerie preying snow ghouls. Will they join forces or be annihilated?
City of Illusions - 978-0441107025 - ACE - 1967 ~ Scattered here and there, small isolated groups of humanity lived in a state of semi-barbarity. Lost were the skills and science, the knowledge that had been Earth's in the golden age of the League of Worlds.
Each time a colony of Earthmen began to stir the ashes of half-forgotten technology, the Shing, mindlying ravagers of Terra, would crush them like insects.
Only one man dared to stand against the Shing's hunger for Earth conquest, and that man - the alien with the amber eyes - would first have to prove to a lie-tormented humanity that he himself was not a tool of the enemy!
The Left Hand of Darkness - 978-0441478071 - ACE - 1969 ~ A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can change their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.
The Word for World Is Forest - 978-0425032794 - Berkley - 1972 ~ When the inhabitants of a peaceful world are conquered by the bloodthirsty yumens, their existence is irrevocably altered. Forced into servitude, the Athsheans find themselves at the mercy of their brutal masters.
Desperation causes the Athsheans, led by Selver, to retaliate against their captors, abandoning their strictures against violence. But in defending their lives, they have endangered the very foundations of their society. For every blow against the invaders is a blow to the humanity of the Athsheans. And once the killing starts, there is no turning back.

Wayfarers by Becky Chambers
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - 978-1473619807 - Hodder 2015 ~ Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.
Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.
Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.
A Closed and Common Orbit - 978-1473621442 - Hodder 2016 ~ Lovelace was once merely a ship's artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in an new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who's determined to help her learn and grow.
Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet introduced readers to the incredible world of Rosemary Harper, a young woman with a restless soul and secrets to keep. When she joined the crew of the Wayfarer, an intergalactic ship, she got more than she bargained for - and learned to live with, and love, her rag-tag collection of crewmates.
A Closed and Common Orbit is the stand-alone sequel to Becky Chambers' beloved debut novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and is perfect for fans of Firefly, Joss Whedon, Mass Effect and Star Wars.
Record of a Spaceborn Few - 978-1473647602 - Hodder 2018 ~ Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat.
Tessa chose to stay home when her brother Ashby left for the stars, but has to question that decision when her position in the Fleet is threatened.
Kip, a reluctant young apprentice, itches for change but doesn't know where to find it.
Sawyer, a lost and lonely newcomer, is just looking for a place to belong.
When a disaster rocks this already fragile community, those Exodans who still call the Fleet their home can no longer avoid the inescapable question:
What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination?

Lightbringer by Brent Weeks
The Black Prism - 978-1841499055 - Orbit 2010 ~ Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live.
When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.
The Blinding Knife - 978-0316079914 - Orbit 2012 ~ Gavin Guile is dying.
He’d thought he had five years left—now he has less than one. With fifty thousand refugees, a bastard son, and an ex-fiancée who may have learned his darkest secret, Gavin has problems on every side. All magic in the world is running wild and threatens to destroy the Seven Satrapies.
Worst of all, the old gods are being reborn, and their army of color wights is unstoppable. The only salvation may be the brother whose freedom and life Gavin stole sixteen years ago.
The Broken Eye - 978-1841499109 - Orbit 2014 ~ As the old gods awaken, the Chromeria is in a race to find its lost Prism, the only man who may be able to stop catastrophe, Gavin Guile. But Gavin's enslaved on a galley, and when he finally escapes, he finds himself in less than friendly hands. Without the ability to draft which has defined him . . .
Meanwhile, the Color Prince's army continues its inexorable advance, having swallowed two of the seven satrapies, they now invade the Blood Forest. Andross Guile, thinking his son Gavin lost, tasks his two grandsons with stopping the advance. Kip and his psychopathic half-brother Zymun will compete for the ultimate prize: who will become the next Prism.
The Blood Mirror - 978-0356504612 - Orbit 2016 ~ Stripped of both magical and political power, the people he once ruled told he's dead, and now imprisoned in his own magical dungeon, former Emperor Gavin Guile has no prospect of escape. But the world faces a calamity greater than the Seven Satrapies has ever seen... and only he can save it.
As the armies of the White King defeat the Chromeria and old gods are born anew, the fate of worlds will come down to one question: Who is the Lightbringer?
The Burning White - 978-0316251303 - Orbit 2019 ~ Gavin Guile, once the most powerful man the world had ever seen, has been laid low. He's lost his magic, and now he is on a suicide mission. Failure will condemn the woman he loves. Success will condemn his entire empire.
As the White King springs his great traps and the Chromeria itself is threatened by treason and siege, Kip Guile must gather his forces, rally his allies, and scramble to return for one impossible final stand.

Pip & Flinx by Alan Dean Foster (1st 3 listed of 14 plus titles - in order of the universe)
For Love of Mother-Not - 978-0345305114 - Ballantine 1983 ~ Flinx was just a freckle-faced, redheaded kid with green eyes and a strangely compelling stare when Mather Mastiff first saw him an the auctioneer's block. One hundred credits and he was hers.
For years the old woman was his only family. She loved him, fed him, taught him everything she knew--even let him keep the deadly flying dragon he called Pip. But when Mother Mastiff mysteriously disappears, Flinx tails her kidnappers on a dangerous journey. Across the forests and swamps of the winged world called Moth, their only weapons are Pip's venom . . . and Flinx's unusual talent.
The Tar-Aiym Krang - 978-0345908575 - Ballantine 1972 ~ Moth was a beautiful planet, the only one with wings -- two great golden clouds suspended in space around it.
Here was a wide-open world for any venture a man might scheme. The planet attracted unwary travelers, hardened space-sailors, and merchant buccaneers -- a teeming, constantly shifting horde that provided a comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like Flinx and his pet flying snake Pip. With his odd talents, the pickings were easy enough so that Flinx did not have to be dishonest ... most of the time.
In fact, it hardly seemed dishonest at all to steal a starmap from a dead body that didn't really need it anymore. But Flinx wasn't quite smart enough. He should have wondered why the body was dead in the first place...
Orphan Star - 978-0345255075 - Ballantine 1977 ~ It is a strange childhood for a kid, to be adopted by the restless Mother Mastiff and raised in the bustling marketplace of Drallar. Flinx never knew the mom and dad who abandoned him years ago. In fact, his birth has always been shrouded in mystery. But Flinx eventually discovers that his unknown parents have left him a curious legacy–extraordinary mental powers that are both a marvelous gift and a dreaded curse.
This double-edged legacy will lead Flinx, along with his loyal protector, the mini-dragon Pip, on a harrowing journey in search of the truth . . . about who he is and where he comes from. It is a daring adventure that brings him to another world–and into the clutches of one of the most evil and powerful men in the galaxy. . . .

Icerigger Trilogy by Alan Dean Foster
Icerigger - 978-0345238368 - Ballantine 1974 ~ Ethan Fortune was simple salesman — knowledgeable and civilized . . . a sophisticated traveler between many worlds. But he had certainly never thought of himself as a hero.
Skua September, on the other hand, never thought of himself as anything else.
A matched pair, if ever there was one!
When the two of them were suddenly stranded on a deadly frozen world, Ethan Fortune incredibly found himself cast in the role of Leader.
And he didn't find that at all amusing . . .
Mission to Moulokin - 978-0345276766 - Ballantine 1979 ~ Ethan Frome Fortune had been on Tran-Ky-ky long enough...too long in fact. He wanted out. He wanted to get back to business. He wanted to go home. So he and his sidekick Skua September headed their giant icerigger toward Brass Monkey, the busy off-world trading post where they were sure they could book passage home.
But when they discovered that their Tran friends were being victimized by ruthless profiteers, they decided to stick around and organize the isolated city-states into a functioning confederation...a governing body that the Commonwealth Council would have to recognize and protect.
But the Tran had enemies--deadly ones, at that--and Skua September and Ethan Fortune quickly found themselves back aboard the icerigger Slanderscree, leaving a crimson wake on the frozen seas and hurtling toward the most chilling encounters either had ever known.
The Deluge Drivers - 978-0345333308 - Ballantine 1987 ~ It looked as if Ethan Fortune was stuck on the icy world of Tran-ky-ky, never to enjoy the warm comforts of civilization again. But when the scientists at the outpost of Brass Monkey detected an odd atmospheric phenomenon, things began to heat up.
Only the great icerigger Slanderscree could make the dangerous journey to the isolated southern continent, and only Ethan could convince the primitive Tran that the mysterious warm spot was worth the trip. Nothing could have prepared Ethan and his Tran and human companions for what they encountered as they sped southward, for its like had not been seen for thousands of years -- open water on the ice oceans of Tran-ky-ky!
But the worst was yet to come. This was no natural phenomenon. Someone was systematically raising the temperature of the frozen planet. If Ethan and crew of Slanderscree couldn't stop the process, soon Tran-ky-ky would become a paradise for humans -- and a living hell for the Tran.

Children of the Stars by Juanita Coulson
Tomorrow's Heritage - 978-0345310651 - Del Rey - 1981 ~ A futuristic, post-cataclysmic, sci-fi soap opera.
On an Earth whose population has been decimated and whose landscape has been forcibly altered by natural causes and the effects of humankind's weapons, political and national boundaries have been altered. The Saunder family has gained wealth and power due to the actions of the manipulative matriarch, and the three offspring are in positions of great power and responsibility. But the family has cracks that ultimately will risk tearing the family apart. And into this volatile mix comes news that an alien spacecraft is approaching Earth.
Hysteria, propaganda, deceit, betrayal and redemption. What every good stereotypical soap opera needs. Throw in some advanced technologies and alien visitation, and you've got a rather interesting result.
Outward Bound - 978-0345281791 - Del Rey - 1982 ~ Quol-Bez, alien ambassador on Earth, was offering planets, other stars to man - if man could reach them! Oh, the aliens had faster-than-light travel. But if men wanted that they must find it for themselves. And without it, the nearest such world lay a lifetime or more away.
Brenna Saunder's aunt and uncle had died in an experimental ship, seeking for that way. And now Brenna was devoting her life and her share of the vast Saunder family fortune and prestige to solving the problem of such faster-than-light travel.
She had lost her lover to a hiber-ship, one in which those who dared would spend the years of travel in hibernation. Now she watched another of her group try and end in disaster.
Finally there was time and means for only one more attempt - one more chance for man to find his destiny among the stars!
Grimly, Brenna buckled herself into the pilot's seat of the final experimental ship and reached for the ready button!
Legacy of Earth - 978-0345281807 - Del Rey 1989 ~ Faster-than-light travel to the stars was a discovery of the great Saunder family, and the vast Saunder fortune helped in the colonizing of alien worlds, among strange, nonhuman races.
But Anthony Saunder had no share in that fortune or heritage. He was only a clone, the illegal result of a cruel woman's whim, not truly human. And the business he had started on Procyon Four, making colonist's emoto-tapes, was on the brink of failure.
Then the catlike humanoid Whimeds came, asking him to use his skill in directing a presentation for the coming Interspecies Conference. And once he saw Yrae, their beautiful, almost human-seeming star, he could riot refuse, though the job seemed impossible and led to endless trouble.
But all that was simple, compared to what he found at the Conference. There he ran squarely into the middle of a secret war between Whimeds and equally alien Vahnaj, fought across the bodies of his bitterest enemy and his best friend!
The Past of Forever - 978-0345281814 - Del Rey 1989 ~ Dan McKelvey, poor relative of the powerful Saunder-McKelvey family, was stranded on a world where aliens and human archaeologists sought evidence of the past of a strange race. Members of that race were stunted savages now, but long before they had been a mighty, star-roving people.
By now, Dan had become fascinated by the project. With his mechanical skill to help, the scientists were about to uncover a temple or museum of the distant past.
But none could guess what lay within, and Dan worried as he helped to open the strong, buried doors that guarded it. Would they find secrets that could enrich the present races? Or would they discover an ancient horror that could threaten all life? Some alien force had certainly ruined these once-great natives.
As they neared success, Dan's fears grew -- until...

Foreigner Universe by C. J. Cherryh (1st 6 listed of 21 titles)
1st Foreigner Sequence
Foreigner - 978-0886776374 - DAW 1994 ~ The first book in C.J. Cherryh's eponymous series, Foreigner begins an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race.
From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true science fiction odyssey, following a civilization from the age of steam through early space flight to confrontations with other alien species in distant sectors of space. It is the masterwork of a truly remarkable author.
Invader - 978-0886776879 - DAW 1996 ~ Nearly two centuries after the starship Phoenix disappeared, leaving an isolated colony of humans on the world of the atevi, it unexpectedly returns, threatening the stability of both atevi and human governments. With the situation fast becoming critical, Bren Cameron, the brilliant, young paidhi to the court of the atevi is recalled from Mospheira where he has just undergone surgery. Upon his return to the mainland, he Cameron finds that his government has sent in his paidhi-successor, Deana Hanks—representative of a dangerous faction on Mospheira who hate the atevi.
Haunted by the threat of assassination, Bren realizes his only hope may be to communicate with the Phoenix as the spokesman of the atevi—an action which may cut him off for good from his own species. Yet if he doesn't take this desperate action, he may be forced to witness the destruction of the already precarious balance of world power.
The long-running Foreigner series can also be enjoyed by more casual genre readers in sub-trilogy installments. Invader is the 2nd Foreigner novel. It is also the 2nd book in the first subtrilogy.
Inheritor - 978-0886777289 - DAW 1997 ~ Six months have passed since the reappearance of the starship Phoenix—the same ship which brought a colony of humans to the hostile environment of alien atevi nearly two hundred years ago. During these six months, the atevi have reconfigured their fledgling space program in a bid to take their place in the heavens alongside humans. But the return of the Phoenix has added a frighteningly powerful third party to an already volatile situation, polarizing both human and atevi political factions, and making the possibility of all-out planetary war an even more likely threat.
On the atevi mainland, human ambassador Bren Cameron, in a desperate attempt to maintain the peace, has arranged for one human representative from the Phoenix to take up residence with him in his apartments, and for another to be stationed on Mosphiera, humanity's island enclave. Bren himself is unable to return home for fear of being arrested or assassinated by the powerful arch conservative element who wish to bar the atevi from space. Desperately trying to keep abreast of the atevi associations, how can Bren possibly find a way to save two species from a three-sided conflict that no one can win?
The long-running Foreigner series can also be enjoyed by more casual genre readers in sub-trilogy installments. Inheritor is the 3rd Foreigner novel. It is also the 3rd book in the first subtrilogy.

2nd Foreigner Sequence
Precurser - 978-0886779108 - DAW 2000 ~ Over three years have passed since the reappearance of the starship Phoenix, which two centuries before left an isolated colony of humans on the world of the volatile atevi. Since that time, humans have lived in exile on the island of Mospheira; but the unexpected return of the Phoenix has shattered the fragile political balance of these two nearly incompatible races. For the captains of the Phoenix offer the atevi something the Mospheiran humans never could—access to the stars.
For three breakneck years, the atevi labor to build a space shuttle which will bear their representatives to the Phoenix, to strengthen connections with their new human allies and retain their bid for control of their world. But as soon as the shuttle proves spaceworthy, the captains of the Phoenix suddenly recall their planetary delegates, breaking diplomatic contact and initiating a vicious bid for political dominance.
But the powerful head of the atevi's Western Association is not to be outmaneuvered, and he sends his own diplomat, or paidhi, Bren Cameron, into space to negotiate. Thrust into a political maelstrom with almost no preparation, can Bren gain control of the station and political supremacy for the atevi without sparking a three-sided interspecies war?
Defender - 978-0756400200 - DAW 2002 ~ Nearly ten years after the unexpected return of the starship Phoenix, the alien atevi have three functioning space shuttles, and teams of atevi engineers labor in orbit to renovate the space station. But these monumental advances not only add a dangerously powerful third party to an already precarious diplomatic situation, but rouse pro- and anti-space factions in atevi society to incendiary levels. To help negotiate these treacherous diplomatic waters, Tabini-aiji, the powerful head of the atevi's Western Association, has sent the only human he fully trusts into space: his own paidhi, Bren Cameron.
However, the threat of possible invasion by hostile aliens who attacked Phoenix's station in a far-off sector of space hangs over them all. And when one of the senior captains of the Phoenix confesses that this station was not completely destroyed, as had been previously thought, the crew mutinies. How can Bren hope to mediate on a station overcome by a rebellious crew intent on taking the Phoenix on a rescue mission back into hostile alien territory?
The long-running Foreigner series can also be enjoyed by more casual genre readers in sub-trilogy installments. Defender is the fifth Foreigner book and the the second book of the second sub-trilogy.
Explorer - 978-0756401313 - DAW 2003 ~ It has been nearly ten years since the starship Phoenix returned to Alpha, the station orbiting the world of the atevi, which had been abandoned following a rift between a faction of the station's inhabitants and the spacers' Pilot's Guild. The unexpected return of the Phoenix has forever changed the lives of both atevi and Mospheirans, for over the ensuing decade, the captains of the Phoenix have brought both species into space. Their motivation seemed simple: Reunion Station, a human station in another sector of space, had been destroyed by aliens.
But on his deathbed, the senior captain of the Phoenix admits that he lied to the crew—that Reunion was merely damaged, not destroyed, and many people may have survived. At this disclosure, the crew rebels and forces the Phoenix to undertake a rescue mission to Reunion. Onboard the rescue mission are Bren Cameron, brilliant human paidhi representing the atevi ruler Tabini-aiji, and Tabini's grandmother Ilisidi, a fearsome and ambitious atevi leader with an agenda of her own. Trapped in a distant star system with little fuel left, facing a bellicose alien ship, how can Bren help to avoid interspecies war when the notoriously secretive Pilot's Guild aboard Reunion Station refuse to cooperate, and may have kept the inhabitants of their own station ignorant of their true situation?
The long-running Foreigner series can also be enjoyed by more casual genre readers in sub-trilogy installments. Explorer is the 6th Foreigner novel. It is also the 3rd book in the second subtrilogy.

The Seafort Saga by David Feintuch
Midshipman's Hope - 978-0446600965 - Aspect/Warner 1994 ~ A hideous accident kills the senior officer of UNS Hibernia, leaving a terrified young officer to take 300 colonists and crew aboard a damaged ship, on a 17-month gauntlet to reach Hope Nation. With no chance of rescue, Nicholas Seafort must save lives and take them, in the name of duty.
Challenger's Hope - 978-0446600972 - Aspect/Warner 1995 ~ In the aftermath of an alien attack and an admiral's traitorous desertion, Commander Nicholas Seafort is left in charge of a doomed ship that carries arrogant colonists, violent street children, and dwindling supplies.
Prisoner's Hope - 978-0446600989 - Aspect/Warner 1995 ~ Recovering from injuries at Hope Nation, Captain Nicholas Seafort is appointed liaison to the wealthy planters of the verdant colony planet and finds himself called upon to halt a revolution and rally his people against alien invaders.
Fisherman's Hope - 978-0446600996 - Aspect/Warner 1996 ~ Newly appointed Naval Commandant Nicholas Seafort's past unexpectedly catches up with him when an evil politician blackmails him into giving up his commission. But then an alien attack revives Nick's career, and soon he will lead Earth's defenses against annihilation. Alone at the center of a cosmic apocalypses, Nick will face his most challenging battle.
Voices of Hope - 978-0446603331 - Aspect/Warner 1996 ~ A guilt-ridden politician, an earnest young boy, a sick old man eking out a living in the broken streets -- can they alone stop humanity from destroying itself in urban Armageddon?
In a divided world, wealthy citizens look down from skytop aeries to crumbling streets where the urban poor grow ever more desperate.
As war brews, brilliant young Philip Seafort -- only son of the tormented hero Nicholas Seafort -- plunges into the bowels of the city to find his lost friend. Humanity is about to destroy itself. Children are in the line of fire. And a father with an iron will is at Ground Zero...
Patrarch's Hope - 978-0446608466 - Aspect/Warner 2000 ~ U.N. SecGen Nicholas Seafort is the most powerful person on Earth, but his merciless sense of honor and faith is about to be tested. The ecology of the planet is on the point of collapse -- a crisis Seafort himself helped cause. And from a hijacked orbital platform, political renegades hold millions hostage. Now, unarmed, with only civilians and children at his side, Nick Seafort must go to war against the most dangerous of enemies -- those from within. And the cost may be more than even Seafort's iron will can bear...

The DragonLance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Dragons of Autumn Twilight - 978-0880381734 - TSR 1984 ~ Life-long friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales with strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a chanced encounter with a beautiful, sorrowful woman who bears a magical crystal staff draws the companions deeper into the shadow forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world. No one expected them to be heroes. Least of all themselves.
Dragons of Winter Night - 978-0880381741 - TSR 1985 ~ They won their first real battle in the war for Krynn, but the war has only just begun for the Companions! Friendships born in conflict will be torn apart. Hope will rest on the shoulders of a disgraced Knight and his two inexperienced companions. Worlds long divided by hatred and prejudice will either band together in a last struggle against darkness - or perish for all time.
Dragons of Spring Dawning - 978-0880381758 - TSR 1985 ~ Finally armed with dragonlances, a group of heroes, composed of a knight, barbarian, dwarf, and half-elf, faces a deadly showdown with the evil dragons and Takhisis, the Queen of Darkness.
Dragons of Summer Flame - 978-0786905232 - TSR 1995 ~ The War of the Lance is long over. The seasons come and go. The pendulum of the world swings. Now it is summer. A hot parched summer, such as no one on Krynn has ever known before. The uneasy balance starts to shift.
Distraught by a grievous loss, the young mage Palin Majere seeks to enter the Abyss in search of his lost uncle, the infamous archamge Raistlin.
The Dark Queen has found new champions. Devoted followers, loyal to the death, the Knights of Takhisis follow the Vision to victory. A dark paladin, Steel Brightblade, rides to attack the High Clerist’s Tower, the fortress his father died defending.
On a small island, the myeterious Irda capture an ancient artifact and use it to ensure their own safety. Usha, child of the Irda, arrives in Palathaas claiming that she is Raistlin’s daughter. The summer will be deadly. Perhaps it will be the last summer Ansalon will ever know.

The Mageworlds by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald
The Price of the Stars - 978-0812517040 - TOR 1992 ~ Freebooter at heart, spacer by trade, Beka Rosselin-Metadi doesn't want to hear about how her father whose rugged generalship held back the Mageworlds -- or her highborn mother whose leadership has held the galaxy together since. Beka pilots spacecraft -- as far from her famous family as possible.Then Beka's mother is assassinated on the Senate floor, and her father offers her the title to Warhammer, prize ship from his own freebooting youth -- if she agrees to deliver the assassins to him "off the books."
Looking for assassins has a tendency to make assassins look for you. In doing so, Beka's arranged her own very public death and adopted a new identity; now all she has to do is leave a trail of kidnappings and corpses across five star systems, and blow the roof off the strongest private fortress in the galaxy.
Starpilot's Grave - 978-0812517057 - TOR 1993 ~ A broken and drifting ship, its long-dead captain still strapped in the command seal: that's what free-spacers call a starpilot's grave. When one of these derelict craft appears in the Net, the artificial barrier zone separating the Republic from the Mageworlds, the discovery is no accident. It's a sign, a warning that the Mageworlds have not forgotten the Republic - and the Magelords make long plans.
By Honor Betray'd - 978-0812517064 - TOR 1994 ~ Galcen has fallen. The Space Force is broken and scattered. the planets of the former Republic are rushing to make peace with the victorious Mages.
All that remains is mopping up. Minor details. A privateer or two, a few Adepts who remain alive and on the run, and the hereditary ruler of a lifeless planet.
Beka Rosselin-Metadi, the last Domina of Lost Entibor, possesses little more than a famous name and a famous ship. With them she must salvage what she can from the wreckage of the Republic. Her enemies are too many to count, her friends too few to make a difference. She can trust no one except herself, her crew--and the family she ran away from years before.
Beka has resources few suspect: a hidden base, a long forgotten oath, and a dead man's legacy. But she has problems as well; for in a universe gone mad, neither friends nor enemies are all that they may seem.
A play that began in treachery and blood five hundred years before has reached its final act. A broken galaxy will be sundered forever, or else made whole.
The Gathering Flame - 978-0812534955 - TOR 1995 ~ First their scoutships appeared above the outplanets. Raiding parties followed, then whole armadas bent on loot and conquest. The Mages break the warfleets that oppose them. They take entire planets. Who can stop them?
The Long Hunt - 978-0812534962 - TOR 1996 ~ It's a generation after the Second Magewar and again power struggles threaten the Mageworlds and the Republic alike. The hazards of war are simple and direct. The hazards of peace... are more complex.
Welcome to Khesat, glittering jewel of the Central Worlds. Khesat, where decadence is an art form and intrigue is a way of life - and where, more than twenty years after the end of the Second Magewar, power struggles with the ruling family threaten both the Mageworlds and the Republic.
The Khesatan crisis has broken the spaceways apart, reviving old alliances and buried rivalries. Warring factions, criminal guilds, and supranormal forces all have their eyes turned toward Jens Metadi-Jesson D'Rosselin, only child to the scapegrace brother of the current - and childless - Highest of Khesat. Whoever controls the heir controls Khesat, and whoever controls Khesat controls the galaxy.
Jens doesn't know that he's the first item on a long roll-call of agendas. He's off to see the galaxy in company with his cousin Faral. They're looking for excitement and adventure. Before the dust settles, they'll get more of both than they bargained for...
And the civilized galaxy may never be the same again.

Evergence by Sean Williams and Shane Dix
The Prodical Sun - 978-0441006724 - ACE 1999 ~ Commander Morgan Roche of the Commonwealth of Empires is assigned to escort the artificial intelligence unit known as "The Box" to her superiors. With the help of Adoni Cane -- a genetically enhanced warrior who suffers from amnesia -- Roche must protect "The Box" at all costs. But what about Cane? Who created him and why? The answers may be the salvation of the human race -- or its damnation...
The Dying Light - 978-0441007424 - ACE 2000 ~ In a universe where Earth no longer exists, the remnants of humanity survive in space stations and starships. Now, an army of genetically enhanced warriors is sent to destroy mankind -- once and for all.Only one woman can stop them: renegade intelligence agent Morgan Roche.
A Dark Imbalance - 978-0441008117 - ACE 2001 ~ In a universe where Earth no longer exists, the remnants of humanity survive in space stations and starships. Now, an army of genetically enhanced warriors is sent to destroy mankind -- once and for all.Only one woman can stop them: renegade intelligence agent Morgan Roche.

Starshield by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
The Mantle of Kendis-Dai - 978-0345397614 - Del Rey 1997 ~ Rebellion threatens to rock the very foundation of civilization. If the wrong side wins, the people will be at the mercy of minds with no conscience or humanity. The only hope for freedom lies with the Mantle of Kendis-dai, a relic reputed to hold the power of absolute Truth. But the Mantle of Kendis-dai is long lost in the mists of myth and time...if it ever really existed at all.
Merinda Neskat, dedicated to the pursuit of Truth above all, is determined to find the legendary Mantle. The key to her quest is a group of lost Earthpeople, led by the feckless Jeremy Griffiths, who holds knowledge he shouldn't have--and doesn't understand. Together, Merinda, Jeremy, and his companions set off on a dangerous race against time and deadly enemy forces, seeking a mysterious world that holds the secret that can save them--or destroy the path of civilization forever.
Nightsword - 978-0345424624 - Del Rey 1998 ~ Thousands of years ago, the mad emperor Lokan controlled the Nightsword--and imposed his twisted desires on all that lived. Then Lokan mysteriously vanished behind the Maelstrom Wall, into the quantum chaos of the galactic core. But legend says that somewhere behind the Wall, the Nightsword is hidden, its awesome energies waiting to be used again . . . for good or evil.
When Earther astronaut Jeremy Griffiths donned the Mantle of Kendis-Dai and became blessed--and perhaps cursed--with infinite knowledge, he learned the exact direction of Lokan's ill-fated route. And now the secrets stored in his head have made him the target of everyone who has ever coveted the Nightsword for their own ends. Griffiths wants only to get his crew safely home to Earth--and to impress the bewitching, bewildering Merinda Neskat. Yet he is caught firmly in the middle of galactic agendas beyond his control, and this new quest will prove to be the challenge of a lifetime . . .

The Four Lords of the Diamond by Jack L. Chalker
Lilith: A Snake in the Grass - 978-0345293695 - Del Rey 1981 ~ Somewhere, from among the four human-settled worlds of the Warden Diamond, hostile aliens were spying on Earth. But no agent could be sent to investigate and report back. All trips to the Warden worlds were one-way. There, a microscopic symbiont invaded all life forms, after which life became impossible outside the Warden system. The same organism destroyed any form of machinery, so no message could be beamed back by normal means.
That called for extraordinary means, of course. One agent was chosen, then four men were stripped of their own minds and personalities, and his was imposed upon them. Hooked up properly, he could then receive their reports, without ever leaving safe territory.
Each man was assigned one world to conquer. His mission was first to find the Overlord of that world and kill him, then to take over his link with the aliens. Of course all this must be done with no help beyond his own naked ability...
Cerberus: A Wolf in the Fold - 978-0345293718 - Del Rey 1982 ~ Robots were infiltrating the Federation. Someone was kidnapping people and substituting indetectable, synthetic imitations. Somewhere, aliens were studying the Federation, using techniques beyond human developments. The trail led back to Cerberus and the Lord who ruled that planet.
Cerberus, however, was one of the Warden Worlds - and those Worlds were the untouchables of space. There a strange microscopic life-form invaded all matter, and anyone so infected died on leaving those Worlds. Men could go there, but never return.
But the Federation had its own techniques. They took a criminal named Qwin Zhang and stripped her mind of all memory and personality. Then they poured into that empty receptacle the full mind of the Federation's best operative. They exiled her to the prison world of Cerberus. The mission: Find the Lord who ruled, kill him, and take over. Too bad there were things about Cerberus they couldn't know!
Charon: A Dragon at the Gate - 978-0345293701 - Del Rey 1982 ~ They took the body of Park Lacoch and stripped away his mind. Then they stuck him aboard a spaceship and exiled him to Charon, from which no return was possible. And just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, Park found himself transformed into a changeling -- a half-beast, half-man, with the beast rapidly gaining ascendancy . . .
Medusa: A Tiger by the Tail - 978-0345293725 - Del Rey 1983 ~ The Confederacy's grand scheme seemed to be working. They had substituted the mind of their best operator for the minds of four criminals - every one a top assassin - and sent one to each of the four Warden worlds to eliminate the resident Lord there. The agents on Lilith, Cerberus, and Charon had already reported in - success! Now only Taran Bul's mission on Medusa remained.
On this frozen ice world, Bul quickly joined an on-going conspiracy determined to overthrow the hated dictator Lord Talant Ypsir - the rebel's mission suited his perfectly. But a combination of alien menace and Ypsir's secret power proved too much for Bul. At last, the operator over all - the Agent With No Name - had to prove his ability...with everything stacked against him!
In this volume of his most gripping series, Jack Chalker brings to a grand conclusion the epic confrontation between the mighty confederacy and the small but powerful worlds of the Warden Diamond.

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