Showing results by author "Charles E. Gannon" in All Categories

Alien Days is a multi-author anthology with thrilling tales of aliens, invasions, artificial intelligence, friendship, deceit, and extinction. A combination which makes this collection a must-listen for science fiction short story fans. This anthology features Nebula and Dragon award nominees, Amazon best-sellers and award winners alongside rising stars in the science fiction genre. Let the authors take you on adventures through dystopian worlds and far flung planets that will stretch your imagination.

2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth's Moon - a history-making clandestine project - and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan's mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient - enough so to have built a lost civilization.

An implacable foe with telepathic cohesion in battle, near immortality, and eons-advanced engineering skills threatens to wipe humanity from the galaxy. What's more, they've overcome their one weakness - no faster-than-light travel - and have followed humanity through our star gates and beyond. But humans are the master of adaption and have got a counterpunch of devastating proportions in reserve.

The war with the profoundly alien Arduans has ended, and the Arduans have come to call humanity their allies. Most of them - the Arduan warrior caste refuses to accept defeat. Now known as the Kaituni, they are waging a war of extermination against all members of the pan-Sentient Union, human and Arduan alike. What's more, the Kaituni have an unexpected weapon in their arsenal: the alien Arachnids, once thought driven to extinction. The Kaituni drive the Arachnid fleet ahead of them, inflicting untold damage.

The war with the Arduans - profoundly alien invaders who originally arrived in STL ships - is over. Most of those attackers are now probationary (and very productive) citizens of the Rim Federation. However, many among the Arduans' warrior caste have accepted neither defeat nor the personhood of any of the other intelligence races. Their leader, the ruthless admiral of the second Arduan exodus, Amunsit, is in firm control of the Zarzuela system.

The hottest military science fiction series of all time continues. The mission: to boldly explore David Weber's Honorverse; to deliver all the action, courage, derring do, and pulse pounding excitement of space naval adventure with tales set in a world touched by the greatness of one epic heroine: Honor Harrington.

It was supposed to be fun. Six teenagers and their British captain aboard the ketch Crosscurrent Voyager, headed on a senior year summer cruise to excitement and adventure. Then the world as they knew it ended. A plague spread throughout the globe, killing millions and turning the survivors into cannibalistic rage monsters - zombies, in so many words. Only by putting aside their differences were the young crew able to survive. Now, they seek others like them, those fortunate souls who have made it through the zombie apocalypse.

Six kids ranging from suburban geeks to street-smart pariahs. A British captain who rarely talks and never smiles. All on the 70-foot pilothouse ketch Crosscurrent Voyager, bound on a senior summer cruise to adventure and serious fun. Except most of the kids don’t get along. And they’ll be gone all summer. And none of them have sailed before. And worst of all - because they booked at the last minute - they got the destination nobody else wanted: the frigid and remote South Georgia Islands.

When reluctant interstellar diplomat and intelligence operative Caine Riordan returns from humanity’s first encounter with alien races, sudden war clouds burst. With Earth's fleet shattered by a sneak attack and its survivors fighting for their lives, Caine must rely upon both his first contact and weaponry skills to contend with the non-humanoid enemy.

Caine Riordan, reluctant diplomatic and military intelligence operative, has just finished playing his part repulsing the Arat Kur's and Hkh'Rkh's joint invasion of Earth. But scant hours after the attackers surrender, the mysterious but potentially helpful Slaasriithi appeal to Caine to shepherd a diplomatic mission on a visit to their very alien worlds. The possible prize: a crucial alliance in a universe where the fledgling Consolidated Terran Republic has very few friends.

Caine Riordan, fresh from serving as envoy to the aliens known as the Slaasriithi, has been given yet another daunting task: apprehend raiders that are terrorizing a distant planet. As difficulties mount, Caine becomes aware that the mission his superiors sent him to perform may not be the one they actually hope he will achieve.

It's spring in Burgundy. The flowers are out and so are the cardinals - of Pope Urban's renegade papacy, now on the run from the Vatican's would-be usurper Borja. Most of the Church's senior leaders have converged upon the city of Besancon, where the Pope plans to offer an ecumenical olive branch to the other Christian denominations with which Rome has been at war. Fortunately, Urban has up-time help. He can rely upon Cardinal-Protector Larry Mazzare's theological savvy, Sharon Nichols' medical skills, and her husband Ruy Sanchez's keen-eyed experience as a bodyguard-in-chief.

Domingos Fernandes Calabar started out as a military advisor for the Portuguese in Brazil. But to his superiors, he was still nothing more than a mameluco, a man of mixed blood. Until, that is, the Dutch arrived and he switched sides. Then the Portuguese had a new label for him: “traitorous dog”. But when Dutch admiral Maarten Tromp arrives, having barely survived the disastrous Battle of Dunkirk, Calabar’s job changes again.

History may be written by the victors, but it is not always written in stone. It comes down to a bit of luck. What if the histories of Billy the Kid, Vlad Dracula, and Jack the Ripper had a new twist, an alternate history? What if the fictional world of The Great Gadsby had a hidden tale?

Major Rodger Y. Murphy should have died when his helicopter crashed off the coast of Mogadishu in November, 1993. Instead, he woke up in August, 2125, in a binary star system 152 light years from home. Without any memory of the otherworldly abductors who spirited them away in cold sleep, Murphy and 100 other “Lost Soldiers” have been retrieved and awakened by officers of the Consolidated Terran Republic. Promising to return to the 55 Tauri B system after completing a distant mission, they leave the twentieth century castaways with a daunting objective.

Eddie Cantrell, now married to the king of Denmark’s daughter, is sent by Admiral Simpson to the Caribbean to secure access to the most valuable commodity on that continent - not the gold and silver which the Spanish treasure, but the oil which up-time machines and industry need. The admiral has also provided Eddie’s small task force with the new steam-powered frigates that have just come out of the navy’s shipyards. Even with the frigates, a giant obstacle stands in his way.

It’s been two years since Caine Riordan was relieved of his command for following both his orders and his conscience. Now he’s finally received the message he’s been waiting for: a summons to visit the ancient and enigmatic Dornaani. And this time, making direct contact is not just professional, but personal: the Dornaani still have his mortally-wounded love, Elena Corcoran, in their unthinkably advanced medical facilities.

In the six months since the raid that destroyed the makeshift transmitter, the Lost Soldiers have scratched out a permanent base on the world of R’Bak. But life in an often surprising and very alien binary system has not become any easier. Major Mara “Bruce” Lee’s pregnancy becomes a powerful reminder of that: without special indigenous plants, she might lose both her unborn child and her life. And, in the process of securing enough of that rare compound, her friend and crew chief Elroy Frazier will have to risk life, limb, and mind.

Major Rodger Y. Murphy should have died when his helicopter crashed off the coast of Mogadishu in 1993. Instead, he woke up in 2125, 152 light-years from home. Murphy and 100 other “Lost Soldiers” have been retrieved and awakened by two officers of the Consolidated Terran Republic: Trevor Corcoran and Richard Downing. Promising to return, Corcoran and Downing leave the twentieth-century castaways with a daunting objective: establish a base of operations on the main world of R’Bak using local allies they have yet to recruit and enemy equipment they have yet to seize. They haven’t been back yet.