Showing results by author "Jack Campbell" in All Categories

In this collection of short stories, New York Times best-selling author Jack Campbell explores what kinds of problems mankind might face as our horizons expand.

Ensign Paul Sinclair has been assigned to the orbiting, military spacecraft, USS Michaelson, as its sole legal advisor. But when the ship's captain faces court-martial following the destruction of a civilian research vessel, Sinclair finds himself defending a doomed officer.

After a suspicious explosion on board the galactic space cruiser USS Michaelson costs an officer his life, the ship's legal counsel, Lieutenant Sinclair, risks everything to expose a cover-up - and prosecute the son of a powerful vice-admiral.

A mutiny on the moon places Sgt. Ethan Stark in command of the U.S. military forces there - and turns a dream for independence into a reality.

On maneuvers, the USS Michaelson's sister ship, the USS Maury, is wracked by devastating explosions that destroy its engineering section. Lieutenant Paul Sinclair is overjoyed when his girlfriend, Lieutenant Jen Shen, is found alive--until she faces court-martial for the disaster on the Maury. Paul must find out what really caused the explosions. But the more he learns, the more he faces the terrible possibility that the woman he loves may be guilty of sabotage and murder.

Trapped inside the Empire, Captain Jules of Landfall has to use every deadly trick and strategy she knows to avoid recapture by the Emperor’s legions, and stay alive despite every attempt the Mages make to kill her. The only chance to get away may require walking back into the trap she barely escaped the first time. But even her freedom won’t be enough. The prophecy that consumes Jules’s life demands she has an heir to carry on her line. Yet how can she satisfy that while being hunted everywhere? And what might the prophecy cause to happen if she doesn’t have a child?

Someone onboard the USS Michaelson is selling secrets, and to uncover the traitor, legal officer Lieutenant Paul Sinclair must walk the dangerous line between duty and honor.

President Gwen Iceni and General Artur Drakon have successfully liberated the Midway Star System—but the dictatorial former rulers of the Syndicate Worlds won’t surrender the region without a fight. Outnumbered and led by junior officers hastily promoted in the wake of the uprising, Midway’s warships are no match for the fleet massing and preparing to strike. But the Syndicate isn’t the only threat facing Iceni and Drakon. Another former CEO has taken control of the Ulindi Star System, the first calculated move toward establishing his own little empire.

To seize the moon from foreign powers--and keep his men alive - Sergeant Ethan Stark must choose which orders to obey - and which to ignore.

In Rip-Off!, 13 of today’s best and most honored writers of speculative fiction face a challenge even they would be hard-pressed to conceive: Pick your favorite opening line from a classic piece of fiction (or even non-fiction) - then use it as the first sentence of an entirely original short story.

Hans-Åke Lilja, founder of Lilja's Library, has compiled a brand-new anthology of horror stories to celebrate 20 years of running the number-one Stephen King news website on the web! This anthology includes both original stories like a brand new novella by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In), very rare reprints like The Blue Air Compressor by Stephen King, and at least one classic tale that inspired Lilja's love of the macabre at a very young age! Now, let's join Lilja....

Following a successful coup, the leaders of the rebel Midway Star System struggle to forge a government free enough to please its citizens yet strong enough to secure power. But in a world where former rulers have become new foes, an alien threat to humanity may turn old adversaries into uncertain allies. General Artur Drakon knows three words describe someone who confides in a Syndicate CEO: Stupid. Betrayed. Dead. Despite his misgivings, he partnered with another former CEO to overthrow Syndic forces.

Authors Jack Campbell and Elizabeth Moon discuss fact vs. fiction in science fiction and fantasy; reviving old series and bringing new series to an end; steampunk; and much more.

In the three years since former fleet officer Rob Geary and former marine Mele Darcy led improvised forces to repel attacks on the newly settled world of Glenlyon, tensions have only gotten worse. When one of Glenlyon's warships is blown apart trying to break the blockade that has isolated the world from the rest of human-colonized space, only the destroyer Saber remains to defend it from another attack. Geary's decision to take Saber to the nearby star Kosatka to safeguard a diplomatic mission is a risky interpretation of his orders, to say the least.

Genetically engineered with partly alien DNA, Lieutenant Selene Genji is different from ordinary humans. And they hate her for it. Still, she’s spent her life trying to overcome society’s prejudice by serving in Earth’s Unified Fleet. Genji is stationed on a ship in orbit when humanity’s factional extremism on the planet reaches a boiling point, and she witnesses the utter annihilation of Earth. When the massive forces unleashed by Earth’s death warp space and time to hurl her forty years into the past, Genji is given a chance to try to change the future and save Earth.

Trapped within the dead city of Marandur, Master Mechanic Mari and Mage Alain must escape both merciless barbarians and the pitiless Imperial Legion. Beyond those dangers lie the mightiest and most unforgiving powers in the world of Dematr: the Great Guilds that rule the world with iron fists.

The centerpiece of Borrowed Time is "Betty Knox and Dictionary Jones in the Mystery of the Missing Teenage Anachronisms". When you've traveled through time and are stuck in the body of your 15-year-old self, it isn't the best time to have some other time travelers looking to kill you. Especially when the person who's supposed to be keeping an eye out for the bad guys is stuck in his own 15-year-old body.

When Master Mechanic Mari and Mage Alain took down the Dark Mechanics and Dark Mages at Dorcastle, they thought they’d covered their involvement well enough to divert their Guilds’ suspicions. The assassins sent after them by their Guilds, which had trained them from childhood, indicate otherwise. Armed with the knowledge that their respective Guilds are now trying to kill them, and knowing their strengths are greater together, they reunite.

A Storm that will wreck a world threatens Dematr. Only Mari, one of the Mechanics who control all technology through their Guild, has a chance to stop it. She and Mage Alain have survived numerous attempts to kill them and have gained many more followers, but the Storm of chaos, born of centuries of enslavement, grows ever closer.

The Syndicate Worlds continues to splinter as more star systems pledge allegiance to President Gwen Iceni’s and General Artur Drakon’s new government at Midway. But the rebels fleeing the toxic legacy of Syndicate rule have difficulty trusting one another and believing their new leaders’ promises of freedom from tyranny.