Showing results by author "Michael A. Stackpole" in All Categories

The year is 3030. For the past 300 years, since the Star League collapse and the rise of the Five Successor States, these mortal enemies have fought over space, land, and politics. But a new threat looms just outside the Inner Sphere. The descendants of an old Star League general, the Clans, bred to be the best military force humanity has ever seen, have come to take what they believe is rightfully theirs.

And so continues the saga of the Clan invasion and the explosive struggle within the Inner Sphere. With secret aid from ComStar, the Terran-based sect that serves as the keeper of the Inner Sphere's technological secrets, the Clans' BattleMech warriors have been incredibly successful in their campaign of invasion. But ComStar has its own reasons for giving aid to the enemy, and if its strategy proves successful, the Inner Sphere worlds will finally be reunited under ComStar's rule.

An apprentice swordsman, Locke has ridden the narrow trail to the City of the Sorcerers to see with his own eyes the Ward Walls that hold back the Realms of Chaos. It is Locke’s dream to become a Chaos Rider, and he seeks his destiny beyond the Wall. And it is Locke’s hope that somewhere in the Wildness, where time and change rage out of control, his lost father still survives. But more than mere survival is at stake.

Five short novels by five masters of military science fiction. It’s a war out there. In these pulse-pounding tales, the best (or worst) soldiers in the galaxy are pitted against powerful aliens on distant battlefields. Never-before-published stories about monsters, deadly combat tech, treachery, and honor.

The colonies of Mistria are in turmoil. They face wars between the competing empires and insurrection from natives and colonists alike. Prince Vladamier is a Norillian noble, and Nephew to King Richard. He has little political power, but struggles to ensure the colonists interests are represented back in the court. The one thing he does have is a wurm... one of the few existing "dragons" from a clutch of eggs discovered in the old world, hundreds of years ago.

In the three years since defeating the Tharyngians at Anvil Lake, The Crown Colonies of Mystria have prospered. Colonists, whether hunting for new land or the Promised Land of prophecy, have pushed beyond the bounds of charters granted by the Queen of Norisle. Some of these new communities have even had the temerity to tell the Crown they are no longer subject to its authorities. To survey the full extent of the western expansion, the Crown has sent Colonel Ian Rathfield to join Nathaniel Woods, Owen Strake, and Kamiskwa on an expedition into the Mystrian interior.

A podcast that discusses classical music so you don’t have to! Each episode features an irreverent look at stuffy trends in the genre, interviews with modern composers, and recordings of their latest work.