Writers as diverse as Philip K. Dick Robert Harris and Len Deighton have told us what our past and present would be like had the unthinkable happened and the Nazi's won the second world war. Now John Barnes has given us a terrible warning of what futures a different past would have made created.In the far future the Third Reich is heading confidently into its thousand year reign. America was devastated by a nuclear exchange in 1980 and now there is seemingly nothing to stop Nazism spreading its message beyond Earth. One solar system, one people. But history has a way of asserting itself.
The Hugo Award-winning classic sci-fi novel about interstellar war. The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth. The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were emotionally and politically dependent on Mother Earth. The Earth Company which ran this immense operation reaped incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations. Then came Pell, the first station centered around a newly discovered living planet. The discovery of Pell's World forever altered the power balance of the Beyond. Earth was no longer the anchor which kept this vast empire from coming adrift, the one living mote in a sterile universe. But Pell was just the first living planet. Then came Cyteen, and later others, and a new and frighteningly different society grew in the farther reaches of space. The importance of Earth faded and the Company reaped ever smaller profits as the economic focus of space turned outward. But the powerful Earth Fleet was sitll a presence in the Beyond, and Pell Station was to become the last stronghold in a titanic struggle between the vast, dynamic forces of the rebel Union and those who defended Earth's last, desperate grasp for the stars.
The 2nd novel of The Hinder Stars series returns to an intergalactic corporate conflict, set in the Hugo Award–winning Alliance-Union Universe. With deft prose and complex characters, Alliance Unbound is thought-provoking science fiction that shrewdly examines the technological and sociopolitical challenges of humanity’s journey to the stars. When Cyteen opened up faster-than-light travel, it gave the technology for free to any ship that could reach it; and with that technology, it provided a map of jump-points, points of mass enabling starships to navigate hyperspace safely. The map of jump-points, however, stopped with the route to Alpha—thus excluding Sol, and Earth, and the Earth Company, whose gateway to the stars was Alpha. Cyteen knew exactly what it was doing with its gift. Sol and the EC could still reach Alpha with sub-light pusher-ships as it always had—but Sol and the Earth Company no longer had any authority in the Beyond. But Sol intends to take back control of its star-stations and stop Cyteen's unbridled expansion, however it can. To do that, they are willing to starve Alpha and concentrate their efforts on a huge FTLer capable of carrying military force.
A Union ship headed for the spaceways seems a perfect vehicle for Elizabeth Yeager's escape, until she learns the ship is the bait in a plot to eliminate a group of space pirates
"For years, the stations of the Hinder Stars, those old stations closest to Sol, have lagged behind the great megastations of the Beyond, like Pell and Cyteen. But new opportunities and fears arise when Alpha station, the oldest of them all, receives news of a huge incoming faster-than-light ship with no identification. The denizens of Alpha wait anxiously for news about the outsiders, each with their own suspicions about the ship and its motivations. Ross and Fallon, crew members of the Galway, believe the unidentified ship belongs to Pell and has come to investigate another massive ship docked at Alpha, The Rights of Man. Though Rights is under the command of the Earth Company, it is not quite perfected--and its true purpose is shrouded in mystery. James Robert Neihart, the captain of the strange ship--finally identified as one of the two largest ships of the Beyond, the Merchanter vessel Finity's End--has heard whispers of The Rights of Man and wonders at its design and purpose, especially as Sol has struggled to rival the progress of the Farther Stars. Now docked at Alpha, he must convince the crews that there is more to The Rights of Man than meets the eye. Because the reasons behind the creation of The Rights of Man, and its true plans, could change everything--not just for Sol, but for the Hinder Stars and the Beyond itself."--
Finity's End is the oldest Merchanter ship in the universe. In an era of spies, pirate traders, and uneasy alliances, the Company Wears are now over, the hunt for the fleet is winding down, and the ship is coming home to reclaim her trade routes. Having lost an entire generation, the youngest crew members, bred and trained for war, must face their most critical battle of all--survival in a time of lasting peace.
On Earth, time is the ruler of all things—but time is not on Oliver’s side It’s the beginning of the end. With the Anointment complete and Emalie gone, it seems that nothing can prevent Oliver from being summoned to the Nexia Gate to fulfill his terrible destiny. Illisius is coming. Oliver and his parents are being carefully watched by the Half-Light Consortium. There will be no mistakes this time. One sliver of hope remains: If Oliver and Dean can solve the baffling mystery of the Triad of Finity, there might still be a chance to change the future. But without Emalie, is it even possible? Time is running out, the battle is beginning, and Oliver, teenage vampire, is about to find out what it really means to be human.
