Bøger udgivet af CAEZIK SF & FANTASY

The Princess Bride meets Dirty, Rotten ScoundrelsJoin former scamp, Cullin, and his merry band of confidence men (and one liberated princess) as they put The Sting in the Middle Ages. With dreams of being a hero, or at least a storyteller, Cullin travels with Sir Dalbry, a washed-up knight in shining armor; Reeger, ready and eager for any part of the dirty work; and Affonyl, former princess, who wanted to study science and alchemy rather than embroidery.Together, they cross the land with one scam after another, concocting their own heroic deeds, preparing mock dragon heads, or selling kraken tusks and mermaid scales.But when attempting to con King Longjohn, whose castle is supposedly bursting at the seams with treasure, the caper turns sour. The powerful Wizard-Mage Ugnarok and his army of ugly and muscular (if not too bright) orcs takes over Longjohn's castle, imprisoning the king, pillaging the halls, and carrying on with typical orc-like mayhem.Cullin and his friends are trapped in the castle's labyrinth of secret passages, just trying to survive ... or is this the opportunity for a grander scam than they have ever attempted before?Orcs are terribly superstitious--you can't bash a ghost, after all--and it's like Die Hard in a castle, as Cullin, Affonyl, Reeger, and Dalbry set up a grand haunting that will scare off even the scariest orc army.

Is your kingdom bothered by a pesky dragon problem?Needany giant monsters slain? Are your own knights in shiningarmor unreliable or--worse--cowards? Young Cullin, wanting tosee the world, joins a band of renowned knights errant who will slay yourdragon for a price. Satisfaction guaranteed! The only problemis, it's all a scam. The "dragon" is no more than rumors and tall tales spreadby Cullin and his gang, giant three-toed footprints stomped into the groundnear strategically burned-down huts and charred skeletons (procured from thelocal graveyard). It's a great con job, so long as Cullin and company can takethe money and run, move on to the next kingdom before anyone catches on. Buteven con men can be caught in their own game. Clever, spunky Princess Affonyldoesn't want any part of the arranged marriage to an evil duke from aneighboring kingdom. And she realizes that a fearsome dragon, even an imaginaryone, is the perfect cover for her escape. It's one caperafter another as these medieval dirty, rotten scoundrels try to outsmart oneanother. And they discover that the dragon business is more than just agame...especially if a real dragon might be involved.

"I loved it. Great 'hard' science fiction with convincing space battles. "−Larry Niven, Grand Master (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association) and author of RingworldTwo-time Sidewise Award-winning author, Alan Smale, brings us an exciting alternate 1979 where the US and the Soviets have permanent Moon bases, orbiting space stations, and crewed spy satellites supported by frequent rocket launches.Apollo32, commanded by career astronaut Vivian Carter, docks at NASA's Columbia space station en route to its main mission: exploring the volcanic Marius Hills region of the Moon. Vivian is caught in the crossfire as four Soviet Soyuzcraft appear without warning to assault the orbiting station. In an unplanned and desperate move, Vivian spacewalks through hard vacuum back to her Lunar Module and crew and escapes right before the station falls into Soviet hands.Their original mission scrubbed, Vivian and her crew are redirected to land at Hadley Base, a NASA scientific outpost with a crew of eighteen. But soon Hadley, too, will come under Soviet attack, forcing its unarmed astronauts to daring acts of ingenuity and improvisation.With multiple viewpoints, shifting from American to Soviet perspective, from occupied space station to American Moon base under siege, to a covert and blistering US Air Force military response, Hot Moon tells the gripping story of a war in space that very nearly might have been.

"In a Solar System well inhabited by humanity but far from settled, a gang of grifters and thieves -- the scattered survivors of a big job gone very wrong ten years ago -- must reunite to break the gang's erstwhile leader out of captivity. But after ten years, no one is who they were... and some are not what they seem. The Kuiper Belt Job is a caper story in space, a mash-up of Firefly, Leverage, and The Expanse. It's an ensemble piece with complex character relationships and a twisty, compelling plot, but beneath the entertaining surface it raises deep questions about identity and personhood. In a world where minds can be copied, what does it mean to be "me"?"--

¿KINSHIP WAR: CONTACT is well written and an extremely well-thought-through, complex military SF novel with enough action for any reader.¿¿David Drake (Bestselling author of Hammer¿s Slammers)Kinship Wars: Contact is the explosive first book in an exciting new series by Doug Dandridge, author of the popular `Empires at War¿ series. Montana is a newly independent colony, home to both colonizing humans and the Xakalar, who are native to the planet. When deposits of an extremely rare mineral are discovered on the Montana, everyone¿s eyes focus on the small colony¿and everyone wants a piece of the planet. Matt Chin (a human) and Xelarn (a Xakalar) have grown up like brothers on Montana and are trying to navigate the prejudices and tensions that outsiders are bringing to their colony. But this is the least of their problems. News from afar reaches the colony that there is a massive alien fleet attacking human colonies across the breadth of space¿a fleet that seems to be controlled by aliens who look very much like the Xakalars that share Montana with the humans and who may be the key to either the survival of the human race, or their ultimate destruction. ¿Doug Dandridge has penned a real page turner of military science fiction, kicking off what promises to be an epic interstellar saga. He begins with a compelling mystery, and introduces some nice surprises amid a mix of thrilling space battles and intriguing alien-human interaction. Along the way, his inventive takes on galactic travel and star-to-star communications underscore a naval adventure inspired by the finest traditions of Patrick O¿Brian and C.S Forester.¿¿Douglas Niles (Bestselling author of Forgotten Realms: The Moonshae Trilogy and War of the Worlds: New Millennium)

What inspired George R.R. Martin, the creator of the hugely successful Game of Throne franchise? Why did Lois McMaster, winner of six Hugo awards, start writing science fiction? How did the Vietnam war experience impact David Drake and his writing of military SF.Get the answers to these and many other questions with these detailed interviews of some of the most iconic figures in science fiction and fantasy. These interviews show a very intimate, unknown side of these authors; many sharing very personal experiences (the good and the bad) that made them the writers that they are today. Galaxy¿s Edge magazine is known for its interviews of science fiction and fantasy professionals, and the list of writers and other professionals it has published reads like a whös who of the field, including George R.R. Martin, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Niven, Connie Willis, Lois McMaster Bujold, David Drake and a host of other authors every science fiction reader is familiar with. This book collects all the interviews published in Galaxy¿s Edge magazine from its inception through to its 34th issue. In many cases these are expanded, original versions of the interviews published in the magazine (which had to be originally condensed for due to limitations of the magazine format). Some of these conversations will make you think hard, some will make you smile and laugh, and some may even make you cry. But what each and every interview will do is give you a unique insight into the genre and the lives of these giants of the industry.

"A vital message. A desperate queen. A hero in the making. He is plainly too young and too inexperienced for the mission, but on the advice of her aged adviser Natoum, and with her husband off at war, the Queen reluctantly assigns the task of delivery to... Madrenga. Accompanied only by a runt of a pony and a scrap of a pup, he sets off to transport the royal message to its destination. No matter what it might take. But things are not always what they seem. Heroes are sometimes made of the strangest stuff, and love is to be found in the most unexpected places. If one doesn't die while treading the lethal path..."--Publisher.

"In 306 BC, the small, free, and independent polis of Rhodes is trying to stay neutral between the local great powers, each ruled by one of Alexander the Great's marshals: Asia Minor, controlled by one-eyed Antigonos, and the Egypt of Ptolemaios. Antigonos' son, Demetrios, comes to Rhodes seeking an alliance against Ptolemaios. The Rhodians, who trade a lot with Egypt, refuse his offer. Menedemos and Sostratos take the Aphrodite to Egypt for business ... and to tell Ptolemaios what has been going on. Just before they leave, they learn Demetrios has invaded the island of Cyprus, which Ptolemaios dominates. He is advancing on the southeastern town of Salamis, where Ptolemaios' brother, Menelaos, has concentrated his forces. After they pass on their news, Menedemos does business in the brash new city of Alexandria while Sostratos travels up the Nile to old, old Memphis to trade there, and to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Ptolemaios, meanwhile, readies a fleet to rescue his brother and drive Demetrios back to Asia Minor. Ptolemaios, needing shipping to carry weapons for the army he intends to land, coerces Menedemos into bringing the Aphrodite along as part of his expeditionary force. And so, very much against their will, Menedemos and Sostratos become small parts of one of the ancient world's greatest naval battles"--Provided by publisher.

GUARD BROOKLYN, FIGHT MONSTERS, TAUNT BAD GUYS.What would you do if you lost everything that mattered to you, as well as all means to protect yourself and others, but still had to save the day? Conrad Brent is about to find out.Conrad Brent protects the people of Brooklyn from monsters and magical threats. The snarky, wisecracking guardian also has a dangerous secret: he’s one in a million – literally.Magical ability comes to about one in every 30,000 and can manifest at any age. Conrad is rarer than this, however. He’s a middling, one of the half-gifted and totally despised. Most of the gifted community feels that middlings should be instantly killed. The few who don’t flat out hate them still aren’t excited to be around middlings. Meaning Conrad can’t tell anyone, not even his best friends, what he really is.Conrad hides in plain sight by being a part of the volunteer Watch, those magically gifted who protect their cities from dangerous, arcane threats. And, to pay the bills, Conrad moonlights as a private detective and monster hunter for the gifted community. Which helps him keep up his personal fiction – that he’s a magical version of Batman. Conrad does both jobs thanks to charms, artifacts, and his wits, along with copious amounts of coffee. But little does he know that events are about to change his life…forever.When Conrad discovers the Traveling Fair auction house has another middling who’s just manifested her so-called powers on the auction block, he’s determined to save her, regardless of risk. But what he finds out while doing so is even worse – the winning bidder works for a company that’s just created the most dangerous chemical weapon to ever hit the magical community.Before Conrad can convince anyone at the Watch of the danger, he’s exposed for what he really is. Now, stripped of rank, magical objects, friends and allies, Conrad has to try to save the world with only his wits. Thankfully though, no one’s taken away his coffee.

"Holy crap, this is a great book."¿Sci Fi Saturday Night"Solid sci-fi outing from Lerner"¿Publishers Weekly¿Here¿s an author you definitely need to check out.¿¿Asimov¿s Science FictionOn the Moon¿s far side, shielded from Earth¿s radio cacophony, Americans are building a radio-astronomy observatory. Russians sift the dust of a lunar ¿seä for helium-3 to run future fusion reactors. Commercial robots, remotely operated from Earth, roam the Moon¿s near side in a hunt for mineral wealth. Why chase distant asteroids for precious metals? Onetime asteroids must lie close beneath the much-bombarded lunar surface.Then a prospecting robot encounters a desiccated, spacesuited figure. An alien figure ¿. Americans from the lunar observatory investigate. Near the original find, underground, they discover an alien installation. Lunar Russians, realizing that the Americans are up to something clandestine, send their own small team. Each group distrusts the other ¿ even before the fatal ¿accidents¿ begin. By the time anyone suspects what ancient evil they have awakened, it may be too late¿For everyone on Earth, too.