S.M. Stirling

S.M. Stirling seems to enjoy warriors. That's okay, because so do I. His books tend to have main characters with very strong personalities, capable of feats beyond the norm,usually highly intelligent and definitely able to think on their feet. His novels documenting the Domination of the Draka provide a realistic window into an alternate reality where South Africans take over most of the world, defeating Hitler in World War II and continuing on in their desire to remove any possible competition. Falkenberg's Legion gets to participate in war and politics at their grittiest. The Man-Kzin Wars are set in Larry Niven's Known Space, and deal with the first alien lifeforms humans encounter as they explore beyond our solar system. The Ship Who Sang is the brainchild of Anne McCaffrey, in a universe where humans have not mastered the intricacies of controlling a child's pre-birth development, and there are still children born with birth defects, medical science has managed to figure out how to transfer such children's brains into special containers. These brains grow to maturity, and become the controllers of space ships and space stations, among other things. A novel approach to the typical thinking computer of science fiction, these brains are connected to their surroundings. A ship's brain can literally feel the surface of the ship, and see what the ship's sensors see. Quite an interesting concept.

The official S.M. Stirling Web Page is located at www.smstirling.com.

Books I've Read by S.M. Stirling

Oakland, 1946. Ex-soldier John Rolfe, newly back from the Pacific, is about to make a fabulous discovery. It happens with a flip of his shortwave radio switch, a thunder crack of sound, and a blinding light. He blinks his eyes to discover a portal to an alternate world where Europeans have never set foot on the land he knows as America. Able to return at will to the modern world, Rolfe summons the only people with whom he is willing to share his discovery: his war buddies. And tells them to bring their families . . . What mistakes would you repeat? Los Angeles, twenty-first century. Fish and Game warden Tom Christiansen is involved in the bust of a smuggling operation. What he turns up is something he never anticipated: a photo of authentic Aztec priests decked out in Grateful Dead T-shirts, and a live condor from a gene pool that doesn't correspond to any known in captivity or the wild. These finds soon lead to a woman named Adrienne Rolfe--and a secret that's been hidden for sixty years. As danger brews on both sides, two realities are threatened, and so too are the lives of everyone who crosses the boundary between them . . . . (book description)

1. Dies the Fire (Hardcover edition)

   Michael Havel was flying his Piper Chieftain over Idaho en route to the holiday home of his passengers, a family of five, when the Change occurred. At that moment, the plane's engines inexplicably died, forcing Michael to glide into a less than perfect landing in the wilderness. And as he leads his charges to safety, he begins to realize that the engine failure was not an isolated incident . . . . Juniper Mackenzie was singing and playing guitar in a pub when the Change thrust the small Oregon town into darkness. Cars refused to start. Phones were silent. And when an airliner crashed, no sirens sounded and no fire trucks arrived. Now, taking refuge in her family's cabin with her daughter and a growing circle of friends, Juniper is determined to create a farming community to sustain the survivors of this crisis . . . . The Change happened when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash, causing all electronic devices--computers, telephones, engines, radios, televisions--and even firearms to cease to function, and plunged the world into a darkness humanity was unprepared to face. But even as people band together to help one another, others are building armies for conquest . . . . (book description)

2. The Protector's War (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition)

   It's been eight years since the Change rendered technology inoperable across the globe. Rising from the ashes of the computer and industrial ages is a brave new world. Survivors have banded together in tribal communities, committed to rebuilding society. In Oregon's Willamette Valley, former pilot Michael Havel's Bearkillers are warriors of great renown. Their closest ally, the mystical Clan Mackenzie, is led by Wiccan folksinger Juniper Mackenzie, the Queen of Witches. their leadreship has saved countless lives. But not every leader has altruistic aspirations. Norman Arminger, medieval historian and scholar, rules the Protectorate. He has enslaved civilians, built an army, and spread his forces from Portland and throughout most of western Washington State. Now he wants the Willamette Valley farmland, and he's willing to wage war to conquer it. And unknown to both Northwest Pacific factions is the imminent arrival of a ship from Tasmania bearing British soldiers . . . . (book description)

3. (I haven't read this book, yet) A Meeting at Corvallis (Hardcover edition)

   No book description is currently available.

Domination of the Draka

• The Domination (Mass Market Paperback)

  THE TERRIFYING, TYRANNICAL SAGA OF THE DRAKA-- In Marching Through Georgia, Under the Yoke and The Stone Dogs, S.M. Stirling traced the rise of the Domination of the Draka and its long struggle with the United States and the American-led Alliance for Democracy. In this alternate history, the Americans who rejected the Revolution did not scatter to the four winds and Canada; a slight change in the course of events brought them to the new Crown Colony of Drakia instead . . . starting with the Cape of Good Hope and soon encompassing the whole of the rich subcontinent of Southern Africa. Soon burning resentment and limitless ambition spurred the expansion of the people who called themselves the Draka. There they built the Domination, an empire of inconceivable wealth and savagery, founded on conquest and slavery. It grew until it spanned the African continent, and then in the Great War of the early twentieth century to include much of Asia as well. In the Eurasian War, Germany and the Soviet Union exhausted each other and the Draka stepped in, leaving the Domination triumphant from the English Channel to the China Sea. Only the United States and its allies stood between the Draka and their dream of an enslaved humanity. By the 1990's, the Draka commanded the stuff of life itself, mastering biotechnology until they could create new species at will . . . and transform themselves into the Master Race of their savage dreams. The Alliance for Democracy traveled another path, into the mysteries of the physical universe and the technology based on such knowledge. The final confrontation would settle which was more powerful . . . or leave the earth a lifeless rock where nothing human remained but bones. (book description)

  1. Marching Through Georgia (Paperback Edition)

     Six generations of his family had made war for the Draka. Eric wanted to make peace--but to succeed he would have to be a better killer than any of them. (book description)

  2. Under the Yoke (Paperback Edition)

     In Marching Through Georgia we were introduced to the Draka. Their society was frightening enough when seen from the perspective of one of its rulers. How much more terrible it looks through the eyes of those on the bottom. It is now 1947, and all of Europe lies under the heel of the Draka. Their armies of conquest have swept aside all other forces, and now they relentlessly crush all resistance. Marya and Chantal, a devoutly Catholic Polish nun and a French Communist respectively, are one of the unlikeliest pairs to be tossed together by fate. Yet both of them are bought out of a Security holding pen by Tanya von Shrakenberg, who is building a plantation in the south of France. They have already seen the impersonal cruelty of the Draka, but on Chateau Retour they become acquainted with its more personal face. Fred Kustaa is an American OSS operative who is to aid the last desperate bands of resistance fighters and to strike some kind of covert blow against the Draka. After several harrowing adventures, he masquerades as a Draka to enter Chateau Retour and make contact with his pickup. Chantal's sufferring at the hands of her master is driving her to desperation, and in Kustaa she sees her last hope of deliverance. Yet her very efforts to escape bondage may imperil the hope of freedom for all humanity. (book description)

  3. The Stone Dogs (Paperback edition)

     NOW IT'S OUR TURN Since the Draka conquest of Europe and most of Asia in the 1940s, the American-led Alliance and the Domination of the Draka have glared at each other across the oceans, restrained only by the threat of thermonuclear annihilation. In this Cold War there can be no compromise, no detente, no happy tearing down of walls, only ultimate enmity. The Alliance, using its superiority in computer technologies, is preparing a master stroke of electronic warfare. The draka, supreme in the ruthless manipulation of life's genetic code, have a secret weapon of their own. Both sides await only the right moment to strike. From the manor-houses of the Draka aristrocracy and the streets of an alternate-world New York to the farthest reaches of the Solar System, the Draka and their enemies carry on a struggle whose victor will decide the fate of humanity--to be forever free or forever slave. (book description) (book description)

• The Draka Appendices

  The first 3 books by S. M. Stirling set in the alternate history of the Domination of the Draka all had copious appendices. These mother lodes of timeline information were unfortunately not included in the omnibus edition The Domination. Anne Marie Talbott (AMT) apparently got permission from S. M. Stirling to provide these appendices on the 'net. At that time, I (Peter Karsanow) transcribed the last half of the appendices for AMT to host on her website, which used to be at http://www.mindspring.com/~atalbott/ but is now gone. When that site went away, those appendices were thought to be lost, and the time to re-transcribe them deterred me from putting them back online. But through the miracle of file backups, they were found, reformatted to my website design, and are now available for your reading pleasure. The other appendices (the "first half") were recently transcribed. (Appendices description)

4. Drakon (Paperback edition)

   NOW IT'S OUR TURN... THE COP: Detective-Lieutenant Henry Carmaggio had seen plenty of blood, both in Cambodia, and in twenty years of police work. He'd never seen anything like the Warehouse Massacre. That was just the beginning. Something was loose in his city, something inhuman that walked among us, killing with the easy precision of a leopard in a flock of sheep. There was no one else to track it down. And if he didn't it would kill and kill again--until the whole world was its hunting ground. THE DRAKA: Gwendolyn Ingolfsson had been too close to the molehole experiment when it went wrong and hurled her into a parallel Earth filled with billions of antique humans. As a member of the Draka Master Race, genetically engineered to dominate unmodified humans, her duty was clear: call home. Build a molehole device in this universe and establish a bridgehead for the Race to come through. It had been a while since the Draka had an opportunity for conquest. Bring through a couple of orbital battle stations and the locals would be . . . what was that expression she'd read? ah, yes. Toast. (book description)

• (I haven't read this book, yet) Drakas! (Paperback edition)

  THINK ABOUT HISTORY. NOW MAKE IT WORSE . . . The Domination of the Draka begins as a British possession in Africa, but soon becomes far more. Absorbing refugees after the American Revolution, and later the Civil War, the Draka become a people bred to rule with an iron fist. They permanently enslave the peoples of Africa, when they do not simply kill them. But this does not slake the Draka thirst for power. Sweeping across the world, the Draka empire engulfs nation after nation, shackling into servitude all who are not Draka. Europe, Asia, and finally all the Earth and its colonies throughout the Solar System fall before the might of the Draka. But empires are not faceless monoliths; they are made of individuals, complex humans with their own hopes and dreams. And so one might ask: Who are the Draka? What sort of people does the Domination rule? The Draka would have many different answers . . . . . . and this is their story. Includes: William Sanders: Jon J. Miller: Roland J. Green: David Drake: Jane Lindskold: Lee Allred: William Barton: Harry Turledove: Anne marie Talbott: Markus Baur: John Barnes: Severna Park: Custer Under the Baobab Hewn in Pieces for the Lord Written by the Wind The Tradesmen The Big Lie The Greatest Danger Home is Where the Heart Is The Last Word A Walk in the Park Hunting the Snark Upon Their Backs, to Bite "Em" The Peaceable Kingdom (book description)

Falkenberg's Legion

• (I haven't read this book, yet) The Prince (Hardcover edition) (with Jerry Pournelle)

  THE LAST, BEST HOPE OF MANKIND In the 21st century, the Soviet-American CoDominium had kept the peace, both on Earth and among the far-flung star colonies. But now the CoDominium is dying, and its death-throes will be terrible; already the nations arm for their final battle. The Earth seems doomed, and mankind's sole hope for a future worth having rests on a planet called Sparta, a planet where American idealists have raised once more the banner of a liberty that has been forgotten amid the corruptions and tyrannies of Earth. The Spartans have hired John Christian Falkenberg, born leader and military genius, and his mercenary legion to train them. If Falkenberg succeeds, the tattered remnants of civilization may still be welded into a single galaxy-spanning free society. But Grand Senator Bronson, de facto ruler of the nation that once was the USA, is determined that Falkenberg and Prince Lysander of Sparta will fail, and Spartan independence will be crushed forever . . . Publisher's Note: The Prince was previously published in four parts as Falkenberg's Legion and Prince of Mercenaries by Jerry Pournelle, and Go Tell the Spartans and Prince of Sparta by Jerry Pournelle and S.M. Stirling. This is the first complete edition. (book description)

  1. (I haven't read this book, yet) Falkenberg's Legion (Paperback edition) (by Jerry Pournelle)

     The seeds of contradiction that lay at the heart of the Soviet-American alliance are bearing their final fruit. Soon they will rip the Codomminium apart--and Earth will die. In the face of that inevitability the fate of humanity lies with the Colony Worlds--a few of which are equipped for more than barest survival. Thrown upon their own resources, their futures seem as limited as their pasts. They--and humanity--have one hope: that somehow, someone will have both the vision and the strength to grasp the tattered remnants of civilization and weld them into a single galaxy-spanning society. (book description)

  2. (I haven't read this book, yet) Prince of Mercenaries (Paperback edition)

     For a century the Americans and Soviets had maintained an uneasy alliance based on a new world order. But the CoDominium is decaying, and the future belongs to colony worlds like Sparta--if they can survive Earth's death-throes. To do that they will need men who understand war, men like mercenary commander John Christian Falkenberg, and Lysander, Prince of Sparta--the first Prince of Mercenaries. (book description)

  3. (I haven't read this book, yet) Go Tell the Spartans (Paperback edition) (with Jerry Pournelle)

     Since the late 20th century, the Soviet-American CoDominium had kept the peace, both on Earth and among the stars. But now the CoDominium is dying, and its death-throes will be terrible; already the nations arm for their final battle. With Earth doomed, mankind's sole hope for a future worth having rests on a planet called Sparta, a planet where American idealists have raised once more the banner of a liberty that has been forgotten amid the corruptions and tyrannies of Earth. (book description)

  4. (I haven't read this book, yet) Prince of Sparta (Paperback edition) (with Jerry Pournelle)

     After defeating the initial assault of Grand Senator Bronson's Helot armies, the Spartans arm themselves to fend off another Helot attack, this one designed to exterminate the Spartans as a people. (book description)

The General (Raj Whitehall)

• (I haven't read this book, yet) Warlord (Hardcover edition) (with David Drake)

  Raj Whitehall was a young noble of the Civil Government, the last remnant of galactic civilization on the planet Bellevue. Possessed of an unparalleled strategic genius, Raj dreamed of leading his people's armies to victory against the barbarians who threatened to engulf them. Yet it was not exterior enemies who were Raj's greatest challenge, but the Civil Government itself. Its bureaucrats had become corrupt extortionists. The ranks of its armies were filled with barbarian mercenaries ready to turn on the paymasters they despised. Those at the highest levels sank their knives into each other's backs even as the barbarians closed in. And the Governor himself, the man to whom Raj has sworn and given absolute loyalty, nourished a paranoid envy and mistrust that grew with every victory Raj won . . . . Luckily for Bellevue, Raj had a hidden asset beyond the worship of his troops and his own genius for war. Raj was possessed of-—or possessed by-—a "guardian angel" that guided him inexorably toward the goal of planetary dominion. But could even a battle computer of the Galactic Age be enough to counter the fury of Raj's enemies . . . and the treachery of his "friends"? Publisher's Note: Warlord was previously published in two parts as The Forge and The Hammer. (book description)

  1. (I haven't read this book, yet) The Forge (Mass Market Paperback) or (Paperback edition) (with David Drake)

     Raj Whitehall was a young noble of the Civil Government, the last remnant of galactic civilization on the planet Bellevue. Possessed of an unparalleled strategic genius, Raj dreamed of leading his people's armies to victory against the barbarians who threatened to engulf them. Yet it was not exterior enemies who were Raj's greatest challenge, but the Civil Government itself. Its bureaucrats had become corrupt extortionists. The ranks of its armies were filled with barbarian mercenaries ready to turn on the paymasters they despised. Those at the highest levels sank their knives into each other's backs even as the barbarians closed in. And the Governor himself, the man to whom Raj was sworn and given absolute loyalty, nourished a paranoid envy and mistrust that grew with every victory Raj won... Luckily for Bellevue, Raj had a hidden asset beyond the worship of his troops and his own genius for war. Raj was possessed of--or possessed by--a "guardian angel" that guided him inexorably toward the goal of planetary dominion. But could even a battle computer of the Galactic Age be enough to counter the fury of Raj's enemies . . . and the treachery of his "friends"? (book description)

  2. (I haven't read this book, yet) The Hammer (Mass Market Paperback) or (Paperback edition) (with David Drake)

     A monolithic computer is using General Raj Whitehall to reunite the planet and start humanity back on the road to technological achievement, but armies of musket- and saber-wielding barbarians stand in the way. (book description)

• (I haven't read this book, yet) Conqueror (Hardcover edition) (with David Drake)

  ALL HAIL THE CONQUEROR! With the aid of a sentient battle computer from before the collapse of interstellar civilization, Raj Whitehall has come close to reuniting the entire planet of Bellevue. Because of his victories and because of the way he won them, Raj is loved by the people-—and his army would follow him to Hell. Even those closest to him, his band of sworn companions and his wickedly subtle but utterly loyal wife, hold him in awe. And that's the problem. For though Raj battles only in the name of his emperor and has proven his loyalty again and again, still the half-mad jealousy and fear of Barholm Clerett is about to give Raj no choice but to revolt or face death by torture. Raj Whitehall, Hammer of the Barbarians, Sword of the Spirit of Man, has always been ready to bear any burden, pay any price for final victory. Now his fate is on him. Publisher's Note: Conqueror was previously published in two parts as The Anvil and The Steel. (book description)

  3. (I haven't read this book, yet) The Anvil (Mass Market Paperback) (with David Drake)

     With the aid of a sentient battle computer from before the collapse of interstellar civilization, Raj Whitehall has come close to reuniting the entire planet of Bellevue. Raj is loved by the people, who hold him in awe, but the half-mad jealousy and fear of his emperor is about to force Raj to revolt or face death by torture. (book description)

  4. (I haven't read this book, yet) The Steel (Mass Market Paperback) (with David Drake)

     For five years, the computer in Raj Whitehall's mind has been using him as its instrument to reunite the planet Bellevue as the first step in restoring technological civilization across the galaxy. Now, Raj's mission is to take on hordes of the Holy Federation and regain territories lost to the Civil Government for centuries. Civilization had been falling for a thousand years, since interstellar war isolated Bellevue from a universe in chaos. This was the last chance to reverse the fall. If Raj failed, the darkness could last fifteen thousand years. (book description)

  5. (I haven't read this book, yet) The Sword (Mass Market Paperback) or (Paperback edition) (with David Drake)

     For five years Raj Whitehall has led his men across the face of the planet Bellevue. With saber and bayonet he has conquered one barbarian nation after another. Now his greatest enemy is his own overlord, Barholm Clerett, who's so paranoid of Raj's victories that he is reduced to only one thought: Raj Whitehall must die. (book description)

6. (I haven't read this book, yet) The Chosen (Paperback edition) (with David Drake)

   Planted by interstellar probes on hundreds of human-occupied worlds, the downloaded personalities of Raj Whitehall and the ancient battle computer known as Center work together for planetary unity. Their goal is to prepare those worlds for membership in the Second Federation of Man. But on one planet, they do the opposite: on Visager they work to prevent unity. For on Visager a nation-state of vicious militarists is about to start the final war to unite their world--once that is accomplished and their tochnology has matured they will turn outward, bringing their fatal racist infection to the stars. John Hosten is the son of a high general of the Chosen. Jeffery Farr is the son of an admiral of the only nation on Visager that might be capable of halting the onslaught. Through a strange twist of fate they have become as brothers united in their hatred of all that the Chosen hope to do. Only they--with the aid of the disembodied voices of their mentors from the stars--stand between eternal tyranny for their world and eternal war for the galaxy. (book description)

7. (I haven't read this book, yet) The Reformer (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (with David Drake)

   ON THIS PLANET, HUMANS HAD FORGOTTEN THEIR HERITAGE--UNTIL IT CAME LOOKING FOR THEM . . . After the collapse of the galactic Web, civilizations crumbled and chaos reigned on thousands of planets. Only on planet Bellevue was there a difference. There, a Fleet Battle Computer named Center had survived from the old civilization. When it found Raj Whitehall, the man who could execute its plan for reviving human civilization, he and Center started Bellevue back on the road leading to the stars; and when Bellevue reached that goal, Center sent copies of itself and Raj to the thousands of worlds still waiting for the light of civilization to dawn. On Hafardine, civilization had fallen further than most. That men came from the stars was not even a rumor of memory in Adrian Gellert's day. The Empire of Vanbret spread across the lands in a sterile splendor that could only end in another collapse, more ignominious and complete than the first. Adrian Gellert was a philosopher, a student whose greatest desire was a life of contemplation in the service of wisdom . . . until he touched the "holy relic" that contained the disincarnate minds of Raj Whitehall and Center. On that day, Adrian's search for wisdom would lead him to a life of action, from the law-courts of Vanbret to the pirate cities of the Archipelago--and battlefields bloodier than anything in the history he'd learned. The prize was the future of humanity. (book description)

8. (I haven't read this book, yet) The Tyrant (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition) (by David Drake and Eric Flint)

   THE PRESENT IS BAD The Empire that rules the north of Hafardine's single great continent is brutal and corrupt. Its armies have turned its neighbors into subjects, its economy rests on the backs of slaves, and its aristocrats plunder the provinces in the pretense of governing them. West of the Empire are islands whose every resident is a pirate or a slave. Across the isthmus to the south are barbaric tribes living in squalor and mutual warfare, united only in their hatred of cities and the folk who live in them. THE FUTURE WILL BE MUCH WORSE If the Empire falls, it will take with it the last glimmer of civilization on Hafardine in the thousand years since the collapse of interstellar communication--and the Empire will fall under the weight of its own greed and vices unless the two men on Hafardine who can read the signs manage to reshape the future. FOR THE BEST HOPE MEANS CERTAIN CHAOS In the south, the exiled philosopher Adrian Gellert attempts to forge the barbarians into a nation which can replace the Empire before it sinks into a pool of its own decay. In Adrian's mind whisper disembodied intelligences from the stars, bringing with them knowledge of new weapons and the whole sweep of human histroy. In the Empire itself, the aristocratic Justiciar Demansk wields political and military force with the delicacy of a juggler and the ruthlessness of a street thug. AND EVEN THAT HOPE IS A SLIM ONE! If either man succeeds, it will be through the other's ruin; and if they both fail, it will mean Hafardine sinks forever into the Long Night. (book description)

1. (I haven't read this book, yet) Island in the Sea of Time (Mass Market Paperback)

   During a perfect spring evening on Nantucket a violent storm erupts and a dome of crawling, colored fire blankets the island. When the howling winds subside and the night skies clear, the stars appear to have shifted. The mainland has become a wilderness of unbroken forest, where tools of bronze and stone litter the beaches, and primitive natives scatter in terror. A startling phenomenon has occurred: The island of Nantucket has been sweapte into the long-ago past. With its inhabitants adrift in the year 1250 B.C., there is only one question to be answered: Can they survive? A provocative and endlessly inventive spin on the classic adventure story, Island in the Sea of Time takes you on a journey of wonder, discovery, and imagination. (book description)

2. (I haven't read this book, yet) Against the Tide of Years (Mass Market Paperback)

   In the years since the Event, the Republic of Nantucket has done its best to recreate the better ideas of the modern age. But the evils of its time resurface in the person of William Walker, renegade Coast Guard officer, who is busy building an empire for himself based on conquest by technology. When Walker reaches Greece and recruits several of their greater kinglets to his cause, the people of Nantucket have no choice. If they are to save the primitive world from being plunged into bloodshed on a twentieth-century scale, they must defeat Walker at his own game: war. (book description)

3. (I haven't read this book, yet) On the Oceans of Eternity (Mass Market Paperback)

   Ten years ago, the twentieth century and the Bronze Age were tossed together by a mysterious Event. In the decade since, the Republic of Nantucket has worked hard to create a new future for itself, using the technological know-how retained from modern times to explore and improve conditions for the inhabitants of the past. Some of these peoples have become allies. Some have turned instead to the renegade Coast Guard officer William Walker. And for ten years, the two sides have tested each other, feinting and parrying, to decide who will be the ones to lead this brave new world into the future. Now, the final battle lines have been drawn. And only one side can emerge the victor . . . . (book description)

Larry Niven's Known Space

• The Children's Hour (Paperback edition) (with Jerry Pournelle)

  The fastest way to get ahead in Kzin society is to cut through the endless challenges and duels to the death--and take on your father. But Chuut-Riit, Planetary Governor of occupied planet Wunderland, is teaching his kits a new way--the way of the humans. And the humans don't like it, at all. (from an Amazon.com review)

The Man-Kzin Wars

1. The Man-Kzin Wars (Mass Market Paperback) or (Hardcover edition) (by Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, and Dean Ing)

   Once upon a time, in the earliest days of interplanetary exploration, an unarmed human vessel was set upon by a warship from the planet Kzin. But the Kzinti learned the hard way that the reason humanity had given up war was that they were so very, very good at it. Thus began the Man-Kzin Wars. (from an Amazon.com review)

2. Man-Kzin Wars II (Mass Market Paperback) (with Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Dean Ing)

   The alien Kzinti had almost conquered the humans, but after the initial surprise, the humans fought back with a ferocity the Kzinti had never faced. But that was centuries ago, and the humiliation of lost battles has not faded. The Kzinti are back . . . and spoiling for a fight! (from an Amazon.com review)

3. Man-Kzin Wars III (Paperback edition) (with Larry Niven and Poul Anderson)

   The Mind Slavers are back--and only the cat-like Kzinti can save mankind now. This volume includes all-new tales of Larry Niven's Known Space--including one by Niven himself. Another blockbuster in the ongoing chronicle of humanity's greatest war. (from an Amazon.com review)

4. Man-Kzin Wars IV (Mass Market Paperback) (by Larry Niven) (out of print)

   The Survivor This story tells the life story of Short-Son of Chiirr-Nig, a very cowardly Kzin who earns the name Eater-of-Grass from doing so to avoid battle. After being ostracised from the Kzin community he hides himself away in a Jotoki habitat and learns how to bond with the Jotoki and so become a Trainer-of-Slaves. The Man Who Would Be Kzin A story about a human telepath posing telepathically as a Kzin and going onto one of their ships! Incredible plot, but one of the best MKW stories. (from an Amazon.com review)

5. Man-Kzin Wars V (Paperback edition) (with Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Thomas T. Thomas)

   After losing three significant battles to the humans, the Kzin begin to wonder if their combative diplomatic style is working and decide to reevaluate their strategy. (from an Amazon.com review)

6. Man-Kzin Wars VI (Paperback edition) (by Larry Niven, Donald Kingsbury, Mark O. Martin, and Gregory Benford)

   Three short novels by Donald Kingsbury, Mark O. Martin, and Gregory Benford chronicle the continuing battle for supremacy between the humans of Earth and the lethal felines of Kzin. (from an Amazon.com review)

7. Man-Kzin Wars VII (Paperback edition) (by Larry Niven, Mark O. Martin, and Gregory Benford)

   The Colonel's Tiger The reports from the Angel's Pencil of the anatomy and physiology of the attacking Kzin trigger a memory of an ARM agent. After a little searching, he finds the account of Colonel Vaughn who battled with a "tiger man" in India during the earth year 1878. A Darker Geometry This story depicts man's first contact with the Outsiders and is a forerunner to the use of hyperdrive by humans. Prisoner of War A surveilance trip into the Sol system by the Kzin scout ship Silent Prowlder ends in disaster after a cat-and-mouse chase with the earth destroyer Excalibur. The Kzin Fleet Commander is the only survivor and is taken as a prisoner of war. (from an Amazon.com review)

Anne McCaffrey's Partnership Series

1. The Ship Who Sang (Paperback edition) (by Anne McCaffrey)

   Helva was born with massive debilitating physical deformities. Her brain, however, was unaffected and highly intelligent. Placed inside a capsule which overcame all her physical disabilities through advanced cybnetic enhancements, Helva was a formidable individual. Beyond her other distinctions was a love of music. Placed inside a spaceship with her Brawn at her side, she became The Ship Who Sang. (book description)

2. Partnership (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball)

   Several hundred years after Helva was commissioned, Nancia takes her commission as XN-935. Her first trip is to transport five troublesome progeny of high-level families. Nancia finds her cargo have no respect for her or others, so she does not communicate with most of them. Most of the passengers do not realize Nancia is a Brain-ship, so under assumption she is a Drone-ship they conspire to break laws. After five years the passengers will see who has accumulated the greatest wealth. Her recording systems capture the conspiracy, and years later her travels bring her up against the network that the five have been operating. (book description)

3. The Ship Who Searched (Paperback edition) (by Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey)

   It all began when Tia, a bright and spunky seven-year-old accompanying her exo-archaeologist parents on an EsKay dig, was afflicted by a mysterious neural disorder, one whose progressing symptoms finally permit her no life at all outside of some total mechanical support system. But like The Ship Who Sang, Tia won't be satisfied to glide through life like a ghost in a glorified wheelchair; like Helva, Tia is going to strap on a spaceship! But Tia has also set herself on a special mission: to seek out whatever it was on the EsKay planet that laid her low, to come to understand and then eliminate it - so that no other little girl will ever suffer the fate of The Ship Who Searched. (book description)

4. The City Who Fought (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (with Anne McCaffrey)

   Simeon was a shell-person - the brain who ran Space Station SSS-900, on the fringes of human space. But things hadn't been going too well lately, and he was more than a little discontented. Though normally he enjoyed his work, these days it seemed boring. To make matters worse, his long-time parner had just retired and he was having a hard time adjusting to his newly assigned brawn - a strong-willed woman named Channa Hap, who seemed to feel it her duty to keep him in line. Simeon's love of wargaming would find unexpected uses when the brutal Kolnari attack the nearby colony planet, Bethel. Sheltering the colony's refugee's brought "the city" an invitation to serious trouble with Kolnari pirates. (book description)

5. The Ship Who Won (Paperback edition) or (Hardcover edition) (by Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye)

   The brainship Carialle and her brawn, Keff, find a habitable planet inhabited by an apparent mix of races and cultures and dominated by an elite of apparent magicians. Appearances are deceiving, however, and by the time the explorers have discovered the planet's secrets--not to mention other intelligent races--they find themselves in a desperate battle to save it. (book description)