A Call To Arms,
Vol I
The
Amplitur searched the universe for intelligent species to join them in
the Amplitur Purpose. But the Weave, a union of races, fought for
thousands of years to stay independent. Now a Weave scouting party had
discovered Earth, and humanity had to pick sides, for the Amplitur were
close behind.
The False Mirror,
Vol II
For millennia, the alien union called the
Weave had ben
at war with evil Amplitur. When its new elite fighting unit appeared,
it became frighteningly clear that Amplitur was subjecting humans to
vile genetic manipulations. The Weave could reverse the effects, but
the result could turn the former warriors into the most despicable
creatures in the galaxy....
Spoils of War, Vol
III
The Weave was on the verge of winning a
decisive
victory after a milennia of war, thanks to their new allies from earth.
But then the birdlike Wais scholar Lalelang found evidence that Humans
might not adapt well to peace. Researching further, she uncovered a
secret group of telepathic Humans called the Core, who were on the
verge of starting another war, and then eliminating Lalelang. At the
last moment, she was saved by a lone Core commander. He took a chance
on her intelligence and compassion, and gambled the fate of Humanity on
the possibility that together, they could find an alternative to a
galaxy-wide bloodbath....
The
Humanx Commonweath
The Icerigger Triology
Icerigger
In
ICERIGGER, traveling salesman Ethan Frome Fortune becomes an
unintentional part of a botched kidnapping. As a result, he and four
other humans are stranded on the surface of Tran-ky-ky and at the mercy
of the planet's resident intelligent species, the Tran. Tran-ky-ky is
an ice planet: its surface is a vast, frozen, continually windswept
ocean which the Tran travel over by ice-sailing. In their attempts to
reach the single Commonwealth outpost on the planet, Ethan and his
comrades become allies of the Tran state of Sofold, wich is about to
enter a nearly suicidal war against a mighty Horde of nomadic barbarian
Tran.
Mission
to Moulokin
As
MISSION TO MOULOKIN starts, Ethan and his friends have made their way
to the Commonwealth outpost using the giant 'icerigger' ice-ship Slanderscree,
which they designed and the Sofoldians built. While attempting to
arrange for passage off-planet, Ethan and his friend and fellow
castaway Skua September discover that the Tran are being exploited by
traders. To counter this, they set out to organize a "Union of Ice"
which will let the Tran claim Commonwealth membership. However, the
current planetary commissioner has reasons of his own to oppose such a
union, and shortly Ethan and Skua are involved in a vicious conflict
between their Trannish friends and the allies of the commissioner.
The
Deluge Drivers
THE
DELUGE DRIVERS is the third and final (so far) book set on Tran-ky-ky.
With the Union of Ice well under way, Ethan and Skua return to the
outpost in the Slanderscree.
But before they can finally leave Tran-ky-ky, they are asked to help
with a new crisis. Satellite scans have detected an abrupt, rapid
warming in Tran-ky-ky's southern hemisphere, a warming so rapid that it
can't be natural. Ethan and Skua reluctantly agree to take a group of
scientists to the mystery area aboard the Slanderscree.
There they find something none of them expected: a group of humans
intent on thawing Tran-ky-ky completely, making it habitable for humans
and incidentally destroying the Tran as a species.
Flinx
The
Tar-Aiyum Krang
Moth was a beautiful
planet, the only one with wings -- two great golden clouds suspended in
space around it. Here was a wide-open world for any venture a man might
scheme. The planet attracted unwary travelers, hardened space-sailors,
and merchant buccaneers -- a teeming, constantly shifting horde that
provided a comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like
Flinx and his pet flying snake Pip. With his odd talents, the pickings
were easy enough so that Flinx did not have to be dishonest ... most of
the time. In fact, it hardly seemed dishonest at all to steal a starmap
from a dead body that didn't really need it anymore. But Flinx wasn't
quite smart enough. He should have wondered why the body was dead in
the first place.
Bloodhype
It caused instant
addiction, followed by an excruciating slow death, and there was no
known antidote. It was a killer. Supposedly the drug had been totally
eradicated from the humanx galaxy years before. At least that's what
everyone thought. But somehow, mysteriously, that dreadful substance
was back in circulation on Repler and threatening to wreak havoc
throughout the known galaxy. Someone somewhere was secretly
manufacturing Bloodhype, but nobody seemed to know where or who!
The End of
the Matter
Accompanied
by his faithful minidrag Pip and a most troublesome alien called
Abalamahalamatandra -- Ab for short -- Flinx set out for Allaspin, the
ruggedly primitive homeworld of his flying snake. There he hoped to
find the giant man with the gold earring who somehow held the key to
Flinx's mysterious past and to the strange powers he possessed. Chasing
down his heritage was trouble enough, but Flinx didn't know what real
trouble was until he realized that the Qwarm -- a deadly assassin squad
-- were three steps behind him with a contract to kill. But the
minidrag's homeworld did not offer safety and Flinx had a terrible time
just staying alive ... a matter complicated to no mean degree by a
collapsar already set on an unstoppable death course across the galaxy!
Orphan Star
His birth had been
shrouded in mystery, and all Flinx knew of himself was that he'd been
abandoned by those who had spawned him. Raised by Mother Mastiff in the
marketplace of Drallar, Flinx eventually discovered that his unknown
parents had bequeathed to him a curious legacy...a legacy of
extraordinary mental powers that were both an incalculable asset and a
most dangerous liability. This legacy would lead him -- and his potent
protector, the minidrag Pip -- into the clutches of one of the most
depraved and powerful men in the galaxy...on to a harrowing search for
the truth about his birth...and out of one world into another on his
most dangerous adventure ever.
For Love of
Mother-Not
He was just a
freckle-faced, redheaded kid with green eyes and a strangely compelling
stare when Mother Mastiff first saw him an the auctioneer's block. One
hundred credits and he was hers. For years the old woman was his only
family. She loved him, fed him, taught him everything she knew-- even
let him keep the deadly flying snake he called Pip. Then Mother Mastiff
mysteriously disappeared and Flinx took Pip to tail her kidnappers.
Across the forests and swamps of the winged world called Moth, their
only weapons were Pip's venom . . . and Flinx's unusual Talents.
Flinx in
Flux
When Flinx, no
stranger to galactic intrigue, found an unconscious woman on a
riverbank deep in the jungles of Alaspin, he took it in stride. When he
learned that the woman, Clarity Held, was a brilliant scientist
abducted from a remote outpost on inhospitable Longtunnel by a group of
fanatic assassins, he tried to help the beautiful Clarity back to her
project.Unfortunately, the assassins were still at work. They would do
anything to stop the research on Longtunnel and would kill anyone or
anything that got in their way...
Mid-Flinx
Where Flinx and his
flying minidrag Pip went, trouble always followed--that law had
governed their lives through years of unsought danger and galactic
intrigue. Now an evil rich man was out to kidnap the minidrag for his
personal zoo, and Flinx and Pip were on the run again--this time into
uncharted space, on a random course they hoped would foil their
pursuers. They found more than they bargained for when they landed on
Midworld, a verdant planet covered by an immense jungle, hosting an
incredible variety of plant and animal life--all of it unknown and all
of it deadly. And now they were in real trouble. Their hiding place was
in danger of discovery, and their only hope lay with this bizarre and
untamed planet . . . if it didn't kill them first!
Flinx's
Folly
It's a good
thing Flinx is no stranger to trouble, because he's swimming in
it. Even before the latest murderous attack by a new gang of
assailants, there seems no end to the number of people determined to
arrest, examine, or kill him. To add insult to all that injury,
Flinx has been spirited away and enlisted in a battle against a
monstrous extra-galactic threat. HIdden behind the Great
Emptiness, in a place where it seems matter and energy have never been,
there is only evil. Pure evil that is approaching him,
accelerating.
Reunion
It
all starts innocently enough. Well, almost innocently. So what if Flinx
uses his enhanced empathic abilities to finesse his way into a top
secret security installation on Earth? Once there, he bamboozles a
sophisticated AI program into releasing classified information about
the Meliorare Society, the sect of renegade eugenicists whose
experiments with human beings had horrified the civilized universe more
than twenty years ago. After all, as one of the few Meliorare
experiments to survive, Flinx has a right to know about his past.
Especially since his telepathic powers seem to be evolving. The
question is, evolving into what? The excruciating headaches afflicting
Flinx with increasing frequency make him wonder if he will be alive to
find out.
But
headaches are the least of his problems. For the information he
uncovers leads Flinx into AAnn space, and the reptilian AAnn are more
likely to eat human visitors than welcome them. Awaiting Flinx is a
planet brimming with hidden dangers and astonishing discoveries. But
nothing so dangerous, or so astonishing, as the unexpected return of an
old enemy: an enemy as evil as she is beautiful . .
Sliding Scales
Never
have the cares of the universe lain so heavily on Flinx’s
shoulders, nor the forces arrayed against him seemed so invincible.
Pursued by a newly revealed sect of doomsday fanatics, hunted by
factions inside and outside the Commonwealth for transgressions real
and imagined, expected to single-handedly avert a looming galactic
crisis (or bear responsibility for the consequences), Flinx can be
forgiven for feeling a slight touch of melancholy.
There’s
only one solution for what ails Flinx, according to his ship’s
AI. But taking time off is tricky business. With an increasing number
of enemies chasing him with ever-greater enthusiasm, Flinx must find a
getaway shrouded in obscurity. Jast, a planet smack in the middle of
nowhere, is the perfect locale.
Yet
even in a place where hardly anyone’s ever seen a human, Flinx and
trouble can’t stay separated for long. Unfortunately, Flinx hasn’t a
clue that his vacation paradise is in reality a danger zone of the
highest magnitude. And by the time he learns the truth, it may be too
late.
Running From The Deity
In
the outer depths of the universe lies the Great Emptiness, where
something dreadful lurks, hidden behind a great gravitational lens of
dark matter. Something horrific that howls and writhes and rages across
three hundred million light-years of space–and is now heading straight
for the Commonwealth and moving faster all the time.
One
slim chance exists to avert catastrophe, and only Flinx can take
it. Roaming the galaxy is a conscious planet-size weapons system, the
legacy of a long-extinct race. As Flinx is the only one who has ever
experienced mental contact with the machine, it is his job to find the
powerful alien artifact and coax it into joining the battle against the
behemoth from beyond.
So
Pip and Flinx valiantly sail into the unknown aboard their little
spaceship, which is immediately forced down for emergency repairs on
planet Arrawd, home to less advanced sentients and therefore off-limits
to space travelers. But what with Arrawd being very beautiful, and
Flinx being Flinx, this particular rule doesn’t stand a chance.
Now,
Flinx is no stranger to murderous attacks and stalking
assassins–evading them occupies most of his waking hours–but to be
besieged by hordes bent on worshipping him as a god? Worse still,
escaping this fate is going to be as impossible as fulfilling his dire
mission. What’s a deity to do?
Trouble Magnet
Wandering
out there in some remote region of the galaxy is a gargantuan
sentient Tar-Aiym weapons’ system. All Flinx has to do–while his pals
look after his injured love Clarity Held–is find the hefty object and
persuade it to knock out the monstrous evil that is hurtling through
space to waste the entire Commonwealth.
A
no-brainer, really, especially for Flinx, who is never without his
loyal entourage of official snoops, crazed zealots, assorted goons, and
the occasional assassin. Indeed, the boy wonder and his mini-drag, Pip,
are eager to commence their heroic task . . . just as soon as Flinx
visits Visaria–a dangerously depraved planet–to convince himself that
humans are indeed worth saving.
The
chances of stumbling across high moral values and utopian ideals
don’t look promising–what with Flinx playing a lawless Pied Piper to a
gang of lying, thieving juvenile delinquents. But prospects really go
south when Flinx runs afoul of the corrupt planet’s ruthless crime king.
Still,
life is full of surprises, and Flinx is about to get smacked by
a passel of them–by turns devastating, heartening, and positively
jaw-dropping. For although Flinx came to Visaria to plumb the enigma of
humankind, there’s another mystery waiting here, a shocking clue about
his own shadowy past.
Patrimony
Humanx
Commonwealth
Midworld
Mark Garro
|
Cachalot
Darrell K Sweet
|
Nor
Crystal Tears
Michael
Whelan
|
Voyage
to the City of
the Dead
Barclay
Shaw
|
Sentenced
to Prism
Barclay
Shaw
|
The
Howling Stones
Bob
Eggleton
|
Midworld
Born
was a child of the rain forest
that covered Midworld, part of the primitive society that the peaceful
jungle planet had sustained for hundreds of years. He was wise in the
ways of his world, and he knew well the precarious natural balance that
governed all things. Then one day the aliens came. Giants. They knew
nothing of the Upper or Lower Hell -- and they cared less. Born had
risked his life to save them, to guide them through the myriad tangled
boughs, past unseen, unsuspected dangers lurking in the underbrush. But
worse than their ignorance of how to survive, the aliens had plans for
Midworld, plans that could utterly destroy the globe-spanning forest
that his people called home. As the days passed, Born realized his
mistake. And as he had once hunted only to live, he knew now that he
would be forced to live only to kill...
Cachalot
CACHALOT
is a stand-alone novel set in the Humanx Commonwealth milieu. Hundreds
of years ago, the remnant populations of whales and dolphins on Earth
were transported to the ocean world of Cachalot, as an attempt at
atoning for the almost complete slaughter of these intelligent
creatures by humans. After the Transport Fleet finished its work,
Cachalot was left to the whales; human presence on the planet was
limited to a few islands and the floating towns which harvest food and
other products from Cachalot's oceans. In recent months four of those
towns have disappeared, reduced to rubble by unknown forces. No
survivors have been found. Now, Cachalot's planetary commissioner has
summoned a team of experts from off-world to figure out what's been
happening to the floating towns. Biologists Cora Xamantina, Rachael
Xamantina, and Pucara Merced are joined by peaceforcer commander Sam
Mataroreva and two native experts, the orcas Latehoht and
Wenkoseemansa, in a systematic investigation of the destruction of the
floating towns. It turns out that the solution to the mystery is
considerably more complex than any of them ever suspected.
Nor
Crystal Tears
Before Man and
insectlike Thranx had become allies, when the reptilian AAnn were just
occasional raiders of Thranx colony worlds, one young Thranx
agricultural expert lived a life of quiet desperation. A dreamer in a
world of sensible, stable beings, Ryo buried himself in his work --
reclaiming marshland from a tenacious jungle -- until he came across a
letter describing a relative's encounter with horrid, two-legged,
soft-skinned space-going beasts . ..
Voyage to the City
of the Dead
Two scientists ,
Etienne and Lyra Redowl, explore the planet Horseye and visit the
legendary City of the Dead, where they discover a relic of an ancient
race ( the Xunca ).
Sentenced to Prism
SENTENCED
TO PRISM is another stand-alone in the Commonwealth milieu. A secret
research post on the newly-discovered planet called Prism has suddenly
gone silent. Prism offers enormous possibilities for exploitation and
profit, because it's a world of silicon-based lifeforms which are
easily manipulated. The Company that owns the station calls on its
resident troubleshooter, Evan Orgell, and sends him to investigate. For
his job, Orgell is equipped with a very advanced exo-suit that has an
AI main computer and a variety of useful features and functions.
Unfortunately, it turns out that Prism is much
more complicated than anyone suspected. Before he solves the mystery of
the station, Evan will lose his suit and a bit of himself, and make
some new friends among the intelligent species that inhabit the planet.
The
Howling Stones
The newly discovered planet of
Senisran was a veritable paradise--a sprawling world of vast oceans
dotted with thousands of lush islands and copious deposits of
rare-earths and minerals. First-contact specialist Pulickel
Tomochelor's mission to Senisran was straight forward: Secure mining
rights for the Humanx Commonwealth before the vicious AAnn Empire beat
them to the chase. With Senisran's Parramat clan resisting entreaty,
negotiations could be difficult, but Pulickel was more comfortable with
aliens than with his own species, and looked forward to a triumphant
return to Earth. He hadn't counted on the incredible secret of
Parramat, though: the strange, powerful green stones that the tribe
used to manipulate the forces of nature.Within those stones lay an
awesome technology the origin of which was lost in time--a technology
that had to be kept from the AAnn at any cost . ..
Founding
The Commonwealth
Phylogensis
Mark
Harrison
|
Dirge
Mark
Harrison
|
Diuturnity's
Dawn
Mark
Harrison
|
Drowning
World
Mark
Harrison
|
Phylogensis
In
the years after first contact, humans and the intelligent insect like
Thranx agree to a tentative sharing of ideas and cultures despite the
ingrained repulsion they have yet to overcome. Thus, a slow, lengthy
process of limited contact begins.
Yet they
never plan for a chance meeting between a misfit artist and a
petty thief. Desvendapur is a talented Thranx poet who is bored with
his life and needs new inspiration for his work. Venturing beyond the
familiar, Desvendapur runs into Cheelo Montoya, a small-time criminal
with big dreams of making a fast buck. Together they will embark upon a
journey that will forever change their beliefs, their futures, and
their worlds . .
Dirge
In
the second half of the twenty-fourth century, diplomatic relations
proceed cautiously between thranx and humans, who are slow to overcome
their aversion to the insectlike beings. But the lowly thranx are
nearly forgotten with the sudden discovery of an ideal planet to
colonize --Argus V-- and the startling appearance of a new race of
space-faring aliens. People are dazzled by the beautiful, glamorous
pitar. Then tragedy strikes.
A cargo
ship making a routine delivery to Argus V finds a scene of
grisly carnage has replaced the bustling new world. The entire human
population-- 600,000 men, women, and children--has been brutally
slaughtered. Not one survivor or a single clue remains to identify the
unseen executioners. Even the combined efforts of all alien species
prove fruitless in the search for killers who have perpetrated
planetary genocide on such a vast scale.
But from a
tiny inner moon of Argus V comes a faint, wavering
signal--and on that insignificant chunk of rubble lies the key to the
crime. The cataclysm that follows is replete with shock and deadly
consequences for thranx, pitar, and human alike. For their worlds will
change forever by the colossal space battle that is both in their
future and their destiny.
Diuturnity's
Dawn
From
the beginning, while sharing the Orion Arm of the galaxy, contact
between humankind and the thranx has been tenuous at best. Yet nearly a
century after first contact, the likelihood of closer human/thranx
relations is as far away as ever. Humans still find these insectlike
beings physically repulsive, a distaste the thranx return in kind. At
times the cordial veneer barely conceals the suspicion and distrust
boiling just below the surface. Yet idealists on both sides refuse to
surrender their dreams of achieving a thranx/human alliance. Among the
most dedicated are a minor diplomat named Fanielle Anjou and her thranx
counterpart. Others intend to make sure such a liaison never comes to
pass . . . by any means necessary.
Drowning
World
They
call it the Drowning World. It is Fluva, a planet on the fringes of the
Commonwealth where it rains torrentially, ceaselessly, and maddeningly
for all but one month of the Fluvan year. Chief Administrator Lauren
Matthias is fairly new to the position. Her primary goal: keeping
Fluva’s indigenous species, the warlike Sakuntala and immigrant
species, the timid but hard-working Deyzara, from annihilating one
another. Inter-species conflict on Fluva is successfully dealt with by
local Commonwealth administration.
Spellsinger
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