Rider [Finisterre]
The Gene Wars
... . Gene Wars is a flight of nano-possibilities. Recall the really old sf which hypothesized matter synthesizers? Well, my friends, we can see it on the horizon---a future with a lot of possibilities and, well, a few new threats. I'm convinced we'll cope, but how---is the story, and it involves a lot of things the 'sophisticated sf' of the 90's downplayed as not-too-likely. So here we are, facing sf of the 1930's---because if we can imagine it, including some pretty complicated synthesis, and self-alterations, nanotech may change the whole ball game. Want to glow in the dark as a fashion statement? Synthesize chocolate? Just wait.
But since mankind's attitudes haven't changed markedly since the Sumerian teacher accepted dinner with the parents of a failing student---yes, the record is on cuneiform tablets---I'm betting that whatever we invent, we'll still recognize the motives when we see them in action.
The Gene Wars universe currently consists of two books: Hammerfall and Forge of Heaven.
Miscellaneous works
Earth's colonial enterprise, founded on a string of planetless stars, fell apart when orders to solve problems lagged a long time behind the reality of the situation. Distance made it impossible to maintain the close control Earth wanted to exercise, and Earth's ill-advised orders provoked rebellion among the colonies when the discovery of Faster-Than-Light travel suddenly brought Earth into close contact and frequent contact with the colonies.
Cyteen had outright defied Earth's visa requirements and founded a runaway colony, its population deliberately augmented by cloned-man establishEarth'sments.
Pell Station attempted to stand by its allegiance to Earth. So did other colonies, fearing the strangeness developing at Cyteen.
I use Alliance/Union to describe novels that are centered around the Company Wars.
The novels in this universe, except Hellburner and Heavy Time, can be read completely out of order...just like real history.
The actual sequence of the Alliance / Union stories is:
The Company Wars
Heavy Time
Hellburner (these first two have fairly close connections)
Downbelow Station: Hugo Winner, Best Novel
Merchanter's Luck
Rimrunners
Tripoint
Finity's End
The Merchanter Novels:
Trading ships and commerce after the Company Wars
Merchanter's Luck
Tripoint
Finity's End
Unionside novels:
Cyteen won the Hugo for Best Novel. There was a
paperbound publication that split the novel into three parts, but this has ended: the
current and, by my wishes, all future publications, will have Cyteen as one
unified book.
Cyteen
40,000 in Gehenna or Forty Thousand in Gehenna
Far Down The Time Line, but still within the story...
The Faded Sun novels:
A lone human soldier confronts the last of an alien species.
Kesrith
Shon'jir
Kutath.
AND:
Serpent's Reach, set in the far future of the Alliance, a splinter group
Then...Very, Very Far Down the Time Line
Brothers of Earth
A far, far future world at the crossroads of its history---and a human soldier who
foresees the failing of his own species. It should be noted: the Hanan Rebellion does not
involve the whole human species, nor more than a region of space; but from Kurt Morgan's
point of view the disaster is universal.
Hunter of Worlds:
another splinter group and a predatory species.
Hani are catlike, spacefaring, attitudinal, and protective of
their violent and aggressive menfolk; and yes, I've made a little commentary on gender
politics; but I've also tried to tell an honest, light, and rowdy story about very
different aliens and a strayed human. Pyanfar never wanted him for a passenger...but
having him....well, life just couldn't be the same.
And if you think mahendo'sat politics gets thick...Pyanfar agrees.
Pyanfar's motto is, when confronted with vastly intelligent, aggressive politics: Do something totally irrational and let the enemy think himself to death.
The Pride of Chanur {nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel.}
Chanur's Venture
The Kif Strike Back (never, ever joke about titles: your publisher
may use one)
Chanur's Homecoming (Ulysses has nothing on Pyanfar)
And the next generation:
Chanur's Legacy.
The front end of Foreigner is a novella and a short piece, the first setting up how Phoenix, a station set-up mission, skewed far and dangerously off course. The second chapter tells the story of their descendants some distance along. And then the real story in the novel begins, as a shadow turns up in a forbidden area outside a human diplomat's bedroom.
Say that there were problems in the relationship between humans and the civilization they met.
I didn't plan to have the first two sections on the first Foreigner
novel, but my editor said put them in. So I did. The initial situation with the lost
colonists in chapter one, is pretty grim...but as you get to know the atevi centuries
later, in the main part of the story, they do have a very active sense of humor.
Foreigner
Invader
Inheritor
Precursor
Defender
Explorer
And soon to come: Destroyer
The world of Finisterre is a bad real estate deal: a lot like the ground-level assumption behind Pern and Darkover, it doesn't really matter that everyone arrived from space. Clearly this isn't Earth, that's the important thing, and while townsfolk fear the native wildlife, the riders who keep the towns alive are very happy being friendly with the nighthorses, who are, well, the reason riders exist and the reason humans survive on Finisterre at all.
Nighthorses are addicted to human minds, in the long and the short of it, and find their importation of bacon the single most important event in the history of the world. While the books have moments that you may not want to read alone after dark, have faith: the horses will get you through.
Rider at the Gate
Cloud's Rider
Nhi Vanye i Chya, seeking redemption for his sins...finds himself indebted to a liege reputed for betrayal, sworn with an oath that can damn his soul...
Gate of Ivrel
Well of Shiuan
Fires of Azeroth
Exiles' Gate
The graphic novel, Gate of Ivrel.
This includes all myth-based stories.
Damned by Faery for the patricide he committed to save his brother, Caith macSliabhin
treads the shadowy side of Faery with one of the Dark Sidhe, a pooka (damned by Faery for
goodness) as his only companion.
Faery in Shadow
A rusalka is a Russian ghost: a drowned maiden who dies for love will become a rusalka,
haunting the river where she perished. Some call it scary. Some call it a vampire story. I
call it the story of a scapegrace , a wizard who gets whatever he wants, and a yard-thing
who's far more bark than bite. Trust Babi, when all else runs amok.
Rusalka
Chernevog
Yvgenie
...trolls, goblins, and a chip off the Goblin Queen's mirror. A young man sets out to answer one question and discovers questions multiplying around him.
Goblin Mirror
...multiple ages of the world, and a wizard from the last age, called
Mauryl Kingmaker, isolate from the young kingdoms of Men, works a summoning, a last bit of
magic. But was he a good magician, or what cause did he serve?
This set is a project I've worked for years on, and I'm very excited about it.
Fortress in the Eye of Time
Fortress of Eagles
Fortress of Owls
Fortress of Dragons
And---soon to come: Fortress of Ice
Over the years my publishers and editors, Donald Wollheim, Jim Baen, Betsy Wollheim, to name a few, have supported me in books that let imagination run free. It's a list of the varied and the different...
The Paladin
...set in a mythical far east, a potential student seeks a retired hero for a teacher.
Angel with a Sword
...there is no magic, but a city on stilts, with swords and piratical derring-do...is
close. Followed by all the Merovingen books.
Merovingen Nights
(shared world, preceded by Angel with a Sword)
Visible Light
(anthology) a collection of widely diverse stories with personal commentary.
Sunfall
(dying earth stories)
Hestia
...a colonial story, on a river with a native secret.
Wave without a Shore
A philosophical science fiction novel with a fantasy twist. Some people name their college professors and wonder if I know them.
Voyager in Night
An aeons-old alien and the [perhaps] dead crew of a passing spacecraft...
Hunter of Worlds
...a species notorious for predation. Recommended reading in some anthropology classes.
I'm grateful to Don Wollheim who bypassed considerations of commercial appeal in favor of
preserving the science fictional use and development of language. Besides all that...it
has an action story.
Port Eternity
An Arthurian novel, of sorts, set in distant space, among azi.
Cuckoo's Egg
An alien brings up a human child...for alien reasons.