Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock has had a really bad
year.
Bad enough to be the spoiled rotten fop of a prince no one wanted or
trusted.
Worse to be sent off on a meaningless diplomatic mission, simply to get
you out from underfoot, with a bodyguard of Marines who loathe and despise
you.
Worse yet to be assumed dead and marooned for almost a year on a
hell-hole planet while you and those same Marines fight your way through
carnivorous beasts, murderous natives, and perpetual rain to the only
starport. . . which is controlled by the Empire's worst enemies.
Worst of all to have discovered that you were born to be a warrior
prince. One whose bodyguards have learned the same lesson. And one haunted
by the deaths of almost a hundred of your Marines... for what you
know now was an unnecessary exercise in political expediency.
A warrior prince who wants to have a few choice words with your Lady
Mother, the Empress of Man.
But to have them, you, your surviving Marines, and your Mardukan allies
must cross a demon-haunted ocean, face a civilization that is "civilized"
in name alone and "barbarians" who may not be exactly what they seem, and
once again battle against impossible odds. All so that you can attempt to
somehow seize a heavily defended spaceport and hijack a starship to take
you home.
Yet what neither Roger, nor the Marines, nor his allies know is that
the battle to leave Marduk is only the beginning. And that words with
Roger's mother will be hard to come by.
But that's all right. Because what the Galaxy doesn't know is
that it's about to receive a fresh proof of an old truism:
You don't mess with a MacClintock.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
David Weber is the science fiction phenomenon of the decade, a
New York Times bestselling author who receives critical praise
worthy of a Heinlein or an Asimov. He is often compared to C.S. Forester
(celebrated creator of Captain Horatio Hornblower) for his novels of the
exploits of starship commander Honor Harrington, the most recent of which
was the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and
Amazon.com bestseller, Ashes of Victory. Weber's work ranges from
epic fantasy (Oath of Swords, The War God's Own) to breathtaking
space opera (Path of the Fury, The Armageddon Inheritance) to
military science fiction with in-depth characterization (the awesomely
popular Honor Harrington novels, the latest being last year's War of
Honor). Weber lives in South Carolina with his wife Sharon.
John Ringo had visited 23 countries and attended 14 schools by
the time he graduated high school. This left him with a wonderful
appreciation of the oneness of humanity and a permanent aversion to
foreign food. A veteran of the 82nd Airborne, he later studied marine
biology, but the pay was for beans, so he turned to quality control
database management (much higher-paying). Then Fate took a hand, and he
now is in the early stages of becoming fabulously wealthy, which his
publisher has ASSURED him is the common lot of science fiction writers who
write for Baen Books. With his bachelor years spent in the Airborne, cave
diving, rock climbing, rappelling, hunting, spear-fishing, and sailing,
the author is now happy to let other people risk their necks. He prefers
to read (and of course write) science fiction (such as the top-selling
military SF series so far comprising A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front,
and When the Devil Dances), raise Arabian horses, dandle his
kids and watch the grass grow.
Illustration and cover design by Pat Turner Studios
Another
Sunny Day on Marduk