New Releases by Leo Frankowski

This the last work of Leo Frankowski and the last chapter of the Adventures of Conrad Stargard. It completes a series begun in 1986 and spanning eight books. The series ends in the best of Leo''s tradition of rousing adventure intermixed with the engineering details that fleshed out his earlier work. When Leo returned from Russia in 2006, he began working on the final chapter of Conrad''s life. His age and declining health made progress slow, but he was eventually able to complete the plot outline and write part of the final book. Leo and I had agreed that Conrad would grow and change in the last book and find a way to noble retirement or noble death. You will have to read the last chapter to know which path was chosen. Unfortunately, Leo died before finishing the text. On Christmas Morning 2008, he died suddenly and peacefully from the effects of various drugs that he was prescribed. However, the book was well started and the plot known and Leo wanted everyone to know what happened to Conrad. I was familiar with Leo''s writing style, having been coached by him to enable me to contribute to earlier writings, so I finished it.

This is book seven in the Conrad Stargard Radiant Warrior series. In this book, Conrad goes on Crusade very unwillingly and gets in more trouble than he has ever seen before. He finds out that there are worse problems than the Mongols he faced last year.

One moment Conrad Schwartz was suffering from a severe hangover as he hiked through the mountains of present-day Poland, the next he was hurled back to the same country in the 13th century.

CHANGE THE COURSE OF HISTORY¾OR DIE! One moment Conrad Schwartz was suffering from a severe hangover as he hiked through the mountains of present-day Poland, the next he was running for his life from an angry Teutonic knight. Things went downhill from there, and he finally had to face the disheartening fact he had somehow been stranded in 1231 A.D. He would have been happier if he had known less history. But there was very bad news in his new future, so he set out to turn Medieval Poland into the most powerful country in the thirteenth century. It wouldn''t be easy. He would be investigated by the Inquisition (he should have expected that), be knighted, round up vassals, build a city, survive armed combat with the Champion of the Teutonic Knights, invent the steam engine and cloth factories, establish universal education, and organize an army. He needed that army most of all, because he knew that the Mongol hordes would attack in only ten years and destroy medieval Poland¾and that would really mess up Conrad''s life. Three novels in the Locus best-selling series in one volume. At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

The Virtual-Reality Mercenaries of A Boy and His Tank Face a New Menace ¾and There''s Nothing Virtual About It! First, the involuntary colonists of New Kashubia rescued their planet from crushing debt by becoming virtual-reality mercenaries, then they successfully revolted against the oppressive government of Earth, but now they are menaced by the Mitchegai, a species whose biology has made them inherently evil. The carnivorous adults lay and abandon vast numbers of eggs, some of which grow into vegetarian juveniles, which are the adults'' only food supply. Their culture has no family life, they eat only meat, have nothing like sex., and their main pleasures are gambling, art, and killing each other. They are an ancient civilization, millions of years old, with thousands of densely populated star systems in their realm. Lacking an immune system, they must completely sterilize any planet before they colonize it. The region of the galaxy they occupy is rapidly expanding . . . and Human Space is their next frontier! At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). Praise for Leo Frankowski and A Boy and His Tank "When I teach science fiction, I use Frankowski''s books as an example of how to do it right." ¾Gene Wolfe ". . . a literate military adventure laced with political allegory¾and a great deal of fun." ¾Starlog ". . . the action is gripping, and there are plenty of novel twists and ironic moments." ¾Locus "A blend of Keith Laumer''s Bolos and David Drake''s Slammers. . . ." ¾Science Fiction Chronicle

Centuries into the future, humankind journeys between the stars by using the mysterious realm of Two-Space, but Thomas Melville soon discovers that some of the alien races he encounters could embroil Earth in an intergalactic war.

A General in Virtual Reality Warfare, Now He Was in Danger of Becoming a Low-Ranking Corpse in Realtime! New Kashubia was a planet rich in heavy metals, but utterly lacking in carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Even dirt had to be imported at great expense. The colonists, moved there from Earth against their will, lived in tunnels drilled through solid gold but still were the poorest people in the universe. Since their only resource was people, they sent draftees out as mercenaries, fighting in tanks in symbiosis with a highly intelligent computer. And Mickolai Derdowski had fought bravely and brilliantly for nearly a decade, losing many friends in the process, and risen to the rank of General¾he thought. But then he found out that it was all in virtual reality. The war had been faked, no one had died, and he was still just a tank commander, not a general at all. But New Kashubia had been well paid by the planet that had hired the mercenaries for the war they had faked, severe food rationing back home was no longer necessary, and people could now afford such extravagant luxuries as food, homes and clothing. There was just one problem. A real war was looming on the horizon and this one couldn''t be settled in cyberspace. A lot of people might get really, permanently killed. Such as Mickolai.. .. At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Born to Be Weird... When Tom Kolczyskrenski got his discharge papers from the Air Force, he decided to look up his old pals¾and the world would never be the same. At one time, the oddly mismatched trio had been roommates, then they''d gone their separate ways. Tom, for lack of money, enlisted in the Air Force to learn electronics. The other two had finished college, lan McTavish going into mechanical engineering and a job with GM, and Jim Hasenpfeffer into behavioral science, leading to his having gotten a Department of Defense grant to¾this is serious stuff, now¾study social interactions in motorcycle gangs. So the three set out to be their own motorcycle gang. But these easy riders had barely begun to closely observe their own interactions when they ran across a strange perfectly hemispherical hole in the ground where a house used to be, with everything that had been in the sphere of influence slowly materializing in bits and pieces in the surrounding area. And they found the plans for the machine that had done this, and were sure they could duplicate it and get rich. But before long they would be wishing they had kept on being the three musketeers on bikes, instead of the three stooges of time travel.... At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Doomed Paradise The ancient tales of European Man, carefully recorded by pious monks and hedge wizards alike, are insistent about the Western Isles. One of the tales of Doubting Thomas, the apostle, has it that he Christianized these islands and stayed there until the end of his days. The Arthurian legends clearly state that Arthur''s father, Uther, came from the Western Isles. Ancient and Medieval maps agree in showing them as being off the Western Coast of France. Lyonnesse was a part of the Western Islands, as was the City of Ys, Avalon, and the Land of Dahout. Up until the time of the First Crusade, there are records of pilgrims visiting the Holy sites of the Western Islands. The remains of mercantile records of those days hint of trade with the islands of the west. Irish records and legends, which are generally regarded as reliable back to preChristian times, have many references to great floating islands being pushed by ocean currents and winds alike past the Emerald Isle, and sometimes becoming snagged there for a time. The Icelandic Eddas make similar references. Modern sailors and travelers sometimes sight great, many tiered cities near the ocean''s horizon, but these people are rarely believed. It is easier for modern, technocentric man to believe in an optical illusion, the Fata Morgana. This book is about two modern, hardheaded engineers who find the Western Islands. At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "When I teach science fiction, I use Frankowski''s books as an example of how to do it right." ¾Gene Wolfe

AND THE STREETS WERE MADE OF GOLD. . . He Was a Rugged, Hardened Combat Veteran Who Had Gone to Hell and Back¾in Virtual Reality! Now He Had to Face the Real Thing.. . The planet New Kashubia started out as a gas giant, but when its sun went supernova, lighter elements were blasted into space. All that was left was a ball of heavy metals, heated to 8,000 degrees. As it cooled, tungsten solidified first at the surface, and layers of other metals continued down to a ball of mercury at the center. The sun meanwhile evolved into a pulsar with a deadly beam of radiation that baked the planet''s surface. The New Kashuhians lived inside the planet, in tunnels drilled in a thousand foot thick layer of solid gold. Still without carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, or even dirt, the colonists were the poorest people in the universe. But when they combined virtual reality with tank warfare, giving their warriors symbiosis with their intelligent tanks, neither war nor the galaxy would ever be the same. Not to mention sex... At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). "When I teach science fiction, I use Frankowski''s books as an example of how to do it right." ¾Gene Wolfe ". . . the action is gripping, and there are plenty of novel twists and ironic moments." ¾Locus "A Boy and His Tank is a literate military adventure laced with political allegory¾and a great deal of fun." ¾Starlog "... a likeable adventure story . . . [with] appeal to general readers as well as those drawn specifically to military SF." ¾Science Fiction Chronicle

ONWARD AND OUTWARD Conrad Stargard has come a long way since he was first transported from the twentieth century to the thirteenth. Thanks to his knack for "inventing" such astonishing things as steam engines, machine guns, radios, and riverboats, he''s turned Medieval Poland into a military powerhouse--capable of repelling invasions by marauding Mongols and Teutonic troops alike. Now, with enemies vanquished, industry booming, and peace in the land, it is time to continue Poland''s remarkable technological progress. And doing so requires harvesting raw materials only Lord Conrad knows where to "discover." Thus is founded the Explorer''s Corps, whose intrepid members set out to map new frontiers from the Arctic Circle to the Amazon. But can even Conrad''s knowledge of the far future prepare him and his subjects for what lies just beyond the borders of their kingdom?

The modern-day time-traveling hero, Conrad Stargard, returns to medieval times where Countess Francine, his wife, complicates Conrad''s swashbuckling life

Conrad Stargard, living in twenty-ninth-century Poland and marooned since 1231 AD, has had to round up vassals, build a city, battle the Champion Teutonic Knight, and keep warring Mongols at bay

When Heinrich Copernick and Martin Guibedo discover that their latest inventions can free humanity from want and oppressive governments forever, they come up with a scheme that can only lead to disaster