Synopsis
TWO NOVELS IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING SERIES IN ONE VOLUME Crusade : Spacers call the warp point Charon's Ferry. No star ship has ever entered it and returned since a vengeful Orion task force pursued a doomed Terran colonization fleet into it in 2206. Almost a century has passed. The fiery hatreds of a quarter-century of warfare between the Terran Federation and the Zheeerlikou'valkhannaieeee, the cat-like species humans called the "Orions," have eased at least a little. The "Grand Alliance" forged by the need to fight side-by-side against the genocidal Rigelians remains, but there are those on either side who continue to hate, continue to distrust. Now the strength of that war-forged alliance is about to be tested. For Charon's Ferry is about to give up the secret of its dead. A ship has emerged from the deadly warp point at last. A ship which responds to the challenge of an Orion star ship using ancient human communications codes . . . then opens fire. The holocaust of interstellar warfare has been ignited anew, in a bloody crusade to free Holy Mother Terra. In Death Ground : In difficult ground, press on; In encircled ground, devise stratagems; In death ground, fight. —Sun Tzu in The Art of War (circa 400 B.C.) The more things change, the more they remain the same. Three thousand years after Sun Tszu wrote those words, in the time of the Fourth Interstellar War, the ancient advice still holds true. The "Bugs" have overwhelming numbers, implacable purpose, and a strategy that's mind-numbingly alien. They can't be reasoned or negotiated with. They can't even be communicated with. But what they want is terrifyingly clear. The sentient species in their path aren't enemies to be conquered; they're food sources to be consumed. Totally oblivious to their own losses, rumbling onward like some invincible force of nature, their enormous fleets are as unstoppable as Juggernaut. Yet for the desperate Federation Navy and its enemies-turned-allies, the Orions, there is nowhere to go. Their battered, outnumbered ships are all that stand between the billions upon billions of defenseless civilians on the worlds behind them and an enemy from the darkest depths of nightmare, and there can be no retreat. But at least their options are clear. As Sun Tzu said, in death ground, there is only one strategy: FIGHT. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). David Weber is the author of the New York Times best-selling Honor Harrington series, and is often compared to C.S. Forester (the celebrated creator of Captain Horatio Hornblower). His novels range from epic fantasy ( Oath of Swords, The War God' s Own, Wind Rider's Oath) to breathtaking space opera ( Path of the Fury, Empire from the Ashes) to military science fiction with in-depth characterization (the bestselling Honor Harrington series, War of Honor being the latest, and the popular Starfire series written in collaboration with Steve White). He lives in South Carolina with his wife Sharon and their three children. Steve White was an officer in Naval Intelligence, and served in the Mediterranean and the Vietnam War Zone. In addition to the Starfire series written in collaboration with David Weber, he has written several popular science fiction adventure novels for Baen. They include the trilogy comprising The Disinherited, Legacy and Debt of Ages, which combine fast-paced space opera with Arthurian mythology. He has also written the galaxy-spanning adventure Prince of Sunset, and its sequel Emperor of Dawn. His latest is Eagle Against the Stars. He currently works for a legal publishing company in Charlottesville, Virgi
Release date: December 11, 2013
Publisher: Baen
Print pages: 816
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