Bill Fawcett

A collection of science fiction tales includes work by Robert A. Heinlein, David Drake, Anne McCaffrey, C. J. Cherryh, Ursula K. LeGuin, Fritz Leiber, and A. E. van Vogt. Original.

Cats in Space, and Other Places

J. E. Mooney

Collects stories in tribute to the award-winning author, featuring works by Neil Gaiman, David Brin, and Nancy Kress.

Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe

Shadows of the New Sun

History has never been more fun than it is in this fact-filled compendium of historical fiascoes and embarrassingly bad ideas. Throughout history, the rich and powerful, and even just the dim-witted, have made horrifically bad decisions that have had resounding effects on our world. From kings to corporate leaders, from captains to presidents, no one is immune to bad decisions and their lasting legacy. The fiascoes that litter our history are innumerable ... and fascinating in their foolishness. This witty collection of historical mayhem chronicles unwise decisions from ancient Greece to modern-day Hollywood and everything in between. Learn such lessons as: Never trust Greeks bearing gifts of large wooden horses. Avoid building elementary schools on toxic waste dumps, even those with sweet monikers like Love Canal. Rabbits multiply like rabbits Down Under. Even if you use brightly colored paint on the boats, it's quite easy to misplace an entire country's navy. With more than forty-five chapters of mind-boggling flubs and follies, fans of history, trivia, and those who just want a good laugh will adore this intriguing and fun read.

Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters

You Did What?

Grandes Lições do Passado

From the Publisher: A remarkable compendium of wild schemes, mad plans, crazy inventions, and truly glorious disasters.  Every phenomenally bad idea seemed like a good idea to someone.  How else can you explain the Ford Edsel or the sword pistol-absolutely absurd creations that should have never made it off the drawing board?  It Looked Good on Paper gathers together the most flawed plans, half-baked ideas, and downright ridiculous machines throughout history that some second-rate Einstein decided to foist on an unsuspecting populace with the best and most optimistic intentions.  Some failed spectacularly.  Others fizzled after great expense.  One even crashed on Mars.  But every one of them at one time must have looked good on paper, including: The lead water pipes of Rome.  The Tacoma Narrows Bridge-built to collapse.  The Hubble telescope-the $2 billion scientific marvel that couldn't see.  The Spruce Goose-Howard Hughes's airborne atrocity: big, expensive, slow, unstable, and made of wood.  With more than thirty-five chapters full of incredibly insipid inventions, both infamous and obscure, It Looked Good on Paper is a mind-boggling, endlessly entertaining collection of fascinating failures.

bizarre inventions, design disasters, and engineering follies

It looked good on paper

David Drake

Sworn Allies (Fleet)

Total War (Fleet)

The Fleet 05

Crisis (Fleet)

Fleet 6, The

Mankind has taken one step too far in exploring the galaxy--and run smack up against the Khalia, vicious alien carnivores who take no prisoners. It is up to the brave men and women of the Fleet to keep the home planets safe. This anthology contains stories by Anne McCaffery, Poul Anderson, David Drake, and others. (August)

The Fleet

"An all-new compendium of 101 historic screw-ups from the author of 100 Mistakes that Changed History. 'Did I do that ' When asked to name a successor, Alexander the Great declared that his empire should go 'to the strongest'...but would rival factions have descended into war if he'd been a little more specific? What if the Vienna School of Art took a chance on a hopeful young student named Adolf Hitler? If Pope Clement VII granted King Henry VIII an annulment, England would likely still be Catholic today--and so would America. Bill Fawcett, author of 100 Mistakes That Changed History, offers a compendium of 101 all-new mammoth mistakes--from the ill-fated rule of Emperor Darius III to the equally ill-fated search for WMDs in Iraq--that will, unfortunately, never be forgotten by history"--Provided by publisher.

What If the Great Mistakes in War, Government, Industry, and Economics Were Not Made?

101 Stumbles in the March of History

Examines bad decisions that changed the course of history, including Little Big Horn, the policies that lead to the Dust Bowl, and the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Backfires and Blunders That Collapsed Empires, Crashed Economies, and Altered the Course of Our World

100 Mistakes That Changed History

Os 100 Grandes Erros da História

A new shared world anthology featuring a who's who of science fiction writers including Larry Niven, Steven Perry and Gary Gygax. Pledged to stop the predator Khalians, the Fleet must win a decisive victory to break the war's deadlock--and bring peace to their worlds.

Breakthrough

Neil Randall

In the land of Ar, the catlike mrem race is threatened by their traditional enemies, the Eastern Lords, and it is up to Talwe, an outcast, to defend his people

Lord of Cragsclaw

Lawrence Fawcett

Barry J. Greenwood

Using recently declassified government files, the authors present a compelling argument that the government knows a great deal more about UFOs than it has sshared with the public, and has in fact deliberately concealed the findings of more than 30 years of investigations. Photographs.

What the Government Won't Say

UFO Cover-up

The U.S. Navy SEALs have long been considered among the finest, most courageous, and professional soldiers in American military history—an elite fighting force trained as parachutists, frogmen, demolition experts, and guerrilla warriors ready for sea, air, and land combat. Born out of a proud naval tradition dating back to World War II, the first SEAL teams were commissioned in the early 1960s. Vietnam was their proving ground. In this remarkable volume, fifteen former SEALs—most of them original founding team members, or "plankowners"—share their vivid first-person remembrances of action in Vietnam. Here are honest, brutal, and relentlessly thrilling stories of covert missions, ferocious firefights, and red-hot chopper insertions and extractions, revealing astonishing little-known truths that will only add strength to the enduring SEAL legend.

An Oral History of the U.S. Navy SEALs in Vietnam

Hunters & Shooters

Perhaps no living author of imaginative fiction has earned the awards, accolades, respect, and literary reputation of Gene Wolfe. His prose has been called subtle and brilliant, inspiring not just lovers of fantasy and science fiction, but readers of every stripe, transcending genre and defying preconceptions. In this volume, a select group of Wolfe's fellow authors pay tribute to the award-winning creator of The Book of the New Sun, The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Soldier of the Mist, The Wizard Knight and many others, with entirely new stories written specifically to honor the writer hailed by The Washington Post as "one of America's finest." Shadows of the New Sun features contributions by Neil Gaiman, David Brin, David Drake, Nancy Kress, and many others, plus two new short stories by Gene Wolfe himself.

Making Contact is the first guide for UFO watchers that shows where to go, what to look for, and how to initiate contact with extraterrestrials. Bringing together the most up-to-date information available, this handbook gathers the opinions of leading scientists, UFO researchers, historians, and sci-fi writers to create a new reference source book invaluable to anyone seeking--or continuing--alien contact. With a look at successful contacts around the world--including a new analysis of the events at Roswell, New Mexico, by Kevin Randall--Making Contact addresses such topics as: opening lines of communication with extraterrestrials; E.T. first aid; official U.S. Air Force guidelines for notifying the public (suggesting that the government withholds much of this information); alien body types and spacecraft profiles; solar and terrestrial maps; a list of organizations to help after contact has been made; and much more. Boldly going where no book has gone before, Making Contact makes every reader an ambassador of Planet Earth.

Making Contact

An engrossing and fact-filled compendium of timeless lessons we keep forgetting—over and over and over . . . It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And so we have. Time and again humankind has overcome great turmoil only to ignore hard-earned wisdom at the very worst moment. Borrowing more from Groundhog Day than D-day, Bill Fawcett illuminates some of the predicaments, both infamous and obscure, that have vexed us for centuries—and just may explain many of today's global conflicts. Through fourteen chapters, Doomed to Repeat is chock-full of trivia, historical oddities, and fascinating insights into our most popular mistakes. Learn about: What really stops terrorists How inflation and recession helped set the stage for the Nazis to take power What really ended the Great Depression and whether it could work today What history predicts for the final results of the Arab Spring Swine flu, bird flu, and the chances of another worldwide plague

The Lessons of History We've Failed to Learn

Doomed to Repeat

An engrossing compendium of high-seas military disasters From the days of the Spanish Armada to the modern age of aircraft carriers, battles have been bungled just as badly on water as they have been on land. Some blunders were the result of insufficient planning, overinflated egos, espionage, or miscalculations; others were caused by ideas that didn't hold water in the first place. In glorious detail, here are thirty-three of history's worst maritime mishaps, including: The British Royal Navy's misguided attempts to play it safe during the American Revolution The short life and death of the Imperial Japanese Navy The scuttling of the Graf Spee by a far inferior force The sinking of the Nazi megaship Bismarck "Remember the Maine!"—the lies that started the Spanish-American War Admiral Nelson losing track of Napoleon but redeeming himself at the Nile The ANZAC disaster at Gallipoli Germany's failed WWII campaign in the North Atlantic Kennedy's quarantine of Cuba Chock-full of amazing facts and hilarious trivia, How to Lose a War at Sea is the most complete volume of nautical failures ever assembled.

Bill Fawcett

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