Can Alexander Hope, the accidental President, restore basic values and freedom to the nation? **** His opponents will stop at nothing to force their own agenda on the nation including killing the President of the United States.

In the North American Confederacy . . . People are free--really free. Free to do as they please, whether it be starting a business, running for elected office, or taking target practice in the back forty. There's not a whole lot of government, nor is there a lot of crime, because everyone who wants to carries a gun, and isn't afraid to use it.But someone has bombed the Endicott Building, killing hundreds of people, and Win Bear, the only licensed detective in the confederacy, has to find out who did this dastardly deed, and why. Because whoever did it has already shown their willingness to commit more terrorist acts, no matter how many people are hurt.And that can't go on, or soon the confederacy will be just as the bad old United States--and that is something they want to avoid at all costs.At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.From Publishers WeeklySermon battles for space with story (and often wins) in Smith's sequel to The Probability Broach (1980), which continues the adventures of cross-time private detective Win Bear in the North American Confederacy, an alternate world that's supposed to be a libertarian, even anarchist Utopia. The serpent in this Eden is a statist plot to generate so much fear of terrorism by cross-temporal immigrants that people will demand a (gasp!) government. Of course, Win and his stout-hearted companions, Militia Captain Will Sanders and centenarian grande dame Lucy Kropotkin, do a splendid job of beating off the clutching tentacles of government. Along the way, there's much effective satire (the statist plotters include a Bennett and Buckley Williams), absorbing if not always plausible world-building and some lighthearted development of the concept of sapience among anthropoids and cetaceans. However, readers will also find the book laboring under a ponderous weight of libertarian philosophizing. Moreover, the plot opens with the evil statists committing two terrorist acts with four-figure death tolls, while throwaway lines like "An armed playground is a polite playground" may put off those who don't share Smith's views. This preachy book sends a message that rings hollow in the world post-September 11. (Feb. 6)Fiction.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From Library JournalWin Bear makes his living as a detective in the North American Confederacy, an alternate America without taxes, government, or police. When a group of dissidents, the Franklinites, launches a campaign of terror to force governmental order upon the population, Bear takes matters into his own hands and declares war on his enemy. The sequel to The Probability Broach continues the adventures of a likable and resourceful hero who stumbled upon another world and chose to make his home in it. Smith's libertarian slant may limit the book's appeal, but general readers may overlook this issue thanks to the fast-paced storytelling and sharp-tongued, folksy prose. For large sf collections. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From multi-award winning author, L. Neil Smith: Captain Agot Edmoot Mav, Extraordinary Inquirer for Their Majesties’ Bucketeers, must solve the unsolvable mystery of who has killed a famed, but controversial, scholar. For the killing was done in a windowless room which was locked and the murder weapon itself is a mystery. But Agot Edmoot Mav is nothing if not persistent, and as a loyal member of the Bucketeers, will not rest till the truth is revealed about this murder, most foul...and most alien.

Berdan Geanar has had a difficult life. Unsure of himself, and apparently hated by the grandfather he has lived with since the death of his parents, he has no idea of what to do with his life. But when his grandfather abandons him, taking all the family money and the special space suit that should rightly be his, Berdan decides to fight and take back what is rightfully his. Set in the North American Confederacy universe (Probability Broach, Tom Paine Maru), Brightsuit MacBear is a coming-of-age story, an adventure tale, and a rallying cry for defending one’s rights against all odds.**

“Impressively Imagined”—Kirkus Reviews“A vibrant, science-fiction epic filled with verve, dash and inventive characters. It’s creative, and it’s fun, a fine bit of escapist fare for winter reading”—The Chatanooga TimesEarth is ruled by three mighty empires: The Saracen-Jewish Empire led by the Caliph of Rome, the Mughal-Arab Empire, ferocious in its determination to destroy its neighbor, and the great Sino-Aztec’s Crystal Empire, led by a living God.Little is known about the Crystal Empire, which spans most of western America. But it is the most powerful force surviving on Earth and its might is unchallenged.One man, however, will change that. Sedrich Sedrichsohn, a legendary fallen fighter, has a chance at redemption and nothing will stand in his way to reclaim his life and his purpose, even if he must fight the Sun-God himself.

Their last mission . . . For a year Lando Calrissian & Vuffi Raa, his five-armed robot astrogator, had roamed space in the Millennium Falcon, seeking or creating opportunities to turn an easy, but not too dishonest, credit. But now their partnership seemed doomed -- for Lando's uncharacteristic impulse to help a race of persecuted aliens had suddenly made him & Vuffi vulnerable to several sets of their own enemies . . . not least of whom was the evil Rokur Gepta, the Sorcerer of Tund!

Denver detective Win Bear, on the trail of a murderer, discovers much more than a killer. He accidentally stumbles upon the probability broach, a portal to a myriad of worlds--some wildly different from, others disconcertingly similar to our own. Win finds himself transported to an alternate Earth where Congress is in Colorado, everyone carries a gun, there are gorillas in the Senate, and public services are controlled by private businesses.At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.Review"Contained ideas I wish could be shouted to the world, ideas that come from the American heritage of freedom and which could bring still greater individual liberty, greater technical progress."--Vernor Vinge, author of A Deepness in the Sky"Pick up a new copy of the book and rediscover this exciting world, and reserve me a table at Meep's Texas Barbecue."--PrometheusAbout the AuthorL. Neil Smith is the two time winner of the Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian Fiction for his novels Pallas (1993) and The Probability Broach (1980). As founder and National Coordinator of the Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus, publisher of the on-line magazine The Libertarian Enterprise, and a Life member of the National Rifle Association, Smith is renowned for his prominence in the Libertarian movement, of which he has been a part of for more than thirty-five years. Author of more than twenty books, Smith has been hailed for his ability to combine adventure, humor, and rivetingly original political concepts to create more compellingly than any other writer, novels that embody Libertarian concepts. He currently resides in Fort Collins, Colorado, with his wife and daughter.

When Shaalara of the Alteen Zirnaath, a sapient, medium-sized spider of the jumping variety came into Eichra Oren’s office to commission the Assessor of p’Na and his symbiote, canine detective Sam Otusam, to find the location of her fiancé, they were not expecting the ‘accidents’ that impeded their research, or the taking on even more unusual clients along the way. For conducting an investigation on the Elders’ planet is not an easy task. The Elders—large squid-like Superbeings—had ‘Appropriated’ species from all across the omniverse, plucking sapient races from alternate Earths, where they had faced extinction, or simply fascinated their new omnipotent benefactors. While the Elders’ had introduced the Appropriated Persons and their descendants to a world where there were no wars, and gifted them with lifetimes that averaged a thousand years—at least—it had long been determined that the peaceful beings should not have taken these species from their Earths; there was a sense of unease rising within the populace. Eichra Oren’s primary role as an Assessor of p’Na was to assess the actions of his clients, and determine whether they had atone for them—at the edge of his sword, or otherwise—but what of the Elders’ actions? Those directly involved with the Appropriation had long since ended their lives, when the moral implications of their actions had been made clear to them. But what about the rest of the Elders? Why were there whispers of new Appropriations? And who was the mysterious new race threatening Earth? Eichra and Sam were determined to find out…. And maybe, just maybe, find a runaway groom along the way.

More than a 150,000 women have been kidnapped without a trace or any ransom demand in the ‘normal’ world run by the Federalists and the bureaucracy. But that is not the only problem, because the freedom loving population in the ‘alternate’ reality of the North American Confederacy are facing their own crises. People are disappearing across the Probability Broach, including Win Bear's closest friend, Featherstone-Haugh (who heads the Confederacy), and even Win's wife and assistant. Ill (and deadly) winds are blowing and threatening to destroy the Probability Broach as we know it. Win Bear, keeping one step ahead of lethal assassins and fighting incredible odds, must solve multiple apparently disparate cases that all seem to lead to the end of freedom.

Nominee for the 2010 Prometheus AwardIn the 22nd century people have spread into the Solar System. Born and raised in a twentieth of Earth's gravity on the asteroid Pallas, young skater Llyra Ngu is grimly determined to compete and win on mankind's homeworld—an ambition that many say will cripple or kill her. Her older brother Wilson is equally set on quitting his job as a surveyor's apprentice to become an asteroid hunter, a calling fraught with the promise of fabulous riches and the danger of sudden death. He will find a full share of romance and disappointment, love and loss, and pursue the asteroid hunter's holy grail, the legendary Diamond Rogue. Llyra's training will require years, and a journey that will take her to Ceres, at one tenth Earth's gravity, where her father bosses the Ceres Terraformation Project, to the one-sixth gravity of the Moon, to Mars and one third gravity, and finally to Earth. Along the way, she will survive jealous rivals, a hostile press, terrorist attacks, and the hijacking of a spaceliner in order to achieve her goal. In the end, Llyra and Wilson will hear the call of the stars, themselves