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The Specter General is a novella by Theodore Cogswell. It originally appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, June 1952.

This short story originally appeared in Eclipse Two: New Science Fiction and Fantasy (2008), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, February 2018. It can also be found in the anthologies Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution (2012), edited by Ann VanderMeer, and Deserts of Fire: Speculative Fiction and the Modern War (2016), edited by Douglas Lain. The story is included in the collection Crackpot Palace (2012).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

In a sorely oppressed America of the near future, Mary and Layla attempt to unite two distinct factions--the Tribes and the Underground--in a rebellion against the General, a tin-pot dictator with dreams of glory.

When three delinquents hole up in an abandoned general store after their most recent robbery, to their great surprise, a letter drops through the mail slot in the store's shutter. This seemingly simple request for advice sets the trio on a journey of discovery as, over the course of a single night, they step into the role of the kindhearted former shopkeeper who devoted his waning years to offering thoughtful counsel to his correspondents. Through the lens of time, they share insight with those seeking guidance, and by morning, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Welcome to the End of Empire.

Set over two hundred years from now, in a world very much like Imperial Rome, this is the story of General Peter Black, the last decent man, as told through the eyes of his devoted (and illegitimate) daughter, Justa.

Raised on battlefields, more comfortable in the company of hard men of war than with women or other children, Justa must keep the truth of her birth hidden. Her father regards her as an embarrassment, a reminder of his one and only indiscretion. Yet she is a remarkable woman, one whose keen mind wins her an education at the feet of Emperor Mathias the Glistening himself.

All his life, General Black served the noble emperor, and, out of loyalty to the father, continues to serve his son after Mathias's death, even as the son's reign degenerates into an insane tyranny worthy of Nero or Caligula. As the rule of the empire passes from father to son with disastrous results, a strange metal plague begins slowly destroying the empire's technology, plunging the realm into chaos and the world into war. Amid the destruction and upheaval, General Black must decide whether to turn his back on the men and institutions who never loved him nearly as much as he did them, or whether to save his most trusted ally and adviser, his best friend and only real family.

The Martian General's Daughter is a gripping tale of a world at war; of cunning strategies and vile politics; of bravery, foolishness, and excess. It is at once a stirring military adventure, a cautionary tale of repeating history, a cutting satire, and a heartbreaking examination of the joys and pain inherent in the love between a father and child. Judson's previous novel was selected in multiple best-of-the-year lists. With The Martian General's Daughter, he offers another must-read epic destined to take its place in the canon of science fiction, and sure to appeal to readers of everything from Orson Scott Card to Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Table of Contents:

• The Alchemist's Question - (1984) - novella
• The Opium General - short story
• Going to Canada - (1980) - short story
• Leaving Pasadena - (1980) - short story
• Crossing into Cambodia - (1979) - short story
• Starship Stormtroopers - essay
• Nestor Makhno - essay
• Who'll Be Next? - essay

THE GENETIC GENERAL

Title variant of Dorsai!

Donal Graeme was from The Dorsai, a small planet whose major export was well-trained, fearless military mercenaries. On the day he reached adulthood, he was ready to go out among the star systems and make his name. He paused for a moment, pondering the strange, indefinable force that seemed to drive him to his unknown destiny.

Now, after six years of desperate exploits, Donal once again felt that hidden power that no living being could explain.

Time had run out! The great far-flung worlds of Man had played their planetary politics and now their two warring camps wer on the eve of a fantastic final reckoning. Suddenly, now, Donal knew his destiny; that he was the one man among the stars in a position to stop the mechanism behind this suicidal struggle. To do it, he had to tackle the impossible and conquer the invincible!

TIME TO TELEPORT

They called their secret society, simply, *Members of the Human Race,* but the majority of humanity preferred to call them *The Inhumans.* That's because it was generally believed that they were a vicious masked gang of mutators, vivisectionists, and monster-makers.

In fact, it had gotten to the point where the world government, that amazing non-national association of services which had abolished war, was about to outlaw and destroy them. If the government acted-and its spokesman, Anthony Sellars, was ready to-it might be the first armed conflict in nearly a century. But it would be scarcely more than a police action: the entire "respectable" world against a hideout bunch of crackpots.

Except, as Sellars was to find out, how do you go about collaring people who can walk through walls?

Medieval magic, murder, and mayhem!

It is 1164, and for a hundred years England has been ruled by the Normans. A young Saxon boy named Durwin, crippled by a childhood accident, had caught the eye of a Norman sage teaching at a rural school of magic. Realizing that the boy had promise, Durwin was made stable boy, and eventually allowed to attend classes.

Now twenty, Durwin is proficient enough that he is assigned to teach, but the other sages refuse to promote him and he is hassled by the Norman juniors for his disability. But those troubles turn out to be the least of his worries when he manages to corrects errors in an ancient corrupted spell, which promptly prophesies murder.

Sure enough, word soon reaches the school that one of the local count's house sage has died, perhaps slain by black magic. Durwin is whisked away to the family's castle, only to find that one death was only the beginning. The young sage quickly learns of a dizzying plot to assassinate King Henry. Dropped into the middle of the complex politics of England's royal courts, can Durwin stop them in time?

King Henry, campaigning in France, receives a muddled warning of a treasonous conspiracy in Lincoln Castle, his great fortress in the center of England. His enchanters report that the letter contains both truth and lies, but cannot determine which is which. Putting little stock in the warning, he sends an eager young knight to lead a troop of men and investigate, and since the letter includes hints of magic, Henry orders him to enlist the help of Durwin, the young Saxon whose education he has been financing these last two years.

Durwin takes an assistant and accompanies the troop to Lincoln, but quickly finds his blossoming abilities as a sage are not warmly received. Upon reaching town, it only takes a couple of hours for Durwin to realize that they are up against a vast Satanic conspiracy?and his companions may have already fallen into a deadly trap!

King Henry is dead; Richard the Lionheart now rules England. The new king does not believe in magic, and is interested only in a crusade to recapture Jerusalem.

But his crusade soon stalls, and while he is away, his brother, John, and his supposed ally, Philip of France, are conspiring to steal his kingdom. Richard's mother, Queen Eleanor, sends Sir Durwin, Enchanter General of England, out to Palestine, where he must convince the skeptical king that a loyal magician can be a valuable aide.

Meanwhile, King Philip has turned all of Europe into a trap for Richard. The moment the Lionheart sets foot there, he will be arrested and imprisoned for life. It is up to Durwin, aided by his old friend William Legier, to see Richard safely home again and to save the kingdom from falling into the hands of the sadistic and treacherous Prince John...

On planet Bellevue, isolated for centuries after the collapse of interstellar civilization, a sentient computer still functions. When it and Raj, a young military officer, discover each other, a spark is struck which offers hope to benighted Bellevue. But first Raj must become the General.

A monolithic computer is using General Raj Whitehall to reunite the planet and start humanity back on the road to technological achievement, but armies of musket- and saber-wielding barbarians stand in the way.

With the aid of a sentient battle computer, Raj Whitehall and his band of sworn Companions struggle to reunite the entire planet of Bellevue and find their mission impeded by Barholm Clerett.

On a mission to reunite the planet Bellvue, Raj Whitehall and his men must conquer a group of barbarians or else his civilization could plunge into an era of darkness.

Undertaking a mission to conquer the last of the barbarian nations and restore the Federation on the planet Bellevue, Raj Whitehall finds a desperate challenge in paranoid overlord Barholm Clerett, who is determined to kill Raj.

Picking up where their highly successful sreies The General leaves off, The Chosen follows the further adventures of Raj Whitehall and Battle Central--this time to the stars! Working with an ancient battle computer in order to prepare hundreds of planets for membership in the Second Federation of Man, Raj Whitehall encounters the militarist planet of Visigar, where racial practices are used to prevent unity.

After the collapse of galactic civilization, the computer named Center still functioned and launched electronic copies of itself and its human agent, Raj, to the thousands of worlds still waiting for the light of civilization to dawn. On Hafardine, civilization had fallen further than most. That men came from the stars was not even a rumour of memory in Adrian Gellert's day. A philosopher and Student of the Grove, Adrian's greatest desire was a life of contemplation in the service of wisdom. Until the day he touched the holy relic that contained the discarnate minds of Center and Raj Whitehall ...From that day on his life became one of action, from the law-courts of the Empire of Vanbret to the pirate cities of the Archipelago, on battlefields bloodier than any he'd learned of in history - where the prize at stake was the future of humanity.

If the corrupt Empire ruling most of planet Hafardine falls, so will the last remnants of civilization left behind when galactic civilization collapsed long ago. Only two men see the coming disaster, and have a plan to save the future.

ABEL DASHIAN'S WORLD DOESN'T NEED A HERO

Duisberg is one of thousands of planets plunged into darkness and chaos by the collapse of the galactic republic, but where other worlds have begun to rebuild a star-travelling culture, Duisberg remains in an uneasy balance between mud-brick civilization and bloodthirsty barbarism.

The people of Duisberg have a god: Zentrum, a supercomputer from the ancient past. Zentrum has decided avoid another collapse by preventing civilization from rising from where it is. And because even a supercomputer and the powerful religion which it founded cannot block all progress, Zentrum has another tool: every few centuries the barbarians sweep in from the desert, slaughtering the educated classes and cowing the peasants back into submission. These are the Blood Winds, and the Blood Winds are about to blow again.

This time, however, there's a difference: Abel Dashian, son of a military officer, has received into his mind the spirit of Raj Whitehall, the most successful general in the history of the planet Bellevue--and of Center, the supercomputer which enabled Raj to shatter his planet's barbarians and permit the return of civilization.

One hero can't stop the tide of barbarians unless he has his own culture supporting him. To save Duisberg, Abel must break the power of Zentrum.

With the help of Raj and Center, Abel Dashian must become... THE HERETIC!

Sequel to The Heretic, Book 10 in the nationally best-selling General series.

FROM HERETIC TO SAVIOR

Duisberg is one of thousands of planets plunged into darkness and chaos by the collapse of the galactic republic, but where other worlds have begun to rebuild a star-travelling culture, Duisberg remains in an uneasy balance between mud-brick civilization and bloodthirsty barbarism.

The people of Duisberg have a god: Zentrum, a supercomputer from the ancient past. Zentrum has decided avoid another collapse by preventing civilization from rising from where it is. This is known as the Stasis. And because even a supercomputer and the powerful religion which it founded cannot block all progress, Zentrum has another tool: every few centuries the barbarians sweep in from the desert, slaughtering the educated classes and cowing the peasants back into submission. These are the Blood Winds, and the Blood Winds are about to blow again.

This time, however, there's a difference: Abel Dashian, son of a military officer, has received into his mind the spirit of Raj Whitehall, the most successful general in the history of the planet Bellevue--and of Center, the supercomputer which enabled Raj to shatter his planet's barbarians and permit the return of civilization.

One hero can't stop the tide of barbarians unless he has his own culture supporting him. To save Duisberg, Abel must conquer the very land of his origin and attempt to destroy the computer A.I. "god" who has doomed his world to an everlasting Dark Age. Abel is a heretic, but now he must go beyond and become--THE SAVIOR.

Life's biggest victim, please step up and claim your prize!

A smash-hit reality show is offering a lifetime of luxury to the one person living the world's worst life, and now everyone is out to prove just how bad they've got it.

Want in? All you've got to do is accept ocular implants that let the whole world see life through your eyes, twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week.

Fortunately, there's still one person who hasn't lost faith in all humanity. The show's ever-smiling host is determined to wring some tiny bit of meaning out of this twisted competition and your unhappy existence.

There has to be a purpose behind all this misery.

...doesn't there?