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Hugo, Locus and Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 2000. It can also be found in the anthologies Space Soldiers (2001) edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection (2001), edited by Gardner Dozois, and The Hard SF Renaissance (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It is included in the collection Resplendent (2006).

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 12, September-October 2016. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 11 (2017), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017, edited by John Joseph Adams and Charles Yu.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

The Democracy is at war with the alien Traanskei Coalition. War hero Colonel Nathan Pretorius has a record of success on dangerous behind-enemy-lines missions, missions that usually leave him in the hospital. Now he's recruited for a near-impossible assignment that may well leave him dead.

At the cost of many lives, the Democracy has managed to clone and train General Michkag, one of the Traanskei's master strategists. Colonel Pretorius and a hand-picked team must kidnap the real Michkag if they can, assassinate him if they can't, but no matter which, put the clone in his place, where he will misdirect the enemy's forces and funnel vital information to the Democracy.

Against the odds, Pretorius, along with Cyborg Felix Ortega, computer expert Toni Levi, convict and contortionist Sally "Snake" Kowalski, the near-human empath Marlowe, the alien Gzychurlyx, and Madam Methuselah - the Dead Enders - must infiltrate the Fortress in Orion, accomplish their mission, and escape with their lives.

After nuclear weapons ravaged the Earth, only Skyholm, a huge solar-powered station floating above Europe, remains in possession of high technology. But as Skyholm is seized by a religious faction, a young noble escapes to the ground below and joins a group who conspire to use the power of the atom, outlawed for centuries, to regain the lost heritage of space flight.

John O'Ryan is not a god...not exactly. He is an eternal warrior destined to combat the Dark Lord through all time for dominion of the Earth. Follow him, servant of a great race, as he battles his enemy down the halls of time, from the caves of our ancestors to the final confrontation under the hammer of nuclear annihilation.

The immortal being who has become the champion of humankind must struggle to find the woman he loves in the mystical world of the Great Hunter.

A sequel to "Orion" and "Vengeance of Orion". At the end of the Cretaceous Period, Earth is in the grip of the dinosaurs. Their leader is a reptile, worshipped by the Egyptians as a powerful god for thousands of years. His mission is to destroy the Creators - Orion's masters - and rule the planet.

John O'Ryan is Orion--more than human, less than a god, cast away on the seas of Time to do battle among the Creators for the future of mankind.

Now the eternal warrior finds himself separated from his great love, Anya, and marooned in Macedonia under the reign of Phillip--fighting alongside the young Alexander, and at the mercy of a Queen Olympias who is far more than she seems.

More than human and less that a god, John O'Ryan is Orion, made by the Creators who rule outside of time. His purpose is to do their bidding. Now, Orion has becomee a key piece in a cosmic game between two of the Creators--Anya, the goddess he loves, and Aten, the god who toys with his destiny.

For the first time in more than 15 years, Ben Bova returns to the adventures of Orion - hunter, warrior, assassin, and time-traveler. Created by Aten, one of the god-like descendants of the human race 50,000 years in the future, Orion is forced to travel throughout space-time to do his Creator's malevolent bidding.

The year is 2072. At the lunar farside radio observatory, an old school radio broadcast is detected, similar to those broadcast on Earth in the 1940s and early 1950s, but in an unknown language, coming from an impossible source, and originating at an equally impossible location--Proxima Centauri. While the nations of Earth debate making First Contact, they learn that the Proximans are facing an extinction-level disaster, forcing a decision: Will Earth send a ship on a multiyear trip to provide aid?

Interstellar travel is not easy, and by traveling at the speeds required to arrive before disaster strikes at Proxima, humans will learn firsthand the effects of Einstein's Special Relativity and be forced to ponder the ultimate of questions of "Are we alone in the universe?" and "What does it mean to be human?"

First contact with the seemingly impossible human civilization at Proxima Centauri is not going well. The Earth ships sent to render aid have not been able to reverse the contagion ravaging their population and, worse, many Proximans are now wondering if the humans from Earth are there for other, not so charitable, reasons. Can the extinction-level disaster faced at Proxima be reversed by the combined ingenuity of scientists from both worlds working together?

Unsettling discoveries in the Proxima Centauri planetary system beg the questions: What if the evil gods depicted in Proxima's ancient mythologies were real and far more powerful than even the humans from Earth with their late 21st century technologies? Worse, what if their ancient oppressors never truly left?

As the U.S.S. Titan ventures beyond the outermost reaches of known space, the telepaths in her crew -- including Diplomatic Officer Deanna Troi -- are overwhelmed by an alien cryof distress, leading the ship to the scene of a shocking act of carnage: a civilization of interstellar "whalers" preying upon and exploiting a familiar species of sentient spaceborne giants.

Appalled but reluctant to rush to judgment, Captain William Riker and his crew investigate, discovering a cosmic spawning ground in a region of active star formation -- the ecosystem for a bewildering array of diverse but similarly vast life-forms. While attempting to negotiate an end to the victimization of these creatures, Riker's crew inadvertently grants them the means to defeat their hunters' purpose... only to learn that things are not exactly as they seem.

SEALS -- America's best just got better.

On the heels of a bloody first contact comes Earth's most important diplomatic mission in history: a summit meeting with the three alien empires vying for control of the galaxy. Assurance that Earth's first extraterrestrial ambassadors aboard the spaceship Pangaea will be safe means little to Lieutenant Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. After all, a job's a job. As escorts on the voyage, Jackson and his sixteen-man team of new-breed Navy SEALS (Sea, Air, Land, and Space) must be neither seen nor heard. Unless, of course, the op hits the fan.

While Jackson and his team respond to a distress call from an allied fleet, the Pangaea, with all its diplomatic passengers, goes missing, forcing the SEALS to follow the trail to an ice moon at the edge of the galaxy, a harsh environment crawling with crack commandos and hostile enemies. But for these warriors with their outrageous firepower, what seems an impossible quest is just another day in deep space.

After a brief (but heroic) fling with all that is right and just, Asahel Frost has reverted to his true nature--undisciplined and feckless, according to the girlfriend who just dumped him. Now he is once again the legal nonentity known as Helmut Icicle, living the riverboat skipper life in a tiny galactic outpost with the rest of the ne'er-do-wells.

That is until his sister Eve, herself genetically altered by the alien Haluk, begs Helmut to expose the Haluk's conspiracy, which threatens humans throughout the Spur worlds. Genetic alteration is tightly controlled, yet now it's running rampant. Helmut must find the culprits, but time is running out. Too many people have vanished into the secret empire where an evil genius reigns supreme. Worse yet, there's an unknown traitor in Helmut's own family who is quite willing to murder. Only one thing's clear: Helmut will emerge either triumphant... or dead.

While drifting in space, lost due to navigational failure, a mineral scout discovers God. When word gets out, academics from the studiums across Orion scramble to gain the Entity’s favor. However, not all the sentients of Orion hold this "god" in awe—some, like the philosophers of Scolar and the Transhumans of Extropy are deeply suspicious. Onto the grand stage of interplanetary academic politics, intellectual conceit, and dubious theology walks Baronessa Mira Fedor. Her planet has been torn apart by the invasion of a race of giant tardigrades. Only the Orion League of Sentient Species can lend aid, but OLOSS is preoccupied with communicating with God. Mira, together with the rowdy, misogynist Jo-Jo Rasterovich, is left to her own resources to find help. In doing so she unmasks a galaxy-sized intrigue. But will she live long enough to tell anyone?

Having fled the invasion on Araldis, Mira Fedor travels to the nearest Orion League planet seeking aid for her devastated world, but the authorities seem more interested in stealing her bio-ship, Insignia, than in rendering help. While Mira flees from world to world, Araldis burns. Why is the initiate Tekton taking such extreme measures just to acquire a mineral alloy? Why do so many of the protagonists in this galaxy-wide drama have links to the Stain Wars? And what part does the Sole Entity—literally, God—have to play?

With her home planet of Araldis under occupation by hostile forces, and with the Orion League of Sentient Species unable--or unwilling to help--Mira Fedor is forced to turn to the mercenary captain, Rast Randall, if she is to save her home. Having Rast on her side means she can thwart political constraints and enact her own game of ruthlessness. As hidden strategies of her allies and enemies alike are revealed, Mira wonders why the philosophers of Scolar have been targeted? And how far does the Extropist influence extend into Orion space? Is everyone set to achieve their separate goals, or has one devastating agenda been set in motion? Mira fears that these puzzling events are all leading toward a single and terrifying conclusion...

Mira Fedor and her friends stand in the eye of the hurricane, and everything in the Orion League remains in flux. She is pregnant, and its gestation is proceeding at an inhuman pace. As she hides out on her bioship, Insignia, it seems clear that the extropist's procedures have had an unforeseen effects--but will her child be more than human? As secrets are revealed and conspiracies exposed about the attack on Araldis, Mira wonders if there is still time to thwart one last master plan? The pieces are all in plan, all that remains is for each side to commit to its endgame. But there's one question nobody has thought to ask: will the Sole Entity...God...play by the rules? It's the epic conclusion to what the Sydney Morning Herald called "Space opera supreme."

Award winning author Darius Hinks follow-up novel

At the heart the wood elves' kingdom of Athel Loren, the forest-king Orion slumbers through the winter months to be reborn each spring and resume his arboreal throne. However, this year he awakens to discover a foul canker at the core of his eternal spirit - he has been cursed, though by whom and for what reason he does not know. In the grip of a furious rage he leads the asrai to war, but as the corruption spreads to the woodland realm around him, he feels his power waning and must rely upon his loyal subjects to help him unmask the traitor within their ranks.

The story of the forest-king of Athel Loren continues

Winter approaches, and Orion leads the wild hunt one last time before he returns to his slumber. But a dark power is rising in the groves of Athel Loren, corrupting beasts and elves alike. As Orion's servants hunt for a new host for the forest king's spirit, the daemon Alkhor's plan comes to fruition, threatening not only the wood elves but the forest realm itself.

The final instalment in the Orion trilogy

Orion is dead, his mortal host killed before the forest king could resurrect. The halls of the wood elves are in ruins and Athel Loren has fallen under the corrupting shadow of Chaos. As the ancient accord between elf and forest collapses into conflict, daemons flock to the woodland domain, intent on creating a new Realm of Chaos in the heart of the Old World. As the seasons pass and Orion is finally reborn, he must rally all the defenders of the forest if any are to survive.