Vorpal Blade

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Behold the Vorpal Blade: humanity's first FTL ship, cobbled together with alien technology and the kind of engineering intuition, grit and ingenuity that only humans can provide. Crewed by the best and brightest…warrior nerds. Commanded by smart-mouthing, gun-toting, swashbuckling…scientists. Given teeth with a special ops contingent that can simultaneously obliterate alien monstrosities and save extraterrestrial civilizations precisely because they can tell the difference between a fermion and a boson.

You love modern SF, but admit it: you've missed the Great Stuff. Well, here it is. Science fiction that totally lives up to its promise. Non-stop action! Cutting edge particle physics! Alien demons! Strange new worlds with even stranger species living upon them!

John Ringo, creator of the "Posleen War" series, U.S. Army veteran and multiple New York Times and USA Today best-seller, teams with NASA and DOD consultant "Doc" Travis S. Taylor for the sequel to Ringo's wildly imaginative, hugely popular Into the Looking Glass. Look ye on in contentment and satisfaction, O Heinlein, Clarke and Andre Norton—the latest additions to the Great SF Constellation of Adventure have arrived!

Cover Art by Kurt Miller

Hardcover

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, September 2007

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Pages by Joy Freeman (www.pagesbyjoy.com)
Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-2129-7
ISBN-10: 1-4165-2129-1

Copyright© 2007 by John Ringo & Travis S. Taylor

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.baen.com

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webscription.net

DEDICATION

To Bob Heinlein, Andre Norton, Doc Smith,
Isaac Asimov, AE van Vogt and all the rest of the
greats who sparked a young man's imagination.
 
And to Jim Baen, for giving us both
the chance to pay it forward.
 
Last
As Always:
For Captain Tamara Long, USAF
Born: 12 May 1979
Died: 23 March 2003, Afghanistan
You fly with the angels now.

Baen Books by John Ringo

Into the Looking Glass
The Vorpal Blade with Travis S. Taylor
Manxome Foe with Travis S. Taylor (forthcoming)
 
Von Neumann's War with Travis S. Taylor
 

The Legacy of the Aldenata Series

A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo
Gust Front by John Ringo
When the Devil Dances by John Ringo
Hell's Faire by John Ringo
The Hero by John Ringo and Michael Z. Williamson
Cally's War by John Ringo and Julie Cochrane
Watch on the Rhine by John Ringo and Tom Kratman
Yellow Eyes by John Ringo and Tom Kratman
Sister Time by John Ringo and Julie Cochrane (forthcoming)
 
There Will Be Dragons
Emerald Sea
Against the Tide
East of the Sun, West of the Moon
 
Ghost
Kildar
Choosers of the Slain
Unto the Breach
A Deeper Blue
 
Princess of Wands
 
The Road to Damascus with Linda Evans
 

with David Weber:

March Upcountry
March to the Sea
March to the Stars
We Few
 

Baen Books by Travis S. Taylor

Warp Speed
The Quantum Connection
 
One Day on Mars (forthcoming)