Books – The Worlds of Charles E. Gannon

Caine’s Mutiny

Released February 2017

A new entry in the critically acclaimed Caine Riordan science fiction series by three-time Nebula nominee Charles E. Gannon! Science fiction on a grand scale. Prequels Raising Caine, Trial by Fire and Fire with Fire were all Nebula Award finalists. Charles E. Gannon is also the winner of the Compton Crook Award.

Caine Riordan, fresh from serving as envoy to the aliens known as the Slaasriithi, has been given yet another daunting task: apprehend raiders that are terrorizing a distant planet.

As difficulties mount, Caine becomes aware that the mission his superiors sent him to perform may not be the one they actually hope he will achieve. Which means Caine may be forced to choose between honoring a promise to friends or following orders—a choice that could ultimately put him in front of a board of inquiry. Or a firing squad.

Raising Caine

Released September 2016

Book Three in the Nebula award nominated and Compton Crook award winning series. Science fiction adventure on a grand scale.

Caine Riordan, reluctant diplomatic and military intelligence operative, has just finished playing his part repulsing the Arat Kur’s and Hkh’Rkh’s joint invasion of Earth.

But scant hours after the attackers surrender, the mysterious but potentially helpful Slaasriithi appeal to Caine to shepherd a diplomatic mission on a visit to their very alien worlds. The possible prize: a crucial alliance in a universe where the fledgling Consolidated Terran Republic has very few friends.

But Caine and his legation aren’t the only ones journeying into the unknown reaches of Slaasriithi space. A group of renegade K’tor are following them, intending to destroy humanity’s hopes for a quick alliance. And that means finding and killing Caine Riordan.

Assuming that the bizarre and dangerous Slaasriithi lifeforms don’t do it first.

Trial By Fire

Released August 2015

When reluctant interstellar diplomat and intelligence operative Caine Riordan returns from humanity’s first encounter with alien races, sudden war clouds burst. With Earth’s fleet shattered by a sneak attack and its survivors fighting for their lives, Caine must rely upon both his first contact and weaponry skills to contend with the non-humanoid enemy. And when the technologically-superior attackers sweep aside the solar system’s last defenses, and traitorous corporations invite the invaders to land ‘security forces,’ humanity fights back with its best weapons: cunning, inventiveness, and guts.

But as Earth hurtles towards a final trial by fire that is certain to scar its collective memory, Caine discovers that there may also be large and disturbing gaps in that memory. Clues point to a much earlier inter-species apocalypse, buried in humanity’s own prehistory. Which raises a terrifying possibility: what if the aliens’ invasion of Earth is not one of conquest, but preemption? And what if their harrowing memories of a long-past cataclysmic war makes them willing to do anything to keep it from reigniting?

Even if that means exterminating the human race.

Fire with Fire: Contact & Convocation

Released April 2013

Nebula Awards finalist and a Compton Crook Awards winner.

Hijacked and stuck in cold sleep by a shadowy intelligence agency, analyst Caine Riordan is reanimated after 13 years to carry out a simple, if clandestine, assignment: assess the first physical evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

However, arriving on-site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he’s been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it’s clear that someone doesn’t want his mission to succeed.

But when Caine does complete the mission, and first contact with exosapients seems imminent, an even more deadly threat arises: the onset of an immense interstellar war. The primary objective: to exterminate all of humanity.

And, for some reason, Caine is the first target.

Fire With Fire blends interstellar epic, intrigue, and military SF and is the lead-off novel of the Tales of the Terran Republic future history. Previously published works in this setting have appeared in Analog and the Defending the Future anthology series.

Aethers of Mars

Released May 2014

It is 1903 and Cecil Rhodes is the most powerful man in the solar system. He controls a growing fleet of airships and aetherships, all designed after the first few that he used to wipe out the Boers to a Man, and sink three of her Majesty’s ships when they refused “the lawful orders” of the Black Parliament. With new colonies on Mars and Venus, patrolled by the Mourning-liveried Blackcoats , the vengeful hand of the Empire has become hard in the wake of Victoria’s assassination. Those same hard hands squeeze labor, royalists, and the Irish relentlessly, searching for the moral softness of decaying loyalty, of treasonous rot.
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1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies

Released June 2014

Eddie Cantrell, now married to the king of Denmark’s daughter, is sent by Admiral Simpson to the Caribbean to secure access to the most valuable commodity on that continent—not the gold and silver which the Spanish treasure, but the oil which up‑time machines and industry need.
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Past Announcements

Beginnings: Worlds of Honor 6 has been released as of July, 2013.
This sixth volume in the popular Worlds of Honor series includes stories by 1635: Papal Stakes coauthor and best seller Charles E. Gannon, New York Times bestseller and Star Wars phenomenon, Timothy Zahn and Joelle Presby.
1635: The Papal Stakes, with Eric Flint, was released October 2012.
This novel provides the long-awaited resolution to the situations–and answers the questions left hanging–in 1635: The Cannon Law. With Pope Urban VIII on the run with the renegade Uptime Embassy from Rome, and Frank and Giovanna in the clutches of Cardinal Borja, there’s no shortage of crises and conflicts to be settled.
Going Interstellar, an anthology about slower-than-light interstellar travel, release date June, 2012.
Man Kzin Wars XIII, my two-part short novel appearing in this installment of Larry Niven’s collection, release date May, 2012.
The paperback version of Extremis, w/ Steve White, release date May, 2012.