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Rise of the Terran Empire


CoverNicholas van Rijn, the most flamboyant member of the Polesotechnic League of star traders, could see dark times ahead. Fellow league members were using tactics verging on outright piracy, and others were all too eager to sell starships and high-tech weapons to alien barbarians. A planet not previously known for interstellar commerce suddenly revealed a secret fleet of armed starships, and started building an empire. Even if Van Rijn and his right-hand man David Falkayn could find a way to stop this blatant aggression, the glory days of the League were over. Hereafter, for its own protection against well-armed alien marauders the Earth must maintain a strong military fleet, and one charismatic man would found an empire that would learn nothing of the lessons history taught about the fates of other empires as it began annexing other star systems, whether they wanted to join the Terran Empire or not . . .

This is the third volume in the first complete edition of Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization saga, and it includes a classic novella which appears here in book form for the first time. And the next volume begins the adventures of Poul Anderson's other legendary character, Captain Sir Dominic Flandry.

Cover Art by Bob Eggleton


ORDER 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, June 2009

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

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson, Poul, 1926-2001.
Rise of the Terran Empire / by Poul Anderson.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4391-3275-3 (trade pbk.)
1. Life on other planets—Fiction. 2. Human-alien encounters—Fiction. 3. Interplanetary voyages--Fiction. I. Title.
PS3551.N378R57 2009
813'.54--dc22
2009011712

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-3275-3
ISBN-10: 1-4391-3275-5

"Introduction" copyright © 2009 by Hank Davis.
"A Chronology of Technic Civilization" by Sandra Miesel copyright © 2008 by Sandra Miesel.

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


Acknowledgements

Mirkheim, copyright © 1977 by Poul Anderson; Berkley Putnam, 1977.

Introduction to "Wingless," first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam 1978; copyright © 1978 by Poul Anderson.

"Wingless" © as "Wingless on Avalon," Children of Infinity, Roger Elwood, ed., Franklin Watts, 1973; copyright © 1973 by Franklin Watts, Inc.

Introduction and Afterword to "Rescue on Avalon," first published in The Earth Book of Stormgate, Berkley Putnam 1978; copyright © 1978 by Poul Anderson.

"Rescue on Avalon," copyright © 1973 by the Boy Scouts of America, Boy's Life, July, 1973.

"The Star Plunderer" (including the Introduction), copyright © 1952 by Love Romances Publishing Co., Inc.; Planet Stories, September, 1952.

Introduction to "Sargasso of Lost Starships" copyright © 2009 by Hank Davis.

"Sargasso of Lost Starships," copyright © 1951 by Love Romances Publishing Co., Inc.: Planet Stories, January 1952.

The People of the Wind, copyright © 1973 by Poul Anderson; Signet, 1973.

 

 BAEN BOOKS
BY
POUL ANDERSON

The Van Rijn Method
David Falkayn: Star Trader
Rise of the Terran Empire
Young Flandry (forthcoming)

To Outlive Eternity and Other Stories

Time Patrol

Hokas! Pokas! (with Gordon R. Dickson)
Hoka! Hoka! Hoka! (with Gordon R. Dickson)

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