Ad Astra — (2013) Publisher: In Jack Campbell’s New York Times bestselling Lost Fleet series, Campbell’s hero Captain Black Jack Geary explores the furthest reaches of space. Here, Campbell explores what kinds of problems mankind might face as our horizons expand. The third in a series of collections of Campbell’s short stories includes some of Campbell’s favorite stories, and some of his earliest. A brand new author’s note accompanies each story. “Lady Be Good” is one of Campbell’s most popular stories, winner of Analog Magazine’s “AnLab” reader poll for Best Short Story and cited in Gardner Dozois‘ Year’s Best SF.  The Lady Be Good is an old ship, running obscure routes, not all on the right side of the law, with her loyal first officer Kilcannon and reclusive captain. When Kilcannon decides to rescue the survivors of an attack on a Vestral Company ship, a mysterious new passenger thanks him by asking difficult questions about the Lady, with unexpected answers. In “Kyrie Eleison,” the Verio shipwrecked centuries ago on an out-of-the-way planet, and the descendants of the ship’s survivors have gotten along as well as they can by following the orders that were passed on to them. But those orders weren’t intended to govern life on the planet’s surface, and when the Bellegrange arrives on a rescue mission, her captain will have to reckon with the unexpected social order on the planet. In “Do No Harm”, a ship is so technologically advanced that it can repair itself — but turning over the keys might not be the best idea. And in “Down the Rabbit Hole,” a series of failed attempts at faster-than-light travel lead to a novel approach: sending an untested Naval captain out in a space ship to see if he can figure out what’s gone wrong. With eleven stories in all, AD ASTRA is the most multi-faceted introduction to the short fiction of Jack Campbell, and an essential complement to his bestselling book-length work.

Borrowed Time — (2013) Publisher: In Jack Campbell’s New York Times bestselling Lost Fleet series, Campbell takes his readers through a grand adventure in space. In BORROWED TIME, seven stories take readers on an equally grand journey through time. A new author’s note accompanies each story. The centerpiece of BORROWED TIME is “Betty Knox and Dictionary Jones in the Mystery of the Missing Teenage Anachronisms.” When you’ve traveled through time and are stuck in the body of your 15-year-old self, it isn’t the best time to have some other time travelers looking to kill you. Especially when the person who’s supposed to be keeping an eye out for the bad guys is stuck in his own 15-year-old body. And it’s 1964: when you’re both 15 and your parents don’t want you spending time alone, how are you going to save your lives? SFRevu called this story “one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve had in a long time.” In four interlinked short stories, Temporal Interventionists Tom and Pam meet cute, then work together to solve some of history’s greatest mysteries. Discover the real origin of the Spanish Flu. Learn why a massive and mysterious explosion in 1908 happened to occur in the world’s least-inhabited region. Consider the possibility that the development of ironclad warships by both the South and the North at the exact same time during the American Civil War might have been more than coincidence. And why don’t we know exactly who fired the Shot Heard Round the World, the lone gunshot that started the American Revolution? In “Joan,” Kate is a time-traveling researcher who’s gotten a little too close to Joan of Arc both in time and emotionally. With no distance, scientific or otherwise, what will happen when she has a chance to rescue Joan from being burnt at the stake? Our journey through time concludes with “Crow’s Feat,” when a skeptical writer goes back to Elizabethan England to discover the true author of Shakespeare’s plays. BORROWED TIME is the second in a series of short story collections from Jack Campbell.

Swords and Saddles — (2013) Publisher: In the New York Times bestselling Lost Fleet series, author Jack Campbell has taken readers and Captain Black Jack Geary on a fast-paced journey of conquest across vast reaches of space. Now, in the three novellas contained in SWORDS AND SADDLES, first in a series of short fiction collections from Jack Campbell, readers can explore the entire universe of Campbell’s fiction. A new author’s note accompanies each story. Begin by entering “The Rift.” Answering a distress call from a colonized planet, a combat team finds themselves ambushed. They manage to scrabble their way to a remote research facility in the countryside, joining a group of schoolchildren that have holed up with the researchers — three groups united in fear that their lives will last only as long as they can avoid discovery by the aliens that have come to their planet. When the aliens do come, it becomes clear that despite all the years of research, the humans’ understanding of the aliens is woefully incomplete. “Swords and Saddles” is one of several alternate history stories that Jack Campbell has written. When lightning strikes Captain Ulysses Benton and his US Cavalry Fifth Regiment, they recover to find an ancient structure in the desert that they’ve never seen before — and writing in a language none of them recognize. When the next find themselves skirmishing with soldiers wearing armor more appropriate to Roman centurions than 1870s Kansas, it becomes clear that wherever it is they are, it isn’t Kansas. But where are they, then? And how do they make their way home? The Lost Fleet isn’t the only Jack Campbell series full of outer space intrigue. “Failure to Obey”is a novella in his Paul Sinclair series. When Lieutenant Jen Shen saves the day after a terrorist attack on a space station, she gets a medal, but Ivan Sharpe, a fellow officer and Paul’s former master-at-arms, gets a court martial. In a classic court martial scene that rivals the best in American literature, Paul has to work behind the scenes to save Ivan’s military career.

The Last Full Measure — (2013) Publisher: As the author of the bestselling Lost Fleet series, Jack Campbell s name is well-known to fans of interstellar heroics. Now, with his thrilling new novella The Last Full Measure, Campbell brings his keen eye for military adventure and political intrigue to a tale that is earthbound, but no less wondrous… In a transformed mid-nineteenth century America dominated by plantation owners and kept in line by Southern military forces, a mild-mannered academic from Maine, Professor Joshua Chamberlain, stands accused of crimes against the nation. In court alongside him is Abraham Lincoln, whose fiery rhetoric brands him a ‘threat to the security of the United States of America.’ Convicted, Chamberlain is sentenced to forty years hard labor, while Lincoln s fate is indefinite detention at Fortress Monroe. But Professor Chamberlain then encounters military minds who understand the true ideals upon which the country was founded and who want to foment revolution. To succeed, they need a leader, someone to inspire the people to take up the cause of liberty: Lincoln. All they have to do is flawlessly execute a daring plan to rescue him from the darkest federal prison. In The Last Full Measure, Campbell delivers a riveting look at an America where war is imminent, and nothing is as it should be.