About this ebook
—Analog, on the Confederated Worlds series
The Confederated Worlds lost the war.
Can Lt. Tomas Neumann win the peace?
The ceasefire holds by a thread. Under the fragile peace treaty, citizens of the strategic world Arden will vote to remain with the defeated Confederated Worlds—or defect to the victorious Progressive Republic.
Newly-minted Lieutenant Tomas Neumann leads his battle-scarred, undermanned platoon on what should be a routine peacekeeping mission. But when Arden's rebels launch coordinated strikes backed by shadowy Republic operatives, routine becomes a nightmare. His overstretched Ground Force unit faces enemies who vanish like smoke, using tactics that blur the line between insurgency and invasion.
The stakes couldn't be higher. If his mission fails, Arden falls to the enemy—triggering a domino effect that will shatter what remains of the Confederated Worlds and plunge the galaxy back into total war.
Sometimes the hardest battles come after the shooting stops.
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About the author
Raymund Eich is a science fiction and fantasy writer whose middle American upbringing is a launchpad for journeys to the ends of the universe.
His most popular works are military science fiction series The Confederated Worlds (novels Take the Shilling, Operation Iago, and A Bodyguard of Lies) and the Stone Chalmers series of science fiction espionage adventures (novels The Progress of Mankind, The Greater Glory of God, To All High Emprise Consecrated, and In Public Convocation Assembled).
He has over ten other published book-length works and more than forty published short stories. His short fiction has appeared in Analog, Odyssey, Boundary Shock Quarterly, and the anthology Surviving Tomorrow, and has earned honorable mentions and a semi-finalist award in the Writers of the Future contest. His works are available worldwide in ebook, trade paperback, and audiobook editions.
After circling the world by age five, he grew up in the Ozark Mountains of southwest Missouri. He earned a B.A. and a Ph.D., both in biochemistry, from Rice University. Though he’s no longer a working scientist, hundreds of papers cite his graduate research.
In addition to his writing career, he works in patent law, won a national quiz bowl championship, is a husband and father, and affirms Robert Heinlein's dictum that specialization is for insects.
He lives in Houston with his wife, son, and daughter. His last name has one syllable and is pronounced “eye-sh.” He can be found online at https://raymundeich.com.
