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![The Good, the Bad, and the Merc: Even More Stories from the Four Horsemen Universe (The Revelations Cycle Book 8) by [Chris Kennedy, Kacey Ezell, Jason Cordova, Terry Mixon, Terry Maggert, Kal Spriggs, T. Allen Diaz, Stephanie Osborn, Christopher L. Smith, Philip Wohlrab, Robert E. Hampson, Eric S. Brown, Marisa Wolf, Jon R. Osborne, Mark Wandrey]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51HdgvXRXDL._SY346_.jpg)
The Good, the Bad, and the Merc: Even More Stories from the Four Horsemen Universe (The Revelations Cycle Book 8) Kindle Edition
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It’s the Twenty-Second Century. Humanity has taken its first steps into the galaxy, and we’ve found ourselves in a vast playground of alien races, environments, and cultures. As the newest players on the universal stage, though, our position is readily apparent—we’re at the bottom of the food chain.
Welcome back to the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates Humans from the majority of the other races. While some of the stories inside deal with mercenaries, others introduce readers to the other guilds, organizations, and races that make up the landscape of the Four Horsemen universe, as well as providing additional insight into the characters of the mainline novels. What’s it like to be a medic on the beach or to learn how to kill from a mother not your own? Come find out!
Edited by bestselling authors and universe creators Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy, “The Good, the Bad, and the Merc” includes sixteen all-new stories in the Four Horsemen universe by a variety of bestselling authors—and some you may not have heard of…yet. In a galaxy this big, you’ll find that some of the races are good and others are bad, but only the best are mercs!
Inside you’ll find:
Foreword by David Drake
Argonaut by Kal Spriggs
Shell Game by Terry Mixon
The Last Dragon by Terry Maggert
Hero of Styx by T. Allen Diaz
The Beach by Philip Wohlrab
Velut Luna by Christopher L. Smith
Keep the Home Fires Burning by Jason Cordova
Vvremya by Mark Wandrey
The Last Guardsman by Stephanie Osborn
Unto the Last–Stand Fast by Robert E. Hampson
The Demon of Ki-A by Eric S. Brown
Under the Skin by Marisa Wolf
Inked by Mark Wandrey
Angels and Aliens by Jon R. Osborne
Life by Chris Kennedy
Lessons by Kacey Ezell
Want to keep up with the Four Horsemen universe? Visit Chris Kennedy Publishing and subscribe to the mailing list!
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateNovember 14, 2017
- File size2405 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
From the Author
We needed help.
So we asked some authors we knew, and some we just sort of knew of, if they'd like to help us expand our universe by writing a short story set in the universe. We were overwhelmed at the response--this is the third (and final, at least for now) of the books necessary to accommodate all of the authors who said "Yes!" when we asked them to participate. Like us, they found the universe a lot of fun and couldn't wait to jump in.
We gave them a short primer on the universe and sent them on their way with only two points of guidance: it had to be set in the Four Horsemen Universe, and it had to be good. As such, these 16 tales describe the highs and lows of life on the battlefield, as well as in the streets and alleys of the Four Horsemen Universe. While some deal with mercenaries, others introduce readers to members of the other guilds, organizations, and races. "The Good, the Bad, and the Merc" not only gives you a look at some of the 4HU past...but a sneak peek at what lies in store, hidden like an Easter Egg for you to find.
Like its predecessors, "The Good, the Bad, and the Merc"includes all-new stories by a variety of bestselling authors--and some you may not have heard of...yet. Edited by universe creators Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy, authors Kal Spriggs, Terry Mixon, Terry Maggert, T. Allen Diaz, Philip Wohlrab, Chris Smith, Jason Cordova, Stephanie Osborn, Robert E. Hampson, Eric S. Brown, Marisa Wolf, Jon R. Osborne, Kacey Ezell, Mark Wandrey, and Chris Kennedy take on various aspects of the universe, giving you additional insight into a galaxy where there are good races, bad races, and a whole lot of mercs!
Mark and I are indebted to the authors who participated inthis project for their time and talents, and to David Drake for the foreword.
Why David Drake for the foreword to the third of these anthologies? Hammer's Slammers. This is one of the best mercenary books, ever. One of the first scifi books I ever read was Hammer's Slammers, and it is a major reason why you're reading this right now. It also taught me the word cyan,which, as a guy, was a color I didn't know existed. The bottom line is if you haven't read Hammer's Slammers, you should. Having been there, David Drake knows what war is all about, and we're indebted to him for sharing his thoughts.
Chris Kennedy
Virginia Beach, VA
Product details
- ASIN : B077H6H36M
- Publisher : Seventh Seal Press (November 14, 2017)
- Publication date : November 14, 2017
- Language : English
- File size : 2405 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 471 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 1942936893
- Best Sellers Rank: #236,571 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,255 in Space Marine Science Fiction eBooks
- #1,342 in Space Fleet Science Fiction eBooks
- #1,473 in Space Marine Science Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Few can claim the varied background of award-winning author Stephanie Osborn, the Interstellar Woman of Mystery.
Veteran of more than 20 years in the civilian space program, as well as various military space defense programs, she worked on numerous space shuttle flights and the International Space Station, and counts the training of astronauts on her resumé. Her space experience also includes Spacelab and ISS operations, variable star astrophysics, Martian aeolian geophysics, radiation physics, and nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons effects.
Stephanie holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in four sciences: astronomy, physics, chemistry and mathematics, and she is "fluent" in several more, including geology and anatomy.
In addition she possesses a license of ministry, has been a duly sworn, certified police officer, and is a National Weather Service certified storm spotter.
Her travels have taken her to the top of Pikes Peak, across the world’s highest suspension bridge, down gold mines, in the footsteps of dinosaurs, through groves of giant Sequoias, and even to the volcanoes of the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest, where she was present for several phreatic eruptions of Mount St. Helens.
Now retired from space work, Stephanie has trained her sights on writing. She has authored, co-authored, or contributed to some 50 books, including the celebrated science-fiction mystery, Burnout: The mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281. She is the co-author of the Cresperian Saga book series, and has written the critically acclaimed Displaced Detective Series, described as "Sherlock Holmes meets The X-Files," and its pulp-bestselling prequel series, Gentleman Aegis, the very first book of which won a Silver Falchion award. She has dabbled in paranormal/horror as well, releasing the ebook novella El Vengador, based on a true story. Her recent popular science book, Rock and Roll, a discussion of the New Madrid fault and its historic quakes, was a multiple-genre bestseller! Currently she's launching into the unknown with the Division One series, her take on the urban legend of the people who show up at UFO sightings, alien abductions, etc. to make things...disappear.
In addition to her writing work, the Interstellar Woman of Mystery now happily "pays it forward," teaching math and science through numerous media including radio, podcasting and public speaking, as well as working with SIGMA, the science-fiction think tank.
The Mystery continues.
To contact Stephanie, email her at steph@stephanie-osborn.com.
Join the "OfficialStephanieOsbornFanClub" on Facebook!
A 2019 Dragon Award finalist and 2015 John W. Campbell Award finalist, Jason Córdova has traveled extensively throughout the U.S. and the world. The author of the Kin Wars Universe and over 40 novels and short stories published, he is a US Navy veteran, a former teacher, and avid videogamer. He currently resides in North Carolina.
Eric S Brown is the author of numerous books including the Bigfoot War series, the Kaiju Apocalypse series, and the Homeworld series. Some of his stand alone works include War of the Worlds Plus Blood Guts and Zombies, Kraken, Megalodon, Megalodon Apocalypse, Sasquatch Lake, Crawlers, and World War of the Dead to name only a few. His short fiction has been published in anthologies from Baen Books, the Grantville Gazette, Walmart World Magazine, and hundreds of other places in the small press and beyond. The first book of his Bigfoot War series was adapted into a feature film in 2014 by Origin Releasing.
International bestselling author of military sci-fi, space opera, and zombie apocalypse, Mark Wandrey is also the only 4 time DragonCon Dragon Award finalist!
Newest Release - Blood in the Water - Book 5 in the 4HU Frontiers series, set in the Four Horsemen mil-sf universe.
Living the full time RV lifestyle as a modern day nomad, Mark Wandrey has been writing science fiction since he was in grade school. He launched his professional career in 2004 with the release of Earth Song - Overture. Now, 15 years later, he has more than 25 books out, including many bestsellers.
(Sign up for his mailing list at http://www.worldmaker.us/news-flash-sign-up-page/ or check out his Patreon page for free stuff at https://www.patreon.com/MarkHWandrey)
His favorite is military science fiction. However, he also pens Zombie Apocalypse (ZA) in the form of his 2016 Dragon Finalist "A Time to Die", book 1 in the Turning Point series. The series is complete and available on Amazon, continuing with Book 2, "A Time to Run", and finishing with "A Time to Live", released earlier this year.
His most successful works to date can be found in the Four Horsemen Universe (4HU), which he created and now shares with a slew of incredible authors including his partner and publisher, Chris Kennedy. The first book in the series, Cartwright's Cavaliers, was his 2nd Dragon Award Finalist in 2017. In the 4HU, nine books were published in 2017, and 20 (yes twenty) more released in 2018. Among those was A Fiery Sunset, coauthored with Chris Kennedy, it was his 3rd Dragon Award finalist. Since then the series has continued to expand and branch out, including a YA series (Black and White). If you love Military Sci-fi, this is the series for you, with well over 50 books and more coming every month!
Keep up with the 4HU on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/536506813392912/
You can also join the Mercenary Guild Fan Organization - https://www.facebook.com/groups/469402930466832/
You can also find out more at www.chriskennedypublishing.com
If Space Opera is your things, check out his Earth Song series, space opera of epic scale. Consisting of 6 completed books which have been re-edited and released. A new one will be released in 2021 as well.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BHYRCKH/?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&ref_=series_rw_dp_sw
A Webster Award winner and three-time Dragon Award finalist, Chris Kennedy is a Science Fiction/Fantasy author, speaker, and small-press publisher who has written over 30 books and published more than 200 others. Get his free book, “Shattered Crucible,” at his website, https://chriskennedypublishing.com.
Called “fantastic” and “a great speaker,” he has coached hundreds of beginning authors and budding novelists on how to self-publish their stories at a variety of conferences, conventions, and writing guild presentations. He is the author of the award-winning #1 bestseller, “Self-Publishing for Profit: How to Get Your Book Out of Your Head and Into the Stores.”
Chris lives in Coinjock, North Carolina, with his wife, and is the holder of a doctorate in educational leadership and master’s degrees in both business and public administration. Follow Chris on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ckpublishing/.
Left-handed. I like dragons, coffee, waffles, running, and giraffes; order unimportant. Let's keep in touch. https://linktr.ee/terrymaggert
T. Allen Diaz is a self-professed nerd and author of speculative fiction. He is best known for his gritty storytelling and edgy work. The moon-based, cyberpunk noir, LUNATIC CITY series typifies his dark, fast-paced writing style and flawed, relatable characters, while the WAR OF THE GODS SAGA delves into the deep lore of a fantastic, post-industrial civilization wrestling with the rise of an ancient evil and the moral pitfalls faced when combating it. His first series, THE PROCEENA TRILOGY, is a space opera with the grit and sci-fi military action of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and the tumultuous, revolutionary setting of LES MISERABLES.
In addition to his solo works, you can find his stories in Chris Kennedy’s and Mark Wandrey’s FOUR HORSEMEN UNIVERSE where his tales HERO OF STYX and THREE GLADIATORS appear in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE MERC, and LUCK IS NOT A FACTOR: MORE TALES FROM THE LYON’S DEN respectively. His story THE WITCH is featured in THE HUNDRED WORLDS ANTHOLOGY, and DEBT OF HONOR can be found the CANNON PUBLISHING MILITARY SCI-FI/FANTASY ANTHOLOGY by John Holmes.
T. Allen lives in the Tampa Bay area with his wife and two of his three kids (one has flown the coop.) He has served as a firefighter in the region for more than twenty-four years and intends to retire as a fire company captain in the coming months. He is diligently working on new material and looks forward to dedicating his full energy to his writing.
Kal Spriggs is a writer of science fiction and fantasy stories with over 30 books in print. An avid reader, he started reading J.R.R. Tolkien, Andre Norton, David Eddings, and Robert Heinlein in the 2nd grade and a love of reading and good stories has been constant with him ever since.
Kal is a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy. He followed in his parents' footsteps and joined the US Army after graduation and served as an active-duty engineer officer, a reservist, and as an active reservist. He is a combat veteran with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Kal has a master’s degree in environmental engineering and has worked in civil construction and environmental remediation.
His enjoyment for seeing new places has been facilitated by his career choices, and he's been to over thirty countries. Kal likes hiking, fishing, and skiing, and his favorite places are typically in the mountains of Colorado. His other hobbies include wargaming, tabletop RPGs (both as a DM and player), metalworking, and just about anything else that takes his interest.
A father and husband, Kal and his family live wherever the Army tells him to (he doesn't often get much choice in the matter) but he thinks of Colorado as home.
His website with more information, details on upcoming books, other random things can be found at kalspriggs.com
#1 Bestselling Military Science Fiction author Terry Mixon served as a non-commissioned officer in the United States Army 101st Airborne Division. He later worked alongside the flight controllers in the Mission Control Center at the NASA Johnson Space Center supporting the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and other human spaceflight projects.
He now writes full time while living in Texas with his lovely wife and a pounce of cats. Visit terrymixon.com to learn more.
A native Texan by birth (if not geography), Chris moved 'home' as soon as he could.
Attending Texas A+M for two of the four years he lived in College Station, he learned quickly that there was more to college than drinking beer and going to football games.
Deciding that a change of venue may be more beneficial, he moved to San Antonio, attending SAC and UTSA, graduating in late 2000 with a BA in Lit.
While there, he also met a wonderful lady that somehow found him to be funny, charming, and worth marrying. (She has since changed her mind on the funny and charming, but figures he's still a keeper.)
After the birth of his first child, and while waiting on the second, Chris decided that he should start his own business, and has been running it since 2001.
In a fit of creative inspiration, Chris began writing flash fiction in 2012, moved on to short stories, and should be finishing his first solo novel any day now. His first story, 'Bad Blood and Old Silver,' appears in the 'Luna's Children:Stranger Worlds' anthology, from Dark Oak Press. Other stories to be released: 'What manner of Fool,' featured in Michael Hanson's 'Sha'daa: Inked' anthology; 'Isaac Crane and the Ancient Hunger' in Fantom Enterprise's 'Dark Corners' anthology; and '150 Miles to Huntsville' in Baen's Black Tide Rising anthology. He has also co-authored (with Jason Cordova) 'Kraken Mare' from Severed Press.
His two cats allow him, his wife, their three kids, and two dogs to reside outside of San Antonio.
Find out more about Kacey Ezell at www.kaceyezell.net
Kacey Ezell was born in South Dakota in 1977. Her parents joined the US Air Force in 1984, and she grew up around the world on various military bases. When she was seven, her mother gave her a copy of Anne McCaffrey's Dragondrums, and shortly thereafter, Kacey decided that she wanted to be a dragonrider when she grew up. In 1999, she followed her parents into the "family business" and graduated from the United States Air Force Academy before going to pilot training. As dragons were in short supply at the time, she reasoned that flying aircraft was the next best thing. She earned her wings in 2001, and has over 2500 hours in the UH-1N and Mi-17 helicopters.
From the time she was a small child, Kacey made up stories to tell to her friends and family. In 2009, while deployed to Iraq, she wrote the military-themed supernatural story "Light", which was accepted for publication in the Baen Books anthology Citizens.
She is the author of the 2-time Dragon Award nominated alternate history series "The Psyche of War" about psychic women dealing with... well... war. She wrote "The Romanov Rescue" (Baen) along with Tom Kratman and Justin Watson, with some help from Monalisa Foster. In addition, she and Christopher L. Smith are currently collaborating with John Ringo on a post-apocalyptic steampunk trilogy from Baen, The first book, "Gunpowder and Embers" came out in 2019. She is a core author of the Four Horseman Universe from Seventh Seal Press (Chris Kennedy Publishing), where she co-authored the Depik Trilogy with Marisa wolf, and the bestselling "Weaver" with Mark Wandrey. Finally, she and Larry Correia have edited "Noir Fatale," and "No Game For Knights," both bestselling noir anthologies from Baen Books. They are currently working on a third anthology due out in 2024.
Kacey writes science fiction, fantasy, horror, noir, romance... etc. fiction. She lives with her husband, two daughters, and one large orange boy cat.
Philip Wohlrab has been a medic with the Army for over 16 years, and he has served his time in the sandbox. He earned the title "Doc" the hard way. He did a brief stint with the United States Coast Guard, where he did SAR, and formed an appreciation for all things nautical. He currently works as a professional war-gamer and analyst for a defense contractor in the DC area, and still serves in the National Guard. He can also be found at various Sci-Fi cons around the country.
Jon R. Osborne is a veteran gamemaster and journalism major turned science fiction and fantasy author. The second book in the Jon’s The Milesian Accords modern fantasy trilogy, “A Tempered Warrior”, was a 2018 Dragon Awards finalist for Best Fantasy Novel. Jon is also a core author in the military science fiction Four Horseman Universe, where he was first published in 2017.
Jon resides in Indianapolis, where he plays role-playing games, writes science fiction and fantasy, and lives the nerd life. You can find out more at jonrosborne.com and at https://www.facebook.com/jonrosborne.
Marisa Wolf was born in New England, and raised on Boston sports teams, Star Wars, Star Trek, and the longest books in the library (usually fantasy). Over the years she majored in English in part to get credits for reading (this...only partly worked), taught middle school, was headbutted by an alligator, built a career in education, earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and finally decided to finish all those half-started stories in her head.
She’s currently based in Texas, but has moved into an RV with her husband and their two ridiculous rescue dogs, and it's anyone's guess where in the country she is at any given moment. Learn more at www.marisawolf.net
Robert E. Hampson, PhD, is a Neuroscientist and author. By day, he is a professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine, studying how our brains encode memory. By night, he writes military, adventure and hard-science Science Fiction as well as nonfiction articles explaining science to the general public.
Robert's SF writing career began with several pieces of short fiction published in 2015. He now has three collaborative novels in the Four Horsemen Universe (Seventh Seal Press) and two solo novels—one forthcoming in 2023 from Baen Books. He has co-edited two anthologies, published more than 25 works of short fiction.
Dr. Hampson's scientific career has concentrated on understanding the effect of drugs, disease, and injury on human memory. As lead scientist for Braingrade, Inc., he is helping to develop a medical device to restore human memory function. He is a teacher, researcher, reviewer, scientific journal editor, and consultant. His website is http://REHampson.com.
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There are some sixteen short stories of varying size, mostly between a dozen and thirty pages each on multiple themes. Two of my favourites are the ones on Depiks – a race of feral cat-like aliens that specialise in contract assassinations. Another great story features a certain Zeke (Ezekiel Avander) who also figures in some of the Four Horsemen stories. In this collection, we see him during the earlier part of his career, when a slave of aliens biologists working for them in a secret laboratory somewhere in space.
A number of stories are about war, survival and death, grim last stands and fights against the odds which are sometimes won and sometimes not. This theme, well introduced by David Drake’s foreword, runs through the book. As usual with collections of short stories, there were some that I tended to prefer to others. I did not find any of them really weak and all were entertaining in various ways.
Four strong stars for another good collection of short stories.
I'm any event these are all excellent stories that are worthy of the time you will spend reading them.
The Bubba gives this whole effort two thumbs up.
All of the stories are a great addition to the 4HU and a must-read for any fan.
Top reviews from other countries


This universe is expanding at a rapid rate, and with a current release rate of at least one book a month, and possibly more, it's going to keep going for a long time.

