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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]

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Chris Kennedy

Kacey Ezell

The Good, the Bad, and the Merc: Even More Stories from the Four Horsemen Universe (The Revelations Cycle Book 8) Kindle Edition

by Chris Kennedy (Author), Kacey Ezell (Author), Jason Cordova (Author), Format: Kindle Edition

107 ratings

Book 8 of 12: The Revelations Cycle

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Even more authors and stories. Still the same bestselling universe.

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!

Print length

471 pages
Language

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Publication date

November 14, 2017
File size

2405 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Foreword by David Drake

SOLDIERS AND THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT

Anyone with a background in history knows that mercenary soldiers often have a difficult relationship with the government they're working for. Mercenaries have sometimes overthrown the employing government, but from my reading I don't believe that's as common as national armies mutinying to put their general on the throne. (Occasionally even against the general's wishes; but once the subject is raised, the general has no option but to go along with the rebellion).

A more common scenario is for a civil government to decide that it's more practical to stiff mercenaries of their pay--and often, for safety's sake, to massacre the former mercenaries.

Some of the most famous figures in the classical world were involved in this sort of treachery. Aratus of Sicyon, the greatest leader of the Achaean League, decided that paying the League's mercenaries after one of its wars with the Aetolians would cause the citizens of the League undue financial strain--so he simply dismissed the troops unpaid.

The consequences for the League weren't immediate, but they were serious nonetheless: the Acheans weren't able to hire mercenaries the next time they needed them--and war was endemic in Greece of the 3rd century BC. In the slightly longer term, Aratus and the League might have been better off if they had behaved honorably.

In a similar situation, the Carthaginians fought the First Punic War largely through mercenaries. (The most famous being Xanthippus, the Spartan soldier who trained the Carthaginians to defeat and destroy the Roman invasion force under Regulus.)

Despite the victory over Regulus, Rome won the war and imposed heavy penalties on Carthage. The Carthaginians decided they were unable to pay Rome and also pay their mercenaries--and decided that cheating the mercs was the better option. They decided to disband the mercenaries in small groups and send them away with partial payment or less. The mercenaries figured this out and rebelled before the plan could be implemented.

The result was an extremely vicious war which the Carthaginians eventually won by putting Hamilcar Barca in charge. He had been leading the mercenaries effectively in Sicily and due to Hamilcar's skill, the revolt was suppressed. The mercenaries were largely slaughtered.

In this case, there's no question but that Carthage would have been better off treating the mercenaries honorably to begin with. That isn't the way governments seem to think. Soldiers are, to civilian governments, basically disposable once the fighting ends.

I'm not talking only about 'mercenary soldiers' who are, after all, hirelings and often foreigners. ("Often" but not by any means "always.") Housman's famous Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries referred to the professional soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force in 1914, who stopped the many-times larger German First Army's drive for the coast, thereby saving France. To an upper class Brit they, though British citizens, were merely mercenaries because they fought for pay.)

For an example of more personal interest to me, consider the way the United States government treated its soldiers during the Vietnam War. All the government cared about us--enlistees as well as draftees--was numbers.

Robert S. McNamara, the technocrat who shaped the US conduct of the war, lowered the Army minimum intelligence test level for recruits by two points, adding another hundred thousand manifestly unfit soldiers (Project 100,000). He also began drafting graduate students. I don't know how many bodies that added, but my estimate in 1969 was that a third of my Basic Training Battalion was white kids from Western North Carolina; a similar percentage of black kids from Detroit; and the remainder were college graduates.

The first thing the army tried to do after drafting college graduates was to get us to sign up for a longer period of active duty than the two years we were required to serve. A lieutenant took me into his office and ran through a long list of special training that I could take. Except for the last, all the options involved me giving the Army an additional one or two years of active duty. (It would also involve my serial number being changed from US to RA--that is, enlisted instead of drafted. Keep that in mind when you look at figures on how many of the troops in Nam had been drafted.)

The lieutenant also emphasized why I might want to do that: anyone with a college degree who didn't sign up for a special school would be classified 11B--infantry--and sent to Nam as a grunt. (I took the last option, the 47-week Vietnamese language course in 30 weeks. I was still going to Nam, but this way I wound up riding armored vehicles instead of humping through the boonies on foot. That was just good luck.)

Everyone knows the American public didn't welcome returning Nam vets, but how did the US Government prepare us to return to the civilian lives from which it had ripped us for what Mr. McNamara later described as "a terrible mistake"?

In my case, I got several weeks knocked off my tour in Viet Nam so I could return to Duke Law School (out of which I'd been drafted). Seventy-two hours after I left the Returnee Barracks at Long Binh, heading for my flight to Travis AFB in California--back to The World, as we put it in Nam--I was in the lounge of Duke Law School, preparing to start my fourth semester.

There was no counselling offered (not that I wanted it; I just wanted out of the Army). The US Government didn't care any more about its former soldiers than Aratus or the Carthaginian Senate had about theirs.

I guess we should be glad they didn't decide to massacre us. I'm very much afraid it may have crossed some governmental minds, though.

The government left it up to me and other veterans to take care of ourselves. My way of doing that was to write stories which allowed me to describe the experience of a soldier in Viet Nam, using fiction as a distancing mechanism. I wasn't writing history, I wasn't even writing personal memoirs.

I was, however, trying to tell the truth about what a soldier feels--and perhaps more important, what a soldier doesn't feel. If you let yourself feel too much in a war zone, you go nuts. You do the things you have to do, and you keep on going. Or of course you die; and even if you walk off the plane without a visible wound on your return to The World, you may have given yourself up for dead months before.

This sort of realistic appraisal of what it means to be a soldier was almost unique in the science fiction of the '70s when I started writing about Hammer's Slammers. The stories didn't sell for over a year, but I continued to write them: they were my counselling, a chance to tell the truth aloud--and let my anger out in a socially acceptable fashion.

When the stories did sell, they gained a following--there were a lot of veterans out there. As a result it's now possible to write military SF which realistically explores the cost of war, including the cost to the soldier. The book you're holding is an example of that new appreciation.

Dave Drake

david-drake.com

July 21, 2017

From the Author

This book was born in the same place as the rest of the Four Horsemen Universe--in a bar. Mark and I were talking about the universe, and where we wanted to go with it, and we realized the galaxy was a lot bigger than we were going to be able to flesh out on our own any time soon.
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
Print length ‏ : ‎ 471 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1942936893
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #256,634 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #600 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Kindle Store)
- #932 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Books)
- #1,427 in Action & Adventure Literary Fiction

Customer Reviews:
107 ratings

About the authors

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Chris Kennedy
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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/.
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Kacey Ezell
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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 was asked to consult on John Ringo's 2015 novel Strands of Sorrow, and wrote the cover story for the Black Tide Rising anthology set in Ringo's zombie apocalypse universe. That story, "Not in Vain" was selected for inclusion in the "Year's Best Military SF and Adventure Fiction" anthology produced by Baen Books.
In addition, she's written a story for each of the bestselling Four Horsemen Universe anthologies, and her story "Family Over Blood" is included in the national bestseller "Forged In Blood" set in Michael Z. Williamson's Freehold Universe. It, too, was selected for inclusion in the "Year's Best Military SF and Adventure Fiction" anthology in 2018, and ended up winning the Baen Reader's choice award at DragonCon that year!
She and Christopher L. Smith are currently collaborating with John Ringo on a new post-apocalyptic steampunk trilogy from Baen, and her first solo novel, "Minds of Men" was released by Theogony Press on 10 November 2017. "Minds of Men" was a 2018 Dragon Award Finalist for Best Alternate History.
Kacey returned to the Four Horseman Universe to collaborate with Marisa Wolf on "Assassin", a novel about an alien race of felinoid killers-for-hire. "Assassin" is available now from Seventh Seal Press, as is "Weaver", a collaboration with Mark Wandrey.
Kacey writes science fiction, fantasy, horror, noir, romance... etc. fiction. She lives with her husband, two daughters, and two cats.
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Customer reviews

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Top reviews from the United States

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JPS

Yet another bunch of Four Horsemen Merc short stories

Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is the third collection of short stories written by multiple authors, with a title borrowed from spaghetti westerns in which Clint Eastwood starred when in his mid-thirties or so and taking place in the universe of the Four Horsemen. For those unfamiliar with it, the various stories take place during the 22sd century. Earth is part of the galaxy, a galaxy inhabited by multiple alien races, mostly of which are stronger, more deadly or technologically more advanced than Humans. These sell the only thing that is of interest to the alien races: their ability to fight as mercenaries and die for money, with the CASPers machines given them a chance against more powerful adversaries.

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.

2 people found this helpful

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Ken

Another Good Mix of Stories

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2017

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Chris and Mark have done another great job of choosing select authors, including themselves, for us to enjoy. For example, “The Beach” in its depiction of a Normandy type invasion on an alien shore but from a corpsman perspective is particularly good. Also we get connections to Cartwright’s Cavaliers and others of my favorite groups of people. Great work!

9 people found this helpful

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mrkleve

Dive into the Four Horsemen Universe!

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2017

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THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE MERC fills out the Four Horsemen Universe even more. You get to see more of the "regular" people who populate the universe, a couple of stories about the assassin race, Dupiks, as well as missions undertaken by some of the smaller human mercenary companies.

All of the stories are a great addition to the 4HU and a must-read for any fan.

2 people found this helpful

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BrianBAlbany

Richly entertaining and difficult to put down, don't miss this one!

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

I received an advanced copy of this book a few weeks ago, and it was every bit as entertaining as its predecessors in the series. I was glancing at the other reviews, and the comment about Earth's most valuable commodity being mercenaries made me think of the movie "Wall Street". There's an alien race of Gordon Gecko's trying to corner the market. Greed is universal, as is the extension of politics by other means. If you enjoy good stories you will enjoy this book. Despite getting it for free, and it being available on Kindle Unlimited, I bought it.

4 people found this helpful

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Brian Lee Gnad (The Bubba Man)

Excellent world building.

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2017

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I am a large fan of the four horsemen universe, and I'm not in the least surprised that there are several writers who want to play there. These writers do very good work and while some of them are merely (if you can forgive the phrase, which implies a meagerness that is undeserved) adding color and texture to the universe, some of them are adding background to the greater central conflict in this universe that I can taste and smell coming, but can't really identify. I do know that it is coming.

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.

One person found this helpful

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Nathan B

Really good short story collection

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2019

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I don't usually like short story collections as much as full novels, but in this case the overall quality of the stories was really good and each of them was engaging in their own way. It kept me turning pages, something only the best novels do for me. If you like science fiction, you'll appreciate this collection, and you don't really need to know about the Four Horsemen Universe to do so. If you enjoy the Four Horsemen Universe, this should be a truly good read.

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James P. Ruff, Jr.

outstanding

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

Of all the military SciFi that is available, there are a very few authors that command a huge lead over the run of the mill others. Chris Kennedy and \mark Wandrey have created the Horsemens world of MEC warriors that is second to none. There arent too many honorifics to apply to these stories. I an looking forward to all future releases by Chris

One person found this helpful

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Shawn Carey

Another great Four Horsemen Anthology!

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

Another outstanding anthology set in the Four Horsemen Universe. The first story was a strong opening from author I had not read before, Kal Spriggs. I also really like Terry Maggert’s story. I have read many of his fantasy novels. I hope he writes more military science fiction in the future. Further purchases from this publisher will be in ebook format due to their small font. I am currently reading Kevin Ikenberry's first novel set in this universe.

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