![](\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51twojevIwL._SL500_AA300_.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLet\u2019s take a quick look to see what\u2019s arrived at the Geek Compound.<\/p>\n
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Catalyst: A Tale of the Barque Cat<\/span><\/a> Promo copy:<\/span><\/p>\n Pilot, engineer, doctor\u2014ship\u2019s cat? Since the early days of interstellar travel, the so-called Barque Cats have become essential to the well-staffed space vessel. Assisted by humans\u2014Cat Persons\u2014with whom they share a deep and loving bond, the Barque Cats are responsible for keeping spacecraft free of vermin, for alerting crews to environmental hazards, and for acting as morale officers.<\/p>\n But a widespread epidemic affecting livestock on numerous planets throws the felines\u2019 future into doubt. Suddenly the galactic government announces a plan to impound and possibly destroy all exposed animals, including the Barque Cats. With the clock racing against them, a handful of very special kittens and their humans will join forces to save the Barque Cats, and quite possibly the universe as they know it, from total destruction.<\/p>\n \n Vortex<\/span> (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi<\/span>, Book 6)<\/a> Promo copy:<\/span><\/p>\n In a stunning turn of events, Luke Skywalker and his son, Ben, joined forces with members of the Sith armada sent to kill them\u2014and turned their combined might against the monstrous being Abeloth. But with one menace dealt with, a new and even more insidious threat looms.<\/p>\n Now Luke and Ben must go on the run, taking along the inscrutable\u2014and ever dangerous\u2014Sith apprentice Vestara Khai. With a host of Sith warriors in hot pursuit, the Skywalkers soon find themselves trapped on the moon Pydyr, caught between their former allies and a mob of angry Fallanassi. A new truce may be their only hope. But can a Sith ever be trusted?<\/p>\n With the Jedi\u2019s most famous father-and-son team outnumbered and outgunned, the countdown to galactic disaster has begun\u2014and time is running out.<\/p>\n \n Helfort’s War<\/span> Book 4: The Battle for Commitment Plane<\/span><\/a> Promo copy:<\/span><\/p>\n It was insane, it was suicidal, it was wrong\u2014 The Hammer Worlds have Helfort exactly where they want him. The ultimatum is brutal and precise. Unless the Federated hero surrenders, the Hammer World\u2019s prisoner Anna Cheung\u2014the only woman Helfort has ever loved\u2014will be handed over to a bunch of depraved troopers to be violated, then executed by firing squad.<\/p>\n Helfort can obey, or he can do what the crew proposes: sail his three frontline dreadnoughts into the Hammers\u2019 stronghold Commitment Planet, liberate Anna and the rest of the POWs held captive there, and continue the fight in the jaws of the enemy. Helfort\u2019s decision? Bring it on!<\/p>\n \n Catacombs: A Tale of the Barque Cats<\/span><\/a> Promo copy:<\/span><\/p>\n In Catalyst<\/span>, award-winning authors Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough introduced readers to the beguiling Barque Cats: spacefaring felines who serve aboard starships as full-fledged members of the crew. Highly evolved, the cats share an almost telepathic bond with their minders, or Cat Persons\u2014until, suddenly, there is no \u201calmost\u201d about it, and a particular Barque Cat, Chester, learns to exchange thoughts with his human friend, Jubal. Other cats soon gain the same ability. <\/p>\n Behind the seeming miracle is a mysterious cat named Pshaw-Ra, who possesses knowledge and technology far beyond anything the Barque Cats\u2014or their humans\u2014have ever seen. When fear of a virulent plague leads the government first to quarantine and then to kill all animals suspected of infection, Pshaw-Ra\u2014with the help of Chester, Jubal, and the crew of the starship Ranzo\u2014activates a \u201cmousehole\u201d in space that carries the refugees to a place of safety: Pshaw-Ra\u2019s home planet of Mau, where godlike cats are worshiped by human slaves. <\/p>\n But Pshaw-Ra\u2019s actions are less noble than they appear. The scheming cat plans to mate the Barque Cats with his own feline stock, creating a hybrid race of superior cats\u2014a race destined to conquer the universe. Yet right from the start, his plans go awry.<\/p>\n For one thing, there\u2019s a new queen on Mau: Pshaw-Ra\u2019s daughter Nefure, a spoiled brat\u2014er, cat\u2014with a temper as short as her attention span. Pshaw-Ra\u2019s other daughter, the rightful queen Renpet, is exiled, running for her life in the only direction available to her\u2014down into the vast catacombs beneath the Mauan desert. Far from receiving the hero\u2019s welcome he expected, Pshaw-Ra must use every bit of his considerable cleverness just to survive.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, as usual, Chester and Jubal stumble right into the middle of things, in the process uncovering the lost secrets of the Mauan civilization. But that\u2019s not all they uncover. In the forgotten catacombs deep below the Mauan capital, something has awakened. Something as old as the universe. Something that hungers to devour all light and life\u2014and that bears an undying hatred for cats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let\u2019s take a quick look to see what\u2019s arrived at the Geek Compound. Catalyst: A Tale of the Barque Cat by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Promo copy: Pilot, engineer, doctor\u2014ship\u2019s cat? Since the early days of interstellar travel, … Continue reading
\nby Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51rZJ22TEEL._SL500_AA300_.jpg\")
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\nby Troy Denning<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51cBqsT%2BMGL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg\"){kind=icon}
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\nby Graham Sharp Paul<\/span><\/p>\n
\nand by God he was going to do it. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51GKFSGDfkL._SL500_AA300_.jpg\")
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\nby Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough<\/span><\/p>\n