L. Warren Douglas
Science fiction, fantasy, historic fiction
Wishing all of you well in this trying time of
pandemic panic and political turmoil. Stay calm.
Stay well.
Salt, Bronze, and 
Iron
A novel of the Hallstatt Iron Age. Hidden
within the old hero myths are tales of men who sweated and stank,
fought and blasphemed. They died entombed in the epic tales
or forgotten in the mists of antiquity. Hall, a
foundling raised by Celts high in the Alps, seeks his fortune and
the mystery of his birth in the land of the Etruscans, in the
cluster of hilltop villages that would someday be called Rome, in
the Greece of legend when the heroes of the classical age were
still remembered as men. He is an ironsmith, a singer of songs and
tales, a warrior, a soldier, a lover, and for a brief while...a
king.
His name is Hall, 
which
means Salt. In his own words:
"Hall. In the Celt language, that meant "Salt." It is a good
name. "No man can survive without salt," say my
battle-companions, thinking the old pun fresh each time someone
thinks of it. Indeed, it is true. Salt is traded the length of
Mother Danu, the great River, carried over high passes to sunny
southern lands and north to the plains of ever-snow. Salt is a
gift of earth and sea; perhaps thus my name has given me my
affinity for the darkness in the Earth, and for oceans—those
gleaming expanses that mark the stages of my long journeying,
"Salt travels farthest," folk say, referring to the trade. And
indeed, I've traveled farther than any man I have known."
I believe this is my best work yet, the equal of my much-praised The
Sacred Pool. If you love historic fiction and tales of the
distant past, you won't be disappointed with Salt, Bronze, and
Iron.
The trade paperback is $12.99, and the Ebook is only $.99 if you
buy the paper. Buy
them now. The ebook is
regularly $6.99
Shards
of a Jealous Sky
Paperback and
Ebook
Never before in print. Now, finally, you can find
out what happens after Bright Islands in a Dark Sea!
It is an earth of oxcarts, oars, and sails, dust and donkeys.
Higher technology is forbidden by the alien ferosin who rule
secretly from behind the façade of the Pharos Church and its
priests.
An archaeological expedition to the far north of a flooded North
American continent, a land populated by bear-worshiping savages
reveals the wreck of an alien ship, long ago stolen by the
ancestors of mutated humans, the Witches of Ararat, who once
held the secret to the gestalt that was…a starship pilot.
Yan Bando, reluctant tool of the crones of Ararat, is an
antiquarian, husband of an apprentice witch, lover of a crazy
scientist and of a mysterious plainswoman from a buried city in
the western mountains. It’s an adventurous life for a
quiet scholar, even one who has been known to swing a great
two-handed battleaxe from time to time. If Yan is
successful, humans may once again ply the deadly maze between
the stars, and meet the alien slavemasters on their own terms.
Check my Author
page at Amazon.com.
Other L. Warren
Douglas Books are available on the Baen Books website:
It's here! EBook and trade
paperback editions of Cannon's Orb, set in the
universe of The Perfumes of Phastillan (A Plague of
Change).
Life
can be tough, and it makes the survivors, like Estelle
Mason, tougher. But even after surviving starvation, rape,
alien poison stings and drowning ...did I forget anything?
... is she tough enough to defeat the alpha male
hierarchy, take over a whole planet, and change its people
into something a little less, or more, than human? This is
a tale of two worlds. Phastillan, home of the alien
psatla, is going to survive the coming collapse of
interstellar civilization, but Cannon's Orb, a human
colony planet, may not be so lucky--unless Estelle's plan
works. But whether it does or not, the humans who must
endure it aren't going to be the least bit happy--and they
will no longer be exactly human.
Buy
it now.
The
fourth Arbiter novel is here, in trade paperback and
ebook formats! Buy the book for ten bucks ($9.99) and
get the eBook for only $ .99 with Amazon's Matchbook option
(otherwise $2.99.)
Planet Xaradne is dying. Oceans are drying up, forests wither,
and smelly ghotes are eating everything that's left. Fel
Penetetrimat, a wend scientist, is trying to find a solution,
to save his home, but along the way, he discovers that the
Arbiter himself, ruler and protector of the seven human
subspecies, is himself planning to destroy Xaradne to protect
the secret of the stardrive, the secret of his power to rule.
Buy
the eBook now. Buy
the trade paperback now.
The first-ever eBook edition of my classic Bright
Islands in a Dark Sea is now available on Amazon! Only $2.99
($ .99 if you also buy the paperback.)
The new paperback edition is out, too! This
memorable far-future adventure has been out of print for
years, and I've seen clean first editions listed for upwards
of a hundred bucks. This is a large-format (trade
paperback) book, not a dinky paperback printed on
newsprint.
Buy
the eBook now. Buy
the trade paperback now.
As always, send me the book and an SASE to get your copy
autographed. 720 NE 31st Street, Pompano Beach FL 33064.
Now on Amazon: The
Perfumes of Phastillan*, a cutting-edge novel of
human sexuality and alien influences faraway on the other side
of the Galaxy. New trade paperback $9.99; EBook $2.99
(or $ .99 when you also buy the paperback.) Buy
Now!
Phastillan, where the strange alien psatla
communicate with pheromones, and their effect upon humans is
unusual--to say the least. When one young human is marooned on
Phastillan, he discovers that the alien psatla hold the key to
the survival of the human species--or its destruction.
*originally
A Plague of Change
The
three original Arbiter novels are at last available as eBooks
and large-format trade paperbacks. For 12,000 years Arbiters have kept the peace among the
seven races of mankind. But the ancient datablocks that hold the
secrets of Arbiter John Minder XXIII's starfleet and the homeworld
of his Poletzai troopers are missing. Now he has only his ordinary
human cleverness to keep the peace among the planets of the
Xarafeille Stream. And the rest of the human race are not
cooperating:
Stepwater: The first in L. Warren Douglas's
Arbiter universe. A "must read" for Jack Vance fans. The
Xarafeille Stream is a swath of stars--and a powderkeg where seven
races of Man contend. An Arbiter, twenty-third of his line,
struggles to keep the Stream at peace, but humans--even furred
ones, genetically engineered with genes from bears, kangaroo rats,
and otters--are never content, and genocidal war always looms on a
not-too-distant horizon... Buy
Now
Phyre: Like most worlds of the
Xarafeille Stream, the desert planet Phyre is home to several
races of Man--and like any place with different cultures and
different needs, conflict bubbles just below the surface. For
Slith Wrasselty, a fard--genetically engineered to survive in
desert conditions--his only hope of survival is to patent the
medicinal chemicals he has distilled from the planet's poisonous
wells. But some of those may have far-reaching effects on other
worlds too, and not good ones. Buy
Now
Glaice: For 12,000
years Tep Inutkak's ikut ancestors, white-furred men
adapted to high arctic life, have migrated from pole to pole,
but now mantees -- seal-like humans who occupy the equatorial
islands -- claim they own planet Glaice They threaten the vital
migration routes. Rogue ikuts respond by feasting upon roasted
mantees.
Tep, a graduate student, believes the Planetary Charter will
show that Ikuts were the first settlers, and are the rightful
owners. But where is the Charter? The Arbiter will not help
unless it can be found. Amid escalating violence, Tep must probe
deep into his planet's past and his race's ancient graves for
the ikuts' salvation --and the mantees' and the Arbiter's as
well. Buy
Now.
Copyright A.D. 2000-2018, L. Warren Douglas, Version 3.5,
April 11, 2018