A people's history and the horror of war: Howard Zinn meets Apocalypse Now. Political autobiography. March 1972, about to graduate from NYU. A journey: two days and nights in the New York subway. Love it or leave it. A decision: become a Great Academic Marxist; blow up the Williamsburg Bridge; go into exile. Vietnam Veterans with placards, for and against the war. Seven placard-men at the seven gates of Thebes, brandishing their shields. A decision. Political or personal? Or pure Zen? Mind or no-mind? Kill for peace! Dylan, Hendrix, or the Fugs. The two Suzukis, or Dogen. Monk and Coltrane! The relation between Hegel's logic of thinking as such and his logic of practice, which does not exist. The screech of the subway stops. A fork where three roads cross, the realm of shadows, what is to be done? A Chinese menu? Stab it! Stab it with your fork! But what I, myself, decide is not the point. The point is the question of 'what a decision is and what making a decision means.' The answer is 'never stop asking.' Ask yourself. Ask FDR, JFK, LBJ, McNamara and his band, John Kerry, or a Vietnam War veteran of your choice. Ask Nixon, Kissinger-Trump! Ask Trump! Ye great decision-makers, have you ever asked yourselves what a decision is and what making a decision means! That is the question. The Empty Shield asks it. Repeatedly, repetitiously, abysally, and, possibly, once and for all.

Alaric has destroyed everything in his vendetta against the Corollas. His crew hates him. Cassiopeia is ruined, his last friend abandoned within her mangled hull. Countless factions both criminal and Protectorate hunt him, forcing him to rely on the dubious benevolence of the mysterious Kingsman. Alaric's campaign against slavery backfires when Corollas unknowingly enslave him. Enemies and allies plague Alaric's efforts to survive inside and out of the verse's deadliest fighting arenas. Puppet masters and assassins slink from the shadows, offering help - for a price. Will Alaric risk plunging the Protectorate into a new intergalactic war just to keep his freedom? Will he sacrifice his past life to destroy the Corollas? Will Alaric surrender everything one more time for a final chance to save El?

Alexander and Hervi de Montroi, half-brothers with no inheritance, meet in France. Hervi is a professional jouster and Alexander, fleeing the beatings of an English monastery, needs a trade. Despite misgivings, Hervi takes him on as his squire, introducing him to the travellers' immoral lifestyle. He befriends a girl, Monday, taking care of her after her parents die until, pregnant with Alexander's child, she leaves, finding shelter in a castle as a seamstress. Noticed by King John, she becomes his mistress in England, bearing his son and gaining a house. Meanwhile, Stefan has returned to England too, in the pay of an Earl - they meet again at court and, now older, fall in love. They have the King's blessing, but Monday's grandfather, now heirless, sees her as a way to gain power. She escapes his kidnapping to be reunited with Alexander on the land granted to him by the Earl.

Stones and the secrets they hold protect the Goodlands from the corruption of rot; only stonewisers are able to divine the stones' stories. When Sariah, the most gifted stonewiser of her generation, discovers her world has been based on lies, she forms an unlikely alliance with Kael, a rebel leader, and begins a quest for the truth--no matter how devastating it may be.

Hakon Haraldsson took their father's throne. Now the sons of Erik Bloodaxe have come to get it back. It is 954 A.D. and a tempest is brewing in the North. Twenty summers before, Hakon Haraldsson wrested Norway's throne from his murderous brother, Erik Bloodaxe, but he failed to rid himself of Erik's family. Now the sons of Erik have come to reclaim Erik's realm and avenge the wrong done to their father and their kin. They do not come alone. With them marches an army of sword-Danes sent by the Danish King, Harald Bluetooth, whose desire to expand his realm is as powerful as the lust for vengeance that pulses in the veins of Erik's brood. Like storm-driven waves, the opposing forces collide in War King, the action-packed sequel to God's Hammer and Raven's Feast.