The explosive space epic continues, as the techno-mages come face-to-face with the devastating evil of the Shadows . . . War against the Shadows is inevitable, and the ruling Circle has ordered the techno-mages into hiding. Many are unhappy with this decision--none more so than Galen, the only mage who has faced the Shadows and lived. But the Shadows aren't Galen's only enemy--he is driven to hunt and kill Elizar, the traitor who murdered the beautiful mage Isabelle while Galen stood by helplessly, his hands tied by the Circle's sacred code he had sworn to follow. Now a new mission awaits as the Circle contrives a plan that may enable the five hundred mages to escape without leaving a trace. Dispatched to the Shadow's ancient capitol to uncover the enemy's plans, Galen will find everything he so desperately seeks--including a shocking legacy that threatens to consume his very soul. Babylon 5 created by J. Michael Straczynski

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Sam Eastland's Archive 17. Deep in the Russian countryside, a thirty-ton killing machine known officially as T-34 is being developed in total secrecy. Its inventor is a rogue genius whose macabre death is considered an accident only by the innocent. Suspecting assassins everywhere, Stalin brings in his best—if least obedient—detective to solve a murder that’s tantamount to treason. Answerable to no one, Inspector Pekkala has the dictator’s permission to go anywhere and interrogate anyone. But the closer Pekkala gets to answers, the more questions he uncovers—first and foremost, why is the state’s most dreaded female operative, Commissar Major Lysenkova, investigating the case when she’s only assigned to internal affairs? In the shadows of one of history’s most notorious regimes, Pekkala is on a collision course with not only the Soviet secret police but the USSR’s deadliest military secrets. For what he’s about to unearth could put Stalin and his Communist state under for good—and bury Pekkala with them.