March Upcountry

Latest release: April 1, 2005
Series
4
Books

About this ebook series

THE ROYAL BRAT IS IN TROUBLE

Roger Ramius Sergei Chiang MacClintock didn't understand.

He was young, handsome, athletic, an excellent dresser, and third in line for the Throne of Man ... so why wouldn't anyone at Court trust him.

Why wouldn't even his own mother, the Empress, explain why they didn't trust him Or why the very mention of his father's name was forbidden at Court Or why his mother had decided to pack him off to a backwater planet aboard what was little more than a tramp freighter to represent her at a local political event better suited to a third assistant undersecretary of state

It probably wasn't too surprising that someone in his position should react by becoming spoiled, self-centered, and petulant. After all, what else did he have to do with his life.

But that was before a saboteur tried to blow up his transport. Then warships of the Empire of Man's worst rivals shot the crippled vessel out of space. Then Roger found himself shipwrecked on the planet Marduk, whose jungles were full of damnbeasts, killerpillars, carnivorous plants, torrential rain, and barbarian hordes with really bad dispositions. Now all Roger has to do is hike halfway around the entire planet, then capture a spaceport from the Bad Guys, somehow commandeer a starship, and then go home to Mother for explanations.

Fortunately, Roger has an ace in the hole: Bravo Company of Bronze Battalion of The Empress' Own Regiment. If anyone can get him off Marduk alive, it's the Bronze Barbarians.

Assuming that Prince Roger manages to grow up before he gets all of them killed.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
March Upcountry: Volume 1
Book 1 · May 2001 ·
4.7
THE ROYAL BRAT IS IN TROUBLE

Roger Ramius Sergei Chiang MacClintock didn't understand.

He was young, handsome, athletic, an excellent dresser, and third in line for the Throne of Man ... so why wouldn't anyone at Court trust him.

Why wouldn't even his own mother, the Empress, explain why they didn't trust him Or why the very mention of his father's name was forbidden at Court Or why his mother had decided to pack him off to a backwater planet aboard what was little more than a tramp freighter to represent her at a local political event better suited to a third assistant undersecretary of state

It probably wasn't too surprising that someone in his position should react by becoming spoiled, self-centered, and petulant. After all, what else did he have to do with his life.

But that was before a saboteur tried to blow up his transport. Then warships of the Empire of Man's worst rivals shot the crippled vessel out of space. Then Roger found himself shipwrecked on the planet Marduk, whose jungles were full of damnbeasts, killerpillars, carnivorous plants, torrential rain, and barbarian hordes with really bad dispositions. Now all Roger has to do is hike halfway around the entire planet, then capture a spaceport from the Bad Guys, somehow commandeer a starship, and then go home to Mother for explanations.

Fortunately, Roger has an ace in the hole: Bravo Company of Bronze Battalion of The Empress' Own Regiment. If anyone can get him off Marduk alive, it's the Bronze Barbarians.

Assuming that Prince Roger manages to grow up before he gets all of them killed.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
March to the Sea
Book 2 · May 2001 ·
4.5
SOME DAYS IT JUST DOESN'T PAY TO
GET OUT OF YOUR SLEEPING BAG.

The successor to March Upcountry

It wasn't so much that Prince Roger and his surviving remnant of elite bodyguards are marooned on a barbarian planet. Or that they have been on continuous operations for so long they are getting shocky. Or that they still have half a planet to cross. Or that they are basically out of ammunition for their plasma and bead rifles and just about out of cash. Sure, those are all problems, but they're not the real problem.

No, the problem is Roger is in love. With one of his bodyguards. And the romance is not going well. Damnbeast Sure. Vampiric moths Okay. Screaming waves of barbarians No problem. But when you have Nimashet Despreaux and Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Chiang MacClintock at sword's point, that's real danger.

And it's just the beginning.

To get to the distant port that is their only way off the planet, they'll be forced to battle enraged monsters, displaced mercenaries, religious fanatics and a barbarian horde to shame the Huns. Along the way they'll have to recreate the Reformation, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. And do it all in a context their four-armed, horned, grizzly-bear sized native allies can handle.

It will strain all their experience and knowledge, as the most elite, the most multitalented and above all the toughest bodyguards in human space. But the really hard part will be keeping Roger and Nimashet from killing each other.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
March to the Stars
Book 3 · Jan 2003 ·
3.9
Another Sunny Day on Marduk

Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang MacClintock has had a really bad year.

Bad enough to be the spoiled rotten fop of a prince no one wanted or trusted.

Worse to be sent off on a meaningless diplomatic mission, simply to get you out from underfoot, with a bodyguard of Marines who loathe and despise you.

Worse yet to be assumed dead and marooned for almost a year on a hell-hole planet while you and those same Marines fight your way through carnivorous beasts, murderous natives, and perpetual rain to the only starport. . . which is controlled by the Empire's worst enemies.

Worst of all to have discovered that you were born to be a warrior prince. One whose bodyguards have learned the same lesson. And one haunted by the deaths of almost a hundred of your Marines... for what you know now was an unnecessary exercise in political expediency.

A warrior prince who wants to have a few choice words with your Lady Mother, the Empress of Man.

But to have them, you, your surviving Marines, and your Mardukan allies must cross a demon-haunted ocean, face a civilization that is "civilized" in name alone and "barbarians" who may not be exactly what they seem, and once again battle against impossible odds. All so that you can attempt to somehow seize a heavily defended spaceport and hijack a starship to take you home.

Yet what neither Roger, nor the Marines, nor his allies know is that the battle to leave Marduk is only the beginning. And that words with Roger's mother will be hard to come by.

But that's all right. Because what the Galaxy doesn't know is that it's about to receive a fresh proof of an old truism:

You don't mess with a MacClintock.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
We Few
Book 4 · Apr 2005 ·
4.8
THE HARD WAY

Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang McClintock hasn't done anything the easy way.

The spoiled playboy prince grew up the hard way on the planet Marduk. Watching ninety percent of your bodyguards ¾ bodyguards who have become friends, closer to you than your own brothers and sisters ¾ die to keep you alive will do that. And it tends to make you dangerous . . . perhaps in too many ways.

Now he's coming home, but home isn't what it was when he left. Traitors have murdered his brother and sister, his nieces and nephews. His mother, the Empress, is still alive, but in the hands of Roger's own biological father, who controls her through drugs and physical and psychological torture. A new heir to the Throne has been conceived, and once the child is born his mother will no longer be necessary to the traitors' plans. Home Fleet, the largest and most powerful of the Empire's fleets is under the traitors' control, and no one in a position of power on Old Earth has the means ¾ or the will ¾ to do anything about it.

And, just to make things perfect, the Empire has been told that the real traitor is Prince Roger Ramius Sergei Alexander Chiang McClintock.

With the twelve survivors of Bravo Company of the Empress' Own, a few hundred three-meter tall Mardukans, his one-time tutor and present chief of staff, an elephant-sized flarta pack beast, his faithful pet Dogzard, and the ghost of his greatest ancestor, Prince Roger must somehow retake the Empire from the men who control it . . . before his new brother is born and his mother dies.

It's an impossible task, but Prince Roger knows all about impossible tasks, and the surviving Bronze Barbarians and the Mardukans of the Basik's Own believe he can do it. They're prepared to storm the gates of Hell itself at his heels in order to retake the Empire.

But after they do, can they save it from Prince Roger, as well

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).