Gunpowder God

N
ow that the siege of Thagnor City has been lifted, Great King Kalvan finally has some breathing room. Styphon’s House has left the Upper Middle Kingdoms to lick its wounds and make trouble elsewhere in the Great Kingdoms. However, instead of waiting for the ruling houses to realize they no longer need Styphon’s House’s support, the Temple has decided to put its own puppets on the thrones of the Five Great Kingdoms.

The result is Kalvan’s greatest fear—an allout religious war. Styphon’s Own Voice has ordered Grand Master Soton to put together another huge army, the Host of Styphon’s Deliverance, to conquer the Kingdom of Hos-Agrys. The Agrysi League of Dralm begs Kalvan for aid against Styphon’s great host, but Kalvan has troubles of his own with Nythros, the last bastion of Styphon’s House in the Middle Kingdoms. He is more worried about this threat than anything that is happening in the Five Great Kingdoms. After all, where was the League of Dralm when Hostigos was under siege? A decision Kalvan may yet come to rue….

Meanwhile, Prince Phidestros has his own problems. Great King Lysandros is returning from the disastrous siege of Thagnor with his tail between his legs. But Lysandros is not going to be happy when he finds out what’s been going on in Harphax City while he’s been off fighting Kalvan—nor will Styphon’s House.

Verkan Vall is enjoying the challenges of being the new King of Greffa, but in his absence things on First Level have gone straight to hell. New Paratime Police Chief Dalla Hadron is having the devil’s own time keeping the lid on the prole situation and it seems as though trouble is brewing all over Dhergabar City. After ten thousand years of peace and parasitically living off of other time-lines, the hounds of war are finally returning to Home Time Line with a vengeance!

JOHN F. CARR is the author of 11 novels and, along with co-editor, Jerry Pournelle, he has edited over 30 theme anthologies and short story collections, including the 2001 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for
The Survival of Freedom
. His many anthologies include,
Nebula Award Stories Sixteen
, 9 volumes of
There Will Be War
, 4 volumes of
The Endless Frontier
, 3 volumes of
Imperial Stars
and 9 volumes of the sharedworld anthology series,
War World
. John, a former editor of the
Bulletin of the Science Writers of America
, also served as the Managing Editor of the
Far Frontiers
paperback magazine and was the science-fiction editor of
Popular Computing
.

John edited and wrote the introductions to 5 H. Beam Piper short story collections,
Federation, Empire, Paratime, The Complete Paratime
and
The Worlds of H. Beam Piper
. He is the recognized authority on the life and works of H. Beam Piper and is the author of
H. Beam Piper: A Biography
published by McFarland & Company.

Gunpowder God
is the sixth book in the Kalvan Saga. For more information on the Kalvan Saga and periodic updates visit John F. Carr’s official Lord Kalvan web site:
www.Hostigos.com

GUNPOWDER GOD

A Pequod Press Adventure Novel

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2011 by John F. Carr

Original Cover Art—Copyright © 2011 by Alan Gutierrez

This book may not be reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, scanning, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the author.

First Edition, Limited to 500 copies

Manufactured in the United States of America First Printing 2011

V 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN: 978-0-937912-15-7

On the cover: Alan Gutierrez, Gunpowder God, (
www.alangutierrez.com
)

Pequod Press

P.O. Box 80

Boalsburg, PA 16827

www.PequodPress.com

Gunpowder God

The Fireseed Wars

Siege of Tarr-Hostigos

Kalvan Kingmaker

Great Kings’ War

Time Crime

To my brother Steven Carr for all his support over the decades! I have been blessed to have a wonderful brother and best friend who has always believed in my work and encouraged me to continue writing new works
.

Special thanks go to Pequod Press’s Editor Victoria Alexander for her hard work and efforts to make this book as professional as possible.

I’d also like to give thanks to all the members of the Copyediting and Post-Proofing Team: Dennis Frank, Richard Oakley, Dwight Decker, Larry Hopkins, Eric Oppen and Dan Radakovich.

Special mention goes to Dennis Frank for all his work on the new maps. Dennis is also in charge of the John F. Carr Archive at St. Bonaventure University where he serves as Archivist. Visit the John Carr Archives at:

http://web.sbu.edu/friedsam/archives/carr/index.html

For their efforts in helping keep the continuity, I’d like to thank James Landau, Dan Radakovich, and Richard Oakley.

Thanks to Alan Gutierrez who came up with the cover design and executed it so well. He also drew the fine interior maps.

Alkides—Artillery general in the Royal Army.

Aspasthar—Commander of the Hostigos Military Academy.