Books by Steven Barnes

Getting the "Boost" to win Olympic gold and a voice in ruling the twenty-first-century world may not be worth the risk, but Jillian must try when humanity's future is at stake.

Revisiting the island paradise first encountered in Legacy of Harorot, the new generation, ignorant of their own history, sets out for the mainland prepared to fight grendels but instead finds monsters that dwarf the ones their parents fought. Original.

The child of computer programer Derek Waites begins hearing the voice of her ancestor, Dahlia, an ancient slavewoman who wants to protect her family from Augustus DuPris, the slave owner who raped her and who is now an evil sorcerer, feeding on the life force of his descendants. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, similar anomalies occur in the family of a white supremacist.

Dream Park is the ultimate fantasy experience, where participants can play the California Voodoo Game, interacting with holographic images and virtual-reality technology, unaware that they are being used as subjects to test a Martian terraforming project.

Struggling to hold on to his career while endeavoring to redeem a scandalous past that estranged him from his family, actor Tennyson Hardwick finds himself accused of murder in the aftermath of his strict LAPD captain father's stroke. 100,000 first printing.

Ord Cestus, a planet mostly barren and inhospitable to life, was first colonized as a prison world—until a handful of hardy pioneers discovered its rich ore deposits and managed to build up a successful droid-manufacturing industry. But when the Clone Wars erupted, bringing severe rationing of imported resources and a Republic ban on the production of battle droids, Ord Cestus was threatened with imminent economic collapse.

Enter the Confederacy of Independent Systems—the Separatists—with a life-saving offer to purchase a generous quantity of the planet’s most lucrative export: bio-droids. Possessed of tactical capabilities that rival the fighting abilities of even the most advanced Jedi, these sophisticated, techno-organic hybrid units would prove a most formidable weapon if ever deployed for military use. And now the Confederacy’s intention to invest in what amounts to an army of bio-droids has sent ripples of alarm through the highest echelons of the Republic government.

Determined to halt the bio-droid sale—but fearing a show of force will result in a political backlash—Supreme Chancellor Palpatine dispatches a team of envoys, led by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Their mission: persuade Ord Cestus’s government to abandon its dealings with the Confederacy . . . while secretly stirring up revolution among the planet’s struggling underclass. Diplomacy is paramount. But if all else fails, the Republic will not hesitate to launch a full-scale attack—and wipe out not only the means of bio-droid production, but countless lives as well, to demonstrate the consequences of disloyalty.

For Obi-Wan, the prospect of such wholesale slaughter only serves to fuel his growing suspicions about the sinister path the Republic seems to be taking. But the brash Jedi Master Kit Fisto and the detachment of clone soldiers assigned to the mission are ready and willing to do the Supreme Chancellor’s bidding. As the leaders of Ord Cestus refuse to capitulate and Palpatine rapidly loses patience, Obi-Wan’s hopes of a peaceful resolution are dwindling. Now, facing a crisis of conscience, Obi-Wan must find the wisdom and strength to prevent a bloodbath and safeguard the Republic— while abiding by the ancient code to which he has pledged his life.

As rag-tag band of space colonists takes on the vast power of the United States, the fate of the world hangs in the balance, in a fantastical novel of speculative history. Reissue.

A deadly murderer adds real danger to the simulated challenges of a computerized fantasy world.

Without warning, Benjamin Sisko is living another life. No longer a Starfleet captain, commander of space station Deep Space Nine, he is Benny Sadler, a struggling SF writer living in 1950s Harlem. Benny has a dream, of a place called Deep Space Nine and a man named Ben Sisko, and a story he has to tell. But is the Earth of that era ready for a SF hero? Everyone tells him no, but Benny cannot abandon his dream. One way or another, he will tell the world about Captain Benjamin Sisko and Deep Space Nine.

In the sequel to Streethal and Gorgon Child, Aubry Knight, raised to be a killer for organized crime, once again rebels against his upbringing to become a champion for the underdog in Los Angeles.

A virtual superman, a streetfighter trained by the Mob, Knight turns his awesome powers on those who created him. Fighting alongside his beautiful mate, he takes on a corrupt television evangelist who schemes to enslave America. The action-packed, near-future adventure sequel to Streetlethal.

Hoping for a respite as his father slowly recovers and a runaway he rescued thrives in a stable home, Hollywood actor Tennyson Hardwick strives to land decent acting jobs and enjoys a relationship with his new girlfriend, circumstances that affect his perceptions about commitment and responsibility. By the authors of Casanegra.

Born to a Muslim father and Christian mother, Abdul Wahid launches a quest for vengeance against the marauders who murdered his parents and destroyed their peaceful village, until he comes to the attention of the Hashassin, a mysterious cadre of warriors that offers him the chance to combat evil as the servant of a higher power. Original. (An Ubisoft video game) (Fantasy)

A young man in present-day Los Angeles sets out on an obsessive quest for physical fitness, and inadvertently stumbles on a discipline of martial arts, meditation, and fasting that releases the full, uncontrolled power of his mind and body.

Light years from Earth, on Tau Ceti Four, two hundred colonists have created a thriving community, not realizing that they have upset a delicate ecological balance and have unleashed an unbelievable nightmare.

In an intriguing work of alternate history in which the peoples of Africa colonize the Americas, bringing European slaves to the New World, the fates of two families--one Islamic African aristocrats, the other Druidic Irish slaves--collide as two young men, one of each dynasty, must confront their world and each other.

Traveling to Xanadu as a student, Lenore Myles becomes involved with Xanadu citizen Chaz Kato and is horrified when she learns the truth behind the glittering futuristic island, a discovery that causes her to be prompted by the mysterious Saturn to race for her life. Reissue.

In the sequel to Lion's Blood, set in the late nineteenth century in an America colonized by Africa, two men of very different backgrounds--Kai, an Ethiopian aristocrat, and Aidan, a white Irishman and Kai's former slave--become caught in the middle as a rebellion builds toward civil war and divided loyalties threaten to destroy them.