Award-winning writer Mike Resnick takes us back to his wild and wooly Inner Frontier in this tall-tale of an adventure novel. On the planet Henry II, orbiting the twin suns of Plantagenet and Tudor, at the very edge of the great black hole at the center of the Milky Way, there is a tavern called The Outpost. Through the doors of The Outpost have come the greatest heroes, villains, and adventurers of the galaxy - to drink, to brag, and to swap tales. The Outpost is neutral territory where fighting is forbidden and blood enemies can have a drink together and tell stories of battles past. After all bounty hunters, con men, itinerant preachers, thieves, and assassins have more in common with each other than they do with the rest of the mundane galaxy. But their pleasant life of recalling murder and mayhem is interrupted by an alien invasion, and to save their way of life these rugged individualists must try to work together for a change.