The Federation of the Hub: thousands of rough, ornery and tough-minded human worlds with only the subtlest of interstellar governments holding them all together. Stable at last after centuries of war, the Hub is now prime real estate ... making it a merciless arena for the conflicting schemes of criminals, unscrupulous corporations, and invaders from beyond the edges of Federation space.

But the Hub is well-defended, and not only by professional heroes such as Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee. In Hub Space a citizen is expected to stand up for herself, blaster in hand, as needs must; so when Trouble comes Hubward in large doses, there are an awful lot of armed citizens waiting for it.

James H. Schmitz was a popular science fiction writer of the 1960s. Most of his work was originally published in science fiction magazines and later anthologized or expanded into novels. Schmitz is probably best known for his novel The Witches of Karres.

The Baen Books collection includes the novel The Demon Breed (1969). The Demon Breed was first published as a two-part story, entitled "The Tuvela." The novel revolves around Nile Etland, a scientist on the remote water world of Nandy-Cline, who encounters mysterious "demons" seeking to take over the universe.

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-- from the Baen Free Library