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A Call to Deception is the fifth book of the Manticore Ascendant prequel series, written by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Tom Pope.
It will be published on July 7th, 2026.
Cover Summary[]
To weather the storm . . .
The youthful Star Kingdom of Manticore is only a single, tiny star nation on the fringe of the explored galaxy. It has no Army, only a tiny Navy, and no merchant marine at all. By any interstellar measure, it is virtually insignificant.
Despite which, it has somehow acquired a very significant enemy. One which has engineered major attacks upon its territory. One which has worked long and hard to destabilize any alliances that might aid the Star Kingdom in its defense. And one which has struck from the shadows, weaving webs of secrecy and deception to conceal its identity, its resources, or even the reason behind its attacks.
Yet Queen Elizabeth II and her advisors know there must be a reason, whether they know what it is or not. They are digging deep for clues . . . and they have begun getting dangerously close to answers.
Their enemy knows that, and it has prepared a last ditch effort to decapitate the Star Kingdom, throw it into disarray.
A last ditch effort which may claim Elizabeth’s life.
But there are more players in the game then even Manticore's enemy realizes. Deception is about to meet counter-deception, fleets are about to meet fleets, and the tiny Star Kingdom of Manticore is about to open the door to future greatness.
Assuming it survives.