Origin - K-Bar the Little World — Thom Nichols

Three years in space and the whole world is changed back home. K-bar assumed he would be able to step right back into his old life. He had plans. He had dreams. None of that is possible any longer. Lost and in search of a new path, K-bar discovers new friends and a new world, a magic world. He also finds a destiny he wasn't expecting. A prophecy foretells an event in his future that he can't survive. To reach that fate he must first survive a war. The only good thing that happens to him now that he is back is reuniting with a former girlfriend. Well, girl might not be the correct term. But, she brings with her a freedom from the weight of the prophecy, a chance that he might be able to cheat the future. Attempting to learn magic is just a waste of time. K-bar must rely on his ship and the survival skills he learned on the frozen planet when he encounters a creature that is relentless in its pursuit to kill him. Then, before he is really prepared, war arrives.