Dramatized Science Fiction

Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. Each night, the world is overrun by demons - bloodthirsty creatures of nightmare that have been hunting the surface for over 300 years. A scant few hamlets and half-starved city-states are all that remain of a once proud civilization, and it is only by hiding behind wards, ancient symbols with the power to repel the demons, that they survive. A handful of Messengers brave the night to keep the lines of communication open between the increasingly isolated populace.

In the days leading up to Christmas, struggling actress Esther Diamond is working as a singing-and-dancing elf at Fenster & Co, a major Manhattan department store. As if dealing with hordes of holiday shoppers isn't bad enough, Esther's ex-almost-boyfriend, Detective Connor Lopez, is on the scene investigating a series of mob-related truck hijackings of Fenster's merchandise. Semi-retired hitman Lucky Battistuzzi is also nosing around, since the mob resents being implicated in thefts they didn't commit.

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born. But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

My name is Zachary Nixon Johnson. The year is 2057, and after a handful of species-altering upheavals, Earth-shattering cataclysms, history-changing extraterrestrial contacts, and pop-culture disasters, the world is now a pretty safe place. But, of course, as in times past, people still run the shades-of-gray gamut from good to evil. There are still cops and robbers, saints and sinners, voters and politicians. And every once in a while some crazy thing happens that threatens all of society, all of humanity, even the entire space-time continuum. And it always happens on my watch.

The nuke caust that gave birth to the garrisoned cities and the hell-zones of the Outlands was the calculated stroke of a dark conspiracy that haunts humanity. Now, as this evil specter continues its secret war to conquer what is left of civilization, a dedicated group dares to expose the truth about earth's sinister overlords....

Desperate to find water and shelter on the barren plains of former Oklahoma, Ryan and his team come upon a community that appears, at first, to be peaceful. Then the ville is attacked by a group of its own inhabitants — people infected with a parasite that has turned them into slave warriors for an unknown overlord. The companions try to help fend off the enemy and protect the remaining population, but when Ryan is captured during a second ambush, all hope seems lost. Especially when he launches an assault against his own crew.

Bartering their expertise to a nautical band of brilliant technomads, Ryan's group finds trouble waiting in the steaming, fetid swamplands of the Louisiana Gulf. Merciless storms and pirates strand them in Haven. But the barony's inviting name masks a ville hijacked by fear, territorial conflict, and monstrous horror. With the gravely injured Krysty Wroth's fate uncertain, a desperate Ryan aids the strange but hospitable Baron Blackwell in his effort to save Haven from a genetic blood curse. He'll succeed, provided his luck - and his options - don't run out first.

While working as a singing waitress in Little Italy, struggling actress Esther Diamond witnesses a mob hit. And right before getting whacked out, the victim tells her that he just saw his own doppio - a perfect double and a notorious portent of death. Before long, more döppelgangers start haunting New York’s mobsters, who are subsequently getting bumped off in mysterious ways. Meanwhile, Esther’s new love-interest, Detective Connor Lopez, gets transferred to the NYPD’s organized crime unit and is assigned to investigate these hits.

Kylara Vatta is the only daughter in a family full of sons, and her father's only child to buck tradition by choosing a military career instead of joining the family business. For Ky, it's no contest: Even running the prestigious Vatta Transport Ltd. shipping concern can't hold a candle to shipping out as an officer aboard an interstellar cruiser. It's adventure, not commerce, that stirs her soul. And despite her family's misgivings, there can be no doubt that a Vatta in the service will prove a valuable asset. But with a single error in judgment, it all comes crumbling down.

On the coast of what used to be Maine, the group's armorer, J.B. Dix, lies dying from a gunshot wound. Having no other choice, Ryan makes a deal with a local baron and his strangely beautiful wife. J.B. will get the surgery he needs when Ryan and crew rescue the couple's daughter, abducted by slavers. But the cold, deep Atlantic waters harbor predark secrets, including the terrifying specter of a USSR nuclear submarine...and its descendants.

New Hampshire is rich with big game, more than enough to feed Ryan and his hungry companions. But claims to a fallen elk get ugly and Ryan is forced to kill another hunter, the self-proclaimed king of the Granite Highlands, over the meat. Soon the hunters become the hunted as the dead man's widow gives chase, armed with predark tanks and heavy artillery. As the kill zone widens across cannibal-ridden lava fields, Ryan and his group search for leverage in the merciless landscape.

Fear and human depravity permeate the frigid air in a once-dynamic Alaskan city. Ryan Cawdor and his group of survivalists go on red alert the moment they set foot on the forbidding tundra, but regardless, they find themselves rounded up by cannibal coldhearts. The companions quickly discover there's a fate much worse than becoming food. Dangerous new experiments are taking place in a long-abandoned military base and, in the bitter heart of the frozen North, new horrors reach out to poison their hope for a better tomorrow.

Hands bleeding, joints aching, John Rourke watches the remaining space shuttles of the Eden Project fleet land. But what kind of world have they returned to? A Soviet madman bent on world domination, a Nazi resurrection, and one of the Eden crew murdered within the first day of the fleet’s return. John Rourke, The Survivalist, must serve as judge, jury, and executioner in the pursuit of justice and the defense of freedom in The Survivalist 12: The Rebellion.

It’s an ordinary day in the Bellwoods, save for the fact that Jon-Tom the spellsinger has awoken as a six-foot blue crab. He soon reverts to normal — as normal as a college student trapped in a world of magic and talking animals can be, anyway — but the bizarre changes keep happening, affecting not just him but the whole of this strange world. His wizardly mentor suspects these are the effects of the perambulator, a cosmic being whose presence distorts reality.

Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny have been dispatched to assist a group of scientists who are investigating a mysterious black hole which has appeared on a Somerset hillside. Could it really be a doorway to another dimension, an opening into another world? When one of the scientists disappears into the hole – with fatal consequences – Ishmael must prove whether it was an accident – or murder.

Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny are attending the re-opening of Tyrone’s Castle, an ancient Cornish inn originally built by smugglers. Over dinner that night, the guests entertain one another with ghost stories inspired by local legends and superstitions. But it would appear that the curse of Tyrone’s Castle has struck for real when one of their number disappears into thin air. And then another....

A former enforcer for the new lords, Kane found shelter in Cerberus Redoubt, along with the archivist Brigid and fellow magistrate Grant. They know that unseen forces guard an ancient secret, which has thrown a dark shroud over the future. Behind them stands the impenetrable past. But all that changes when they are suddenly catapulted into another reality - and here, as they attempt to remake the future, the enemy races to turn time into a weapon of destruction.

Andrew Dare has found his mate in Silver, but they haven’t found the pack they can call home. Some of his old friends think he should return and challenge Roanoke for leadership of all the werewolf packs on the East Coast. But Andrew has baggage - his violent history with the packs of Spain and the rumors of his lack of control. And then there’s Silver - the werewolf who has lost her wild self to a monster’s assault, and who can no longer shift forms. But perhaps together they can overcome all the doubters.

After two centuries of nuclear blight, a new America is emerging, forged by those seeking peace and hope for the future. Pocket communities, ruled by local barons, have become the new centers of civilization...and power. But while many desire prosperity, others embrace ideas of ultimate domination. The son of a powerful baron, Ryan Cawdor has chosen his own path through the Deathlands. Now rumors of trouble bring him home to West Virginia, where he'd left his nephew Nathan at the head of the barony.

Far to the south of the peaceful Bellwoods, where Jon-Tom the spellsinger continues trying to master the art of turning music into magic, a sinister force has awakened: a magician with great ambition and unheard-of power. He summons lightning to do his bidding, commands an army of faceless flying demons, and claims to come from another world — one Jon-Tom suspects might be his own. If he can somehow reason with the unknown magician, perhaps they can combine their talents and find a way to go home together.