Fantasy War

Up until a few weeks ago, the only dirt I dished at the Twyst Academy of Magecraft came from scrubbing its floors. Now I've learned that deep within these hallowed halls, sinister secrets hide everywhere. I try to focus on my new job as janitor-turned-war mage, helping my team of four super-hot college wizards win an insanely intense magic competition, but it isn't easy. Especially since I've barely come to terms with falling for Connor, the most carefree mage in our group...only to develop a mind-blowing crush on Luke, the biggest, scariest mage I've ever met. Which is complicated.

After their fateful adventure in China, Captain Will Laurence of His Majesty's Aerial Corps and his extraordinary dragon, Temeraire, are waylaid by a mysterious envoy bearing urgent new orders from Britain. Three valuable dragon eggs have been purchased from the Ottoman Empire, and Laurence and Temeraire must detour to Istanbul to escort the precious cargo back to England. Time is of the essence if the eggs are to be borne home before hatching.

Some say that in the city of Orlyn, godhood is on sale to the highest bidder. Thousands flock to the city each year, hoping for a chance at immortality. Lydia Hastings is a knowledge sorcerer, capable of extracting information from anything she touches. When she travels to Orlyn to validate the claims of the local faith, she discovers a conspiracy that could lead to a war between the world's three greatest powers. At the focal point is a prisoner who bears a striking resemblance to the long-missing leader of the pantheon she worships.

First published by H. G. Wells in 1898, The War of the Worlds is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator intones, "No one would have believed in the last years of the 19th century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's."

And so it begins.... In the United States, the Department of Defense and the NSA computer networks have been hacked. A nuclear-armed CIA drone has lost all flight control. North Korea...Iran...Russia...and soon the gates of Hell will open. Humanity's most terrifying nightmare has become reality. Bombs are detonated, missiles are launched, counterstrikes are ordered, and within minutes, untold thousands of megatons have left countless millions dead or dying. Devastation of biblical proportions has fallen over the land...and the USA has been hit the hardest.

Faced with an overwhelming infestation of living dead on the US mainland, the US Pacific Fleet manages a strategic withdrawal of civilians and supplies. Aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, Dr. Henry Damico advises the remnants of the civilian government and military leadership on how to survive in a world overrun with zombies.

Somewhere on the outer rim of the universe, a mass of decaying world-ships known as the Legion is traveling in the seams between the stars. For generations, a war for control of the Legion has been waged, with no clear resolution. As worlds continue to die, a desperate plan is put into motion. Zan wakes with no memory, prisoner of a people who say they are her family.

After the War of Kinds ravaged the kingdom of Rabu, the Automae, designed to be the playthings of royals, usurped their owners’ estates and bent the human race to their will. Now, Ayla, a human servant rising in the ranks at the House of the Sovereign, dreams of avenging her family’s death...by killing the sovereign’s daughter, Lady Crier.

The new United States in central Germany launches a one-plane Doolittle Raid on Paris, France. The target: their arch-enemy, Cardinal Richelieu. Meanwhile, an ambassador from the Mughal Empire of northern India is being held captive in Austria by the Habsburg dynasty. Mike Stearns decides to send a mercenary company to rescue him, led by two 17th-century mercenary officers: an Englishman and a Irishman, who seem to spend as much time fighting each other as they do the enemy.

Following events at the Helius Blackstar, Duggan is given the Space Corps' newest warship - a heavy cruiser armed to the teeth with the latest weapons and technology. A prospector craft, the SC Lupus, has gone missing and his superiors want to find out what happened and the aggressors dealt with accordingly. The wrecked spaceship is soon found. However, nothing is as it seems. What Duggan finds on a distant planet turns everything on its head.

For those looking for the real story behind the fictionalized movie account of the 47 Ronin story, this is the definitive, fascinating account of this unforgettable tale of a band of samurai who defied the Emperor to avenge the disgrace and death of their master, and faced certain death as a result. It led to one of the bloodiest episodes in Japanese history, and in the process, created a new set of heroes in Japan.

Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, that unmanned drones fill the sky. And when her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she quickly begins to be shaped by her particular time and place until, finally, through the influence of a mysterious functionary, she is turned into a deadly instrument of war.

Despite the death of a traitor and key conspirator, the plot to use the GhostWalker experiments to undermine the security of the US by foreign interests still exists. The GhostWalkers themselves must race against the clock to neutralize the danger.

All over the kingdom of Deverry, the common people are demanding reform of the corrupt law courts. In Aberwyn, the situation catches fire when Gwerbret Ladoic, second in authority only to the High King, allows a bard to starve to death rather than hear their grievances. Guildwoman Alyssa, a student at the local scholars' collegium, and Lady Dovina, the gwerbret's own daughter, know that evidence exists to overthrow the so-called traditional legal system, if they can only get it into the right hands. The powerful lords will kill anyone who threatens their privileges.

It has been 10 years since the magical Cataclysm which destroyed the twin strongholds of the two world's most powerful Mages, killing Urtho, creator of the gryphons, and sending his forces into exile. Now Urthro's peoples - human and non-human alike - live in a terraced city carved into the face of a gleaming white cliff on the edge of the Western Ocean. Secure...at least until the fleet of the mysterious Black Kings appears in their harbor, bringing envoys who inform the residents of White Gryphon that their newfound home is claimed by this powerful kingdom.

When Peter finds himself on a strange planet, drafted into a war by alien abductors, his only goal is to be one of the few to survive the war and return home to Earth. Peter is one of thousands who get abducted every year, as payment to the aliens. The aliens have given humans portal travel, healing serums, and other advanced alien technology. The quality of life has improved, but everything has a price.

In Eileanan, victory has finally been won, and those of faery kind - from the mighty dragons to the mysterious nyx - have sworn their friendship and aid. Only the sea-dwelling Fairgean have refused to sign the Pact of Peace. Driven by ancient hatreds, they have devoted themselves to destroying all who dwell upon the land. Troubled by the darkness that may lie ahead, Lachlan agrees to release his beloved Iseult from the sacred oath that binds them together. It will then be for Iseult to decide whether she will remain in the mountains to resume life with her own kin, or return.

Sergeant Richard Stavos was a Technomancer, capable of creating stronger than normal mental links with nanites. But that alone wasn't enough to keep him alive. Not when the Ka Empire wages wars across the galaxy. Death was supposed to be his release...an end to the constant fighting that plagued his life. But gifted beings like Richard are assets, and almost a decade after his death, the Ka overlords bring him back from the grave as a "reward" for his good service.

Elania has grown accustomed to life in the Underground City State of Neftasu, sharing a home with Yolani inside the refurbished Aetherhart's Artifice. But not all is as calm as appears on the surface. Events inside and out of the city have pushed the Magistry, the city’s council of powerful wizards, to enact a sweeping set of reforms.

While loyalist and traitor forces clash on a thousand battlefields across the galaxy, a very different kind of war is being fought in the shadows - a war of subtlety and subterfuge, unknown to many, but one that surely holds the key to victory for either side. Rogal Dorn and his Legion prepare to defend the Solar System against the armies of Warmaster Horus, even as Malcador the Sigillite charges his many agents and spies with missions of the utmost secrecy. The future of the Imperium is being shaped by unseen hands....