Fiction Literature Dramatized

The territorial governor has sent three lawmen to clean up the mess that is Chico, New Mexico - and not one of those lawmen has made it out alive. A crooked sheriff has the terrified denizens of Chico under his boot heel, so the governor turns to John Henry Sixkiller, sending him undercover as a gunman for hire.

Mankind has ceded the night to the corelings, demons that rise up out of the ground each day at dusk, killing and destroying at will until dawn, when the sun banishes them back to the Core. As darkness falls, the world’s few surviving humans hide behind magical wards, praying the magic can see them through another night. As years pass, the distances between each tiny village seem longer and longer. It seems nothing can harm the corelings, or bring humanity back together.

With his wife's killers dead and buried, Conrad Morgan - known as The Loner - is on his way to Mexico for some peace and quiet. But on the way he's sidetracked by some intriguing travelers who are hunting down a valuable golden artifact. They're not the only ones who want to get a hold of the treasure. A running gun battle with some killers lands The Loner and his cohorts in the Jornada del Muerto - a hellish, waterless wasteland in New Mexico Territory.

On nothing more than a lark, he leaves his family and begins a journey from Ohio westward. Along the way, he runs up against badlands and bad men, loses his freedom, gains his freedom and learns the first rule of the frontier: do whatever it takes to survive. With ruthless enemies after him - both white men and Indians - he’ll head for a place as brutal as it is beautiful - the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. Two years later, he will come back down from the mountaintop with new skills and a new future as one of the most feared and admired men of his time...a man called Preacher.

The Loner didn’t just bust out of jail, he busted out twice. The third time might be the charm — or a bullet in the belly. He didn’t want much — just the chance to drift out of Texas into New Mexico Territory. That’s when the Loner discovered there was a price on his head. A victim of mistaken identity, he broke out of Hell Gate Prison a few years back. Now, he’s behind bars again, until a sheriff’s love-struck daughter decides to come to his aid and a beautiful bounty hunter — who also has eyes for the Loner — joins in.

The little town of No-Name, Colorado is jubilant when they strike gold there, until every no-account degenerate and desperado for hundreds of miles shows up on their doorstep. It's up to mountain Man Smoke Jensen and his over-the-hill companions to save the town's bacon, and do their best not to get killed in the process.

In the ancient canyons of New Mexico, the citizens of Little Pueblo prepare to sacrifice Ryan and his companions to demons locked inside a 20th-century dam project. But in a world where nuke-spawned predators feed upon weak and strong alike, Ryan knows avenging eternal spirits aren't a part of the game. Especially when these freaks spit yellow acid — and their creators are the white coat masterminds of genetic recombination, destroyed by their mutant offspring born of sin and science gone horribly wrong....

Kylar Stern has rejected the assassin's life. The Godking's successful coup has left Kylar's master, Durzo and his best friend, Logan, dead. He is starting over: new city, new friends and new profession. But when he learns that Logan might actually be alive and in hiding, Kylar is faced with an agonizing choice: will he give up the way of shadows forever and live in peace with his new family, or will he risk everything by taking on the ultimate hit?

In 2001, the face of the Earth changed forever in a nuclear firestorm. Generations after the apocalypse, Ryan Cawdor leads a courageous struggle for survival in a brutal world, striving to make a difference in the battle raging between good and evil. On sacred aboriginal land, Ryan Cawdor and his band of warrior survivalists discover Mount Rushmore still standing, a symbol of a long-gone power. Here, a charismatic baron and his followers force Ryan to breach the icy fastness of the mountain stronghold, which harbors a cache of 20th-century technology.

Ryan Cawdor and his band of post-holocaust survivors come face-to-face with a specter from the past: out of the swirling dust that was once New Mexico bursts a regiment of pony soldiers, led by a man with flowing yellow hair. Brandishing Colts and Winchesters, the horsemen grimly prepare to destroy the ragtag strangers, intruders who dare to penetrate their ruthlessly defended stronghold.

In the aftermath of the apocalypse, little remains except age-old evils of greed, perversion, and force. But a small group of survivalists cherishes the legacy of human courage and hope. Led by the charismatic Ryan Cawdor, they persevere in a brutal world through warrior skills and a bold desire to regain the promised future. The fertile bayous teem with mutant life-forms and altered species. Off on a trek with his son, Ryan fends off the dangers from marauders and Nature's traps, but also finds signs of hope for humanity's new future.

Everyone has something to get off their chest: Frenchie confronts the Female about her work with the Mafia, Mother's Milk goes to see his mom, Annie wants a word with God himself, and Butcher enjoys yet another ghastly tryst with CIA Director Rayner. The Legend, meanwhile, offers to tell Hughie everything he wants to know about The Boys - all Hughie has to do is take a walk with the dead.

Searching for his long-lost father, Bransen Garibond is tricked into journeying across the Gulf of Corona to the wild lands of Vanguard, where he is pressed into service in a desperate war against the brutal Samhaist, Ancient Badden. On an Alpinadoran lake, just below Ancient Badden's magical ice castle, several societies, caught in the web of their own conflicts, are oblivious to Ancient Badden's devastating plans to destroy them.

In this third Alcatraz adventure, Alcatraz Smedry has made it to the Free Kingdoms at last. Unfortunately, so have the evil Librarians - including his mother! Now Alcatraz has to find a traitor among the Knights of Crystallia, make up with his estranged father, and save one of the last bastions of the Free Kingdoms from the Evil Librarians.

Kirby — later Smoke — Jensen has just earned his first paying job as a deputy US marshal for the Colorado Territory and is sent to the lawless town of Las Animas. There, he finds a sheriff too cowardly to face the outlaw leader Cole Dawson, whose six-gun has left a lot of good men dead. Young Smoke feels no such fear. He takes Dawson down fast. Then the real fight begins.

The town of Bury took up a piece of Idaho Territory that was still raw, untamed frontier. It was no place for the cowardly or faint-hearted, but Smoke Jensen was neither. Nor were Stratton, Potter and Richards, the three bloodthirsty outlaws who came there to live. Or, if Smoke had his way...to die! It had been years since hired gunhands had murdered Smoke’s wife and son, but the pain was as fresh as yesterday. And so was Smoke’s need for revenge. He's come a long way to find the bandit trio responsible for his family's brutal massacre.

Clint Black ran the biggest cattle operation in Montana. His Circle 45 spread controlled the best water, the richest graze, and he had his own personal army of cutthroats. And he didn't like competition. Only a fool could fail to see trouble when Smoke Jensen brought 3,500 head up from Colorado to sell to Black's neighbor. When Clint's greed overcomes his common sense and he butchers Smoke's entire crew, Smoke will seek a vengeance never before seen in the wild west. Clint Black has a lesson to learn, and this lesson will cost him the most important thing of all: Blood.

After discovering just how filled with magic, intrigue, and adventure the parahuman world of being an Undead American can be, Fredrick Frankford Fletcher did exactly what was expected - he became a certified parahuman accountant. Myths and legends, as it turns out, are not so great at taking appropriate deductions and keeping their receipts, and Fred is more than happy to return to a life others view as woefully dull, expanding his accounting business to cater to various monsters and their respective financial needs.

The alliance of humans and renegade Fhrey is fragile — and about to be tested as never before. Persephone keeps the human clans from turning on one another through her iron will and a compassionate heart. The arrogant Fhrey are barely held in check by their leader, Nyphron, who seeks to advance his own nefarious agenda through a loveless marriage that will result in the betrayal of the person Persephone loves most: Raithe, the God Killer.

Smoke Jensen’s daughter Denny can outride, outrope, and outshoot any man who gets in her way. But being a pretty woman, Denny sometimes attracts the attention of unsavory suitors. Like the lecherous Count Malatesta. Denny met the seductive Sicilian on her trip to Europe - and almost fell head over heels for the swindler. What’s he doing in America?