Historical Adventure Fiction

In 1989 Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England centered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds of lives it affected. Critics were overwhelmed—“it will hold you, fascinate you, surround...

In the cutthroat world of bounty hunters, Joe Noose is as honest as they come. Which isn't saying much. Just look at his less-than-honest colleagues. They framed Joe for a murder they committed. They made sure Joe's face wound up on a wanted poster. Now they're gonna hunt Joe down and collect the reward money. There's just one problem: Joe Noose thinks it's his bounty. It's his reward. And it's their funeral .

Nathan Stone, The Gunfighter, lies dead in the street, a victim of the ruthless Sandlin gang. Behind him he leaves his guns and the son he had hardly known - a former lawman named Wes is about to teach these killers just what it means to be his father's son. Swearing vengeance, he takes up his father’s guns. But little does he know that the odds are even more against him than he thinks - and that to get revenge for a dead man, he might have to die himself.

With her commission in her coat and a well-found deck beneath her feet, Catherine Cook, granddaughter of the great explorer, prepares to set sail. With her new frigate and her master and commander’s warrant, Kate is ready to begin her career in the Royal Navy. Yet as every sailor knows, not all seas run smoothly. As Kate and her crew set out to defend British and American shipping from French and Spanish marauders, the young, improbable captain is sailing straight into deadly peril. For her old nemesis, Pierre Meraux, survived their last encounter and is out for vengeance.

At the age of seven, in a London workhouse, newly orphaned James meets ten-year-old Peter. Mysterious, mercurial, thoughtless to the point of cruelty, Peter nonetheless takes a liking to James. The two forge a strange friendship, bound together by their shared love of stories—stories of a magical island called Neverland, where they adventure as the pirate James Hook and the child-king Peter Pan. But one fateful night, Peter vanishes from his bed, and in the morning, James is found lying alone and broken in the courtyard outside.

On the American frontier, every gun tells a story. A boy in Texas waits for a Christmas present he chose from a Montgomery Ward catalog. The present, a brand new, lever action Winchester 1886 and a box of its big .50-caliber slugs, never makes it there. Instead, the rifle is caught up in a train robbery and starts a long and violent journey of its own - from the hands of a notorious, kill-crazy outlaw to an Apache renegade to a hardscrabble rancher and beyond.

When the American ace Major Jack Freeman - poster boy for the war against the Kaiser's undead army of shamblers - is shot down over enemy lines and taken captive, veteran Captain Michael "Madman" Burke is the only man brave and foolish enough to accept the mission to recover him. Burke assembles a team of disparate members - his right-hand man, Sergeant Moore, big-game-hunter-turned-soldier Clayton Manning, and Professor Dan Graves, one of Tesla's top men and the resident authority on all things supernatural, among them - to dare the impossible.

Monck’s Corner, South Carolina, 1739. When Mae Briscoe learns that a small group of slaves plans to flee to Florida for freedom among the Spanish, she knows she must go with them. The master’s son has been far too friendly lately, and there’s no one to protect her. She knows the trek will be rough, and it will be hard adapting to a new culture, but given the circumstances, the call of freedom is too strong to resist. Thus, she begins an adventure of a lifetime, heading south to freedom.

It's 1939, in New York City. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat: smuggling himself out of Hitler's Prague. He's looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a partner in creating the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Inspired by their own fantasies, fears, and dreams, they create the Escapist.

In the autumn of 1938, Germany's reichsführer, Heinrich Himmler, is growing frustrated at the British using their regional power in India to block the passage of an SS expedition to Tibet. Determined to spite them, he plots to steal something the British hold dear and have failed for the seventh time that spring to achieve: a first summit of Mount Everest. Seventy years later, seasoned mountain guide Neil Quinn's ninth visit to the top of the world's highest mountain, this time in charge of the 16-year-old son of a Long Island billionaire, begins to unravel.

After their epic journey across Europe, Ayla and Jondalar have reached his home, the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, the old stone-age settlement in the region known today as southwest France. Jondalar's family greet him warmly, but they are initially wary of the beautiful young woman he has brought back, with her strange accent and her tame wolf and horses.

Ayla, one of the most remarkable and beloved heroines in contemporary fiction, continues to explore the world and the people around her with curiosity, insight, and, above all, courage. As the story opens, Ayla, Jondalar, and their infant daughter, Jonayla, are living with the Zelandonii in the Ninth Cave - a shelter of stone. Ayla has been chosen as an acolyte and has embarked on the arduous task of training to become a spiritual leader.

Set in the years before and during the 1st Punic War, the series follows the exploits of a young, hot-headed swordsman. From a lad on his father's farm, to a Legion training camp, to the Capital of the Republic, Alerio Sisera learns that sharp steel and quick reflexes are not always a Legionary's best assets.

This series opens with an attempt on Marshal Hawk's life by an unknown gunman, along with a mysterious telegram from Wichita, written to the would-be killer, and a second telegram with the name of Hawk's sworn enemy, Deputy James Cartwell, on it as another target for assassination. Wichita holds memories for both of the targets of the "hit," and even though they hate each other, they reluctantly join forces to hunt down the person who ordered the hit on them.

A collection of Smith's apace adventure stories featuring Captain Volmar, including the never before published novella, "Red World of Polaris."

Two-time Spur Award winner and member of the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame, Dusty Richards pens gritty Western tales packed with period authenticity. Texas Blood Feud stars Chet Byrnes, a third generation Texan looking to save his family’s ranch with one more big cattle drive. But his plans are dashed after he strings up three horse thieves, sparking a deadly feud with a family bent on revenge.

Since time immemorial, humans have worshipped the gods they call Fhrey, truly a race apart: invincible in battle, masters of magic, and seemingly immortal. But when a god falls to a human blade, the balance of power between humans and those they thought were gods changes forever. Now only a few stand between humankind and annihilation: Raithe, reluctant to embrace his destiny as the God Killer; Suri, a young seer burdened by signs of impending doom; and Persephone, who must overcome personal tragedy to lead her people. The Age of Myth is over. The time of rebellion has begun.

Jonas and Yenna lead normal lives as a London pub owner and a journalist...but they moonlight as notorious thieves with their five-member crew of unlikely criminals. Since the night twelve-year-old Jonas and his feisty red-headed neighbor—who happens to be a witch—knocked over a corner shop, the two have been inseparable. Until Yenna's magick breaks and the two of them have to face the traumatic after-effects. After years apart, Jonas brings Yenna in for one last heist—to steal a diamond from the Millenium Dome on New Year's Eve 1999, just as the clock strikes midnight.

Orphaned as a child by a blood feud and sold as a slave to an exiled chieftain in Ireland, the boy Hasting had little hope of surviving to adulthood. The gods had other plans. A ship arrived at his master's longphort carrying a man who would alter the course of his destiny and take him under his wing to teach him the ways of the Vikings. His is a story of a boy who was a slave, who became a warlord, and who helped topple an empire.

Matt found a way to erase his past regrets. He was an average guy who was pissing and moaning his way toward retirement. Like many people before him, he often wished things had gone differently for him. Be careful what you wish for!