Horror Literature History

Ruin and desolation have fallen on the Roman Empire. The undead have destroyed everything in their path. The greatest city in the world in nothing more than a wasteland. Men gather in the furthest corners of the empire, preparing for their final stand. The last army of Rome, the last fighting force of mankind. Across the empire, a group of desperate friends carry with them one last hope. They must travel to the heart of the undead. They must be willing to sacrifice. They must be ready to give everything they have in order to save Rome and each other. Out of ruin there may be rebirth.

Caught between the undead horde and civil war, the Roman Empire is on the verge of destruction. Italy is in flames, and Rome is under siege by the Risen, while Titus and Otho both lay claim to the title of Emperor. Centurion Vitus Protus, Praetor Domitius, and their allies face a desperate choice. They must either stay and fight for the City of Rome or leave and survive in the wilderness left behind by the Risen.

A week after her mother found her sleeping on the ceiling, Amy Thomsett is delivered to her new school, Drearcliff Grange in Somerset. Although it looks like a regular boarding school, Amy learns that Drearcliff girls are special, the daughters of criminal masterminds, outlaw scientists and master magicians.

Sometimes being a vampire isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Julian Brownell, a 2,000-year-old vampire, is learning that the hard way. The depression and divorce in his banal, pretend-human life were bad enough. But when he decides to burst back onto the vampire scene, things go from bad to worse as he finds himself firmly in the sights of the deadliest vampire hunter of all time.

Jun is a deadhunter - and a damn good one. For her, patrolling Northern Italy with Sergeant Josiah and his elite squad, eradicating zombies and searching for survivors is nothing new. When the squad encounters a group of refugees being relentlessly pursued by the Dead, they uncover a new threat: a secret Alpine Redoubt stuffed with SS and Hitler Youth, who have seemingly gained control over the Dead.

While Father Sean O'Malley is summoned to Rome to discuss the "Longborough Affair" with his superiors, Russian anthropologist Anna Rykov and Doctor Harold Lamb travel to New York City where they encounter merchants, mobsters, and madmen in pursuit of the spirit medium who advised their mentor shortly before the start of the whole adventure. The Missing Medium is a pulp adventure set in the 1920s, and the second book in the Utgarda series.

He was the shameful cause of his sister Elena's death, and he stole state papers from England, yet Adrian Hart is feted by the best of society in Rome and boldly dubs himself "Iago". Determined to avenge Elena, his unrequited love, Lieutenant Andrew Sullivan asks the advice of poet and Shakespearean John Keats and his artist friend, Severn. Soon, Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley join them, then Lord Byron and his servant, Fletcher. But how can the seven of them work against this man when they can't even agree what he is?

After Jack the Ripper terrorized London in 1888, he would spark a mystery when he disappeared, his string of violent and horrific murders ending as quickly as they began. Now, in 1907, biographer Charles Hapgood is about to be visited a man who astonishingly claims that he was the famous Ripper and that he wishes to tell his tale before his coming death. Skeptical at first, Hapgood agrees to hear his story, only to soon be shown indisputable proof that his visitor speaks the truth.

The narrative interweaves history, myth, rumor, and news with the experiences of a young girl living in the flatness of South Florida. Like Grace Paley's narrators, she is pensive and eager, hungry for experience but restrained. Into the sphere of her regard come a Ted Bundy reject, the God Osiris, a Caribbean slave turned pirate, a circus performer living in a box, broken horses, a Seminole chief in a swamp, and a murderous babysitter.

They're an iconic part of history's most celebrated birth. But what do we really know about the Three Kings of the Nativity, besides the fact that they followed a star to Bethlehem bearing strange gifts? The Bible has little to say about this enigmatic trio. But leave it to Seth Grahame-Smith, the brilliant and twisted mind behind Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to take a little mystery, bend a little history, and weave an epic tale.

For 17 years of his life, the exact whereabouts of the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri are unknown to modern scholars. It is known that during this time he traveled as an exile across Europe, working on his epic poem, The Divine Comedy. In his masterpiece he describes a journey through the three realms of the afterlife. During his lost wanderings, Dante stumbled upon an infestation of the living dead. The unspeakable acts he witnessed became the basis of all the horrors described in Inferno.

1918: A First World War battlefield becomes the cosmic battleground for two vampires, as Karl von Wultendorf struggles to free himself from his domineering maker, Kristian. 1923: Charlotte Neville watches as her father, a Cambridge professor, fills Parkland Hall with guests for her sister Madeleine's 18th birthday party. Among them is his handsome new research assistant Karl - the man Madeleine has instantly decided will be her husband. Charlotte, shy and retiring, is happy to devote her life to her father and her dull fiance Henry - until she sees Karl....

In this world, steam and electricity are the favored sources of power. Science has taken the place of religion, while magic is unknown by all but peculiar outcasts. But the border between reality and the underworld here is extremely thin. Thankfully, the adepts of scientific knowledge have found success holding back the onslaught of infernal creatures. Electricity is stronger than magic, but even it is not all-powerful. A former detective constable for the New Babylon Criminal Investigative Police, Leopold Orso is illustrious.

Between 1925-27, H.P. Lovecraft wrote Supernatural Horror in Literature, an extended essay about about the history of the weird tale. In it he describes supernatural horror from its earliest manifestations up to the 1920s. Lovecraft offers his own candid opinions on the merits (and deficiencies) of the world's canon of strange literature. The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society recorded the essay as an audiobook. Read by society founders Sean Branney and Andrew Leman, the recording is approximately three hours long.

Colonel W.B. Townsend has fallen on rough times establishing the Little River Lumber Company due to strange occurrences preventing the construction of his railroad. Detectives William Rue and Johnny Walking-Stick from the Pinkerton Detective Agency are called to find the unknown saboteurs and bring them to justice. A new threat descends on this small, developing town, with nefarious plans that may one day threaten the entire world. Will the citizens of Townsend and the Foresters of Stillwater set aside their differences and join forces against the nightmare known as the Rougarou?

Northern California, 1985. Leo Cecchino won’t rest until his people are safe. Leading the battle against the Soviet walking dead, he turns to his ex-girlfriend’s chess master sister to calculate their next move. But with the commie invaders deliberately infecting American innocents, they’re running out of time to stop the streets from flowing with rivers of blood.

Audrey Hamilton, a young American woman, comes to Paris to seek her fortune as an artist. Lurking beneath the glamour of the city, however, in a nation still recovering from the Great War of 1914-18, is the dark spiritual force of the poet Charles Baudelaire. Evil will rise from the moody old Cemetery of Montparnasse to ensnare Audrey's spirit and drag her to her doom.

Three bank robbers are on the run following a rather unusual heist. They decide to seek shelter for the night in a tiny, seemingly harmless town. However, the following morning they awaken to discover that the town they chose is actually some form of disturbingly cheery utopia complete with sickly sweet citizens who have the rather odd habit of breaking into perfectly choreographed song and dance numbers. When they try to leave, they discover that getting out of this bizarre little village may not be as easy as they thought.

When Roman legions march over the borders of the Empire they meet an enemy greater than any they have ever faced. Emperor Vespasian has ordered a push further into Germania than the legions have ever been, and an enemy army is gathering to meet them. What neither side is prepared for is the darker force that they will both face. Indiscriminate and incapable of mercy, the new enemy will drive the Romans to the very brink of destruction. The Gates of Hades have opened and the Roman Legions must face what has escaped.

Abigail Argent stands out. Some people notice that she always wears gloves and shudder when they know why. The ones who know her best notice her ability with metal. Abigail's particular talent lies in the coloring of alloys, for seeing the beauty in a plain piece of metal and being able to draw it out. Her study leads her to discover a connection between her own craft and that of her favorite childhood myth: changing lead into gold.