When a Japanese regiment lands on Australia’s desolate and undefended Cape York Peninsula, Jock Miles, a US Army captain disgraced despite heroic actions at Pearl Harbor, is ordered to locate the enemy’s elusive command post. Conceived in politics rather than sound tactics, the futile mission is a “show of faith” by the American war leaders meant to do little more than bolster their flagging Australian ally. For Jock Miles and the men of his patrol, it’s a death sentence: their enemy is superior in men, material, firepower, and combat experience. Even if the Japanese don’t kill them, the vast distances they must cover on foot in the treacherous natural realm of Cape York just might. When Jock joins forces with Jillian Forbes, an indomitable woman with her own checkered past who refused to evacuate in the face of the Japanese threat, the dim prospects of the Allied war effort begin to brighten in surprising ways.

    Loaded with detailed descriptions and elaborate, four-color illustrations of Darwinist beasties and Clanker walkers, weapons, transport, and uniforms, this manual highlights the international powers that Deryn and Alek encounter throughout their around-the-world adventures. This guide draws back the curtain and reveals the inner depths of Westerfeld's fascinating alternative world.

    Most of the characters therein are a figment of the author’s imagination. Without exception, those characters that are historical figures of fact or based upon historical figures of fact are used fictitiously, and their actions, demeanour, conversations, and characters are similarly all figments of the author’s imagination.]

    G. Wells’s spaceships, there was Frank Reade, globe-trotting inventor and original steampunk hero. Frank Reade magazines were the world’s first science fiction periodicals, enthralling millions of readers with tales of fantastic inventions and adventures. Now many of the spectacular images from the vintage dime novel series are being reprinted for the first time in more than a century, along with excerpts from the action-packed stories. In Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention, this lost legacy of Americana is interwoven with a biography of the "real" Reade family—inventors and explorers who traveled the world with their helicopter airships, submarines, and robots, and who encountered figures like Geronimo and Houdini. This epic saga is brought to life in the multimedia style of the authors’ previous volume, the critically acclaimed Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel. Frank Reade is part–science fiction, part–alternate history, and entirely exciting!Praise for Frank Reade: “A retrofuturist visual feast.” —Wall Street Journal“A stunning multimedia confection of the highest order that creates a detailed and delightful world.” —Publishers Weekly“The book’s allure owes everything to its deadpan prose and hundreds of perfectly faked photos and graphics that replicate mass-media and commercial ephemera of the Victorian era—the result of immersive research.” —TheAtlantic.com “Portland-based Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett are a husband-and-wife team of multimedia artists who have produced a variety of work. . . . Their new book, Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention, is their best work yet.” —io9.com

    And women. And the world of Deadlands in the 1930s is one of the hardest. Heroes of this dark era must deal with the Great Depression, constant cold war between the North and South, the unrelenting industrialization of the modern world, corrupt governments, and more than a few terrors lurking in the darkness. Those who struggle against this evil are steely-eyed private dicks, fast-talking grifters, wild-eyed inventors, and shadowy houngans. With enough moxie-and more than a little luck-they might just be enough to turn the tide. Deadlands Noir is a roleplaying game that takes place in the Deadlands universe of the 1930s. The core book explores the featured campaign setting of New Orleans while the Companion covers Shan Fan, Chicago in the Roaring Twenties, Lost Angels in the glitzy Forties, and the City of Gloom in the Fifties. Deadlands Noir focuses on mystery, investigation, action, and horror in the grim and gritty cities of the 1900s. The Deadlands Noir RPG uses the Savage Worlds core rules.

    went wrong?Welcome to THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS, a brand new, ongoing, monthly comic from the creators of THE RED WING. Brought to you by award-winning writer JONATHAN HICKMAN and possibly the best new talent of the year, NICK PITARRA, THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS is a look at history through a darker, much stranger, lens.

    Actually I was very old. You'd look at me, laugh, and say, "Forty is not so old, son. It's the rough life. It makes you feel older than you really are. I'm the one who's old," you'd say. You'd be wrong, of course. You are only sixty or a bit more. I was much older. I'd feel a moment of vanity. Forty! I should only look about thirty, maybe thirty-five at most. I was actually almost three hundred years old. Three bloody centuries I'd lived. You wouldn't believe me if I told you. You'd be sure my mind was going. So far I'd taken the drug three times. I wasn't going to take it the last time. The world had become too depressing. But this life in an old man's body is harsh, and I had given in; a couple of years early actually. Now I had only a single dose remaining, but if I didn't lose it, and if I didn't get killed along the way somehow, I was good for another hundred and seventy years or there about. I'd been to the moon. It was easy a hundred years ago when we knew how. The shuttles left weekly. It wasn't cheap, and other than the novelty of light gravity, a bit boring. The lack of an atmosphere limited the opportunities. I thought about going to Mars, but the trip was long, and they had the air problem there too. The technowizzes said they would have it fixed in a hundred years. I'd been willing to wait, but then everything went to hell. . . . . . . . . .

    In his fiction, his non-fiction, and even his own life, Dickens cast an extraordinary shadow over the city he so loved - so much so, indeed, that his name has become synonymous with a certain image of London. A London of terrible social inequality and matchless belief in the human potential; a London filled with the comic and the repulsive, the industrious and the feckless, the faithful and the faithless, the selfish and the selfless.Pandemonium: Stories of the Smoke is dedicated to bringing together original short stories by some of today's finest genre authors - stories about London and inspired by Charles Dickens, the self-styled Sparkler of Albion. Contributors include: Archie Black, David Bryher, Aliette de Bodard, Michelle Goldsmith, Jonathan Green, Alexis Kennedy, Sarah Anne Langton, Rebecca Levene, Sarah Lotz, Glen Mehn, David Thomas Moore, Adam Roberts, Esther Saxey, Lavie Tidhar, Jenni van der Merwe, James Wallis and Kaaron Warren.Smoke is introduced by Christopher Fowler and illustrated by the amazing Gary Northfield. A portion of all proceeds from the sales of Smoke goes to English PEN, a cause of which Dickens would wholly approve.

    When New Britain invades and attempts to seize Rhode Island’s newly-discovered mine, Peter finds himself leading his small cavalry against the massive British army. But war becomes the least of his worries when his own men kidnap him and hold him for ransom. Facing certain death, Peter is freed by a mysterious boy who vanishes without leaving his name. Indebted, Peter determines to find his "angel" and reward him. But his rescuer has a secret of his own—he is the exiled rightful heir of New Britain, and he will do anything to keep from being found.

    From the Vedic culture of ancient India thousands of years ago, we find the origins of such things as mathematics, especially algebra and geometry, as well as early astronomy and planetary observations, many instances of which can be read in the historical Vedic texts. Medicine in Ayurveda was also the first to prescribe herbs for the remedy of disease, surgical instruments for operations, and more. Other developments that were far superior and ahead of the rest of the world include: -Writing and language, especially the development of sophisticated Sanskrit; -Metallurgy and making the best known steel at the time; -Ship building and global maritime trade; -Textiles and the dying of fabric for which India was known all over the world; -Agricultural and botanical achievements; -Precise Vedic arts in painting, dance and music; -The educational systems and the most famous of the early universities, like Nalanda and Takshashila; -The source of individual freedom and fair government, and the character and actions of rulers; -Military and the earliest of martial arts; -Along with some of the most intricate, deep and profound of all philosophies and spiritual paths, which became the basis of many religions that followed later around the world. These and more are the developments that came from India, much of which has been forgotten, but should again be recognized as the heritage of the ancient Indian Vedic tradition that continues to inspire humanity.

    On June 19, 1940, the unthinkable happened and Britain was forced out of the war. The Commonwealth was left on its own and has to shoulder the burder of fighting Germany without the center of Commonwealth military, economic and political power. In a world now full of unexpected enemies and unlikely friends, the Commonwealth faces a desperate struggle to survive.

    Tired of his family’s treachery and wanting more from life than power, he escapes with their secret weapon, the Silver—an ancient artifact so potent, so evil, that it could plunge mankind into a permanent state of ruin and despair. After fifteen years on the run, Jude receives a surprise visit from a cousin who planned to murder him to obtain the family treasure. So begins Jude’s desperate quest to find another artifact powerful enough to destroy the Silver. His traveling companion is an unlikely friend, Mike Engle—a Catholic priest who found his calling on the brutal sands of Iraq. In the course of their journey, the two men clash with evil in many forms. Mike learns the details of Jude’s incredible history and the family secret that reaches back 2,000 years. Before their final, earth-shattering battle, the duo will find surprising allies and the strength to carry on against seemingly insurmountable odds. Will the lessons Jude has learned about love, friendship and sacrifice be enough save him from his family and his destiny?Starred Review: "This delightful Catholicism-infused quest fantasy stars a likable and original duo. Fr. Michael Engle, a pragmatic Catholic priest, and Jude, who has a considerably more uncertain relationship with God, are unlikely friends, but when a blood-covered Jude runs into Mike's church asking for help, Mike listens to him, believes him, and joins him on a quest to find the Holy Grail, which Jude hopes will help him destroy a legendary and dangerous family heirloom. Along the way they encounter Cain, the Norse gods (drinking and watching Bridge over the River Kwai), and a Valkyrie with the requisite 'chainmail-covered pillowy breasts.' When Mephistopheles shows up, Jude manages to label him an Arch-Fiend of Hell without irony and without irritating the reader. Stone's depiction of magic is realistic and intelligent and his treatment of Catholicism refreshingly informed and three-dimensional. Even the obligatory near-apocalyptic ending is coherent, surprising, and exciting."--Publishers Weekly

    Treated like a poor relation within his own wealthy family, he had little hope of obtaining the future he desperately wanted. That is until he rescued and transformed an injured rat into the mechanism of not only his salvation, but his family’s as well. STEAMPUNK RAT is a YA Novella based on the steampunk webcomic BOSTON METAPHYSICAL SOCIETY. http://www.bostonmetaphysicalsociety.comAdditional review at: http://thelotteryparty.com/steampunk-...

    From the patriarch, U Phat Khat of the medieval Kingdom of Siam, through to the present day, this remarkable line of lynx point Siamese cats continually become entwined in the lives and careers of many of the great natural philosophers and scientists, both men and women, of the past 700 years, including Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Halley, up to the legendary figures of the twentieth century. Notable felines like Unity the Gravity Cat, Simon the Comet Cat, Alabaster Pericles – famed for A Trip to the Moon – and Perseus, also known as Schrodinger’s Cat, leap from these pages and take the reader on their amazing and sometimes strange adventures.These cats, though not lacking in intelligence or curiosity, could not have made the contributions they did without the help of a certain conical shaped hat. Called the Purple Cone by some, its origins date back to antiquity – to Alexandria during the time of the astronomer Hypatia. This hat is handed down through generations of cats and endows its wearer with some unexpected virtues and powers.

    With his political promises to a desperate people he spoke of a reign that would last a thousand years. Under his command humanity had entered a new dark age. Tales were told of horrors taking place in the East-of railroad cars, of ovens, and death. Still, there was one little secret he had kept to himself. When Hitler survived an assassination attempt upon his life his secret was discovered by those in command. Something had to be done! A German U-boat Captain is ordered to transport Adolf Hitler to a secret military base in Norway, during the closing days of the Second World War. While on this mission, he discovers that there is more to Germany's "Supreme Warlord" than meets the eye. To his horror, the Captain discovers the Third Reich's darkest secret: Hitler was a vampire!

    Here exists steam driven rudimentary computers and electronics. And dirigibles rule the sky. But with it comes huge social and political schisms.The Story:Elizabeth Weldsmore has kept something secret from her father since she was nine years old. But when Samuel Hunter is employed as her bodyguard, she must chose between saving him or protecting herself.Also available on Amazon, Nook, and Smashwords.

    Teddy Roosevelt is building an empire. Only Pancho Villa stands in his way.The American Expeditionary Force under the command of General "Black Jack" Pershing has invaded Northern Mexico. Pancho Villa leads his revolutionary army in a desperate raid against the American force only to be outflanked. Just as Pershing's airships prepare to deliver the death blow, Pancho Villa is transported to a parallel Earth where he finds an unexpected ally and the technology that might just turn defeat into victory.Revolution of Air and Rust is a stand-alone novella set in the Empires of Steam and Rust world created by Robert E. Vardeman and Stephen D. Sullivan. A story filled with military action, espionage and gadgetry that's sure to satisfy fans of steampunk and alternate history.

    Dyna of Sparta would not allow it, on her life and her ancestors she so swore.An Epic adventure set during the Early Roman Empire's era of expansion and unrest. Steam Legion develops from a real historical crossroads and explodes out in a new direction, derailing our history centuries before the first railroads were invented.When the revolts against the Empire reach the city of Alexandria, a small cadre of Legionnaires find themselves thrust into a revolution not of religion but of technology. Watch as Dyna of Sparta, Heron of Alexandria, and those who stand with them forge a new path to the future. Epic military action mixed with sparkling and memorable characters brings Legion to life, while forgotten technologies of our own distant past provide hope in an uncertain world.Watch and learn as Dyna of Sparta steps out of the Ivory Tower of the Library and into the sandals of her ancestors, blade in hand, to defend that which had become her life.

    Here exists steam driven rudimentary computers and electronics. And dirigibles rule the sky. But with it comes huge social and political schisms.THE DEVIL WITHIN is a story about Andrew O'Sullivan, Medium and Spirit Photographer, who grapples with the horrors of his day job with Homicide Detective Angus Mallory.Also available on Nook, Smashwords and DriveThruFiction.

    New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month.We are a 2012 Hugo Award nominee for Best Semiprozine!Issue 40 features the following content.Table of ContentsFiction"During the Pause" by Adam-Troy Castro"Sexagesimal" by Katharine E.K. Duckett"Waiting for Beauty" by Marie Brennan"Sacrifice" by Jennifer Pelland"Sonny Liston Takes the Fall" by Elizabeth BearNonfiction"Editorial: Blood on Vellum" by Lynne M. Thomas"Al Snow's Advice for SF Writers" by Peter M. Ball"An Interview with Adam-Troy Castro" by Maggie SlaterCover art by Julie DillonApex Magazine is edited by Hugo Award-winning editor Lynne M. Thomas.Visit the magazine at http://www.apex-magazine.com.

    Now he is trapped in the ruins of an ancient city and the beautiful Charlotte, the woman he loves, has been kidnapped by his anarchist foes. Their trail leads him through perilous airship battles, encounters with Martian assassins, and finally into the uncharted wilds of southern Mars. There, hidden inside a ring of tall mountains, he discovers a lost civilization on the shores of the mysterious Silver Sea. In the magnificent city of Kor Vosheth he must defeat a cabal of priests and princes to save the throne of the young queen who holds his only hope of resuming his quest.The Age of Aether takes place in a universe where the social revolutions of the 18th Century never happened. Mighty airships fill the skies while Cavorite-hulled aetherships ply the airless voids between the planets. From the torrid jungles of Venus to the frigid deserts of Mars, the British Empire has truly become "the Empire on which the sun never sets." The crowned heads of Europe share power with the immensely wealthy chartered companies created to exploit the wealth of the Solar System, while anarchist and republican terrorists try to stir up revolution in the colonial territories. Political activists and dissidents are shipped offworld to work alongside criminal transportees in the company towns of Mars and Venus. The Empires of Mexico and Brazil dominate the Americas, while Japan is a rising force in the East, and from the deep fastness of Nix Olympica the Martian High Emperor reigns over the remnants of his slowly dying planet.

    Ella Lantry knows in her soul that was the wrong outcome. Slavery has stolen her lover and her son from her, and she’s lost even more to the Thirsty Ones that haunt the groves. She’s a captive at her father’s plantation, constantly watched to keep her from escaping. Now she is using any means necessary to end the injustice – including marrying a rich, reclusive, and dangerous man. Can this handsome man with mysterious powers help her change the course of history? Can one woman reverse the outcome of a war among nations? All Ella knows is that she must. She will never give up until she has saved her son.Not a “romance novel with fangs,” Emancipation is dark, disturbing, and compelling. If you want to stay up all night turning pages to find out what happens next, and if you’re willing to risk nightmares and tears, this is the book for you. Ella is a fighter: deeply flawed, utterly committed, and unable to control the consequences of her attempts to improve her world.Ella's story continues in Book Two: Rebellion, and Book Three: Search. Available from AMAZON for both KINDLE and PRINT.

    Sky pirates haunt the western territories, savage prehistoric beasts have been set loose to roam the grasslands, and the science-enhanced Experimentals are hunted by the government that made them.Eden Kane is a shy girl working a dead-end job as a clerk with the Smithsonian's Department of Hazardous Artifacts. Unable to explain that her brilliant Experimental mind makes her uniquely qualified for the task, she is rudely refused a position on a dangerous assignment to reclaim the sky pirates' secret Dark Aetheric Transmitter.She mounts her own expedition, freeing Zenobia Santiago, ex-bandit and Experimental tiger-woman, to guide her through a West full of criminals, rogue Experimentals, and dinosaurs, and into the secret lair of the Sky Pirates of the Rio Grande.A secret war is brewing in the West. Hunted by desperados and government agents alike, Eden and Zenobia may be the only two people who can stop it.This is a complete adult adventure novel with two bonus scenes, and it contains graphic sex and ludicrous violence throughout.

    United States Marines versus Zombies -- what more could you ask for? In hard, close up combat members of a Marine Corps rifle platoon attempt to survive the introduction of zombies into battle in this alternate history novella.

    Stephen Hawking argues that it would be extremely unwise even to try. What if it were absolutely necessary to do so? This question arises with extreme urgency at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, in this time-travel, alternate-history trilogy, A New Birth of Freedom.