Rage of Angels


Michael Tinker Pearce - 2014
    Who are they, and why have they come? The survivors soon discover the aliens are here for the one resource they cannot find elsewhere in the solar system- surface biomass. Life itself. The survivors are left to fight a guerrilla war against their technologically superior adversaries in the vain hope of driving them off before they can strip the world of life. But they may be doomed to fail unless they can find a way to strike directly against the aliens, unassailable in their fortress-mothership orbiting high above the earth. With memorable characters, packed with action and bleeding-edge technology ‘Rage of Angels’ is a fresh, up to date and frighteningly plausible addition to the alien invasion genre.

1636: Calabar's War


Charles E. Gannon - 2021
    GANNON AND ROBERT WATERSDomingos Fernandes Calabar started out as a military advisor for the Portuguese in Brazil. But to his superiors, he was still nothing more than a mameluco, a man of mixed blood. Until, that is, the Dutch arrived and he switched sides. Then the Portuguese had a new label for him: “traitorous dog.” But when Dutch admiral Maarten Tromp arrives, having barely survived the disastrous Battle of Dunkirk, Calabar’s job changes again. Now he has to help engineer a swift Dutch exodus to a safer place before word of Tromp’s defeat reaches Spanish ears. Partnered with the Sephardic pirate Moses Cohen Henriques, the two aid the battered Dutch fleet by striking at the Portuguese and Spanish, both on land and sea. Until, that is, Calabar learns that bitter personal enemies have grabbed his family, put them in chains, and sold them to a slaveship bound for the Spanish Main. Calabar must now choose: continue to help the Dutch, or save his wife and children? Tromp and other strong allies want to put an end to slavery, too, but their strategies and timetable are measured in months and years. Calabar doesn’t have that kind of time and can’t rely on their methods. The struggle to recover his family, and to free the millions more suffering in shackles, is one he must win in his own way and on his own terms. Because ultimately, this is not just  Calabar’s fight. This is Calabar’s war. About 1635: A Parcel of Rogues: "The 20th volume in this popular, fast-paced alternative history series follows close on the heels of the events in The Baltic War, picking up with the protagonists in London, including sharpshooter Julie Sims. This time the 20th-century transplants are determined to prevent the rise of Oliver Cromwell and even have the support of King Charles."—Library Journal About 1634: The Galileo Affair: "A rich, complex alternate history with great characters and vivid action. A great read and an excellent book."—David Drake "Gripping . . . depicted with power!"—Publishers Weekly About Eric Flint's Ring of Fire series: “This alternate history series is . . . a landmark . . .”—Booklist “[Eric] Flint's 1632 universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians.”—Booklist “ . . . reads like a technothriller set in the age of the Medicis . . . ”—Publishers Weekly

Agatha H and the Airship City


Phil Foglio - 2011
    It has been eighteen years since the Heterodyne Boys, benevolent adventurers and inventors, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Today, Europe is ruled by the Sparks, dynasties of mad scientists ruling over—and terrorizing—the hapless population with their bizarre inventions and unchecked power, while the downtrodden dream of the Hetrodynes’ return.At Transylvania Polygnostic University, a pretty, young student named Agatha Clay seems to have nothing but bad luck. Incapable of building anything that actually works, but dedicated to her studies, Agatha seems destined for a lackluster career as a minor lab assistant. But when the University is overthrown by the ruthless tyrant Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, Agatha finds herself a prisoner aboard his massive airship Castle Wulfenbach—and it begins to look like she might carry a spark of Mad Science after all.From Phil and Kaja Foglio, creators of the Hugo, Eagle, and Eisner Award-nominated webcomic Girl Genius, comes Agatha H and the Airship City, a gaslamp fantasy filled to bursting with Adventure! Romance! and Mad Science!

The Fall of Night


Christopher G. Nuttall - 2014
     Britain – and the European Union – is struggling to remain civilised. Unemployment is high, ethnic and religious tensions are rising sharply, crime is skyrocketing, the value of money is falling and the whole system is on the verge of collapse. Across the continent, united only in name, countless individuals struggle to keep themselves afloat and survive for a few more days. But weakness invites attack and covetous eyes set their sights on the remains of Europe’s industry and trained population. As a military juggernaut descends on an unprepared continent, the remains of Britain’s once-proud military must fight to defend their country ... or watch helplessly as Britain falls into darkness. [As always, my books are DRM-free. Samples of this title (and others) can be downloaded from my website: www.chrishanger.net. Reviews and comments are always welcome.]

This Monstrous Thing


Mackenzi Lee - 2015
    Two years ago, Shadow Boy Alasdair Finch’s life shattered to bits.His brother, Oliver—dead.His sweetheart, Mary—gone.His chance to break free of Geneva—lost.Heart-broken and desperate, Alasdair does the unthinkable: He brings Oliver back from the dead.But putting back together a broken life is more difficult than mending bones and adding clockwork pieces. Oliver returns more monster than man, and Alasdair’s horror further damages the already troubled relationship.Then comes the publication of Frankenstein and the city intensifies its search for Shadow Boys, aiming to discover the real life doctor and his monster. Alasdair finds refuge with his idol, the brilliant Dr. Geisler, who may offer him a way to escape the dangerous present and his guilt-ridden past, but at a horrible price only Oliver can pay…

Legends of Dune Trilogy


Brian Herbert - 2006
    Anderson. Working from Frank Herbert's own notes, the acclaimed authors reveal the chapter of the Dune saga most eagerly anticipated by readers: the Butlerian Jihad.Throughout the Dune novels, Frank Herbert frequently referred to the war in which humans wrested their freedom from "thinking machines." In Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson bring to life the story of that war, a tale previously seen only in tantalizing hints and clues. Finally, we see how Serena Butler's passionate grief ignites the struggle that will liberate humans from their machine masters; here is the amazing tale of the Zensunni Wanderers, who escape bondage to flee to the desert world where they will declare themselves the Free Men of Dune. And here is the backward, nearly forgotten planet of Arrakis, where traders have discovered the remarkable properties of the spice melange. . . . Dune: The Machine Crusade More than two decades have passed since the events chronicled in Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. The crusade against thinking robots has ground on for years, but the forces led by Serena Butler and Irbis Ginjo have made only slight gains; the human worlds grow weary of war, of the bloody, inconclusive swing from victory to defeat.The fearsome cymeks, led by Agamemnon, hatch new plots to regain their lost power from Omnius--as their numbers dwindle and time begins to run out. The fighters of Ginaz, led by Jool Noret, forge themselves into an elite warrior class, a weapon against the machine-dominated worlds. Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva are on the verge of the most important discovery in human history-a way to "fold" space and travel instantaneously to any place in the galaxy.And on the faraway, nearly worthless planet of Arrakis, Selim Wormrider and his band of outlaws take the first steps to making themselves the feared fighters who will change the course of history: the Fremen.Here is the unrivaled imaginative power that has put Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson on bestseller lists everywhere and earned them the high regard of readers around the globe. The fantastic saga of Dune continues in Dune: The Machine Crusade. Dune: The Battle of Corrin It has been fifty-six hard years since the events of Dune: The Machine Crusade. Following the death of Serena Butler, the bloodiest decades of the Jihad take place. Synchronized Worlds and Unallied Planets are liberated one by one, and at long last, after years of victory, the human worlds begin to hope that the end of the centuries-long conflict with the thinking machines is finally in sight.Unfortunately, Omnius has one last, deadly card to play. In a last-ditch effort to destroy humankind, virulent plagues are let loose throughout the galaxy, decimating the populations of whole planets . . . and once again, the tide of the titanic struggle shifts against the warriors of the human race. At last, the war that has lasted many lifetimes will be decided in the apocalyptic Battle of Corrin.In the greatest battle in science fiction history, human and machine face off one last time. . . . And on the desert planet of Arrakis, the legendary Fremen of Dune become the feared fighting force to be discovered by Paul Muad'Dib in Frank Herbert's classic, Dune.

The Complete Orsinia: Malafrena / Stories and Songs


Ursula K. Le Guin - 2016
    Le Guin has produced a body of work that testifies to her abiding faith in the power and art of words. She is perhaps best known for imagining future intergalactic worlds in brilliant books that challenge our ideas of what is natural and inevitable in human relations—and that celebrate courage, endurance, risk-taking, and above all, freedom in the face of the psychological and social forces that lead to authoritarianism and fanaticism. It is less well known that she first developed these themes in the richly imagined historical fiction collected in this volume, which inaugurates the Library of America edition of her works.The Complete Orsinia gathers for the first time the entire body of work set in the imaginary central European nation of Orsinia: the early novel Malafrena, begun in the 1950s but not published until 1979, the related stories originally published in Orsinian Tales (1976), and additional stories and songs. In a new introduction written for this volume, Le Guin describes the breakthrough that led to her first novel: “Most of what I read drew me to write about Europe; but I knew it was foolhardy to write fiction set in Europe if I’d never been there. At last it occurred to me that I might get away with it by writing about a part of Europe where nobody had been but me.” So Orsinia was established, a country, like its near neighbors Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania, with a long and vivid history of oppression, art, and revolution.An epic meditation on the meaning of hope and freedom, love and duty, Malafrena takes place from 1825 to 1830, when Orsinia is a part of the Austrian empire. Itale Sorde, the idealistic heir to Val Malafrena, an estate in the rural western provinces, leaves home against his father’s wishes to work as a journalist in the cosmopolitan capital city of Krasnoy, where he plays an integral part in the revolutionary politics that are roiling Europe.Thirteen additional stories trace the history of Orsinia from the twelfth century, when it first emerges as an independent kingdom, to 1989, when its repressive Stalinist government falls in an Orsinian Velvet Revolution. The poem “Folksong from the Montayna Province,” Le Guin’s first published work, joins two never before published songs in the Orsinian language.The volume also features a newly researched chronology of Le Guin’s life and career, and detailed notes. The beautiful full-color endpaper map of Orsinia is drawn by Le Guin herself.

Burn


Patrick Ness - 2020
    Sarah can’t help but be curious about him, an animal who supposedly doesn’t have a soul, but who is seemingly intent on keeping her safe.Because the dragon knows something she doesn’t. He has arrived at the farm with a prophecy on his mind. A prophecy that involves a deadly assassin, a cult of dragon worshippers, two FBI agents in hot pursuit—and somehow, Sarah Dewhurst herself.