An original epic fantasy novella by Stephen Aryan focusing on a fan-favourite character from Battlemage: the gruff and mysterious warrior know as Vargus.

     China Clipper is filled with fact but reads like a spy novel. In the 1930s the political stability of the U.S. was collapsing. The U.S. was dangerously vulnerable. Through a popular policy of isolationism and international treaty the U.S. had only the most rudimentary and feeble defenses for an inevitable war with Japan. Japan, on the other hand, was ruthlessly storming through Manchuria, Korea and China slaughtering millions. The U.S. was stymied but Pan American Airways' proposed commercial seaplane bases at Pearl Harbor, Midway, Wake, Guam and Manila (all attacked on December 7 and 8 1941) offered the perfect ruse to begin fortifying the Pacific in 1934. You'll discover how the government worked covertly with Pan American to build Pacific island defenses, how Pan American became a monopoly and powerhouse airline. While China Clipper can be read as an exciting war story based on true events, its major power lies in the unique recreation of people and events heretofore previously unknown. Tautly written, filled with vivid characterizations, China Clipper is a compelling and a frightening examination of the forces that eventually caused Pearl Harbor to explode - and - the world go to war. China Clipper also follows the day-by-day flight of American citizen and Chinese patriot, Wah Sun Choy, in July 1938 on the Hawaii Clipper bound for China. A successful New Jersey businessman, Wah Sun Choy had raised over $3 million to help bolster China's war with Japan. But his purpose - to deliver the money to the Chinese Nationalists - clashed with the avowed aims of Japan. Between Guam and Manila, the elegant flying boat completely disappeared. Why the 26-ton flying boat vanished and how is explored in depth - for the first time - in China Clipper. China Clipper breaks new ground and garnered stellar reviews - “… new theory on the mystery of the Hawaii Clipper…” New York Times --- “...compelling, even romantic…” San Francisco Chronicle --- “...this is exciting reading…” San Diego Union --- “…good tale for spy , aviation and WWII buffs…” Nashville Banner

    An alien world. An incredible adventure.After surviving a catastrophic starship blow-out, Delia Kemp finds herself stranded on the inhospitable, ice-bound world of Valinda, populated by the Skelt, a race of hostile aliens who will stop at nothing to obtain Delia’s scientific knowledge. Escaping from the Skelt – assisted by a friendly chimpanzee-like alien and a giant spider-crab – she travels south through a phantasmagorical landscape as the long winter comes to an end and the short, blistering summer approaches. Pursued by the Skelt, she and her companions make a death-defying dash across the planet’s inimical equator to meet up with fellow survivors from the starship, and a final journey to the valley of Mahkanda – where salvation just might be awaiting.

    Includes The Amplified, The Dissenters, and The Restrainers.

    Seventeen years ago, five knights from Earth's magical twin, Theia, entombed Asmodeous the Pale, Lord of the Drynn, in Skip's town. Now that the dark god is free again, he's anxious to get back home and finish the war he began…to enslave all life. It begins with killing the knights who trapped him.Deprived of their magic, the knights fight back using whatever they can get their hands on, from samurai swords to assault rifles. Skip gets reluctantly drawn in to their struggle while Donovan Smith, the demi-god murderer whom Skip was after in the first place, plots to find the Lord of the Underworld and butcher him on his own.Together, these unlikely heroes might just save the world. If they don't kill each other first.

    You things always do. Now it’s time for us to part.’ He watched, expressionless, as the thing raised a feeble arm; then he released a handle on the winch. The thing slumped, disappeared into the foot wide gap between the walls. He turned to the pile of loose bricks, looking for his trowel... – from ScarecrowWhen Danny Sanchez, a hard-bitten journalist working in the Almeria region of Spain is sent to cover the demolition of the home of a retired expat couple, he lands a much bigger – and more grisly – story than he bargained for. As the diggers begin to tear down the house, a body, partially decomposed, its face swathed in a strange black sheath, is suddenly revealed dangling in the depths of the brickwork…From the deeply sinister opening pages, Scarecrow draws the reader down an inexorable, tortuous path of discovery and into the gruesome activities of a serial killer so depraved it almost defies comprehension. Via thuggish cowboy builders, a missing drug-addicted teenage boy, and a house with a stinking secret wall, Danny’s scoop of a lifetime becomes a personal crusade to snare the elusive murderer. Alternating between Spain and England, the story takes us into the mind of the complex, highly driven Danny. An expert at ferreting out information from even the most recalcitrant of contacts, this skilled journalist will stop at nothing, even risking his own life, to find the answers that have escaped the authorities for decades.Moving with a Chandleresque efficiency, the narrative is compelling and full of unexpected but highly credible twists; the dialogue stark and often harsh. Pritchard’s mastery lies in the psychology of his characters, his vivid descriptive abilities and his subtle pacing. An essential read for anyone who relishes burning the midnight oil with a superlatively terrifying crime novel, Scarecrow will keep the reader guessing right to the end.

    His roommate is a data thief, his girlfriend picks fights in bars, and his best friend is a cyborg…and a lousy tipper. When everything is spiraling out of control, though, maybe those are exactly the kind of friends you need.In a world divided between the genetically engineered elite and the unmodified masses, Anders is an anomaly: engineered, but still broke and living next to a crack house. All he wants is to land a tenure-track faculty position, and maybe meet someone who's not technically a criminal—but when a nightmare plague rips through Hagerstown, Anders finds himself dodging kinetic energy weapons and government assassins as Baltimore slips into chaos. His friends aren't as helpless as they seem, though, and his girlfriend's street-magician brother-in-law might be a pretentious hipster—or might hold the secret to saving them all.Frenetic and audacious, Three Days in April is a speculative thriller that raises an important question: once humanity goes down the rabbit hole, can it ever find its way back?

    Max's son, Dr. Kyle Thorning, is now a high particle physicist at CERN in Switzerland. Meanwhile, after First Contact, powerful aliens with four arms and four legs, named Darsians, are taking control of the planet, with the muted subservience of its human population due to the astounding technological advances that the aliens introduce. Kyle has a powerful weapon—a new Time Travel machine—and must decide to travel to his father's old parallel universe, where he doesn't even exist, or confront the aliens in his home universe.

    Tolerance now rules the five colonies. Thanks to the secret police, no one has been bothered by so much as a hymn in two generations-much less a Torah, Koran, or that most dangerous of books, a Bible. Baden is a teenager with an attitude. He spends his spare time salvaging wrecks in deep space, claiming for himself whatever the pirates leave behind. One day, Baden finds a book. A strange and very old book, preserved carefully against the ravages of deep space. Thinking he'll become rich if only for the value of the paper, he takes it. He counts himself lucky beyond all imagining. Until it begins talking to him. Amidst an interstellar war that threatens to overthrow the monarchy and drive great families to oblivion, Baden must evade the secret police and their attempts to get that book. Baden never had much use for religion. But it seems one has use of him. *** Steve Rzasa was born and raised in South Jersey, and fell in love with books-especially science fi cti on novels and historical volumes-at an early age. He and his wife, Carrie, have two boys and live in Buff alo, Wyoming. Steve's short story, "Rescued," which is set in the universe of The World Reclaimed, won the 2009 G.K. Chesterton Award in the Athanatos Christi an Ministries Writi ng Contest.

    Now she must not only outrun but outsmart her rivals to uncover the secrets of an ancient, mysterious pulsar. For deep in the void, far beyond the reach of civilization, wealth and renown matter little absent the ultimate reward: survival.Set five years before STARSHINE: Aurora Rising Book One (Aurora Rhapsody #1), VENATORIS takes a younger, wilder, rough-around-the-edges Alexis Solovy and Kennedy Rossi on an unforgettable adventure across the stars.*VENATORIS was initially published in Beyond the Stars: A Planet Too Far: amzn.com/B01DMZUIEM.

    Nuttall. Aliens take control of Britain’s cities and force the remainder of the British military to go on the run. With the government destroyed, the population must choose between fighting and collaborating with the alien overlords. . Discovery of the Saiph by P.P. Corcoran.The Marco Polo leads mankind to Proxima Centauri outside Earth's Solar System where the ship's scientists detect power readings they are artificial, alien and emanate from Planet III... a wasteland that suffered a devastating nuclear bombardment many thousands of years before. Archaeologists discover an alien library deep underground and are astonished to unlock its secrets with human DNA. C.R.O.W. by Phillip Richards.Andy Moralee knew that life with his new company of Dropship Infantry would be hard, but nothing could prepare him for life in one of the toughest units in the Union army. New arrivals, nicknamed ‘Crow’ by their platoons, are the lowest form of life in his Company, and he finds himself at the mercy of unforgiving commanders and bullies, all the time knowing that the real enemy are waiting for him at the end of his journey through the void. The enemy know that the Union are coming, they have dug in and fortified, and they are ready Marine Cadet by Tim C. Taylor.2565 A.D. When seventeen-year old Marine Cadet, Arun McEwan, forges an unlikely friendship with an alien scribe, he crashes into a world of treachery and conspiracy. How can he possibly survive three more years until graduation when every day brings a new deadly threat? But survive he must because his new alien allies show him glimpses of his destiny — a vision of a better future that only he can forge.A dream called the Human Legion The Exclusive Short Stories- Haven One-Eight by P.P. Corcoran. A relentless foe seeks to murder the Faithful in their haven, but who are these unstoppable servants of Satan? The answer will shock you. The President’s Son by Tim C. Taylor. The characters in the Human Legion series have been isolated from the rest of humanity for centuries, but their distant ancestors were taken as children from Earth. In The President’s Son, a short story exclusive to this collection, we hear the story of that first group of slave children. Fallen Witness artwork by Andy Bigwood and words by Tim C. Taylor.The third short story in the collection is special.

     TALON: Book 1 of the Windwalker Archive follows the early years of a unique boy, a fifteen year old runt living on the barbarian island of Volnoss. Born premature during the frozen plague that took his mother, shunned by his father, and raised by his grandmother, Talon has always felt like he doesn't belong. For years he dreams of growing big and strong like the giants that surround him. But as the day of measure draws near, he begins to realize that he will never be named a Vald, and will be cast to the village of the Skomm to live a life of slavery. Barely surviving the beating that follows his failure to meet the measure, Talon is banished to the village of misfits. There he finds friends in the most unlikely of places, and begins to hope he might find some happiness as a Skomm. As Talon tries to settle into his life in the slave village he is challenged at every turn. The Vaka overseers have it in for him, as does the Chiefson of Timber Wolf Tribe. The Kelda Agaeti is drawing near, called by the Skomm the night of dying, when seven warriors from neighboring tribes win the right to go on a bloody rampage through the village. After barely surviving a random attack by drunken Vald that left nearly a dozen dead, Talon and his friends decide that they must somehow escape the island. For Chiefson Fylkin has vowed to kill him first on the night of dying. What follows is a fast-paced race against time, an underdog story wrought with action and adventure, rich with magic, culture, friendship and lore. Set two hundred years before the events of Whill of Agora, The Windwalker Archive reveals the origins of Dirk Blackthorn’s spirit wolf, Chief. Fans of the Legends of Agora books will be introduced to unforgettable new characters, and revisit a few old friends. Although this trilogy takes place chronologically before Whill of Agora, it can be read before or after as a standalone series.

    From the ruins of this cataclysm, a race of beings emerged from the sea bestowing knowledge and culture upon humanity, saving us from our selfish drive toward extinction. Some say this race were “ancient aliens” who came to assist our evolution.But what if they weren’t alien at all? What if they evolved right here on Earth, alongside humans . . . and they are still here? And, what if the World’s governments already know?***Kelly Graham is a narcissistic self-assured freelance photographer specializing in underwater assignments. While on a project in the Amazon with his best friend, Chris D'Souza, a mysterious and beautiful government official, Freya Nilsson, enters Kelly’s life and turns it upside down. Her simple request to retrieve a strange object from deep underwater puts him in the middle of an international conspiracy. A conspiracy that threatens to change the course of human history.www.childrenofthefifthsun.com

    Then an unexpected message leads him into what could become his greatest – and strangest – case yet, a case whose foundations are inextricably linked to his own past.Rule Zero is a darkly comic thriller packed with psychic spies, prescient journalists, contact clairvoyants, repressed supermen, a lethal cocktail waitress and a roving troupe of ape-like security guards.Britain will never be the same again.

    Everyone but the spaceship’s grumpy XO/navigator. When mysterious Christmas-themed things start happening, can the jaded second-in-command debunk the myth, or will she start to believe in the magic of Santa and the sleigh? Warning: Filled to bursting with humour and Christmas songs you know and love to hate. Get into the spirit of Christmas with the Anvil’s crew in this light-hearted seasonal romp from the author of the Jane Poole Genesis.