Lord of Death and LifeAnd you think you've got problems. Brion Rouwen has lost everything. In the blink of an eye. His occupation, his honor, and the woman he loves have been replaced with a curse far beyond even his darkest reckoning: not only can he not die, a cruel antecedent to the blistering pain inflicted upon him by his wrongdoers, but -- as he finds out -- everyone he loves will perish immediately upon contact with him.So begins The Lord of Death and Life, the first ...

From the depths of space comes utter destruction...The alien fleet orbited Penum IV and used colorful incinerating death rays on the planet rotating below. When the inhabitants of the globe were annihilated and everything left worth pillaging stowed on black-hulled plunder ships, the fleet moved on to the next inhabited human world, unopposed except by…The warship Preceptor, commanded by Pier Norlin, a junior officer on a ship with only a skeleton crew. The ship la...

Dieselpunk and decopunk are alternative history re-imaginings of (roughly) the WWI and WWII eras: tales with the grit of roaring bombers and rumbling tanks, of 'We Can Do It' and old time gangsters, or with the glamour of flappers and Hollywood starlets, smoky jazz and speakeasies. The stories in this volume add fairy tales to the mix, transporting classic tales to this rich historical setting.Two young women defy the devil with the power of friendship. The pilot of a talking plane...

Sir Francis Barstow has unlimited funds from the alchemist's dream--he can transmute lead into gold with a special ray confined to a Cornish coal mine. To exhaust generated fumes from the electrical equipment, he uses a strange black portal only a foot in diameter--the portal opens onto an entire new dimension, the World of Rust.Other, larger holes have appeared across the world. The Kaiser uses one to smuggle contraband from the United States into Switzerland in preparation for la...

Having visited the Lord of Death and Life and learned the ways of dark magicks and the evil curse placed upon his shoulders, Brion Rouwen returns to the Kingdom of Gan seeking justice against his enemies in Legion of the Air, the second book in Robert E. Vardeman's Accursed trilogy. Armed with not only the knowledge of a spell book, but also his own battalion of airy warriors, Rouwen is finally ready -- with the exiled Queen Diarra in tow -- to put things right.Rouwen's refusal to ...

The struggle of demons against mortals begins!Lovely Kesira, a nun cloistered and naive in the ways of the world, is thrust into violence, forced on a sacred quest to avenge her patron, Gelya. Her magical talking bird companion Zolkan is, at times, more of a hindrance than a help. Following her is the shape-changer Molimo as they enter the lair of the loathsome Jade Demons. Kesira's weapons are few, but her resolve is great. Her destiny, that of her companions--and the world--depen...

Kesira Minette's world has shattered amid a terrible rain of jade. The magical jade has killed the patron demon of her order and turned ordinary humans into strange werecreatures. Worse, the demons who were not killed have become...insane. She leaves the safety of her cloistered existence, accompanied by a sentient green bird and a tongueless shapeshifter, Molimo.Together they fight the growing powers of the Jade Demons, who have plunged the world into chaos. Eternal winter, earthq...

Pier Norlin and his misfit crew aboard the Empire warship Preceptor have scored the first victory over the mysterious invading Alien Death Fleet. The Fleet destroys the life on entire planets, then loots them of anything of value.Norlin has one small advantage other ships of the Empire lack: he has a captured alien energy weapon. But even this energy cannon is worthless against the waves of decadence flowing from the Emperor's Court where the magnitude of the threat is ign...

THE SWORD OR THE PLOWSHARE...The destruction of the interplanetary communications net has isolated planets across the Republic of the Sphere. On Mirach, a widening schism in the military between those who would remain loyal to The Republic and those who would break away threatens the peace and prosperity that have lasted for generations.Once a formidable MechWarrior, governor Sergio Ortega now believes that diplomacy will win the day. His sons, Dale and Aus...

Some days it doesn't pay to get out of your command chair.The Death Fleet is on course for Earth, and Pier Norlin and the crew of the Preceptor are determined to stop them. True to his duty as an imperial officer, even if a self-appointed one, Norlin is determined to carry the warning of impending invasion to Emperor Arian.The reality, though, is that the empire is corrupt and the emperor is a perverted, sadistic madman. Hailed as a conquering hero after he survive...

If you have come this far, there's no turning back. Months now (or is it longer?) have passed since Brion Rouwen accepted his cruel, twisted fate. Armies have risen and fallen, spells have been cast, wanton destruction has torn apart the land he used to love. In The Flame Specter, the third and final volume of The Accursed, Robert E. Vardeman embraces the themes of love, honor, vengeance, and betrayal that have propelled the story thus far and leads them effortlessly to a breath taking con...

VENTURE OUT INTO THE UNIVERSE…The Master of Orion game lets players take their place as one of thirteen different races of the galaxy, each seeking to carve out their own empire from the stars. Now, Catalyst Game Labs and Wargaming.Net are pleased to present the first anthology set in the Master of Orion universe.Ranging from one end of the galaxy to the other, these original stories explore the galactic politics, backwater planets, and ou...