jake

The battle-scarred star carrier Flying Dutchman is finally on her way back to Earth, after an exceptionally successful series of missions that have once again saved the world. The ship needs a serious refit, and her exhausted crew just wants a break from constant clandestine warfare against a vicious and superior enemy. Wishes come true, right? Not for the Merry Band of Pirates.

The remnants of the Expeditionary Force stranded on the alien-controlled planet "Paradise" get a chance to prove themselves, in a simple off-world training mission with a ship full of teenage alien cadets. When the mission goes horribly wrong and the survival of everyone on Paradise is at risk, the Merry Band of Pirates may have to come to the rescue. Unless they get killed first....

For Jillybean, moments of utter happiness and pure sanity are as fleeting and wonderful as sun-showers at a July picnic. Her time with Granny Annie is one such moment, but as always it ends far too quickly and she is once more thrust back into a world of crushing loneliness and endless despair.

Eighteen months have passed since New York City was destroyed and Jack Dreyden is still crisscrossing the nation, going after stray demons, only he isn't taking them on as a necromancer dealing in the currency of stolen souls. No, Jack is battling as a sorcerer using his own soul to power spells that he is just beginning to master. Jack thinks that he is the hunter, hot on the trail of his cousin, Robert Montgomery, but in truth, he is being played.

The people of the Estes Valley have found their peace destroyed as they are attacked by the single greatest army left in the world. Not only do they have to contend with an army of men equipped with the latest hi-tech military gear, they also have to battle a horde of undead half a million strong. But, perhaps worse than all of this, they have to deal with a seven year old girl - Jillybean. Cruelly coerced into helping her enemies, Jillybean bends her mind to the destruction of the valley, the death of kings, and the loss of her own soul.

In The Apocalypse, the great majority of the men and women who fought with honor - with a sense of duty and loyalty - gave their lives for others, leaving those without honor to flourish and rule. Their rule is not marked by decency or civility, but by wicked brutality. Yet, in some very rare cases, the kind and the noble survived. These hardened survivors learned to live among the undead, but now they must learn how to stay alive among creatures that are far more monstrous: their fellow man.