Dramatized Adaptation Science Fiction

A new and horrific face of the Annunaki legacy appears in the Arizona desert. A shambling humanoid monster preys on human victims, consuming their energy, burning their souls — leaving empty, mindless shells in its wake. Trapped inside this creature, the souls of rogue Igigi, once the treasured slave caste of the Annunaki, seek hosts for their physical rebirth. And no human — perhaps not even the Cerberus rebels — can stop them from reclaiming the planet of their masters for themselves....

For archaeologist and TV show host Annja Creed, a restful vacation in Costa Rica is as elusive as a rare artifact. Days into her sojourn, Annja's peace is interrupted by a woman with a mysterious — and enticing — tale. Weeks earlier, her husband led an expedition into the rain forest, in search of the lost treasure of Lima, and hadn't returned. The priceless hoard was smuggled out of Peru during the country's 19th-century revolt against Spain. But it disappeared when a ship captain went mad with greed.

As humanity emerged from the rubble of nuclear war, so did history's darkest secrets, deliberately concealed beneath a cunning web of lies, half-truths, and contrivance. Now, as alien overlords ready their blueprint for absolute control over planet Earth, daring rebels fight back against grim odds and an enemy of superlative power whose only failing may be their inability to grasp mankind's fierce will to survive.

Across the flat plains of the Dakotas, an iron horse shrieks and rumbles across refurbished tracks. Inside the boxcars, Ryan Cawdor and his companions face trouble unlike any other. Jak is missing, Krysty is dying, and the train is loaded with sec men, whitecoats, and a horrifying experiment — a baron with psionic abilities using stolen children to fuel his mad dream for mind control of every living soul in Deathlands.

Survival is a dangerous enterprise in the aftermath of a nuked America. Humanity perseveres, but the Deathlands code is far simpler: Kill or be killed, live or die trying. Driven by the fires of hope, a resilient band of warriors traverse the new frontier of the future, survivors by skill and legends by reputation. The legend of the trader returns in the simmering dust bowl of the Badlands, the past calling out to armorer J. B. Dix. Her name is Eula. Young, silent, and lethal, she's part of a new trading convoy quick to invite Ryan Cawdor and his band on a journey.

Searching for an operational redoubt, Ryan and his companions go up against a ruthless band of coldhearts. The shock of seeing Ryan's long-lost son as the band's point man puts the group on a new mission — rescue Dean at all cost. But when Dean shoots and wounds his father in a firefight, the strange turn of events leads the travelers deeper into the shifting sands of their own destiny. And father and son, each committed to the laws of decency and fair play, will confront an uncertain legacy.

In the nuke-altered region of the Great Lakes, Ryan and his group face the spectrum — from the idyllic to the horrific — of a world reborn. Close to enclaves of peace and sanctuary, Deathlands' most distorted spawn of humanity, cannibals, spread terror. Against the battered shoreline of Lake Michigan, an encounter with an old friend leads to a battle to save Milwaukee from a force of deadly mutant interlopers — and to liberate one of their own.

Without technology, survival is hopeless. Then intelligence data confirms rumors of an alliance being forged between the warring Soviet factions. Almost as a warning, New Germany is ravaged by a hellish bombing raid of unprecedented magnitude. John Thomas Rourke and the Free World have no choice: a duel strike, simultaneously against the Soviet undersea forces and the Soviet Underground City, must be launched.

A civil war raging in the Des Moines River valley forces Ryan and his companions to take sides, or die. Because somewhere in the middle of the generations-old conflict is a lost redoubt. But Snake Eye, the deadliest gunslinger in Deathlands, stands between them and the way out. And the mutie contract chiller won't step aside until he has Ryan's head.

The sun is setting on humanity. The night now belongs to voracious demons that prey upon a dwindling population forced to cower behind half-forgotten symbols of power. Legends tell of a Deliverer: a general who once bound all mankind into a single force that defeated the demons. But is the return of the Deliverer just another myth? Perhaps not. Out of the desert rides Ahmann Jardir, who has forged the desert tribes into a demon-killing army.

Utah's Great Salt Lake Desert remains a death pit of scorching heat, cannies, and grim odds. Ryan Cawdor and his group survive the trek there, only to be drugged, robbed, and left for the slave trade. Escaping their captors leaves them alive but stripped of their prized gear: their weps, J. B. Dix's glasses, Dr. Mildred Wyeth's medical kit and, worse, her secret codex. The companions must rely on each other to challenge their enemy and settle the score.

Faced with the looming threat of the Russian pack, Silver and Andrew Dare plan to host an envoy at their wedding. The Russian alpha rejects diplomacy, however, and instead sends Mikhail, an elite assassin. Mikhail begins to ritually murder sub-alphas, leaving them to bleed to death from a thousand shallow cuts. The Roanokes’ only leverage is Mikhail’s reverence for the Lady: He thinks She is reborn in Silver. Playing the Lady goes against all of Silver's beliefs, but she yields to Mikhail’s invitation for her to join him in Russia.

Having narrowly escaped with their lives from the redoubt near Cornerstone, the Deathlands survivors known as the Companions arrive via mat-trans at a destination they presume to be North Dakota, if the mysterious codes given them while in Cornerstone are accurate. That assumption is soon put in doubt as they discover a devastated city covered in continual ashfall, a sky perpetually obscured by black clouds illuminated only by sporadic lightning. The former metropolis is not deserted, however, but densely populated with ravening hordes of barely human creatures.

Marshal Vladmir Karamatsov is dead, the victim of the fierce undersea battle for Mid-Wake. But with his arch enemy gone, John Thomas Rourke, ex-CIA Covert Operations Officer and survival authority, discovers a terrifying new threat looming on the eastern horizon. On an expedition to secure peaceful relations with the Far East, Rourke's son Michael and his ambassadors are imprisoned by the mysterious leader of the Second City of China — a sadistic madman intent on unleashing another nuclear holocaust on an already war-ravaged world.

Jon-Tom has been trapped in a strange land of talking owls and wizarding turtles for a year now, his sole consolation that in this universe his musical abilities have inadvertently made him something of a sorcerer. But when an encounter with some burglars leads to him snapping the magical duar that channels his power, he finds himself an ordinary human again — on a quest to repair his instrument with nothing but his staff and his semi-faithful, ever-complaining otter sidekick to defend him.

In pursuit of a hardened enemy — Magus — Ryan and the companions find themselves in a land more foreign than any they've encountered. After unwittingly slipping through a time hole, the group lands in 20th-century New York City, getting their first glimpse of predark civilization. And they're not sure they like it. Only Mildred and Doc can appreciate this strange metropolis, but Armageddon is just 72 hours away, and Magus will stop at nothing to make sure Ryan and his team are destroyed on Nuke Day....

The alien blueprint to claim Earth dates back to eons before humanity became enslaved. Fires of human rebellion have only strengthened the bid to fully secure the chains of iron rule. But the battle that spans time and space has become a proving ground. A bold, sophisticated band of insurgents has understanding of the enemy's darkest secrets and dares to loosen the choke hold of power on the planet....

Rejuvenates fear the backlash caused by bad drugs: they want nothing to interfere with their pursuit of long life - or the profit that comes from promising it to others. Neighbor states fear the aggressive expansion of the Familias Regnant, fueled by population growth and extended lifespan. Within the Regular Space Service, those who have received experimental rejuvenations fear they may have been intentionally given bad drugs. Esmay Suiza's family fears that her marriage to an offworlder will damage their position.

The Zombie King lives! Dr. Slaughter has been defeated. Now, Safe Haven has reopened and seems to be living up to its name. Under the guidance of the lepers and their enigmatic leaders Rand, they have been able to turn back one zombie threat after another, but for how long Donna and Dan are reunited, but what will happen to their young love, now that she is sharing headspace with the psychotic zombie, known as the Vamp?

Once believed dead and gone, Daemons have found a way back into the world. But the only people who can withstand their assault are spread across the face of the Sfaera. Free at last from the influence of assassins and emperors alike, the psimancer Winter sails back to her hometown - only to find a new trouble stirring. Meanwhile, the heretic sisters Jane and Cinzia Oden are beset by supernatural attacks. And soon their allies, the vampire-girl Astrid and the former assassin Knot, must face the terrifying Black Matron.