MainCategory: HISTORICAL

West Oversea: A Norse Saga of Mystery, Adventure, and Faith

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The Year of the Warrior

GOD WILLS IT! It all started with a Viking raid: When he is captured and forced into slavery, Aillil the Irishman must pretend to be a priest or die. Better to be a high-value priest than a low-value corpse, he Read more

Blood Feud (Wolves of Odin)

The wolves of Odin have been unleashed: the hunt has begun. Anno Domini 1040. Christianity has swept unstoppably across Scandinavia, leaving few enclaves of the old ways clinging on to their fading world as King Olof of Sweden works to Read more

West Oversea: A Norse Saga of Mystery, Adventure, and Faith
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King Olaf Trygvesson is dead, but his sisters husband, Erling Skjalgsson, carries on his dream of a Christian Norway that preserves its traditional freedoms. R

ather than do a dishonorable deed, Erling relinquishes his power and lands. He and his household board ships and sail west to find a new life with Leif Eriksson in Greenland.

This voyage, though, will be longer and more dangerous than they ever imagined. It will take them to an unexplored country few Europeans had seen. Demonic forces will pursue them, but the greatest danger of all may be in a dark secret carried by Father Aillil, Erling’s Irish priest.

Black Vulmea’s Vengeance

Black Vulmea's Vengeance
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pirates story by Robert E. Howard !

The title story features Terence Vulmea, aka Black Vulmea, who was born a 17th-century Irish peasant, and carried his vendetta with the English oppressors of his country to the waters of the Caribbean.

He is one of Robert E. Howard’s lesser known characters; more of his exploits were later added by David C. Smith.

Shōgun (The Asian Saga)

Shōgun (The Asian Saga)
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By the #1 New York Times bestselling author and unparalleled master of historical fiction, James Clavell’s Shogun is soon to be a major FX/Hulu TV series!

Shogun, the classic epic novel of feudal Japan that captured the heart of a culture and the imagination of the world, is now available for the first time in serial format. Part One contains the first half of the complete novel.

After Englishman John Blackthorne is lost at sea, he awakens in a place few Europeans know of and even fewer have seen—Nippon. Thrust into the closed society that is seventeenth-century Japan, a land where the line between life and death is razor-thin, Blackthorne must negotiate not only a foreign people, with unknown customs and language, but also his own definitions of morality, truth, and freedom.
As internal political strife and a clash of cultures lead to seemingly inevitable conflict, Blackthorne’s loyalty and strength of character are tested by both passion and loss, and he is torn between two worlds that will each be forever changed.

Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Shogun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion.
Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, Shogun is, as the New York Times put it, ‘’not only something you read—you live it.’‘

Rhataloo : A Takamo Universe Novel (Muto Chronicles)

Rhataloo : A Takamo Universe Novel (Muto Chronicles)
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My name is Sedrick. I’m a man-size, space-faring rhat. I’m also executive officer for an interstellar cargo ship—the Granum. My captain and I are in a wee bit of trouble. We’ve been summoned by the Emperor’s auditors. Now, That doesn’t sound ominous. But, believe me, it is. These aren’t your typical bean-counters. These guys will extract a nose or a tail if you mess up. And we messed up.

It was a simple job. Deliver a hold packed with cheese and spirits to a backwater planet in the Orion spur. Things didn’t go as planned. They never do on a ship full of buffoons and malcontents. Chief among my problems were those two scientists Dontel and Uzel. Their spectacular bungle landed us on Earth, an even more backwater world than the one we were headed for. No starships, no flight—not even a lightbulb!

I did my executive level best—threatening, bargaining, and stunning to get the job done. To get the hold filled. The Granum was safe and secure. Nestled within a forest in northeastern France. I made connections with the locals. I had a plan!

Then the soldiers arrived. All sorts of soldiers. It was an absolute mess. A scheduling nightmare! How was I to gauge the long-term effects? The galactic repercussions?

And now our lives and livelihoods are at stake again. The best I can hope for? This memory machine the auditors have me connected to will cook my brain.

The Shadow of the Vulture

The Shadow of the Vulture
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This early work by Robert E. Howard was originally published in the 1934 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. ‘The Shadow of the Vulture’ is set in the 16th century and introduces the now famous character Red Sonya

 

In Istanbul, the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sends home members of a Holy Roman diplomatic envoy whom he has kept imprisoned for nine months. He recognizes one of the members, however; a knight by the name of Gottfried Von Kalmbach, who had seriously wounded him during the Battle of Mohács. The Ottoman Grand Vizier Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha entrusts the widely feared soldier, Mikhal Oglu, with hunting down Von Kalmbach and retrieving his head.

Agent of Byzantium

Agent of Byzantium
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From the New York Times–bestselling “standard-bearer for alternate history”: A spy takes on the enemies of the Byzantine Empire (USA Today).

In another, very different timeline—one in which Mohammed embraced Christianity and Islam never came to be—the Byzantine Empire still flourishes in the fourteenth century, and wondrous technologies are emerging earlier than they did in our own.

Having lost his family to the ravages of smallpox, Basil Argyros has decided to dedicate his life to Byzantium. A stalwart soldier and able secret agent, Basil serves his emperor courageously, going undercover to unearth Persia’s dastardly plots and disrupting the dark machinations of his beautiful archenemy, the Persian spy Mirrane, while defusing dire threats emerging from the Western realm of the Franco-Saxons.

But the world Basil so staunchly defends is changing rapidly, and he must remain ever vigilant, for in this great game of empires, the player who controls the most advanced tools and weaponry—tools like gunpowder, printing, vaccines, and telescopes—must certainly emerge victorious.

A collection of interlocking stories that showcase the courage, ingenuity, and breathtaking derring-do of superspy Basil Argyros, Agent of Byzantium presents the great Harry Turtledove at his alternate-world-building best. At once intricate, exciting, witty, and wildly inventive, this is a many-faceted gem from a master of the genre.

The Years of Rice and Salt

The Years of Rice and Salt
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With the same unique vision that brought his now classic Mars trilogy to vivid life, bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson boldly imagines an alternate history of the last seven hundred years. In his grandest work yet, the acclaimed storyteller constructs a world vastly different from the one we know. . . .

“A thoughtful, magisterial alternate history from one of science fiction’s most important writers.”—The New York Times Book Review 

It is the fourteenth century and one of the most apocalyptic events in human history is set to occur—the coming of the Black Death. History teaches us that a third of Europe’s population was destroyed.  But what if the plague had killed 99 percent of the population instead? How would the world have changed? This is a look at the history that could have been—one that stretches across centuries, sees dynasties and nations rise and crumble, and spans horrible famine and magnificent innovation.

Through the eyes of soldiers and kings, explorers and philosophers, slaves and scholars, Robinson navigates a world where Buddhism and Islam are the most influential and practiced religions, while Christianity is merely a historical footnote. Probing the most profound questions as only he can, Robinson shines his extraordinary light on the place of religion, culture, power—and even love—in this bold New World.

Eaters of the Dead

Eaters of the Dead
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Eaters of the Dead was adapted to the screen as The 13th Warrior, starring Antonio Banderas.

The year is A.D. 922. A refined Arab courtier, representative of the powerful Caliph of Baghdad, encounters a party of Viking warriors who are journeying to the barbaric North. He is appalled by their Viking customs – the wanton sexuality of their pale, angular women, their disregard for cleanliness…their cold-blooded human sacrifices.

But it is not until they reach the depths of the Northland that the courtier learns the horrifying and inescapable truth: he has been enlisted by these savage, inscrutable warriors to help combat a terror that plagues them – a monstrosity that emerges under cover of night to slaughter the Vikings and devour their flesh….

Northern Wrath (Hanged God Book 1)

Northern Wrath (Hanged God Book 1)
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Following in the steps of Neil Gaiman & Joanne Harris, the author expertly weaves Norse myths and compelling characters into this fierce, magical epic fantasy.

The bond between men and the gods is weakening.

A dead man walks between the worlds and foresees Odin’s doom.

The only survivor of a slaughter unleashes a monster from fiery Muspelheim.

Long hidden among mortals, a giantess sighs and takes up her magics once again.

A chief’s son must overcome war and treason to become the leader his people need.

And the final battle is coming…

The Musketeers vs. Cthulhu in the Court of King Louis

The Musketeers vs. Cthulhu in the Court of King Louis
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En Garde!

17th-century France: A place of heroes, villains… and abominations.

Strange things are lurking in the shadows and catacombs of Paris. The forests around the City Of Light teem with strange creatures and furtive cultists. A once pious nation stands on the brink of disaster as entities older than time begin to stir. The stars are right and plots have been set in motion, it is down to a heroic few to save the world from madness and destruction.

Join the heroic escapades of the King’s Musketeers and their allies as they attempt to foil not just the plots of the dastardly Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter but the insidious machinations of the Great Old Ones.

It’s All For One and One For All as the d’Artagnan Romances of Alexandre Dumas collide with the expanded Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft and his disciples in this anthology of cosmic horror adventure!

Featuring 15 sanity-blasting tales