Showing results by author "James Axler" in All Categories

On a crisp January day, a presidential inauguration day, a one-megaton blast ripped through the Soviet embassy in Washington, DC. Subsequent explosions around the globe changed the face and the shape of the earth forever. Out of the ruins emerged Deathlands, a world that conspired against survival. In the blasted heart of the new America, a group of men and women plan desperately to escape the eerie wastes and mutated life forms of their nuclear hell.

Enlisted for a mission to retrieve the memory of a military satellite that’s been mistaken for an angel by in-bred locals, Ryan Cawdor and his companions head deep into the wild country of Kill Island, only to discover they are being pursued by an old foe harboring a deadly grudge. With enemies on all sides, Ryan and his allies rapidly run out of places to turn...and no way back. Meanwhile, Doc Tanner is offered a tantalizing possibility that could end his time with the companions forever.

America had barely survived the nuclear holocaust, but two centuries later a new order emerges to inflict its rule on the fortified cities. Beyond the walls are the outlands, where a fragile freedom remains. Once a fearsome warrior of the new order, Kane discovers a secret that has damned humanity since the dawn of history. Now banished as an enemy of the state, he joins forces with Brigid Baptiste, keeper of the archives, and Grant, brother-in-arms and innovative weapons specialist.

The Deathlands companions have been cast asunder through time. But fortune smiles on one of their number, the time-trawled Doc Tanner, who finally finds himself back in his own era of the 1890s accompanied by Mildred Wyeth, an African-American woman from the twentieth century whose skin color makes her stand out for all the wrong reasons. This could be Doc’s chance to repair the mess his abrupt disappearance through time left, if he and Mildred can survive long enough to reach his family.

Washington, DC, was hardest hit in the nukecaust that heralded the Deathlands era. But beneath the crater of radioactive ruins, a functioning city of survivors is crafting a culture that plans to reshape America. Ryan Cawdor and his companions enter into this enclosed, underground world and find an ordered and progressive society based on the tenets of the US Constitution. But as they settle into this seeming idyll, the companions uncover a sinister threat at the ville’s heart and a bold plan to finally wipe out the last remnants of humankind.

Accompanied by scientist Eden Long, the companions endeavor to cross the dangerous territory of Baltimorgue to help their ally Doc Tanner to time jump home. However, they soon find themselves fending for their lives against the dangerous groups who inhabit the old city, each one set in brutal opposition to the others. When the companions get split up, they each become mired in the myriad of insanities that vie for survival in a city gone beyond the edge of reason.

When an act of mercy ends in betrayal, the companions are attacked, and three of their crew abducted. Led by Ryan, the remaining members set out on a deadly rescue mission. Standing in their way—a forest overrun by barbaric cultists and mutated beasts. Alien animals hide behind every tree. Strange creatures creep through the canopy. An apex predator watches, ceaselessly, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

The companions' journey across Lake Huron is interrupted by a pirate attack during a furious storm, and Krysty is pulled overboard during the fray. The companions seek refuge on a submerged freighter occupied by ex-pirate “Mean Pete" Kellogg and his crew. They tell stories of "He Who Shouts in the Lake", a creature under the control of Heidecker labs. The stories say the director of Heidecker labs is brutal and unforgiving, burning local villages to the ground and infecting them with disease. Forget the stories. Ryan knows only one truth. He must get Krysty back.

Ryan travels to the snowy wastes north of the 49th parallel to rescue his young son, enslaved in a mining colony. In this forbidding landscape, one of Ryan's oldest enemies lies in wait, orchestrating a deadly finale to their private war. In the biting cold, Ryan must battle a legion of hunter androids designed to track and kill any intruders with ruthless ingenuity. But for Ryan Cawdor, the need to save his son is greater than any threat the one-eyed warrior may encounter.

Near what was once the Pacific northwest, Ryan Cawdor and his roving band of post-holocaust survivors discover a beautiful valley untouched by the nuclear blast that changed the earth forever. Resisting the temptation to settle in that idyllic land, the group is captured and forced deep beneath an extinct volcano to an isolated community of in-bred scientists. These psychopathic descendants of a 20th century government research team are blindly laboring to find better ways of genocide, unaware that the world they are striving to slaughter has already died.

Carving out a living in the Deathlands is no easy feat. To most, the only thing that matters is one more day spent above ground. To the man known as Trader, the only thing that matters is the bottom line. In a mutie-filled, irradiated wasteland, Trader and crew set out to find the scavvie Marsh Folsom. Stories going around say that Folsom has knowledge of an underground cache with a legendary bounty.

Stumbling into Restown’s hunting grounds, the companions are welcomed by a flourishing society which stands in counterpoint to Mutieville, a place where enslaved muties are subject to human whims. At the heart of Restown lies an ambitious plan to utilize cryogenic technology to escape the brutal present of the Deathlands and awaken to the glorious future that’s being constructed for the baronial family by their slaves.

Ryan Cawdor's post-holocaust odyssey across America is about to come full circle—Ryan Cawdor is going home. Forced away from Front Royal by a power-mad brother who had already committed fratricide, Ryan had roamed a devastated America searching out the small pockets of life where civilization was being reborn. Emerging from a gateway in the ruins of New York City, Ryan decides to put his own house in order—it's time to avenge the deaths of his father and older brother.

Stories of the Trader and his convoy of war wagons endure in the badlands of post-holocaust America. A dealer in Deathlands' most precious commodities - weapons and fuel - Trader takes note of a young Ryan Cawdor. Surrounded in myth and rumor, Trader sets into motion the beginnings of legend at a place called Virtue Lake...At Spearpoint, the ultimate redoubt housing a valuable cache of predark technology, two opposing wills clash. Levi Shabazz intends to carve his own empire out of the vast wastelands, but the Trader intends to thwart him and end his bloody siege of power.

The woods surrounding Lake Huron are filled with danger and bounty alike. Pirates frequent the waters, cold-hearted cannibals and stickies wander the woods, and the mystical Sea Hag and her Hag-Sworn keep an eye on it all. A local moonshiner has offered to escort the companions through the forest to the nearby Martkplatz where they can resupply at the ville’s annual trade festival. However, the companions get more than they bargained for when forces converge on Marktplatz and kick off the festival with a bang.

The world blew out in 2001. Vast areas of what was the United States lie beneath an unbrella of noxious dust and radioactive debris, a mantle of destruction drawn over a land of doom. Much of the East Coast has been oliterated; the Southwest is a land of fire; cities of smoldering ash have give birth to horrifically mutated life forms. Such is the Deathlands, legacy of global annihiliation.

Ryan Cawdor finds himself reunited with the love of his life and a familiar version of the world he’d known most of his life, with old friends he thought he’d lost forever and an embodiment of himself that fits the time and place. The companions set up a safe haven called simply Home in the Virginia mountains, where they welcome anyone willing to work hard for a better tomorrow. But when an organized and dangerous mutie society intrudes upon the ville’s residents to use as slaves and worse, the old cycle of violence returns.

After the liberation of Front Royal from the Magus’ tyranny, Ryan Cawdor and his companions grieve the heart-wrenching loss of loved ones, but must carry on. Ryan and his surviving friends assume leadership roles in Front Royal, contributing to the rebuilding of the ville and the struggle to carve out a future for the beleaguered community. Ryan must learn how to be a good father for his unique baby daughter, and with the support of his larger family do his best to help her navigate the treacherous future that is her destiny.

Ryan Cawdor and his band of post-holocaust survivors come face-to-face with a specter from the past: out of the swirling dust that was once New Mexico bursts a regiment of pony soldiers, led by a man with flowing yellow hair. Brandishing Colts and Winchesters, the horsemen grimly prepare to destroy the ragtag strangers, intruders who dare to penetrate their ruthlessly defended stronghold.

Three generations after nuclear blasts all but vaporized the Earth, a group of warrior survivalists led by a charismatic man named Ryan Cawdor roam the hostile environment called Deathlands. Their quest becomes a grim struggle for survival as they search for a better life beyond the nuke-ravaged cities. And it is one such harrowing journey that brings them to the heart of Moscow.