Showing results by author "James Axler" in All Categories

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.

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.

The Earth is laid waste by a devastating blight that destroys the world's food supply. Mass starvation wipes out millions almost overnight. Society collapses, and those who survive must contend with renegade groups striving for naked power. A new currency comes into existence - precious food and the force of arms that helps get it at any cost.

Ryan Cawdor’s time-lost companion, Doc Tanner, has finally found the Operation Chronos facility that can return him back to his own era. But reaching it through a gauntlet of mutie enemies and their enslaved army is only one half of the battle. As the Chronos facility falls to the mutie siege, a traitor within the ranks of Ryan’s crew finally reveals their hand, and the remaining allies find themselves backed into an impossible corner... with no way out.

Still working on securing the partnership with Grace Milligan for her fuel refinery while in Fairzie, Trader and Marsh cross paths with a scouting party that has followed stories about a fuel source. That’s only the tip of the spear. That scouting party has been sent by Ironhand Jackson, the boss of El Dorado. In El Dorado, Ant, a woman who works as an enforcer for Hoyt Lynch, the self-made lord of Boardwalk, arrives to kill Jackson. Lynch has learned of the fuel refinery’s existence and desperately needs it because his own fuel reserves are running out.

Caught in the vice of the mountains, J.B. and Mildred are ripped from their friends by snowmobile-riding bandits that worship violence, velocity, and their black-horned Baron. Ryan tries to mount a rescue, but against raging blizzards, drug-fueled barbarians and a fracture in his own ranks, progress is frozen in its tracks.

The lethal plant cancer know as Earthblood had destroyed life on the planet in a matter of months, leaving a barren wilderness road where markers are corpses and cities are death traps. Into this nightmarish world the crew of the United States space vessel Aquila returned, a world of grim hunger and sudden death.

Generations after a near nuclear annihilation, America is a radiation-ravaged wasteland swarming with a thousand horrifically mutated life forms. Ryan Cawdor and his band of post-holocaust survivors barely escape a self-destructing redoubt in the new southwest and embark on a journey overland to find the nearest gateway. But without an adequate supply of food and water, their quest is doomed.

Out of the ashes of global destruction, Ryan Cawdor and his roving band of warrior survivalists continue their grim odyssey across a nuke-ravaged America, searching for a sanctuary and the promise of a better life. Emerging from a Gateway into Florida's sultry heat, they enter the domain of a wealthy baron — a technical genius whose seat of power is a rebuilt theme park where the rides are fast and thrill seekers are guaranteed the time of their lives...if they can get out alive. Influencing the baron is a ruthless and hypnotic cult leader and his demonic "family".

Ryan Cawdor is gunned down and left for dead by the new Provisional US Army, commanded by a brilliant general with a propensity for casual mass murder and a vision to rebuild America. Waging war from his pre-Dark, fusion-powered armored locomotive, he's poised to unlock the secrets of the Gateways — as the rest of Ryan's group stand powerless. All except one. Hope may be lost for Krysty Wroth. But revenge is enough.

Seeking insights into the Gaia Force, Krysty travels with Ryan to the hidden island enclave of the Sisters of Mother Earth. While there, Ryan reaches some much-needed inner peace, while Krysty gains new insights into her connection with Gaia. But the Sisters are unprepared for a raid by an invader who can channel Earth powers with a ferocity unseen before, burning through earth witches like the Sisters and Krysty in his quest for absolute power... unless the companions can defeat him and his mercenary army.

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.

Resources are scarce in the Deathlands, but the mega-cemetery of Oregon holds the treasures and trinkets of three million corpses killed in the nukecaust. Stumbling into warring parties of graverobbers, Ryan Cawdor and his companions fall in with an old ally of J.B. Dix who offers an attractive promise of unlimited ammunition for their services. But the graves hold other secrets that could spell the annihilation of the human race unless their excavation is halted.

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 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.

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.

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. After Trader and crew offload their last haul, they set their sites on the next score. An underground military installation.

Bizarre murders are taking place in a fertile farming community, and the locals are quick to point fingers at Ryan and his companions. But they know another culprit is responsible. A colony of mutants has been driven from its underground home, forced to find sustenance in the light of day. And only human flesh will satisfy their hunger. Caught between a rock and a horde of hungry cannibals, Ryan and the companions face an ultimatum — help the cannies reclaim their territory, or risk becoming the next meal.

As the roaming band of survivors seek desperately to escape the eerie wastes and mutated life-forms of their nuclear hell, they emerge from a gateway back into the ruins of Manhatten — the concrete battlefield where Ryan had avenged the death of his father and older brother. The city is a flooded hellzone ruled by street gangs and hordes of reptilian mutants who inhabit the sewers. Under this urban ruin lives the self-styled King of the Underground, presiding over his subterranean fortress filled with prenuke memorabilia.

The pristine coastal waters off San Clemente become a battleground over the island and its abandoned naval station. The rocky shores are rife with the sulfur mines that make Deathlands' richest jack - gunpowder. To maintain hell-fought possession, a ruthless sea baron and his fleet engage rebellion from the land. On this island populated by roaming bio-weap nightmares engineered by predark whitecoats, Ryan Cawdor is caught in a war he has no intention of fighting, but has every determination to survive.