Epic Military

In his acclaimed Codex Alera novels, best-selling author Jim Butcher has created a fascinating world in which the powerful forces of nature take physical form. For millennia, the people of Alera have used their unique bond with these elementals for protection. Now, as enemies become allies, and friends become bitter foes, a danger beyond reckoning looms . . . .

Tavi of Calderon, now recognized as Princeps Gaius Octavian and heir to the crown, has achieved a fragile alliance with Alera's oldest foes, the savage Canim. But when Tavi and his legions guide the Canim safely to their lands, his worst fears are realized. The dreaded Vord - the enemy of Aleran and Cane alike - have spent the last three years laying waste to the Canim homeland. And when the Alerans are cut off from their ships, they find themselves with no choice but to fight shoulder to shoulder if they are to survive.

The Seven Cities Rebellion has been crushed. Sha’ik is dead. One last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y’Ghatan and under the fanatical command of Leoman of the Flails. The prospect of laying siege to this ancient fortress makes the battle-weary Malazan Fourteenth Army uneasy. For it was here that the Empire’s greatest champion, Dassem Ultor, was slain and a tide of Malazan blood spilled. A place of foreboding, its smell is of death. But elsewhere, agents of a far greater conflict have made their opening moves.

In the bleak, haunted underworld of Shyish, a vengeful Slayer seeks the Lord of Undeath. Gotrek Gurnisson returns, his oaths now ashes alongside the world-that-was, his fury undiminished. Branded with the Master Rune of Grimnir, the God that betrayed him, and joined by Maleneth Witchblade, a former Daughter of Khaine turned agent of the Order of Azyr, the hunt has taken them far and wide through the Realm of Death. Will Gotrek find a path to the Undying King or will the underworlds claim him as their own?

The Throneworld is in turmoil, wracked by the opening of the Great Rift and the failure of the Astronomican. Inquisitor Erasmus Crowl, his mind and body ravaged by what he has seen in the Hollow Mountain, is missing, taking with him the clues to the conspiracy that has come to obsess him. Luce Spinoza, his interrogator, must choose whether to seek him out or defend her diminished realm from the many forces that still seek to destroy it. As enemies circle, Interrogator Spinoza enters a race against time to find the evidence she needs.

No matter how Declan Idrys looks at his situation, he comes to the same conclusion every time: He is about to die at the hands of the first dark elf seen in 700 years. Fate, fortunately, is not so cruel, though, and after barely surviving this initial encounter with the er’endehn of Eserysh, Declan and his friends find themselves in a tentative truce with the war-loving elves. They share a common enemy, after all, and their mutual hate for the Endless Queen and her growing legions is enough for the two groups to set aside their mistrust for one another, if only for now.

Esslemont's all-new prequel trilogy takes readers deeper into the politics and intrigue of the New York Times bestselling Malazan Empire. Dancer's Lament focuses on the genesis of the empire, and features Dancer, the skilled assassin, who, alongside the mage Kellanved, would found the Malazan empire.

Alexandra Rousseau, an engineer from the European Federation Star Navy with a past darker than the void between the stars, is unexpectedly launched into hyperspace when an FTL jump goes horribly wrong. She wakes in a world of magic and monsters, encountering a mysterious Order with plans millennia in the making. When the Order makes a catastrophic mistake, transforming Alexandra into a dungeon core, they inadvertently give her the power to bring back technology long since thought lost in this world.

All is not well in the Letherii Empire. Rhulad Sengar, the Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, spirals into madness, surrounded by sycophants and agents of his Machiavellian chancellor, while the Letherii secret police conduct a campaign of terror against their own people. The Errant, once a far-seeing god, is suddenly blind to the future. Conspiracies seethe throughout the palace as the empire edges closer to all-out war with the neighboring kingdoms.

Twenty-eight florins a month is a huge price to pay for a man to stand between you and the Wild. Twenty-eight florins a month is nowhere near enough when a wyvern's jaws snap shut on your helmet in the hot stink of battle, and the beast starts to rip the head from your shoulders. But if standing and fighting is hard, leading a company of men - or worse, a company of mercenaries - against the smart, deadly creatures of the Wild is even harder. It takes all the advantages of birth, training, and the luck of the devil to do it.

Once a Protector enforcing the Capitol’s strict laws with an iron fist, Ashok Vadal discovers his entire life is built on lies. The ancient black steel sword chose him not for his bloodline but for his spirit, thrusting him into a destiny fraught with peril and glory. The Capitol is in chaos, teetering on the brink of collapse as the Great Extermination spreads its dark shadow across the land. The casteless, descendants of the once-great kings, are hunted to extinction. Their only hope lies in Ashok Vadal, now a fugitive, and Thera, the prophet of the forgotten gods.

After twenty years exploring other lands, Gotrek and Felix return to the Old World to find Chaos invaders rampaging through the lands of men, and the mountain holds of the dwarfs overrun by the foul orcs and goblins. Fulfilling an ancient oath, the pair travel deep beneath the world to help a dwarf prince reclaim his realm from the greenskins. But all is not as it seems, and Gotrek may finally meet his doom in the halls of his ancestors.

The small island of Malaz and its city gave the great empire its name, but now it is little more than a sleepy, backwater port. Tonight, however, things are different. Tonight the city is on edge, a hive of hurried, sometimes violent activity; its citizens bustle about, barring doors, shuttering windows, avoiding any stranger's stare. Because tonight there is to be a convergence, the once-in-a-generation appearance of a Shadow Moon - an occasion that threatens the good people of Malaz with demon hounds and other, darker things....

On the nightmare battlefields of the far future, few foes spark more fear and dread than the Chaos Space Marines. Nurturing a hatred that is millennia-old, they attack without mercy, spreading terror and destruction in their wake. Now hell has come to Hydra Cordatus, for a massive force of terrifying Iron Warriors, the brutal assault masters of Chaos, have invaded the planet and lain siege to its mighty Imperial citadel. But what prize could possibly be worth so much savage bloodshed and destruction—and how long can the defenders possibly hold out?

Valorous Heart. Our Martyred Lady. Bloody Rose. These names of Adepta Sororitas orders are famed across the galaxy, as are the Battle Sisters who serve the emperor's will. To die in the name of the God-Emperor of Mankind is to live eternal, and none are more willing to bleed in his name than the Adepta Sororitas - the Sisters of Battle. The Book of Martyrs charts the deaths of these exemplars.

Loyalty costs money. Betrayal, on the other hand, is free. When the Emperor is taken hostage, the Red Knight and his men find their services in high demand - and themselves surrounded by enemies. The country is in revolt, the capital city is besieged, and any victory will be hard won. But the Red Knight has a plan. The question is, can he negotiate the political, magical, real, and romantic battlefields at the same time - especially when he intends to be victorious on them all?

For years he has endured the endless trials and triumphs of a man whose skill and power could not be restrained. Battling ancient enemies, forging new alliances, and confronting the corruption within his own land, Gaius Octavian became a legendary man of war - and the rightful First Lord of Alera. But now, the savage Vord are on the march, and Gaius must lead his legions to the Calderon Valley to stand against them - using all of his intelligence, ingenuity, and furycraft to save their world from eternal darkness.

The Arcane Brotherhood has long held the city of Luskan in their power, but when corruption eats away at their ranks, Captain Deudermont comes to the rescue of a city that has become a safe haven for the Sword Coast's most dangerous pirates. But rescuing a city from itself may not be as easy as Deudermont thinks, and when Drizzt can't talk him out of it, he'll be forced to help.

In 1942, America's deadliest fighter pilot, or "ace of aces" - the legendary Eddie Rickenbacker - offered a bottle of bourbon to the first US fighter pilot to break his record of 26 enemy planes shot down. Seizing on the challenge to motivate his men, General George Kenney promoted what they would come to call the "race of aces" as a way of boosting the spirits of his war-weary command.

In one furious week of fighting in December 1943, the First Canadian Infantry Division took Ortona, Italy, from elite German paratroopers ordered to hold the medieval port at all costs. When the battle was over, the Canadians emerged victorious despite heavy losses.