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 . . . .

Strength comes not in victories. It comes from standing up after defeats, in reaching out a hand and pulling others to their feet. Of pushing others ahead of one’s self. Alvans must dig deep. They have paid a heavy price, a price felt in the hearts of every member. They started as a small group fighting to just survive in the first realm to a nation that challenged the combined United Sect Alliance. Instead of crumbling, they bared their teeth, they fought forces from the seventh realm. They bled their enemy every step of the way.

Colonel James Raytak is about to die. The 93-year-old combat veteran is living his last days in a nursing home; his only hope for survival is an experimental Medpod life support system controlled by an artificial intelligence. Co-developed by the world’s largest gaming company, Qualitranos the AI will also control the soon to be released game Limitless Lands. Without its creator’s knowledge, the AI decides the best course of treatment is to import its patient’s consciousness directly into the game.

Alyiakal, overcaptain in the Mirror Lancers of Cyador, has completed his tour of duty as officer-in-charge of a small, remote post. He just wants to finish and see his best friend consorted and assume his next post assignment. If only it were that easy. He discovers corruption in the Merchanter Clans of Cyador, but investigating Mirror Lancer officers end up dead. Before he can go on leave, he has to replace one of these officers, close a post, dodge an attempt on his life, and an investigation from Magi-i.

Major Sharpe, in the bitter winter, must attempt a desperate rescue and face his most implacable enemy. Newly promoted, he is given the task of rescuing a group of well-born women, held hostage high in the mountains by a rabble of deserters. And one of the renegades is Sergeant Hakeswill, Sharpe's bitter enemy. Sharpe has only the support of his own company and the new Rocket Troop - the last word in military incompetence - but he cannot afford to contemplate defeat.

The Space Wolves are the sons of Leman Russ, feral warrior-kings of Fenris. Few can match these savage heroes for ferocity in battle, and as events on the plague-wracked world of Ras Shakeh spin out of control, they join the Imperial force descending upon the blighted planet. When the famed Rune Priest Njal Stormcaller arrives to reinforce the embattled Jarnhamar pack, he finds his battle-brothers at one another's throats, each pursuing their own agendas. While he struggles to bring them in line, the forces of the Ecclesiarchy fight to retake their world.

When Sigmar sends the Blacktalons on an ambiguous and troubling vision of their latest quarry, they leap faithfully into action as they have done for countless centuries – killing first and asking questions later. But this hunt is no simple task. Neave and her companions are charged with slaying five powerful champions of Chaos. They must do so before these brutal followers of the Dark Gods can procure a long-buried, devastating weapon – one whose destructive power will be felt across all the Mortal Realms. A weapon that could even threaten Sigmar himself.

Archaon, the Everchosen, is the most powerful and feared of all the great Champions of the Dark Gods. Warlords of immense cruelty, who have waged innumerable campaigns of suffering and slaughter, thirst to fight by his side. Such Knights of Ruin are known as the Varanguard. Though Vanik the Black Pilgrim’s blade drips with the blood of conquered empires, he is yet to prove himself worthy of ascension into the Fifth Circle of the Varanguard. At last, he faces his final quest.

Greymane believed he'd outrun his past. With his school for swordsmanship in Falar, he was looking forward to a quiet life, although his colleague Kyle wasn't as enamored with life outside the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. However, it seems it is not so easy for an ex-Fist of the Malazan Empire to disappear, especially one under sentence of death from that same Empire.

Darujhistan, city of dreams, city of blue flames, is peaceful at last; its citizens free to return to politicking, bickering, trading and, above all, enjoying the good things in life. Yet there are those who will not allow the past to remain buried. A scholar digging in the plains stumbles across an ancient sealed vault. The merchant Humble Measure schemes to drive out the remaining Malazan invaders. And the surviving agents of a long-lost power are stirring, for they sense change and so, opportunity.

Azetla has served the Maurowan Army for thirteen years. There are seven left to pay. A pariah and a debt soldier, he is a commander with no rank, a soldier without citizenship, and wears a sword that it is unlawful for him to either own or use. He has learned to hold his tongue or risk losing everything. When Azetla’s battalion is sent into the desert to catch a Sahr devil—one of the famously brutal inhabitants of the region—his tenuous position is threatened. He discovers that there is far more to this mission than catching a fiend.

In Seth Dickinson's highly anticipated debut The Traitor Baru Cormorant, a young woman from a conquered people tries to transform an empire in this richly imagined geopolitical fantasy. Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people - even her soul.

The tyrant Geder Palliako had led his nation to war, but every victory has called forth another conflict. Now, the greater war spreads out before him, and he is bent on bringing peace. No matter how many people he has to kill to do it.

Airborne mage armies traverse enemy territory in utter secrecy. Vast city-liches conspire to influence events from afar, while city-states and archmages unleash strange new magics in a rapidly accelerating magical arms race. Nations and great powers that have remained quiescent for years have begun reaching out into the growing power vacuum. Magical superweapons and giant monsters are wielded by every side in a deadly tangle of alliances and factions, as each squabbling force spirals in towards their inevitable final conflict.

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?

It is said that all who live belong ultimately to the Undying King. In the shadowy lands of Shyish, Nagash, God of Death, calls forth his soulless legions to reassert his dominion. His dread advance begins with the free city of Glymmsforge, bastion of Azyr in the Realm of Death. Standing between Nagash and his prize are the brooding Anvils of the Heldenhammer, an ancient host of Stormcast Eternals, and Lord-Castellant Pharus Thaum, guardian of the Ten Thousand Tombs. As battles between the living and the dead rage throughout the Mortal Realms, the War of Heaven and Death begins anew.

For years, Glen Cook's Black Company series has built a major audience among fantasy fans. Told from the "worm's-eye" view of the soldiers and functionaries who fight in the trenches of vast sorceress wars, this epic has riveted a generation of readers. If the Joseph Heller of Catch-22 were to tell the story of The Lord of the Rings, it might read like the Black Company books.

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?

In the western sky the bright emerald banner of the Visitor descends like a portent of annihilation. On the continent of Jacuruku, the Thaumaturgs have mounted yet another expedition to tame the neighboring wild jungle. Yet this is no normal wilderness. It is called Himatan, and it is said to be half of the spirit realm and half of the earth. And it is said to be ruled by a powerful entity whom some name the Queen of Witches, and some a goddess: the ancient Ardata.

Anoor is the first blue-blooded ruler of the Wardens' Empire. But when she is accused of a murder she didn't commit, her reign is thrown into turmoil. She must solve the mystery and clear her name without the support of her beloved, Sylah. Sylah braves new lands to find a solution for the hurricane that threatens to destroy her home. But in finding answers, she must make a decision, does she sacrifice her old life in order to raise up her sword once more?