Literature Dramatized

Labor organizer Padma Mehta is on the edge of space and the edge of burnout. All she wants is to buy out a little rum distillery and retire, but she's supposed to recruit 500 people to the Union before she can. She's only 33 short. So when a small-time con artist tells her about 40 people ready to tumble down the space elevator to break free from her old bosses, she checks it out - against her better judgment. It turns out, of course, it was all lies.

Cornerstone is a ville like no other that Ryan Cawdor and his companions have ever encountered. Hoping to find medical treatment for wounds sustained combating Magus and his creations, especially Ryan’s own debilitating injury, they have been brought to Cornerstone by their new friends, a relationship forged from those same battles. The ville appears to be a prosperous bastion of civilization, sheltered from the savagery of the Deathlands by virtue of the community’s relationship with an extraordinary manifestation of the will of Gaia.

Ignatius O’Reilly is famous for his beautifully crafted counterfeit money. John Henry Sixkiller is famous for hunting criminals into the most violent and dangerous worlds most lawman dare not go. Now, the Deputy U.S. Marshal is zeroing on O’Reilly in San Francisco, when the case blows up in his face. Instead of O’Reilly, Sixkiller finds a beautiful woman and a meddling Federal agent from the Secret Service. O’Reilly gets away and the hunt leads Sixkiller after the woman, the counterfeiter, and the Fed into the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The territorial governor has sent three lawmen to clean up the mess that is Chico, New Mexico - and not one of those lawmen has made it out alive. A crooked sheriff has the terrified denizens of Chico under his boot heel, so the governor turns to John Henry Sixkiller, sending him undercover as a gunman for hire.

Sure, it would've been easy killing Two Diamond Joe with a second shot. No man takes a .44 round square between the eyes and survives. But Jeston Nash only wants his prize horse back from the man, and a fast trail out of the New Mexico badlands. Together again with Quiet Jack, Nash is on a hunt that will take him through unforgiving terrain, a tangle of firebrand beauties, and even into a lawman's trust - before squaring off with most ruthless pack of gunmen ever to rule the desert frontier.

He was 15 when he killed his first man. Before his murderous ways ended, Hardin killed 42 men in cold blood - one, the legend goes, because he snored too loudly. From then on, John Wesley Hardin stayed true to his calling, killing man after man after man, spending most of his life being pursued by both local lawmen and federal troops.

Born and bred in the Texas Pandhandle town of Comanche Crossing, William "Wild Bill" Longley gunned down a dozen of its men in cold blood before he got around to the sheriff and deputy - so he could take over the job himself. Then he found the perfect sidekick in a vicious career criminal named Booker Tate.

In the bush country of South Texas, Captain Richard King built a sprawling ranch called Santa Gertrudis. But at the end of the Civil War, while King was in Mexico, his ranch was raided by Union troops led by a sadistic killer who burned Santa Gertrudis to the ground - and slaughtered everyone on it. Thirty years later, King's land is about to run with blood once more. Former Union Captain Jack Brant has gotten out of prison and is raring to pick up his rampage where he left off.

The year is 1884. A 10-year-old British boy has come to visit his uncle’s Wyoming spread, just as the vicious Yellow Kerchief Gang has the ranch under siege. Outgunned and outmatched, a British rancher is willing to pay $5000 for help. That is more than enough money to bring Matt Jenson into the fray. A huge, bloody gunfight, fueled by betrayal, erupts at the Powder River. But Matt has to shoot carefully. The Yellow Kerchief Gang has a hostage — the British lad named Winnie.

Underpowered and overwhelmed, Kenton tries to hold the Sand Masters together as forces political and personal conspire against them. Now, in one final push, Kenton must tap the most dangerous depths of his own abilities to combat the enemies within his own guild and discover the truth behind the ambush that killed his father and almost destroyed the Sand Masters for good.

The Byrnes family came to Texas and carved out a place on the land. Three generations who paid in blood and treasure. Children carried off by Comanche. A brother lost to war. Lives shattered. Chet Byrnes was trying to hold the ranch together through one more winter for one more cattle drive when he hanged three horse thieves this side of the Red River - and a blood feud erupted....

Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. Each night, the world is overrun by demons - bloodthirsty creatures of nightmare that have been hunting the surface for over 300 years. A scant few hamlets and half-starved city-states are all that remain of a once proud civilization, and it is only by hiding behind wards, ancient symbols with the power to repel the demons, that they survive. A handful of Messengers brave the night to keep the lines of communication open between the increasingly isolated populace.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the High Sierras. But Smoke Jensen and his children, Louis and Denise, won’t let a little snow stop them from heading to Reno for the holidays. There are two ways for them to get there: the long way, going around the Sierra Nevada Mountains, or the short way, going right through them. Smoke decides to take a gamble. They’ll follow the trail that, decades earlier, brought the legendary Donner Party to a gruesome, tragic end....

In 1866, the border between the U.S. and Mexico is a hotbed of gunrunners, mercenaries, and the Emperor of Mexico's spies, saboteurs and double agents. On top of which, West Texas is plagued by Comanche warriors. Into this mix ride two massive gangs of the meanest, most kill-happy bunch of bloodthirsty ravagers to ever draw a breath. Sam Heller and Johnny Cross have got the marauders in their sights, but they aren't ready for the slaughter and destruction the raiders unleash on Hangtree County.

While most folks are busy preparing for Christmas, the tightknit Jensen clan can only hope they’ll make it home. Luke Jensen is in San Antonio tracking down a dangerous outlaw. But when he finds the man leading a wholesome life — as a charity-working Hill Country pastor — Luke agrees to wait until after Christmas to bring him to justice.

Kansas doesn’t want it. Neither does Texas. The 35-mile wide strip of land destined to become the Oklahoma panhandle is a place unlike any other on the frontier: with no laws, no rules and a powerful attraction for killers, looters and fugitives. Frank Morgan, a gunfighter feared by all and hated by some, has been warned to stay the hell out of "the strip." But warnings never did work well on Morgan. So when an ambush robs him of his heart’s desire and nearly takes his life and his would - be murderers take refuge in the strip, the die is cast....

Their father is Luke Jensen, supposedly killed in the Civil War. Their uncle Smoke is one of the fiercest gunfighters the west has ever known. It's no surprise that the inseparable Ace and Chance Jensen have a knack for taking risks — even if they have to blast their way out of them. Chance is a bit of a hothead, good with his gun and his fists. Ace is more of a thinker, sharp as a snake bite and just as deadly quick. Their skills are put to the test when two young ladies ask them to protect their struggling stagecoach line from a ruthless, bloodthirsty mine owner.

Rumors of the discovery of Solomon's Jar — in which the biblical King Solomon bound the world's demons after using them to build his temple in Jerusalem — are followed with interest by Annja Creed. An archaeologist intrigued by the arcane, Annja pursues the truth about the vessel and its ancient origins. Her search leads her to a confrontation with a London cult driven by visions of a new world order; and a religious zealot fueled by the insatiable desire for glory.

Following the loss of most of his colleagues in a violent ambush, Kenton has become Lord Mastrell of the few remaining Sand Masters, magicians who can manipulate sand to do their bidding. With the ruling council poised against him, the hot-headed Kenton must become a diplomat to have any hope of preventing the eradication of his people forever. However, there’s another complication: assassins are coming for him from all directions, and Kenton’s only true ally is Khriss, a visitor from the other side of the planet who has an agenda of her own to pursue.

When the brothers head into the small cow town of Crossville, close by Devil Creek, all they want is to stock up on supplies and rest their weary horses. Instead, they find themselves in the middle of a bloody range war that’s literally split the town down the middle. The warring factions have set up camp on either side of Main Street and the newcomers ride in on a deserted strip of no man’s land where anything - and nothing good - is liable to happen.