Science Fiction Western

After one too many heartbreaks, Travis Blake hung up his cowboy hat and put Big Verde, Texas, behind him. But when he gets the call that his young nephew needs him, he knows he has to return home. His plan is to sell the family ranch and hightail it back to Austin, but there's a small problem: The one person who stands in his way is the one person he can't resist.

Now an agent for the small, covert SIFTR Agency, Rob Chandler is confronted with the possibility something terrible has occurred to a beloved fellow agent. He knows who is responsible, the WWZ, a fanatical neo-Nazi organization and another, even more powerful organization, called the Order. Together they are making their move - one that could alter the geopolitical landscape of the United States, forever. The newly selected multi-billionaire leader of the Order, Rudy Palmolive, has a unique hobby...he's built an 1881 re-creation of the town of Tombstone. It's a testing ground....

Young Gav can remember the page of a book after seeing it once, and, inexplicably, he sometimes “remembers” things that are going to happen in the future. As a loyal slave, he must keep these powers secret, but when a terrible tragedy occurs, Gav, blinded by grief, flees the only world he has ever known. And in what becomes a treacherous journey for freedom, Gav’s greatest test of all is facing his powers so that he can come to understand himself and finally find a true home.

In this Nebula Award-winning novel, the third in the Annals of the Western Shore trilogy, Ursula K. Le Guin writes of the proud cruelty of power, of how hard it is to grow up, and of how much harder still it is to find, in the world's darkness, gifts of light.

Cambridge professor and renowned historian Anthony Pagden covers a vast subject in a compact package with Peoples and Empires. This wide-ranging and intellectually stimulating work examines the origins and history of the West with terse, efficient prose. With a captivating narration by Robert O'Keefe, listeners will find this work enjoyable and utterly absorbing.

The colonists of the planet Montana are accustomed to being ignored. Situated in the buffer zone between two rival human empires, their world is a backwater: remote, provincial, independently minded. Even as a provisional member of the Republic of Aligned Worlds, Montana merits little consideration - until it becomes the flashpoint in an impending interstellar war. When pirate raids threaten to destabilize the region, the RAW deploys its mechanized armored infantry to deal with the situation.

When Luke finds the biggest diamond ever seen on two worlds, trouble immediately finds him in the form of his partner, Winston. Desperate to survive, he must fight the environment due to Winston cutting a hole in his suit. Killing his foe in self-defense starts even more trouble for him – the stolen diamond goes missing; Janie, Winston’s sister, and her wife argue the self-defense ruling; and a friend is mysteriously murdered.

Bert Trautmann is famed as the goalkeeper who broke his neck in an FA Cup final and played on. But his early life is no less extraordinary: he grew up in Nazi Germany and fought for the Germans in World War Two. In 1945 he was captured and sent to a British POW camp where, for the first time, he saw a better way of life. He embraced England as his new home and before long became an England football hero. This is his extraordinary story.

Lillian is devastated. Her goal of owning an apothecary in Wylder, Wyoming is dashed. Her family has promised her in wedlock by proxy, and she hopes her spouse is a reasonable man. Can they forge a compromise about the shop, as well as their marriage?

Three young men emerge from a small town in the territory of New Mexico. They are bound by a pact and guided by mysterious powerful beings that no one else can see. Together they must face off against the Sheriff of Puerta de la Muerte, a wicked man who cannot be struck by bullets. Are they destined to become legends, or are they just mere noose jumpers?

Tina Lyons, a beauty contestant, is cheated out of first place and forced into rehab, run by a bunch of undercover lizard-aliens hellbent on colonizing the world. Believing them to be patients just like her, Tina decides to help these incompetent conquerors the only way she knows how - with a beauty pageant! As Tina’s anti-beauty pageant becomes a roaring success, and humanity is seduced by the irresistibly sexy lizard invaders, Tina must question what it is to be human.

Ansul was once a peaceful town filled with libraries, schools, and temples. But that was long ago, and the conquerors of this coastal city consider reading and writing to be acts punishable by death. And they believe the Oracle House, where the last few undestroyed books are hidden, is seething with demons. But to seventeen-year-old Memer, the house is a refuge, a place of family and learning, ritual and memory—the only place where she feels truly safe.

Colt Hawkridge is an indentured servant living the life of a drake wrangler at Drake Iron Ranch on the farthest edge of civilization. It’s a good life, but it’s not his own. More than anything Colt craves his freedom. And now he just might have it...if he can survive. A runaway drake leads him to discovering dangers and opportunities lurking under the mountains he’s named for. The goblin plague has outrun the advance of civilization and a horde is gathering with the intent to attack the settlements.

Desa Kincaid set out to save her world from the machinations of a madman. She failed. Now, she finds herself a prisoner in her own city, navigating a web of political intrigue. Hope beckons in the form of the mysterious Spear of Vengeance, a weapon forged by the gods. To recover it, Desa will take a journey into the very heart of the ancient world and confront an enemy more powerful than any she has faced so far...her own guilt.

There are cowboy boots on his feet, pop-up hints appearing in his vision, and, oh yeah, there’s a mariachi band in his head. The world's not going to slow down and let him catch up though, no, it's going to throw a chrome hover car at him and hope he gets the picture.

The Peña gang ravage the Southwest, plundering and killing with impunity. Until, that is, they kill Ben Morrison’s brother for a fortune in rubies. Ben considers himself a used-up former lawman, but desperate for revenge, he calls on ex-manhunt Duel Winston for help. Duel, though, has settled into a peaceful life of ranching and is reluctant to risk his newfound happiness. Until, that is, the ghosts of his past come a-haunting, and he takes to the trail again.

It's rodeo time on Terul - bronco riding, yertl tripping, dragon team roping, korth barrel racing, and dragon riding. (And if you thought bullriding was dangerous, just take a look at dragon riding at Kerluk.) These are the events at the very first rodeo on planet Terul since the revival of the Intergalactic Rodeo Association. And Buck Johnson, Skeeter Evans, and Snort Jones are entered - using, of course, Buck's money to pay their entry fees.

Thanks to the magic of The Book, Joe, Sam, and Fred are back in the wild, wild West - and it's proving to be way too wild. They're almost stampeded by a herd of crazed cattle and nearly suffocated by foul cow fumes! Then they meet a friendly Indian chief, but why do his warriors keep staring at their scalps?

Will defied history and saved the Alamo. However, before the celebration even gets started, proof of a Comanche uprising the likes of which have never been seen before force Will to scramble for a solution to keep the frontier from going up in flames. This time, he doesn't know what the future holds. But he might be able to find an invention to give his troops a fighting chance, assuming there's enough time and his enemies don't kill him or remove him from command.

Desert Gold is a western romance written by Zane Grey. Listen to learn more.