The continuation of the Starcross series. Last time a battle had just been won by the ragtag 33rd Colorado showing the world that the Druidth could be beaten. Now, the war rages on as men lose themselves in their inner demons doing whatever it takes to beat the alien menace and the fate of Humanity is staked on one impossible gamble... Will Humanity be victorious or will Earth become a new colony in the Druidth Empire?

In 2520, the humans have colonized space and built a city floating in the space with powerful nuclear reactors: Space town. But recently, the city does not respond, it's the radio silence. A team of elite soldiers, led by Isaac Clarke, a strong man and great warrior, is sent out to find out what happens. When they got, they discover that the city has become the battlefield between the humans and a monstrous race of aliens, the Necromorphs. Helped by Ellie Langford, the woman who runs the resistance, Isaac will try to understand why the Necromorphs attacked this city and he will also discover that the real monsters are not the ones he thinks.

************************************************************************************** An outcast rogue must break a curse put on his fate, or die on his nineteenth birthday. To survive, he'll need the sword of a maiden, the aid of an immortal, and the power of forbidden magic that could cost him the only girl he ever loved. ************************************************************************************ *** THE JACK OF SOULS won a Silver IPPY this year! *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the PNWA Competition in Fantasy! * *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the Southwest Writers competition! * *** A "Featured Book" on Wattpad! * *** Now a "Staff Pick" on Kickstarter! * *** Available on Amazon in paper, hardback, and ebook ! * *** My contract with Kindle Select won't allow me to post more than 3 chapters here, but... *** Sign up for my newsletter on stephenmerlino.com for alerts when it's free on Amazon! * MY INSPIRATION I wrote this out of pure love of trickster rogues; I love the wit over brawn motif -- Odysseus over Achilles, Raven over Eagle -- so I like to play with it in my stories. In JOS I set the rogue and con-artist Harric against a foil of warriors in a land threatened by magic and civil war. Whenever possible I turn familiar tropes on their heads: instead of a handsome young Lancelot, I cast a broken-down ex-champion addicted to pain-killing herbs; instead of a dashing Squire Brian, the old knight reluctantly takes an ambitious young woman as squire. Similarly, I re-imagine the standard medieval milieu by infusing aspects of two of my favorite historical periods, Elizabethan England, and The American Frontier. Both eras boast a kind of nationalistic arrogance that borders on hubris, and a magnificent spirit of resourcefulness and re-invention that is fun to play with. SERIES The Jack of Souls is first in a series. I am posting parts of the sequel here now (The Knave of Souls), to help me refine the story.

Updating Fridays and Sundays, Kingdom's Fall is a fantasy adventure set in a world where heroes find themselves pitted against an ancient and powerful magic. Kara has lived her whole life trapped under the roof of her father's inn. She longs for adventure, but there is little to be found in a backwater village: at least until Aiden Baird arrives. Noble, rogue, and spy - Aiden Baird is the most notorious man in the Kingdom. Or he would be, if he could remember who he is... Cuan has lived his entire life as the garrison brat, surrounded by soldiers. Unwanted and ignored, he travels north in the service of the one man he looks up to: Gray, the garrison captain. But Captain Gray has concerns of his own. It has been fifteen years since he last saw the King, and they did not part on good terms. Something dark is growing in the Kingdom. Trade from the south has choked to a standstill, and the air over the marshes hangs heavy with the threat of war. In the north the sea-wall, the ancient defence that protects the coastline, is crumbling. The people look to their lords for guidance, and the lords look to their King. King Varion has little time for their concerns. His daughter has been kidnapped by a priest-cult who intend to sacrifice her and summon an ancient power into the world. Faced with an enemy beyond human understanding, there is only one conclusion. In order to save their people, the Kingdom must fall.

Lord of the Rings meets Knights of the Roundtable in this epic new saga from bestselling author Matthew Wolf. When legends come to life the world trembles from a single name. Ronin. Once-heroes from a different age, they wield elemental powers... wind, water, fire, stone, forest, sun, moon, flesh, and metal. At the same time, a young man discovers his best friend with a sword in her stomach, and dark wings sprouting from her back. Guards rush onto the scene, accuse him of the act, and he is forced to flee. In a new world without his memories, Gray must find his way amid legends and darkness, as he wrestles with an elemental power inside himself. A power all too similar to the infamous Ronin...

We as a race have spent millennia warring and killing each other over everthing from God to Country, Money and Power, Love and Jealousy, or even simple Psychotic Rage. But now that Humanity has a new enemy to face, one from the stars with far superior technology. And it is now up to every Man, Woman, and Child to come together and make a choice: fight for their Freedom, no matter the cost and to the bitter end, or Surrender and face the implications of what that means...

This story immediately precedes the acts in Dead Space

Welcome to the twin worlds of Ramnor and Rimnor: lush, beautiful, and magical. They are also the center of the Maker's universe, the cornerstone on which all of Creation is built. If one, or both are destroyed, then Creation itself will begin to unravel. And destruction of those worlds is the goal of the Lords of the Abyss, masters of the shadows that haunt the edges of Reality. To that end, they long ago gathered a vast army of demonspawn and made their war on Reality, defeated at the last possible moment by an alliance of mortal races and by the hand of the Creator themselves. Despite their defeat, the Lords have not given up trying to destroy all of Reality. And now, tens of thousands of years after their initial defeat, they once again threaten to destroy everything that ever was. Except this time even fewer will stand against them. And they themselves don't even know who they are, and what they are fated to do. Can this meager handful discover their destiny before it's too late and all of Reality dies in demon fire? Join heroes from the Humans, the Elves, the centaur-like Quada, the cat-like Muraan, and the fish-like Picea as they learn of their fates and struggle against the vanguard of evil that threatens to wash them away in the first book of the Sons of Ironstorm Chronicles, 'Griffon's Rise'. I hope you enjoy.