Showing results by author "James Axler" in All Categories

Carving out a living in the Deathlands is no easy feat. To most, the only thing that matters is one more day spent above ground. To the man known as Trader, the only thing that matters is the bottom line. In a mutie-filled, irradiated wasteland, Trader and crew set out to find the scavvie Marsh Folsom. Stories going around say that Folsom has knowledge of an underground cache with a legendary bounty.

Still working on securing the partnership with Grace Milligan for her fuel refinery while in Fairzie, Trader and Marsh cross paths with a scouting party that has followed stories about a fuel source. That’s only the tip of the spear. That scouting party has been sent by Ironhand Jackson, the boss of El Dorado. In El Dorado, Ant, a woman who works as an enforcer for Hoyt Lynch, the self-made lord of Boardwalk, arrives to kill Jackson. Lynch has learned of the fuel refinery’s existence and desperately needs it because his own fuel reserves are running out.

Near what was once the Pacific northwest, Ryan Cawdor and his roving band of post-holocaust survivors discover a beautiful valley untouched by the nuclear blast that changed the earth forever. Resisting the temptation to settle in that idyllic land, the group is captured and forced deep beneath an extinct volcano to an isolated community of in-bred scientists. These psychopathic descendants of a 20th century government research team are blindly laboring to find better ways of genocide, unaware that the world they are striving to slaughter has already died.

Resources are scarce in the Deathlands, but the mega-cemetery of Oregon holds the treasures and trinkets of three million corpses killed in the nukecaust. Stumbling into warring parties of graverobbers, Ryan Cawdor and his companions fall in with an old ally of J.B. Dix who offers an attractive promise of unlimited ammunition for their services. But the graves hold other secrets that could spell the annihilation of the human race unless their excavation is halted.

Caught in the vice of the mountains, J.B. and Mildred are ripped from their friends by snowmobile-riding bandits that worship violence, velocity, and their black-horned Baron. Ryan tries to mount a rescue, but against raging blizzards, drug-fueled barbarians and a fracture in his own ranks, progress is frozen in its tracks.

Ryan Cawdor is gunned down and left for dead by the new Provisional US Army, commanded by a brilliant general with a propensity for casual mass murder and a vision to rebuild America. Waging war from his pre-Dark, fusion-powered armored locomotive, he's poised to unlock the secrets of the Gateways — as the rest of Ryan's group stand powerless. All except one. Hope may be lost for Krysty Wroth. But revenge is enough.

Stories of the Trader and his convoy of war wagons endure in the badlands of post-holocaust America. A dealer in Deathlands' most precious commodities - weapons and fuel - Trader takes note of a young Ryan Cawdor. Surrounded in myth and rumor, Trader sets into motion the beginnings of legend at a place called Virtue Lake...At Spearpoint, the ultimate redoubt housing a valuable cache of predark technology, two opposing wills clash. Levi Shabazz intends to carve his own empire out of the vast wastelands, but the Trader intends to thwart him and end his bloody siege of power. 

Almost leveled by the Soviet missiles that annihilated most of the West Coast, Snakefish is in the midst of a reconstruction, financed by a commodity far more valuable than the usual Deathlands jack. But greed and man's lust for power threaten to shatter the hard-won peace and tranquility of this fledgeling community as disparate factions fight for control of the substance that will give them wealth beyond their wildest dreams.

When an act of mercy ends in betrayal, the companions are attacked, and three of their crew abducted. Led by Ryan, the remaining members set out on a deadly rescue mission. Standing in their way—a forest overrun by barbaric cultists and mutated beasts. Alien animals hide behind every tree. Strange creatures creep through the canopy. An apex predator watches, ceaselessly, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Carving out a living in the Deathlands is no easy feat. To most, the only thing that matters is one more day spent above ground. To the man known as Trader, the only thing that matters is the bottom line. After Trader and crew offload their last haul, they set their sites on the next score. An underground military installation.

The legacy of the 20th century was the world-wasting nuclear firestorm that destroyed a way of life forever. Civilization is in ruins, its pitiful remnants perverted by brute force, and mankind is less at home on the planet than ever before. Yet in the desolation that is the Deathlands, an intrepid group of wayfarers continues that determined fight for survival and a better future. Leaving a western ville besieged by desert pirates in search of the legendary cities of the Spanish conquistadors, Ryan Cawdor and his warrior survivalists enter a hidden valley untouched by civilization. 

It's now generations after the firestorm that nearly consumed the Earth, but the survivors haven't yet finished paying for the sins of the fathers. All of life suffered and of those that survived, not all survived well. This cradle of life is now home to forms fallen far from their human inheritance.

Seeking insights into the Gaia Force, Krysty travels with Ryan to the hidden island enclave of the Sisters of Mother Earth. While there, Ryan reaches some much-needed inner peace, while Krysty gains new insights into her connection with Gaia. But the Sisters are unprepared for a raid by an invader who can channel Earth powers with a ferocity unseen before, burning through earth witches like the Sisters and Krysty in his quest for absolute power... unless the companions can defeat him and his mercenary army.

Ryan Cawdor’s time-lost companion, Doc Tanner, has finally found the Operation Chronos facility that can return him back to his own era. But reaching it through a gauntlet of mutie enemies and their enslaved army is only one half of the battle. As the Chronos facility falls to the mutie siege, a traitor within the ranks of Ryan’s crew finally reveals their hand, and the remaining allies find themselves backed into an impossible corner... with no way out.

Ryan Cawdor awakens from a mat-trans jump to inexplicably find himself in a version of his past (just after the events of Deathlands 45: Starfall). Ryan's son Dean is back, Krysty isn’t pregnant yet, and Ryan, who is the only one who feels the pull of the timeline split, is trying to keep it together. The companions are in immediate need of medical supplies and get caught up in a clash between warring barons and a traveling gypsy caravan and circus. Someone ambushes and is sabotaging the gypsies and the companions decide to help. 

The conspiracy of secrecy manipulating post-nuclear Earth takes a terrifying new turn as the mysterious oligarchy becomes something far more sinister. No longer shrouded in the cloaks of hybrid-human divinity, the nine barons have evolved into their true incarnation of ancient overlords, their avaricious scope expanded to reclaim the world they were forced to abandon and with it, the final subjugation of the human race.

Fleeing from the growing sinkhole that was once the Glory mines, Ryan Cawdor and his companions struggle to make their way east to Ryan’s home of Front Royal as a safe haven for delivering Krysty’s child. Along the way, they are welcomed into a Deathlands community based on the structure and devolved traditions of a 20th century Iowa State prison. One of the bizarre customs that has evolved is the tallying of victorious acts of violence as a way of achieving dominance. Through a misunderstanding, Doc Tanner is believed to have achieved 246 of such acts.

Accompanied by scientist Eden Long, the companions endeavor to cross the dangerous territory of Baltimorgue to help their ally Doc Tanner to time jump home. However, they soon find themselves fending for their lives against the dangerous groups who inhabit the old city, each one set in brutal opposition to the others. When the companions get split up, they each become mired in the myriad of insanities that vie for survival in a city gone beyond the edge of reason.

Golconda, the secret underground military complex hidden away before Skydark and rediscovered by Trader, is a bounty of riches, filled with arms, ammunition, and wags. But having those things is not enough for the man called Trader. With this newfound wealth, he’s got a dream that’s burned within him. Determined to build a trade caravan strong enough to plow through the most inhospitable areas of the Deathlands, Trader gathers a new crew to face bandits, raiders, and mutie menaces spawned by the world destruction known as Skydark.

The woods surrounding Lake Huron are filled with danger and bounty alike. Pirates frequent the waters, cold-hearted cannibals and stickies wander the woods, and the mystical Sea Hag and her Hag-Sworn keep an eye on it all. A local moonshiner has offered to escort the companions through the forest to the nearby Martkplatz where they can resupply at the ville’s annual trade festival. However, the companions get more than they bargained for when forces converge on Marktplatz and kick off the festival with a bang.