The Shadow of Earth (History of the Galaxy, book 2)

The History of the Galaxy, Book II

The Shadow of Earth

by Andrei Livadny

Release - March 22, 2018

Pre-order here - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078KJFG25

Prologue.

Earth. Year 2606.

The short man stood in front of a panoramic window, listening to the report as he looked at the skyscrapers forming the famous Square of Five Corners, which was unfailingly repeated on the many levels of the urbanized anthill.

Earth was an eternal city. This was the name of a planet where the shell of the technosphere had completely enclosed it, uniting all the continents.

Ever since the problem of the industrial fog had been overcome using absorbents, transparent walls had again come into fashion. The megasuburbs soaring into the clouds looked like enormous terrariums, where millions of people hurried about their day.   

Looking at them, John Winston Hammer experienced intense and contradictory emotions.

"Everything could have turned out differently," he couldn't help thinking in moments like these.

Three hundred and fifty years ago, when the Great Exodus ended, humanity's fate seemed sealed. Thousands of colonial transports had vanished into the unknown. Hyperspace swallowed them up without a trace, and the rush to expand fizzled out, with even the most ardent optimists turning into sceptics, and the theory of the hypersphere thrown into doubt. Dozens of unfinished starships were left standing on the Moon's shipyards.

The Sublime Electricity - 4: The Dormant

The Sublime Electricity
book IV
The Dormant

by Pavel Kornev

release - February 19, 2018

preorder now - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0789HHCB5

New Babylon is the capital of the mighty Second Empire. Dirigibles drift over the city, steam trains race down its tracks, and the factory chimneys never stop billowing smoke, even for a moment. The hegemony of science is unquestioned, and yet magic hasn't disappeared from the world. It remains dissolved in the blood of those who are called illustrious. Hardline reductionists find that hard to accept, but it is not in their power to change the longstanding status quo.

Everything threatens to change with the death of the widowed Empress, and Leopold Orso, an illustrious gentleman, can sense the looming changes clearer than most.

He feels the draw of far-away lands, but a gloomy past holds him in place like a deadly snare. Will the whirlpool of coming events will pull our troubled illustrious hero to the very bottom or throw him up to unimaginable heights? And will anything remain to throw him up to? It's impossible to say. After all, there are highly placed conspirators willing to do whatever it takes just to get what's theirs.

Bullets from hired killers, anarchists' bombs, blood magic of Aztec priests and electroshock therapy in a psychiatric clinic. Leopold will have a difficult time overcoming everything fate has in store for him and remaining himself through it all.

  

A heart preserved in a tin can,

Begins to beat again.

Steamphonia (Russian Steampunk Band), Heart

Part One
Target. Silver Bullets and a Smokescreen

1

Any razor, in its essence, is akin to the ritual sickle of the Celtic druids on the holy day of the renewal of nature. A pull of the hand and the skin becomes clean, while the face grows younger as if, together with the stubble, the weight of many days is hewn away.

I appraised my reflection in the mirror and nodded, agreeing with my own judgements. After that, I shook the foam from the razor into the basin of warm water, led the blade along my soaped-up cheek, and again - a strip of clean.

For the last week, I hadn't bothered with shaving, so it was as if the sharpened metal was carrying away time itself. I was growing younger right before my very eyes.

By the way, there’s a good reason people say razors are dangerous: if you get distracted, you’re sure to cut yourself.

I didn't get distracted. Someone distracted me.

The Secret of Atlantis

Citadel World, book 2

The Secret of Atlantis

by Kir Lukovkin

Release - February 26, 2018

Pre-order here - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077TTSMQM

A

The cold wind blew swathes of snow into Paul’s face.

He closed his eyes and nearly fell to the ground from the blow he received.

“Where are you going!” someone growled in front of him.

Paul pulled on the reins of his bay horse. The other riders behind him followed suit. They shouted at each other, conveying the command to halt along the chain of riders. Paul rose in his saddle, trying to make out what was going on at the head of the column. Excited voices could be heard, sounding like they were in arguing fiercely. Lanky Pete rode up on his old nag and asked him about what was going on ahead.

“I don’t know,” Paul muttered. “We wait.”

Lanky Pete grimaced unhappily and rode on. Paul stared at his retreating back, dumbly. It was cold and all he wanted to do was to return to their Retreat, stretch his legs in front of the big fireplace and drink some hot ale. The horses snorted, flicking their ears and nervously looking around. Paul turned to see what his bay horse Duchess was looking at and examined the edge of the Canal—a long depression that ran almost as far as the horizon. Nothing, just a gray line that grew misshapen as it stretched out in the haze.  Duchess was clearly getting nervous.

The Dark Herbalist, book 3: A Trap for the Potentate

A Trap for the Potentate

by Michael Atamanov

Release - January 17, 2018

Pre-order now - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07763PQWN

New Director

"Did you call?" I asked, knocking politely and walking through the wide-open doors of my new boss's office. Before entering, I pumped the breaks for a second, reading a copper plaque that a workman was screwing into the door:

Max Tohner

Director of Special Projects

He was the fourth person to occupy this office in a month. Truly, it was a cursed position. The new head of the special projects division didn't look all that glum about it though, reflecting confidence, gravitas and power with his whole appearance. When I entered, he gave a scant nod and pointed to the guest chair.

The Reapers (Neuro, book 3)

The Neuro, book 3

The Reapers

by A. Livadny

release - January 24, 2018

preorder now - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076VNV7JV

Chapter One

THE AGRION MARKET square was uncrowded. Not many players online today. Only the NPCs continued living their own computer-generated lives.

For them it was business as usual: merchants praising their wares, a crooked old lady shuffling her feet past the swordsmiths' row. She leaned heavily on her staff and mumbled something to herself as she cast watchful glances around in search for any newbs whom she might reward with a social quest for their penny's worth of alms.

A gust of wind raised twisters of dust, stripping a lone tree of an armful of yellow autumn leaves which floated swirling onto the cobblestones.

Business as usual indeed, had it not been for the cold in my chest and the group of high level riders who'd just dismounted by the tavern.

The city patrol seemed quite alarmed by their arrival. The guards officer and two lancers hovered nearby, casting sideways glances at the tired warriors and their lathering horses with the tavern keeper fussing all about them.

I didn't know any of the warriors in the group led by Enea's father. Their gear was worthy of note: it lacked the usual abundance of useless elements so typical of fantasy armor. Normally, a group of high-level warriors can be quite a motley bunch as each player strives to stand out in the crowd as much as their wallets and Strength numbers allow them. Especially Strength numbers. If a player's stats allow them to lug around five hundred pounds of fancily decorated metal, that's exactly what he or she will do.

Perimeter Defens series

Perimeter Defense series by Michael Atamanov is now complete:

Book 1: Sector Eight

Kindle - http://a.co/cLRNyvP
audio - http://a.co/iLNKeA2
paperback - http://a.co/c3O9QY4

Book 2: Beyond Death

Kindle - http://a.co/cfOPoU5
audio - http://a.co/5V0JiWl
paperback - http://a.co/iwn9zjz

Book 3: New Contract

Kindle - http://a.co/hcmefz6
audio - http://a.co/gtny6e7
paperback - http://a.co/aO0ErTK

Book 4: A Game With No Rules

Kindle - http://a.co/gvcHtDg
paperback - http://a.co/fQoa0ef

The URANUS Code booktrailer

Citadel World: The URANUS Code
by Kir Lukovkin

Rick was born and raised in the Omicron Commune, protected from the monsters and darkness of the Expanse outside with thick walls. A place with barely enough light to see by, constantly gripped by the cold. The death of the Commune is only a question of time.
Meeting visitors from the Expanse turns Rick's view of the world upside down. It turns out that there are other humans that live outside and fight to survive, while the Commune is but one of many sectors of the Expanse. Rick's new goal becomes saving the Commune from destruction. Worried about the future of his sister, he puts his trust in the outsiders, escaping the Commune to find and restart the mysterious thermal generators, find the key and solve the riddle of the gigantic Thermopolis — a high-tech citadel created by the ancients.

He is now a rebel and a heretic and there's no turning back!

Amazon Kindle (+KU)

Read opening chapters in our blog