Showing results by author "J C Duncan" in All Categories

Alternate history—1116 AD. Three hundred years of cruel Viking raids have finally united Christian Europe against the pagan Northlands. A great crusade has been called to pacify the wild Norse kingdoms. The banner of the cross has been raised against the North, and all the power and fury of the West rides under it. Ordulf, a talented young German swordsmith, is ripped from his comfortable life and cast into the bloody chaos of the crusade. As fate deals him a cruel blow in the lands of his enemies, he will have to forge a new path through the chaos or be consumed by it.

On the walls of Jönköping, the men of the north made their stand and held the Crusade at bay, paying the price in blood and the death of kinsmen. The Norse jarls, shaken and bloodied, must rally around their wounded and weakened king or choose an alternative path to cling to power. As the icy grip of winter falls and the snow, mud, and blood bind the oath-sworn enemies together in a lethal contest, hopes of glory are cast aside in the desperate fight for survival. Two armies marched into the deep woods in winter. Only the Norns know who will emerge from the cruel embrace of the Frostforge.

Alternate history, 1119 AD. The bright banner of the Crusade flies over the ruins of Uppsala. The Norse army is shattered, the survivors scattered to the winds, and the sword that was fated to save them is lost to the enemy. A small band of refugees flees before the relentless foe, searching for a new place to call home. Gjaldir goes with them, choosing to fight for his erstwhile captors and the woman and child he loves, rather than seek shelter with his Christian kin, the men who have brought death and destruction to the lands he once hated.

Reeling from the loss of three kings and a kingdom, the Norse gather in the home of their gods to choose a new ruler and prepare to meet the coming storm. The great host of the crusade will march again, and the people of the North will meet them with steel and shields and the death cries of their heroes.

From terraformed outposts to magical realms, journey to worlds where deadly plants, rampant biodiversity, or failed colonies have created irresistible opportunities for those brave enough to seize them. New worlds, found family, mystical secrets, and deadly science weave together in this lesbian-centric anthology focusing on a very different kind of first time - a first encounter with a world, or being, entirely unlike our own.

Burdizzo Book's Matty-Bob and Em invited some of their favourite indie authors to write stories inspired by their most beloved songs. The result is The Burdizzo Mix-Tape Vol.1, their most diverse anthology yet. These are tunes that resonate from the beach to the mountains, from rain dogs to spirits in the sky, from Old Ones to cold ones. Be it multi-dimensional romance across space and time, Cold War sexual paranoia, campfire cowboys, gypsy caravans, or demented disco balls, there is a song for everyone within these stories.

Pirates and kraken, boats and submarines, deadly sirens, mermaids, and the women who face them all. These are our heroes. High seas adventure, fantasy, and magic weave together in this sapphic anthology focusing on the joy of the unbounded oceans.

In this volume our classic authors conjure up all sorts of damnations and destructions in literary assaults testing our will to survive and our ingenuity to overcome situations where the outlook is bleak at best and the total extinction of us at worse.