Showing results by author "Gilbert M. Stack" in All Categories

The battle to save Queenstown from the orcs of the Great Defile is far from over. Despite the valiant efforts of the tiny flotilla comprised of naval officers from Forestria, privateers from Anundal, and Navarre’s band of heroes from Hidden Harbor, enemy battle barges have reached the shore and disgorged their crews of orcs, ogres, and hobgoblins. As if that weren’t bad enough, sea monsters have risen to the surface to keep the flotilla from crossing the bay to rescue the helpless residents of the town. But despite the daunting odds against them, all is not yet lost. The gods of the ...

After winning a costly clash with Diamonte’s Thegn Clovis and High Mago Deverel, Marcus must find a way to press the attack even though more than half of his Black Hat legionnaires are unable to take the field. Thegn Clovis cannot afford another costly battle so he must turn to High Mago Deverel to conjure victory from defeat. But a lot of magos have been playing with the weather in the past year and succeed or fail, the consequences of Deverel’s efforts could prove devastating for the Jeweled Hills.

ABBA, Air Supply, Charlie’s Angels, Ronald Reagan—it’s 1981 and real estate attorney, Lynne Winters’, is struggling to manage a constantly complaining mother and a law practice tanking in the worst real estate market in a decade. Then her life really goes insane when a long brown envelope lands on her desk. The heir to the Mackland furniture empire has been kidnapped and the kidnapper has forced Lynne smack in the middle of the ransom negotiations. It’s the most important case of her career, but in a time when professional women too often aren’t taken seriously, it will take all...

The war seems to be going well for Marcus, but he has forgotten the most important rule of the Jeweled Cities—alliances are made to be broken. In a world where even the ethnic peoples of the north—Gota, Gente and Qing—cannot remain united against the other peoples, how can Marcus convince them to remain true to their commitments to an outsider like him? And yet his honor is not so malleable as that of many of his new neighbors. He will stay the course and defend his dead brother’s home—even if the only things he can depend on are the swords and spears of his legionnaires.

Legionnaire is a gritty high fantasy series set on the borders of the far-flung Republic of Aquila. While political in-fighting and scheming are the order of the day in the heart of the Republic, the borderlands are awash with dangers, only kept in check by the might of the legions. Fell magics, savage peoples, and scheming empires all threaten the country Patrician Marcus Venandus has sworn to defend using his wits, military strategy, and his small command of highly disciplined legionnaires.

Despite their impressive victories in the north, Prefect Marcus and the Black hat Legion stand alone against the full might of Diamonte and Aquamarina. With their home city under siege and the cowardly Lord Totila refusing to lead his host out from behind the walls of Centinela, it falls once again to Marcus to protect his adopted homeland by himself. His only hope is to thread the needle, maneuvering his legion across enemy-occupied Amatista to the one location that might enable him to recapture the initiative in this war. It’s a risky gamble. With multiple armies afield and none of them...

Navarre thought he had seen the worst this world could throw against him when the orcs arrived at Hidden Harbor in their battle barge. But now the halfling sheriff must face a different kind of foe. The Royal Navy of Forestria is the most powerful military force in the Western Sea and it is determined to solidify its control of the region by eradicating all of the pirates and privateers operating there—and they view Navarre’s town as the key to their mission. Marines backed by powerful wizards and priests are planning to raze the Hidden Harbor, thinking nothing can stand against them. ...

Marshal Sturm, Earl of Fortaleza, and his retainers have helped thousands of Northerners survive three hellish nights as their crazed southern neighbors mindlessly threw themselves against the barricades in a desperate attempt to kill and eat them. Now his problems are really beginning. The insanity has ended but the danger is just revving up. Ten thousand people are dead or injured, thousands more children are orphaned, there is no food in the city, and Joachim Adler, pretender to Sturm's earldom, is determined to finish the task that his berserkers failed to accomplish—kill Sturm and ...

If folks had any business living in the small Colorado town of Hadrian’s Well, there wouldn’t be a meadow called Dead Man’s Field outside of it. That’s where Deputy Joanna Donovan finds bloody body parts strewn across the ground. She thought that rural Colorado would be safer than Chicago. She’s about to find out she’s wrong.

From the pages of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine: When bare knuckle boxer Corey Callaghan’s trainer is locked in prison on a charge of murder, the sheriff doesn’t much care if he’s innocent or guilty. That’s because he doesn’t expect the case to go before a judge and jury. You see, the dead man’s son is leading a posse to town looking for vengeance and Corey’s fists aren’t likely to be enough to save the old man. It looks like Patrick’s only chance to avoid a lynching is lady luck, a named gambler, Pandora Parson, and the strength of her defense.

Only one tiny halfling stands in the way of an power seeking to wipe out a grand alliance that has lasted for millennia. None of the inhabitants of the scum ridden town of Hidden Harbor seem to be able to take him seriously, but they are about to learn how wrong they are. For the gods were tricked into putting aside their differences to create one final champion. Armed only with a hatchet and a highly fashionable hat, the halfling champion is doing his best to save the world by chopping down one evil villain at a time.

To honor his dead brother’s obligations, Marcus has agreed to help the city of Amatista defend itself in the coming war with mighty Diamonte and its allies, but the arrogant Gota who rule the Jeweled Cities refuse to believe an infantry composed of the despised Qing and Gente peoples can prove to be any kind of threat in the coming war.

The Duchy of Winterhaven lies at the edge of human civilization. There, Great Lords scheme to expand their borders and take control of the dukedom. Meanwhile the young knight Dhrugal of Edgefield investigates a most unusual murder, little suspecting how this gruesome crime links to a much greater threat. A decade of relative peace is about to collapse, and only Dhrugal and his brothers and sister stand between Winterhaven and dark-spun chaos.

As word of the Legion’s lightning conquest of Malaquita echoes across Diamonte, the Black Hat commander plans an even more audacious move. Rather than consolidate his gains in the west, Marcus launches a surprise strike downriver on Hessonita—the forward rallying point for Diamonte’s attempted counterattack. The key to his plan is speed and surprise—how close can they get before the city realizes its danger? If Hessonita has time to prepare a river defense, Marcus could lose the entire legion. Yet this time, the fog of war conceals dangers beyond human comprehension. Will the Camino...

Long before Prefect Marcus Venandus directed the defense of the Jeweled Hills, Green Vigil Marcus led his first command into the treacherous jungles of Ekángá. As if the jungle itself wasn’t deadly enough, native warriors and shamans strike from its shadows with magic, spears, and darts, while the forcibly transplanted Graeci population seethes with unrest in the supposedly civilized regions of the province.

Many feel that the Laws of Wotan clearly prohibit the use of muskets in combat, but that didn’t prevent the Empire of Anjou from introducing them and transforming the face of warfare forever. Now, a full generation after the heretical weapons drove the High Kingdom of Kriegsturm firmly onto the defensive, neither side is yet using the gun to its full potential. That’s about to change. Lieutenant Marshal Sturm, one of a handful of survivors of a battalion decimated by the musket-hating doctrine of his superiors, has developed a new tactic that could flip the battlefield upside down. The ...

Before he became the greatest knight in Winterhaven, Willem, the future Lord Tavistock was a seventeen-year-old half-orphan determined to claim his father's patrimony. The only thing standing in his way was every greedy and faithless man in the honor. The only support he could find was his two teachers, his naked sword, and a pair of Steel Gray Eyes. This is the story of how Willem set out on the road to become the most respected man in the duchy.

When the girl of Mitch Pembroke’s dreams responds to his invitation to meet his parents by fleeing home to a remote Caribbean island, the former Great War pilot does what he thinks any red-blooded American male would do—he drops everything and goes after her. But Mitch isn’t the first man to follow Lorali home and like his predecessors, he may not survive the visit. Lazarus Key is the first novella in a series that blurs the line between historical fiction and dark fantasy.

Marshal Sturm is in trouble. With just one company of musket men and a battalion of dismounted cavalry, he has to stop the whole Angevin army from securing the eastern entrance to Steil Pass. Effectively, he’s the cork stoppering a bottle full of Angies with their thousands upon thousands of muskets, pikes, and cannon. Unfortunately for Sturm, that bottle is well shaken and its contents are about to erupt straight through the pass. Failure to hold back Anjou means a brand new front in the decades old war—a development that will almost certainly cost Kriegsturm Oosten Graanland. Nobody ...

With Sheriff Tucker down after the nosferatu attack, it’s up to newly appointed Undersheriff Joanna Donovan to rally her fellow officers. She must discover what new monster is terrorizing Hadrian’s Well and put an end to it before it kills any more of her citizens. Yet how can she do that with her own officers questioning her abilities, the town mayor strong arming her, and a new drug making its presence felt in Hadrian’s Well? Against her better judgment, she’s going to have to reach out to local science teacher, Evan Drake, to help her track down the creature or Hadrian’s Well ...