A stand-alone novel in alphabetical order… Before the Faction Paradox series from Image Comics, there was the War in Heaven—a wide-ranging conflict between the immovable Great Houses, the renegade Faction Paradox and other major powers. All of them possess time-travel technology—and all of them are trying to usurp various points in history, thus erasing their opponents from the timestream. Marking the first five decades of the cosmic-spanning conflict, The Book of the War is an A to Z self-contained complete guide to the Spiral Politic, from the beginning of recorded time to the fall of humanity. This book chronicles the rise of the Faction as a renegade House, the creation of a living timeship named Compassion, some brutal battles across all of time and space and more. All in all, The Book of the War serves as the No. 1 entry point into the Faction Paradox novel and comic lines.

From up here you can see it all, hear it all, taste most of it and feel the rest when the electric lights and the satellite signals prickle against your skin. The town, from midnight to six, marked out in headlights and the flash-fire of a culture in War-time. Séance-messages written in the patterns of the road signs, and ghost-transmissions scrambled into the background noise of the traffic. Animal scent-signals from the fried food stands. All describing something, buried under the tarmac and the street-geometry. Down there, a girl in a fake-bone mask is working on a ritual to bring it to the surface. A popular performing artiste with a navel stud and serious identity problems is finding herself stalked—literally—by her own image. An ambulance crewman is about to find his own way of getting involved in the War. And bringing them all together, in one neat little urban mythology, there's Faction Paradox - part cult, part subculture, part pop phenomenon, and part criminal syndicate, either watching-without-being-seen or simply not existing at all (at least until someone invents it). Assuming they're not wholly imaginary, the archons of the Faction seem like the only ones who know what this town really is - what every town really is—and what's bound to happen when it wakes up.

Laura Tobin's a private investigator who's summoned to investigate a very peculiar murder —- one that occurs in The City of the Saved-a haven at the end of the Universe, populated by every human being or pseudo-human being who's ever lived. Except that in the City, all murders are literally impossible. But Laura's got a very dead body to prove otherwise. As part of her investigation, Laura will come across the machinations of the various powers within the City, including the Rump Parliament and the City Council and more —- and also perhaps the Secret Archiects who built the City in the first place. And then there's Faction Paradox, a group of time-travelling ritualists, saboteurs and subterfugers—essentially, the criminal-cult to end all criminal-cults. As always, the Faction's trying to subvert history to its own ends, preferably by letting its rivals kill each other off, then swooping in to seize whatever's left—presuming the Universe survives the conflict...

Rome never fell. Hitler won. Now they are at war. Marcus Americanius Scriptor's memoirs of the war between every parallel universe where Rome never fell, and every parallel universe where Hitler won the Second World War, have long been regarded as the definitive account of that turbulent time. Scriptor's life story, from his early life among the housesteads of an obscure province to his role in the ultimate confrontation with Nazism, was intimately connected with the major political and social developments of his time. His highly personal record of events was praised even in his own lifetime for its honesty and intimacy, as well for capturing the scale of a war that consumed thousands of worlds.This exciting new translation of a classic work of military history is accessible to new readers and existing students of the War alike. This is the third original Faction Paradox novel.

The Year of the Metal Rat has brought with it greed and self-preservation. The Everlasting Empire is dying, eaten up from within, and the young upstarts Britain and Russia are circling like carrion-birds, for crows of every nation are equally black. The peasant-sect of the Righteous Harmonious Fists attacks all foreign devils. In the capital, the ancient heart of the Empire, the Europeans are besieged by the Dragon Empress' army and the blood of a thousand Christan converts runs in the gutters. When there is War in Heaven, there is War in the Land. A dagger can be concealed in a smile and this House of Paradox smiles often. Its servant here carries grief like dead petals in her hands and wakes the ancient spirits. Their anger makes the sky weep blood, and we shall pay dearly for her trespass. This is the fourth original Faction Paradox novel.

On a fine October afternoon in 1882, Rose Donnelly, maid-of-all-work, disguises herself as a boy in order to follow the callow, yet brilliantly determined Sherlock Holmes in his pursuit of a thief. Through narrow alleyways and cobbled lanes wedged between Whitechapel, Bethnal Green and the broad back of the City, she's led into deeper territory - worlds he knows well. So well, in fact, that he nearly has her collared on her first time out. Still, Rose learns he has a bolt hole somewhere in Spitalfields. He speaks a smattering of Yiddish. He has a talent for picking pockets. He's a genius with the deceptively simple disguise. It's a thrilling start. It's for her doctoral thesis. Or so she believes. This is the fifth original Faction Paradox novel.

Don't tell her what it was like. Don't tell her how you had to dig your way out through heavy layers of clay to reach the fresh air, because that would distress her. Don't tell her about the box, because that would confuse her. And don't tell her about the light, because that was sacred. Lately cannonballs have flown their arcs, leaving the crystal sky unbroken, while on Earth their traces are all too visible. Yet though Heaven has never seemed so far away, the divine is terribly closer. War on Earth presages War in Heaven; the struggle between the holy houses of Christ and their eternal Adversary has erupted among the living. These are the signs of the last days: in 1651, a dead angel is found in a tree in Lincolnshire and a nymph rises from the waters of Kent; in 1642, a dying man is miraculously healed in the grave; in 1665, uncanny skull-masked doctors descend upon a plague house; in 1683, the French secret service unveil mirrors that show the futures; in 1671, Aphra Behn - she-spy and poetesse - infiltrates a gathering of alchemists; in 1649, the English kill their king, and history begins... Newtons Sleep is a stand-alone science fiction novel set in the universe of Faction Paradox.

'What's that? Did I hear you ask what romance has to do with anything, little Cousin? You do surprise me. Why Romance is Story itself, nothing less than that. Romance is the tale with which a cunning man winkles out a widow's secrets and an honest one breaks his beloved's heart. Romance locks us away and sets us free, brings us great pleasure and also great pain, is the thread which binds all other stories together. Dear me, little Cousin, I expected better of you...' — Godfather Valentine, Dresden, 1928 \* Dave Hoskin (Short Trips: Transmissions) \* Philip Purser-Hallard (Of the City of the Saved…, Peculiar Lives, Iris Wildthyme & the Celestial Omnibus) \* Stuart Douglas (Miss Wildthyme and Friends Investigate, The Obverse Book of Ghosts) \* Matt Kimpton (Chief Skald of Suffolk) \* Jon Dennis (The Book of the War, Bernice Summerfield: Secret Histories) \* Jay Eales (Factor Fiction) \* Ian Potter (No Tomatoes, Short Trips, Rise and Rise of the Independents) \* Daniel O’Mahony (Falls the Shadow, Newtons Sleep, Cabinet of Light) \* David N Smith (Bernice Summerfield: Collected Works) and Violet Addison (Short Trips – How The Doctor Changed My Life) \* Scott Harrison (Voices From The Past, Dark Fiction's Twelve Days) \* James Milton (Short Trips: Transmissions) \* Blair Bidmead (The Panda Book of Horror)

'You will make war with the beast of the city, and the people will be grateful, and in this way will your fame be fortified.' Every fifty-two years, the God Xiuhtecuhtli—incarnate for the purpose as a young Mexica male—would give himself in sacrifice in order that the universe should be renewed and the passage of time would continue as it had done before. Those born to other cultures and other eras might be forgiven for their failure to appreciate this great and selfless act. It was therefore strange that such a profound understanding should arise in one so far removed from the heart of this world, both veteran and victim of the terrible, endless war in heaven, a man the Mexica knew briefly as Coahualxiu bearing a death wish the size of creation...

“The Tribunal Decision in the matter of the Great Houses vs. Scarratt is as follows. That the orders lawfully issued to the said Scarratt were deliberately ignored, as recorded in Scarratt’s own thoughts as recorded through the media first of the recording circuits of his timeship and then of the biodata retrieved from exhibit A.”

"The human race had every opportunity. We blew it, darling." Take two Cousins from Faction Paradox. Give them a world – the Earth, for example – and give them the power to change that world’s history as they see fit. Then stand back and watch what happens… Just what would happen if a couple of Cousins used our planet as their personal game board? As they create one alternative reality after another, twisting history and reality into knots, only one outcome is sure: whoever wins, the human race loses. TOC Playing for Time I - Kate Orman Dreamer in the Dark - E.H. Timms Playing for Time II - Kate Orman Annie's Arms - Xanna Chown Playing for Time III - Kate Orman The Mountains are Higher at Home - Juliet Kemp Playing for Time IV - Kate Orman Judy's War - Rachael Redhead Playing for Time V - Kate Orman Red Rover Red Rover - "Q" Playing for Time VI - Kate Orman The Vikingr Mystique - Dorothy Ail Playing for Time VII - Kate Orman Life of Julia - Tansy Rayner Roberts Playing for Time VIII - Kate Orman Project Thunderbird - Kelly Hale Playing for Time IX - Kate Orman

‘When the seventh head speaks, the War will end…’ In 11th century Arabia, Shahrazad tells her final story, on the thousand and second night. In 19th century Britain, Sir Richard Burton is sent on the most important mission of his life. In 21st century America, a serial killer is stalking a Presidential campaign. And the hero has been written out of the novel. ‘”…and the true War will begin.’

“There she goes. Running flat out. Little Sojourner. Not really dressed for a sprint. Moves pretty fast for a woman of her age though. She’s carrying something. Hard to see from this far away. Maybe, if we moved a little closer. Sojourner has a gun in each hand. She swings them, awkwardly as she dashes across the gravel. Barefoot. Her evening dress looks a mess. That backpack looks heavy. There’s a sheen to her dark skin. But, look; it isn’t sweat. It’s blood. That isn’t a pattern on her dress either. That’s blood too. Her braids are spraying a trail of red in their wake. That’s a lot of blood. It’s not her blood.

One snowy night in 1854, Elizabeth Howkins arrives in Strines. Back in the place where the gods took her Bill from her, all those years ago. But now, she has learned their secrets. Now, she knows their weaknesses. Now, she is ready to exact her revenge. But Elizabeth isn’t the only visitor to Strines. Major Webber and his team have tracked her to the four corners of the Empire. In Strines, they are determined that she must meet her destiny, in the name of the Queen. And something about the upcoming conflict has attracted the attention of someone with their own plans for the chaos to come. No less than the resurrection of that old, doomed, time-travelling voodoo cult, Faction Paradox…

The Great Houses hold chains that bind time and space. They are the Namers and the Makers, of all that is. Their power is incalculable. And they are at War. But the nature of their Enemy has always been shrouded, in mystery, in enigma, perceived through mirrored labyrinths seemingly constructed as much by the Great Houses as the Enemy. Why? Perhaps now the secrets of the Enemy can be revealed. Or perhaps not. Experience the ravaged memories of those who have met them in War.

The Book Of The Peace – being the only accurate record of the end of the War between the Great Houses and their Enemy, and the effects thereof on the denizens of the Spiral Politic and wider universe in the period in which the armistice was negotiated and signed. – presenting the accounts of a small number of subjects from a range of time periods and places, using their individual perspectives to provide an experience-base from which broader generalisations may be made. – including several carefully selected case studies, forming a history of the immediate aftermath of the Peace ‘from below’.