The Fallen World

Series · 13

books · 2019-2021

By Derek Shupert, Alex Rath, Kevin Steverson, and more

Books in series

Don't Call Me Ishmael

2019

Don’t call him Ishmael. Or do; he really doesn’t care. Just don’t call him Fred. No matter what you call him, though, he has a problem. Well, several of them. Ishmael—for want of a better name—woke up in a world that had changed. The Corporations—the wielders of power in a society not long from now—brought about the end of civilization as we know it, nuking each other to the point where it collapsed. Ishmael doesn’t know any of this, though; in fact, he doesn’t know anything about himself when he wakes up in this shattered world. All of his autobiographical and episodic memories are gone, and along with them, any knowledge of who he was or anything in his past. Worse, he has made enemies of some very important people, and they are after him. They are armed and he is alone and in…well, he doesn’t know where he is, either. Can Ishmael stay alive long enough to recover his memories—to find out who he is and how he fits—or will he be just another casualty of This Fallen World?

From the Ashes

2019

The world has Fallen, but life goes on… In the late 2020’s and early 30’s corporations managed to render the major governments of the world obsolete. The big corporations owned most of the territories as well as the majority of the world’s wealth. While many of the old traditions were still observed in various parts of the world, the true power was with the corporations. In the late 30’s, what would be known as the Corporate Wars began as larger companies initiated hostile takeovers in a whole new fashion. Employees, armed with corporate weapons, warred for dominance. It was a bloody time, and many small corporations were destroyed, as were a lot of civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time…as well as those who’d been buying the wrong products. On May 1st, 2067, it all ended in nuclear fire. Sixteen outstanding authors have come to this Fallen World with stories that take place from the islands off the coast of Washington to the plains of central Europe; from the swamps of Florida to the streets of Philadelphia. These stories document the fall…and introduce you to people who might just drag civilization back from the ashes… With stories by: Chris Kennedy Brisco Woods Jamie Ibson David Carrico Kevin Steverson Philip S. Bolger Joseph Capdepon II Alex Rath David Alan Jones Derek Shupert Ian J. Malone Jan Kotouc Jon R. Osborne Mark Wandrey Marisa Wolf Christopher Woods

The Price of Freedom

2019

Freedom isn’t free. Especially when the Company has a hold on your mind. It was a normal Sunday morning at Teledyne Industries. Until the missiles started flying, and Joe Rinardi had 10 minutes to get out of the nuclear blast zone. A Teledyne Specialist, he was one of the best, and equally adept at escape and evasion as he was at killing Obsidian Agents. When the bombs started dropping, though, he was given one final mission that he had to complete—travel to Philadelphia and kill the Obsidian managers that Teledyne ran out of missiles for. After that, he could be free. But in a post-apocalyptic world, traveling across country is a little more challenging than just going to the nearest airport and hopping a jet from Portland to Philly. Rinardi will have to figure out how to arm himself and go across the continent in a terrifying new world. Cannibals, Geno Freaks, and the only Specialist to ever beat him stand in his way. He’s never failed to complete a mission in his career, though, and his freedom rides on the successful completion of this one. Can Rinardi overcome the obstacles in his path, or will he become just another casualty of this Fallen World?

Farmer's Creed

2019

What do you do when the world falls? For Zebediah Pratt, or “Zee” to his friends, the answer is easy—he goes back to the family farm to support his father. By pooling resources with their neighbors in the countryside, they’re able to stand up to the lone gunmen that are on the lookout for easy prey in a world where the rule of law no longer applies. It looks like they will be able to make it. But when the dregs of society come leaking out to the countryside from the ruins of nearby Philadelphia, things change, and the Pratts realize something—they have to do more. Unless they take food into the city, the city will come out to get it from them by force, trampling them and their way of life in the process. You would think it would be easy to give away food in a fallen world, but in a city where only the strong survive—and they are used to taking what they want—things can get complicated, especially when Zee decides that the policies of slavery have to end for the warlords to get fed. Will Zee be able to feed an entire city, or will the warlords break him, too, just like they have everyone else who’s tried to stand up to them? Unfortunately for the warlords, Zee has a secret weapon—he has a Jimmy.

Call Me Mr. Smith

2019

Before the Fall, Obsidian Corporation had Agents, and Teledyne Industries had Specialists. Both were deadly. In the Northeast Sector of North America, deep in Obsidian-controlled territory, Teledyne had Mr. Smith, and people fled, just on the rumor he was close by. Now, twenty years after the fall, former Obsidian executives have formed a tenuous truce with the former assassin to save New Toronto. Smith would have happily lived out his life alone, but when Smith sees that something needs doing, he gets it done. The Anarchists Legion are on New Toronto’s doorstep, as well as under it, and Mr. Smith must search from the top of the CN Tower, to the PATH system under the city, to the shores of Lake Ontario to find out who’s behind the murders, sabotage, and destruction. Used to being cold and working alone, Smith will be forced to forge bonds with new allies, but with enemies all around him, is there anyone he can trust? Who will control New Toronto? Who will survive the Anarchists? Mr. Smith will have something to say about both of those questions. And when Mr. Smith talks, people listen…or at least they should.

Blue Crucible

2020

Justice lives, even when society dies. The end came fast for Lieutenant Nathan Ward. One moment he was participating in an international convention of mounted police officers, the next he was in a command bunker watching the world’s two biggest Corporations—Obsidian and Teledyne—destroy it in an exchange of nuclear hellfire. While Columbia, Missouri was spared a direct strike, a near-miss EMP fried most of the vehicles and the electrical grid. Then the Corporations started a shooting war in the streets, and they didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire. But Columbia was one of the last cities still standing, and Nathan and his fellow officers weren’t going to give it up. Even if it meant facing the worst the Corporate militaries could throw at them. The Corporations had no intention of giving up the city, either, and Obsidian called in reinforcements to match Teledyne’s Specialist, a woman with the power to defeat a company of soldiers all on her own. Both Corporations intended to reign supreme and were willing to crush anyone who got in their way. In the post-apocalyptic world, there was only one law—theirs—and not the one with a badge. The world may have fallen, but the Thin Blue Line’s battle is only beginning.

They Call Me Princess

2020

When the Corporate Wars destroyed civilization, the coastal city of Eureka, California, found itself cut off from rest of the world by dangerous radiation zones that killed anyone trying to cross them. In the years following the catastrophe, the community stabilized and found ways to meet its needs—and even thrive—despite the constant challenges. However, while the radiation zones which created the Eureka Bubble protected the area from the worst ravages of the apocalypse, they also caused severe resource limitations which have become more acute over time and, eventually, the Bubble is going to burst. Sheltered from even the few dangers of life in the Bubble by her over-protective brother Scott, Kelly Ansen grew up with no memory of her parents or the old world. She contented herself with her simple country home, scratching out a quiet and comfortable existence. But when she learns the truth about her life and how she became a refugee in the little haven, she is faced with an uncertain future. Reviled by some of her neighbors, there’s no way for her life to return to normal. With the Bubble facing the end of its isolation, though, she is given a new opportunity. Can she carve out a fitting role for herself in this Fallen World?

The Island of Doctor Laroue

2020

On May 1st, 2067, the world fell. One thing Zebadiah Pratt—or Zee to his friends—won’t abide, though, is slavery, even in a Fallen World. So when friends of his find a shipment of gene-modified slaves—and children at that—he knows something must be done. There’s only one problem—the slaves came from an island owned by the infamous Dr. Laroue, a noted geneticist and the creator of many of the imprints the Obsidian Corporation used to create its super-soldiers. He’s going to need help. But Zee has friends, including gene-modified youngsters that he’d previously set free, a brother who was a super assassin, and he knows other people he can call in favors from, like former Corporate hostage rescue negotiator Joshua Collins. Although Collins is currently without his imprint, he has been modified with the body of an Agent and still has some of their abilities. Collins is also good friends with Luc Boudreaux, a former Corporate officer who has a number of Agents working for him. If he can talk Boudreaux into “loaning” some of his Agents to help with the mission to Laroue’s infamous island, they may just have a chance. But Laroue has countless gene-modified creatures and Agents of his own—including a new and improved one—and he won’t go quietly into the good night. Can Zee’s collection of do-gooders make a difference in this Fallen World, or will the world fall even farther into darkness?

#10

Relations

2020

Ten years after the fall of the world, Shey and his friends have settled into their normal lives, or what they look at as the new normal, anyway. Although their lives weren’t great, at least they had survived the Fall and were able to start putting things back together again. But then his best friend—the woman who is almost an older sister to him and who saved his life the day the bombs fell—gets sick and needs something only he can get for her. Nanites from a secret facility that may be able to help her. Although it seemed like a simple mission—far easier than any he’d had to do in his former life as a Teledyne Specialist—nothing is easy in this Fallen World. Although some people are working to resurrect society, others are more bent on power—the kind you get by taking it from those weaker than you—and he will have to face challenges he never imagined and hazards that could end even a Teledyne Specialist. And, if he survives that, he still has to break into a secure facility that was meant to keep people like him out. But a friend’s life is in jeopardy and he has to make the attempt…or die trying.

#11

Pacific Shogun

2020

Twenty years after the nuclear exchange that ended modern civilization, Daimyo Rikimaru Hanzo is the senior protector of the Shogunate. He is a Specialist—one of Teledyne’s enhanced warriors from the Corporate Wars—gifted with enhanced strength and near-limitless endurance. Rikimaru, along with his fellow Specialists Ayame and Mikael, have carved out a small island kingdom in the Strait of Juan De Fuca, north-west of Seattle. Together, they have rebuilt a semblance of civilization under Shogun Kojima’s rule. Resources are scarce, though, and they are in a constant state of low-level, casual warfare with the nearby Victorians. Their militia guards the islands with little more than bows and spears, and the Shogun forbids them from going on the offensive. It’s better, Kojima reasons, to lead by example as there has already been too much death and destruction. But when an old enemy from his Teledyne days marches a horde of near-feral raiders out of the ruins of Seattle—up to the Shogunate’s very doorstep—all that changes, and Rikimaru is forced to confront his past if he is to forge a future for the people he’s sworn to defend…no matter what the cost.

#12

Wildcat

Foreclosure of a Dream

2020

On the run in a Fallen World… Three long years after the world Fell, Wildcat Leander Calloway Toler, a deputized lawman—or what passes for one in this Fallen World—finds himself being pursued across the Appalachian wastes with the daughter of a wealthy businessman in tow. Trapped and outgunned, Leander learns that those who took his family and left him for dead in the chaotic days after the Fall have returned. Infuriated by the bureaucracy of a corrupt system, Leander decides to take matters into his own hands and recruits a team of loyal companions. When they set out on a quest across the mountainous coalfields of southern West Virginia, though, they find out the previously two-bit biker gang has established an empire beyond what anyone could have imagined. Military scout teams, mutant critters, and radiation zombies are nothing compared to the challenges and pain awaiting Leander once he finds himself in the heart of the Brotherhood’s compound, face to face with JalCom…and quite possibly the devil himself. With the help of Evelyn, an Obsidian agent he finds in the depths of the JalCom lab hidden far below the Greenbriar, can Leander and his team of loyal companions find his family and stop the Brotherhood’s reign of terror?

#13

Blue Salvation

2020

What hope remains at the end of the world? That question plagues Lieutenant Nathan Ward as he and his fellow mounted police officers defend one of the last cities on Earth. Columbia, Missouri was spared a direct hit when the bombs fell, but it’s become a refugees flood the city, gangs run rampant, an enemy army closes in, and the Corporations responsible for the catastrophe conspire in the shadows. For the mounted officers, morale couldn’t be lower. Most lost their loved ones and hometowns when the bombs fell, and the citizens of Columbia have grown resentful of their presence in the weeks since. Food riots and protests are the order of the day, and it’s more than some can handle. Fortunately, they don’t fight alone, as some Corporate members value peace over power, chief among them Specialist Aster and her elite team of soldiers. Together they stand ready to face off against this approaching army. But the city harbors a secret beneath its rubble-strewn streets, a secret that a Corporate director will pay any price to attain. Even if it means raining fire from the sky. Faced by threats on all sides, will the Thin Blue Line hold?

#14

Kade

2021

The world has Fallen, but life goes on… Matthew Kade was a corporate assassin—one of the best Agents Obsidian Corporation had. But then the bombs began falling, and the old world ended. Now he must navigate the new world he finds himself in, a world where the strongest survive, and the weaker do their bidding…or die. Although Agents were imprinted with the skills they needed for their current mission, when the world Fell, the entire identity database got dumped into his head. With thousands of personalities running around in his noggin, one thing is sure. No matter whether Kade is battling Teledyne Specialists in the streets, Geno Freaks in the sewers, or Zone Warlords in their Scrapers, he’s got an imprint for that. Enter the Fallen World as seen through the eyes of Kade as he completes five different missions, and then get a special look at the birth of the Kade imprint in Origin. “Kade” includes six previously released short stories as well as almost 17,000 words of new Kade material. When bodies began falling from Scrapers, you know Kade is nearby.

Authors

Alex Rath is a Military Science Fiction and Fantasy author, currently residing in Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife and daughter. He has been creative in one form or another since childhood. He got his start in fantasy with Dungeons and Dragons in 1979, and kept going from there. Some of the ideas that he writes come from his extensive experience in Role Playing Games, starting with D&D, and onward through other games like Star Fleet Battles, Battletech/Mechwarrior, Shadowrun, Masquerade, and too many more to name. From there, he took his creativity online to more online games than can be remembered by writing character backgrounds, stories, and game related fiction. Now, he puts his creativity to the book format, and is excited to become a professional author.

A Webster Award winner and three-time Dragon Award finalist, Chris Kennedy is a Science Fiction/Fantasy author, speaker, and small-press publisher who has written over 50 books and published more than 400 others. Get his free book, “Shattered Crucible,” at his website, https://chriskennedypublishing.com. Called “fantastic” and “a great speaker,” he has coached hundreds of beginning authors and budding novelists on how to self-publish their stories at a variety of conferences, conventions, and writing guild presentations. He is the author of the award-winning #1 bestseller, “Self-Publishing for Profit: How to Get Your Book Out of Your Head and Into the Stores.” Chris lives in Coinjock, North Carolina, with his wife. Follow Chris on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ckpublishing/.

William Joseph Roberts

Author · 7 books

Jan Kotouc

Author · 21 books

Jan Kotouč is a Czech author of space operas, military SF and alternative history. His first novel was published in 2009 and since then he has written a number of novels in Czech. Frontiers of the Imperium is the first book in his latest series, the Central Imperium. He is one of the handful Czech writers who has found success on the English-speaking market. Apart from writing, he teaches at a university and is a popular speaker at a number of conventions. He lives in Prague with his wife and two bunnies.

David Carrico is best known for the novels 1636: The Devil’s Opera and The Span of Empire (both written in collaboration with Eric Flint). His most recent book, 1636: Flight of the Nightingale, will be released in November 2019 by Baen Books. David began his writing career publishing stories in The Grantville Gazette e-magazine in 2004, and to date his stories have appeared in The Grantville Gazette, the Ring of Fire anthologies from Baen Books, in Jim Baen’s Universe e-magazine, and in Baen.com’s monthly free story offerings.

David Alan Jones

Author · 3 books

David Alan Jones is a veteran of the United States Air Force where he served as an Arabic linguist. A 2016 Writers of the Future silver honorable mention recipient, David’s writing spans the science fiction, military sci-fi, fantasy, and urban fantasy genres. He is a martial artist, a husband, and a father of three. David’s day job involves programming computers for Uncle Sam.

Jamie Ibson

Author · 8 books

Jamie Ibson is a new writer from the frozen wastelands of Canuckistan, where moose, bears, and geese battle for domination among the hockey rinks, igloos, and Tim Hortons. After joining the Canadian army reserves in high school, he spent half of 2001 in Bosnia as a peacekeeper and came home shortly after 9/11 with a deep sense of foreboding. After graduating college, he landed a job in law enforcement and was posted to the left coast from 2007 to 2021. He retired from law enforcement in early 2021 and moved clear across the country to write full time in the Maritimes. He published a number of short stories in 2018 and 2019, and his first novel came out in January 2020. He’s pretty much been making it up as he goes along, although he has numerous writer friends who serve as excellent role-models, mentors, and, occasionally, cautionary tales. His website can be found at ibsonwrites.ca. He is married to the lovely Michelle, and they have cats.

J.P. Chandler was born and raised in California, where he now resides with his wife of many years. He uses writing in the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy as his excuse for pursuing interests in history, science, and culture, among many others. He first started writing at the age of fourteen. He has been a waiter, a delivery driver, a furniture repairman, a pizza maker, and a small equipment mechanic. He has also been a teacher, a coach, an editor, and an attorney. And he speaks French. His first professional sale was a short story in “Tales from the Lyon’s Den,” part of the Four Horsemen Universe. You can get a free copy on his website, www.funfictionstories.com. The first novel, They Call Me Princess, was published in 2020, followed by Revenant in 2022. More novels are in the works.

Ian J. Malone

Author · 10 books

As a graduate of Florida State University, sci-fi author Ian J. Malone has written in a variety of arenas ranging from public health to news and sports. When it comes to his fictional work, however, he’s a firm believer that nothing shapes a person’s writing like experience. That’s why he credits his tenures in radio, law enforcement, and military contracting for much of his inspiration, plus the legion of family and friends who’ve stood with him along the way. Beyond writing, Malone is an avid fan of audiobooks (he’s legally blind) and the outdoors. It’s also not uncommon to find him at a ballgame, a concert, or somewhere out by a grill. Malone is an active member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America and a resident of Durham, North Carolina—but he’ll always be a “Florida boy” at heart