Showing results by author "Robert Kroese" in All Categories

In the 23rd century, humanity has been hunted to the verge of extinction by an alien race. When an exploratory ship accidentally travels back in time to Viking-age Scandinavia, the human race is given a second chance. Pursued by the power-hungry King Harald, the four surviving crew members join a ragtag band of Vikings as they pillage their way across Europe. To save humanity, they must somehow return to the stars. Thus begins a decades-long effort to teach the Vikings to build a craft capable of reaching space - a ship that will come to be known as the Iron Dragon.

Join the galaxy's most notorious con man, Rex Nihilo, and his ever-loyal, ever-exasperated robot sidekick, Sasha, in their craziest adventure yet! Marooned on a planet whose inhabitants have modeled their civilization on World War II movies, Rex and Sasha have only one hope of escape: unearth a secret cache of weapons that's been hidden somewhere on the planet.

Interstellar con man Rex Nihilo and his long-suffering robot sidekick Sasha are back, and they're neck-deep in their most outrageous scam yet: selling black market planets! As the pair's profits soar, they find themselves on the run from...well, pretty much everybody...when their antics draw the attention of an ancient intelligence determined to wipe humanity from the galaxy, they put their moneymaking plans on hold - and team up with their biggest rival - to save the galaxy once again.

A space-faring ne’er-do-well with more bravado than brains, Rex Nihilo plies the known universe in a tireless quest for his own personal gain. But when he fleeces a wealthy weapons dealer in a high-stakes poker game, he ends up winning a worthless planet…and owing an outstanding debt more vast than space itself!

After interstellar con man Rex Nihilo hijacks a cargo freighter on a whim, he decides that he, and his long-suffering robot sidekick Sasha, have found their calling as space pirates. But when the ship's cargo turns out to be a cryogenically frozen religious fanatic who holds the secret to a vast galactic conspiracy, Rex and Sasha find themselves on the run from real pirates - as well as agents of the oppressive Malarchy, crazy space cultists, and the Ursa Minor mafia. If Rex is going to get out of this jam alive, he might just have to save the galaxy - again.

Interstellar con man Rex Nihilo has a price tag on his head. Railroaded into smuggling a shipment of contraband corn to a planet short on food, Rex finds himself on the run from an insidious corporation named Ubiqorp, which reaps obscene profits by keeping the planet dependent on shipments of synthetic rations. When Rex and his long-suffering robot companion Sasha are sentenced to work as slave labor on a massive Ubiqorp plantation, they learn the terrible secret behind the corporation's products.

A hooded man, his face marred by a mysterious black brand, walks the Plain of Savlos. Some say he has the power to summon demons. Others say he is the only one who can vanquish them. His name is Konrad, and he has a secret.... Once an ordinary soldier, his life was forever changed by a fateful meeting with a dying sorcerer. Now he is all that stands between civilization and the creeping evil of the shadow world.

When interstellar con man Rex Nihilo and his quick-witted robot sidekick, Sasha, land on the dusty frontier planet of Tierra Grande, they’re expecting an easy job: track down their friend, bounty hunter Pepper Melange, and maybe make a quick buck on the side. But things take a wild turn when Rex and Sasha accidentally take out a group of local troublemakers in the ramshackle town of Last Chance. What starts as a simple rescue mission spirals into a chaotic adventure of shootouts, shenanigans, and shadowy conspiracies.

Dead men tell no tales—unless they’re still walking. Boric the Implacable was a legend in his own time—a king, a warrior, and a world-class badass. But death, as it turns out, was just the beginning. Slain by a coward with a lucky blade, Boric finds himself stuck somewhere between this life and the next, trapped in his own corpse and shackled to a cursed sword that refuses to let him go. Now, navigating the land of Dis as a reluctant wraith, Boric must seek answers from witches, dodge sunlight like a vampire with a sunburn, and fight off the creeping rot of undeath—all while ...

Los Angeles, 2039. The Disincorporated Zone teeters on the brink of civil war, but for phenomenological inquisitor Erasmus Keane and his reluctant partner Blake Fowler, that’s just the beginning of their problems. A cryptic trickster has been leading them through a maze of riddles, each clue drawing them deeper into a conspiracy that reaches far beyond the DZ. As gang factions prepare for bloodshed and the city’s power brokers pull unseen strings, Keane and Fowler race against time to prevent an even greater catastrophe—one that threatens to unravel the fragile balance of power in LA ...

Under arrest for crimes he hasn't yet committed, interstellar con man is given one chance to earn his freedom: he and his long-suffering robot sidekick Sasha must track down six fugitive androids who are determined to assassinate the Malarchian Primate!

Los Angeles of 2039 is a baffling and bifurcated place. After the Collapse of 2028, a vast section of LA, the Disincorporated Zone, was disowned by the civil authorities, and became essentially a third world country within the borders of the city. Navigating the boundaries between DZ and LA proper is a tricky task, and there's no one better suited than eccentric private investigator Erasmus Keane. When a valuable genetically altered sheep mysteriously goes missing from Esper Corporation's labs, Keane is the one they call. But while the erratic Keane and his more grounded partner, Blake ...

The end is near—and it’s being supervised by the least qualified angel in Heaven. Reality is unraveling. The Eye of Providence, the mysterious power source that holds the universe together, has gone dark—or so it seems. As existence itself begins to fray at the seams, angels vanish, demons scheme, and the world teeters on the edge of destruction. Amidst the chaos, Mercury, a rogue cherub with a flair for sarcasm and a questionable work ethic, is reluctantly pulled back into the cosmic fray. He joins forces with Christine Temetri, a battle-weary journalist, and a cast of immortals, ...

A terrifying demon has come from the shadow world to threaten the land of Orszag. Flanked by a horde of ghostly specters, the demon intends to lay waste to the city of Nagyvaros, and only one man can stop him: Konrad the sorcerer. To defeat the demon, Konrad must learn to master the power of the warlock's brand. But with enemies all around him and no time to lose, Konrad finds himself playing one foe against another in a desperate attempt to stay alive, hoping one day to wreak his vengeance on the man who destroyed his life...

By the year 2032, the US federal debt has surpassed $50 trillion. The American empire is on the verge of collapse. An entrepreneur named Kade Kapur has an idea for rescuing the debt-ridden United States: The government will issue stock in a company with exclusive mining rights to an asteroid whose orbit will soon bring it near Earth. The asteroid, which contains $10 trillion in valuable minerals, is officially called 2015 RK 16 Maimonides, but it soon comes to be known by another name: Mammon.

Set a thousand years (give or take) before the events of Disenchanted, Distopia tells the story of Wyngalf the Bold, the legendary hero renowned for ridding the land of Dis of the scourge of dragons. The story begins as Wyngalf, a young missionary for an obscure religious sect, arrives in the port city of Skuldred. Desperate to prove his worth to his superiors, Wyngalf finds himself drafted into leading a missionary voyage across the sea to the semilegendary land of Dis.

In the aftermath of disaster, China and America vie for control over North Africa and the world, while a band of engineers and mercenaries risk everything to save millions from starvation and forge a better future for all mankind.

"Clever, inventive, and original, Kroese’s hilarious romp has cult favorite written all over it." —Booklist The end of the world has never been this disorganized. Christine Temetri is tired of chasing doomsday prophets. She’s spent years reporting on apocalyptic cults, false messiahs, and spiritual scams—and she’s ready to call it quits. But when a string of strange events leaves her homeless, hunted, and somehow at the center of an unfolding divine conspiracy, she realizes this might be more than just another fringe meltdown. Enter Mercury: an angel with a gift for sarcasm, a ...

A secret cabal of demonic forces threatens to destroy civilization and plunge the world into a new Dark Age. Humanity's only chance is a shadowy organization called GRAIL--the modern day heirs to the Knights Templar--which has discovered the secret to time travel. The past cannot be changed, but if GRAIL can send an agent into the past to recover a lost book on demonology called the Codex Babylon, they may have a fighting chance to save humanity from utter destruction.

When the Apocalypse fails, what's a disgraced angel to do? Mercury—rogue cherub, cosmic bureaucrat, and reluctant hero—was this close to retirement when the end of the world didn't quite end. Now, with the dust barely settled from the last disaster, he finds himself inexplicably back on Earth… and things are even weirder than usual. While a demon in Ireland is mistaken for a bestselling author, a cynical reporter watches her career implode, and a mysterious government agency starts poking into supernatural affairs, Mercury is once again caught in the middle of a cosmic mess. From ...