K. J. Coble - Free Library Land Online - Language

Stand in the Valley

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 15:30:18 +0300

For the free peoples of Remordan, the end is near.

The Defenders of the Valley are battered, divided, and on the run. The forces of darkness—goblinoid hordes, a demigoddess out of the worst nightmares of the past, and an elven traitor still clinging by one strand to his soul—are on the offensive. With the district capitol fallen, only a few cities and a few erstwhile allies remain to check them.

But where friendships endure, there is hope.

The Legion veteran still has his sword, his wits, and a half-hobgoblin monster to cover his flank. The gnome politician still has his silver-tongue and an audience desperate for leadership. The wizard still gathers his powers and strength for a final confrontation, with a troubled, but determined apprentice at his side.

And the half-elf warrior-priestess faces her past—and a love gone so wrong it can only end one way.

Together, against the odds, they will...

Flight of the Old Wolf

Sat, 30 Dec 2023 09:20:09 +0200

A burnout captain. An obsolete starship. One more mission for both.

Tenacity is the last of the Fenris-class battlecruisers, the "Old Wolf" as her crew calls her. Captain Dath Raker—storied, scarred, and outrageous—gets called worse. But the command's been his last, best chance to shine, even if it's just showing the Republic of Sanctuary flag while ferrying a delegation to peace talks.

The Republic's deadliest rival has no interest in peace. Deranged by centuries in thrall to obscene alien gods, the Golgothan Empire is ready to make their big move. And a meeting of the star-nations is a perfect way to get all their enemies in one place.

The Golgothans' plan relies on surprise and the rapid collapse of resistance.

They're about to find out that Tenacity is more than just a name.

Hell at the Gates

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 12:30:20 +0200

A CITY UNDER SEIGE...

Ranai, Holy City of the One God of Man, shudders under the guns of the Feyan Empire. Hemmed in on all sides by haughty elvish warlords, marauding raider galleys, and human slave-soldiers broken to near-mindless obedience by an ancient blood cult, the tides of history threaten to wash over it.

A PIRATE CREW TRAPPED...

The crew of the Witch of Vendar never claimed to be heroes. But with the Fey blockading the seas behind them, sailors and pirates must join desperate defenders along the walls of Ranai, or die with the rest. Nevertheless, a wheellock pistol and a sword are just as effective atop a city battlement as they are along the gunwales of a ship!

A DESPERATE DEFENSE...

There's no help coming for Ranai. Allies are divided and uncertain. And the Fey are coming over the barricades, under the walls, and into the harbor. It'll be a fight for every street, every single city block. It will...

Curse of the Valley

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 15:30:17 +0300

Tragedy haunts the Heroes of the Valley.

It has dogged them from their homes in the Remordan Valley to the war-torn Elven Lands of Mauvynn, where the shadow of an undead menace lingers, and the death of a companion torments the survivors. Weighted down with grief, they fragment and drift.

But there's never been a moment they've needed unity more. Death is deception. And an enemy they thought defeated schemes once more. From his long-lost domain, he plots a final confrontation, a final vengeance upon those that have thwarted him so many times before.

The Heroes will have to pull together, one more time. For each other. For the one they've lost – and may have again.

They must break the Curse of the Valley.

Defenders of the Valley

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 10:51:49 +0200

The Remordan Valley in the hinterlands of the Thyrrian Empire – home to misfits and malcontents, but also rugged frontier folk and friendships forged in the hardships of its remote climate. There, you can make a new start, or disappear. There, you can build a life with tenacity, honest work, and – sometimes – a good sword.

But not all are drawn to the Valley for its freedom. Dark ruins haunt its wildernesses, and darker entities languish in their shadows. Now a conspiracy of misguided fools will stir things that should have been left dead and the whole region will pay the price.

But the Valley won't take it sitting down. Legion veteran and half-hobgoblin; wizard and elven warrior-priestess; gnome politician and orphan apprentice. Their unlikely friendship will form the rallying point for the free peoples of Remordan.

And they will defend the Valley.

Warlock of the Valley

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 15:30:16 +0300

The Remordan Valley is at peace. Greenness and life, quickened by the long days of summer, has begun healing over the scars of the Spring War. Cities rise anew. And with the perils past, heroes have gone their separate ways, back to businesses, to journeys of discovery or long-delayed responsibility.

But with the first whispers of autumn, darkness creeps back into the Valley. A former wizard's apprentice is not all she seems. And a millennia-old war criminal thinks she belongs to him. With powers from beyond the grave, he intends to steal her back.

The Heroes of the Valley don't leave their own behind. The wizard will return for the apprentice he raised from infancy, with the half-elf warrior-priestess at his side. The Legion veteran and his hobgoblin partner are always spoiling for a fight. And the gnome politician can always be counted on to raise an army, or hell.

But none of them realize the true depths of their danger – this...

Ashes of Freedom

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 10:51:54 +0200

THE REGIME — Once human, the Corvans have rejected their humanity, embracing a society of cybernetic order where caste dictates free will, and free will means power. Their Awareness, a techno-religion of linked minds, rejects compassion, individualism, and any authority that is not their own. The galaxy threatens this vision, with its thousand races, and ten-thousand creeds. Freedom is chaos. The Awareness cannot abide that. So, the Corvans will end it.

THE RESISTANCE — Lurinari was just one world caught up in the Corvan's interstellar blitz. But while the cyber-fascists conquered much of it quickly, hardened pockets continued to hold out. City-states formed to defy Corvan tyranny by conventional means. Guerilla movements sprang up to resist by unconventional ones. And what should have been a quick Corvan victory has dragged out into years of grinding, remorseless war of attrition.

THE FIGHT — While Lurinari battles on alone,...

Blood in the Valley

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 10:51:51 +0200

They thought they'd won. They thought it was over.

The Defenders of the Remordan Valley have smashed the barbarian horde that spilled out of the frozen wastes to plunder their cities and farmlands. They've blasted the wizard that incited their rampage from existence. They've slain the elven traitor that led them.

But it was all a ruse. It was all a distraction.

While the defenders were facing a human threat in the north, a thoroughly inhuman one has risen in the south. Slavering goblinoid legions now roll up out of the wilderness, across a frontier stripped of its guardians, led by a re-awakened demoness freed of the bonds of hell and bent on domination.

And the traitor has somehow returned at her side – not just for vengeance, but to prove to the woman he still loves that he was right.

There will be Blood in the Valley.

Hell's Jesters

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 09:06:10 +0300

The Grand Galactic Alliance rots from within, and now the disease is terminal.

As interplanetary governance deteriorates, the mega-corporations sweep into the vacuum with their own form of order: their Will, propped up by brute, paramilitary force. Lives mean nothing. Profit overrides peace. And everyone is out for themselves.

The people cry out for heroes. They find them in the Hell's Jesters, once marauders of the space lanes, now outlaws with a cause. This motley band of crusaders and criminals, human and renegade AI, will speak truth to power with firepower.

Laughing at death, fighting like hell, they might be enough to free the galaxy.

Crypt of the Violator

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 12:50:18 +0200

YOU CAN'T KEEP A GOOD TYRANT DOWN...OR DEAD...

It is said Thyss-Mallak ruled Xyxia longer than any ten men could have lived. Seers still speak of an empire of hideous beauty, built and sustained at unholy cost. But the horrid truth of it all has long been lost, buried under endless wastes and a thousand generations of history.

Until now...

War comes to the sad remnants of once-fearsome Xyxia, propelled by an Emperor's religious zeal and his nobles' thirst for plunder. They'll make a battleground of ruins that should have been left undisturbed. The blood shed amongst toppled obelisks and crumbling pyramids will awaken that which should never have tasted the sweet nectar of souls again.

And the Dead will Reign once more.

Warp Wraith

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 17:55:47 +0200

The Warp Wraith. The galaxy shivers at his name. But fear may be the only way to freedom.

After millennia in the shadows, the Vampires now rule the stars openly—and poorly. Whole planets starve; but so long as the Immortals feed, they care little. Dysfunction is tolerated. Defiance is not—and is met with strike fleets and orbital bombardments.

Faced with such degradation, people will turn to anyone.

Enter the Warp Wraith. Armed with preternatural speed, skills, and senses, he is almost vampire-like himself. Wherever his masked visage appears, rebellion flares, and self-styled Immortals face the deaths they so long evaded. And with each fresh uprising, a movement builds, uniting the oppressed and the hunted.

But what horror hides behind the mask?

The rebels in a far corner of the galaxy are about to find out.

The Witch of Vendar

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 14:45:06 +0200

A PERILOUS WORLD...

Aldair has trembled on the brink of catastrophe for an age. Now a reckoning draws near. Decadent and divided human kingdoms do not see it, focused on their petty rivalries. Only one King, lord of a dying nation, warns of it, but none heed him.

And the Fey, the prideful elven nations of the south, see only advantage in catastrophe. The rise of a blood cult in their midst doesn't give them pause. The mania of a new monarch and his war-mongering only emboldens their vengeful, greedy impulses.

These misguided peoples will collide in a war of darkest magic and fearsome new technologies. And none will suffer more than the innocent.

A SINGLE SHIP...

But some want to slow the rush to annihilation. Some want to preserve the light. And this starts with sending help to an ancient city, besieged by fire and shadow and murderous lunacy. And this help comes aboard the unlikeliest of vessels, a notorious...

Hell or Highwater (Hell's Jesters, #5)

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 09:06:08 +0300

All things have their breaking point – and the war for the galaxy is about to reach its own.

The Union of Free Stars was supposed to collapse after six months of galactic civil war. Instead, worlds flock to their cause as their hard-luck star fleet ekes out key victories in battle. And the Grand Galactic Alliance, beginning to run out of the hyper-fuel necessary to power the superluminal reach of their empire, resorts to ever more fascistic means to hold its citizenry together.

Something's got to give.

The Hell's Jesters are going to make certain it does. Whittled down to only the most fanatical, battle-weary survivors, they're coming out of hiding, one more time, to make certain the Union fleet finally finishes the job. They've lost friends, family, love. It has to have been for something. The forces of freedom must finally break the hold of tyranny and corruption over the galaxy.

The Jesters are going to win it all – come Hell or Highwater.

The Lure of Empire

Sat, 30 Dec 2023 09:20:10 +0200

One of the galaxy's oldest societies. An ancient, terrible secret. And Tenacity caught in the middle.

Out of the ashes of the Old Kings' galactic empire rose the Morvena, psychically-gifted, spiritually potent, and scarred by a history of servitude. Alone of the star nations, they warned of the rise of the Golgothan Star Empire and their mind-spider masters, the Arathra. But now, internal divisions threaten to topple them from within.

They are one ally the hard-pressed Republic of Sanctuary can't afford to lose. Fortunately, battlecruiser Tenacity, fresh from refit, is on hand to stiffen their spines. With half-Morvenan Intelligence agent, Ylura Aval aboard they'll attempt just that.

Captain Dath Raker and his veteran crew stand by to back her up.

But Golgotha lurks in the shadows, enticing foolhardy radicals with the Lure of Empire.