Showing results for "emma gregory" in Science Fiction & Fantasy

The Adepta Sororitas of the Last Candle have stood vigil over their sanctuary world for centuries, striving to decipher their founder's tormented visions. Outsiders are unwelcome… yet still they come. Decimated by an encounter with a lethal xenos entity, the survivors of an elite Astra Militarum company have journeyed to the Candleworld in search of healing, escorted by a woman who is no stranger there – Sister Hospitaller Asenath Hyades, who turned her back on the order decades ago.

When a monster from myth threatens the cardinal world of Ophelia VII, Morvenn Vahl defies the Senatorum Imperialis and heads to the planet's defence. There, she finds a world in terror – the warlord Kol Rakhul, known as the Death of Saints, has come for the faithful and, with his Heldrake and a host of Night Lords at his back, plans to enshroud the world in flame and blood.

With her mighty wings spread wide and Ardent Blade aflame, Saint Celestine is the living embodiment of the God-Emperor’s wrath. Her halo blazes like a star upon the smog-wreathed, blood-soaked battlefields of the 41st Millennium; its holy light leading the faithful to victory time and time again. As heretics and daemons tear at her flesh, she calls down fires of retribution from on high to smite the wicked and unrighteous. If she is to fall in battle, none should mourn as she is Celestine, the Living Saint, and death is her duty.

The Custodian Guard have stood watch over the Emperor's Palace on Terra since the foundation of the Imperium. Charged with protecting the Master of Mankind from all threats, within and without, their fearsome resolve is renowned throughout the galaxy, and their golden armour is the last thing that a would-be assassin or saboteur will ever see.

On Periremunda, the populace are rioting. With local forces unable to contain the widespread civil disorder, Commissar Cain and his regiment of Valhallans are called in to help. However, it seems there is more to the rebellion than first appeared, and Cain suspects sinister forces at work behind the scenes. When the commissar is reunited with Inquisitor Amberley Vail, it seems his fears are realised. In this the fifth book in the popular Ciaphas Cain series, our hero is thrown into a deadly conspiracy that even he might not be able to emerge from alive.

In a moment of crisis for the T'au Empire, the enigmatic ethereal Yor’i assembles an elite Elemental Council – a veteran Fireblade, a water caste spy, a peerless air caste pilot, and a maverick earth caste engineer – in the hope of curtailing the growing insurgency on the planet Cao Quo. But as a full-scale planetary insurrection looms, enemies more cunning than Yor’i’s council could have imagined begin to surface from both sides, and Cao Quo soon finds itself teetering on the brink of being plunged back into a dark age of ignorance, and all-out war.

During the turbulent Reign of Blood, a great schism in the Imperial Ecclesiarchy threatened all of Terra and promised a darkness to rival the terrors of Old Night. Fell times have come again to the Imperium, and a War of Faith appears inevitable. Standing in the way of catastrophe is Celestine, the Living Saint and one of the greatest heroes of the age. Only she can reunite the warring factions of the Ecclesiarchy and prevent a second Reign of Blood.

On an Imperial outpost world on the fringes of tau space, the renowned Commissar Ciaphas Cain and his fractious regiment of Valhallan Guard, newly created from the remnants of two devastated units, find themselves in the middle of a war. As the Astra Militarum struggle to contain worldwide civil insurrection, can the wily Commissar Cain identify the real villain before the planet is lost to the Imperium forever?

Valkyrie pilots are amongst the finest aviators in the Imperium, and few more so than Vagabond Squadron, the elite of the 901st Tactical Wing. Hard flying, hard fighting, and defiance in the face of all odds are trademarks of the Vagabond. But their latest deployment – against the overwhelming might of the ork invasion of Kanai Tertius – will test them like never before.

Since the dark days of the Great Awakening, the scattered remnants of humanity have clung to a bleak existence, surviving howsoever they can, no matter what the cost. Tamra, a voivode of the Rictus clans, fights one last, desperate battle for the survival of her tribe, the Drak. Now her people face their most relentless enemy ever - the lumbering minions of the Plague God. Where is their lord Nagash, the Undying King, when his people need him most?

In the grim nightmare future of the 41st millennium, the witch-hunting zealots of the the Sisters of Battle stand between humanity and damnation. From the elite Seraphim warriors to the berserk Sisters Repentia, they are the strong arm of the Ecclesiarchy and the brutal hammer of witches. When dangerous psychic heretic Torris Vaun escapes from her custody, Seraphim Miriya is disgraced in the eyes of her fellow sisters and superiors. Following Vaun's trail to the planet Neva, Miriya takes her sisters in pursuit and, along with Hospitalier Sister Verity, starts her investigations.

The Sisters of Battle are the Emperor's most devout worshippers, fierce warriors preaching the purity of the Imperium and scourging their enemies with bolter and flamer. On a distant world, the Ecclesiarchy outpost of Sanctuary 101 was wiped out by an implacable foe - the fearless, soulless necrons. Now, a mission of the Sisterhood has returned to reconsecrate the site - but the metallic nightmares still lurk in the darkness, guarding a secret that has lain dormant for millennia.

On a misty cemetery world, three strangers are drawn together through mysterious circumstances. Each of them has a tale to tell of a narrow escape from death. Amid the toll of funerary bells and the creep and click of mortuary-servitors, the truth is confessed. But whose story can be trusted? Whose recollection is warped, even unto themselves?

The true strength of the Emperor's largest military force lies not in their artillery, trenches, and tanks, but in the courage of the ordinary men and women of the Astra Militarum. Against the countless foes of the Imperium, Guardsmen stand together. They fight to live and die not only for the glory of the God-Emperor, but for their fellow soldier.

For Thelana Evenfall, Lumineth loreseeker and tutor at the Lyceum Fundamental in the city of Settler's Gain, the weapon is a footnote—the shadow of a rumour buried under mountains of long-forgotten lore. But when whispers of its whereabouts resurface, the vying factions within Hysh emerge to claim its power. From trusted allies to insidious cults, Thelana must navigate a treacherous landscape of clashing armies, political machinations and betrayals within betrayals, all in a desperate effort to defend the powerless from the all-powerful and to ask the unanswerable question:

The eldar are an ancient race whose mode of war blends spirituality with a unique mastery of technology. In times of need, their entire race will rouse to war, led by terrifying, almost mythological figures - the phoenix lords, immortal beings that embody the warrior nature of the eldar. When a burgeoning ork empire starts to pose a threat to the eldar peoples, Jain Zar travels to the craftworld Ulthwé to warn them of the danger.

Carried by six Sisters of Battle, each the embodiment of a revered saint, the funerary procession known as the Triumph of Saint Katherine marches from world to world, battlefront to battlefront. Where darkness and heresy are rampant, it brings faith, hope and courage to the warriors of the Imperium. Sister Avra of the Order of Our Martyred Lady is honoured beyond measure to battle alongside the sacred procession in defence of the beleaguered world of Kiros. However, this bold young warrior holds a secret shame in her heart, one she believes can only be redeemed in death.

Imperial commissar Ciaphas Cain returns to Nusquam Fundumentibus to crush the ork attacks which have been plaguing the frozen planet. But when his ship crashes into the wastelands outside the capital it disturbs a far greater enemy, one which has lain dormant under the permafrost since long before the Imperium came to this world and could now threaten the whole sector.

The Traitor Host of Horus Lupercal tightens its iron grip on the Palace of Terra, and one by one the walls and bastions begin to crumple and collapse. Rogal Dorn, Praetorian of Terra, redoubles his efforts to keep the relentless enemy at bay, but his forces are vastly outnumbered and hopelessly outgunned. Dorn simply cannot defend everything. Any chance of survival now requires sacrifice, but what battles dare he lose so that others can be won? Is there one tactical stroke, one crucial combat, that could turn the tide forever and win the war outright?

This series of eight stories relates the tale of Sister Superior Augusta Santorus of the Order of the Bloody Rose as she battles against the horrors of the galaxy. She’ll encounter heretics, xenos, and everything in between. This collection includes five short stories and three novellas, one of which is available for the first time in this audiobook.