Chris Roberson Books In Order

Here There and Everywhere

When Roxanne Bonaventure is eleven years old, a dying woman gives her a gift that changes her life utterly, making her a singular creature, with no analogue or equivalent. With the strange device called the ‘Sofia,’ she is granted the ability to travel anywhere in space and time, not only through times that were and will be, but also through the worlds that could have been and might someday be. From that day forward, no place or time can contain her, no danger can assail her, and no mystery can elude her. From the deepest secrets of the past to the furthest flung visions of the future, Roxanne’s life knows no boundaries except those she can imagine. But such power comes at a price: the life she might have led is forever lost to her, twisting away among the infinite threads of the Myriad. Roxanne finds herself isolated, unable to make lasting, meaningful relationships with friends, family, or strangers. Here, There & Everywhere is the story of one woman searching for herself, and for someone with whom to share her life. It is one story, and many stories the jigsaw puzzle of a life, from youth to old age, projected against the backdrop of everything that ever was, might have been, and may yet be. Roxanne’s adventures take her from Victorian England to Ancient Egypt, from the End of Time to the birth of the Beatles. Along the way, she encounters every method of time travel theoretically possible: Visser Wormholes and Tipler Cylinders; a mysterious substance called chronium; and the slow and steady path we all take, moving forward one day at a time. And somewhere in the endlessly splitting paths of the Myriad lies the secret of Roxanne’s own life, her future and her past, woven together into an eternal braid.

Paragaea

Paragaea: A Planetary Romance is the story of Akilina ‘Leena’ Chirikov, who shortly after launching from Star Town in the Soviet Union, finds herself thrown into another dimension, a world of strange science and ancient mystery. There she meets another time lost person from Earth, Lieutenant Hieronymus Bonaventure of the Royal Navy who left home to fight the forces of Napoleon and never returned and his companion, Balam outlaw prince of the jaguar men. Bonaventure is interested only in adventure and amuseme*nt, while Balam only wants distraction until the day he can reclaim his throne. Having little better to do, they agree to help Chirikov find a way home.

In the tradition of the planetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett, Paragaea is in fact a ‘hard’ science fiction adventure, grounded in the latest thinking in the fields of theoretical physics, artificial intelligence, genetics, and more. There is a rigorously rational explanation behind all of the unearthly elements, with most of the ‘magic’ the protagonist encounters being the products of a forgotten, transhuman, post singularity culture that has long since disappeared. Chirikov, a strictly rational Soviet cosmonaut, interprets these as best she can, using the framework of early 1960s science. Being a dutiful Soviet, she wants only to return home to Earth, to inform her superiors about what she has discovered. But she soon finds herself developing ties to her companion Bonaventure that make her wonder whether she really wants to go home at all.

Set the Seas on Fire

1808. While Europe burns and the Napoleonic Wars set the world aflame, the HMS Fortitude patrols the sea lanes of the South Pacific, harrying enemies of the British Crown. The Fortitude’s captain sets his sights on a Spanish galleon weighted down with a fortune in gold and spices, but Lieutenant Hieronymus Bonaventure thinks the prize not worth the risk. In the midst of Battle the ships are driven apart by storms and far into unknown seas. The galleon and her treasure are lost in the tempest and soon Bonaventure and the rest of the Fortitude’s crew find themselves aground on an island in uncharted waters, their ship badly damaged. Whilst they struggle to rebuild their vessel an encounter with the island’s natives leads to a discovery of a dark and terrible secret that lurks behind the island’s veneer of beauty…

End of the Century

UNCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE HOLY GRAIL

Three people. Three eras. One city. Endless possibilities. End of the Century is a novel of the distant past, the unimaginable future, and the search for the Holy Grail. Set in the city of London, the narrative is interlaced between three ages, in which a disparate group of heroes, criminals, runaways, and lunatics are drawn into the greatest quest of all time.

Twilight Londinium, Sixth Century, CE

Galaad, a young man driven by strange dreams of a lady in white and a tower of glass, travels to the court of the high king Artor in Londinium, abandoned stronghold of the Roman Empire in Britain. With the dreams of Galaad as their only guide, Artor and his loyal captains journey west to the Summerlands, there to face a threat that could spell the end of the new forged kingdom of Britain.

Jubilee London, 1897
Consulting detective Sandford Blank, accompanied by his companion Roxanne Bonaventure, is called upon to solve a string of brutal murders on the eve of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The police believe that Jack the Ripper is back on the streets, but Blank believes that this is a new killer, one whose motive is not violence or mayhem, but the discovery of the Holy Grail itself. And what of the corpse white Huntsman and his unearthly hounds, who stalks the gaslit streets of London?

Millennium London, 1999
At the eve of the new millennium, American teenager Alice Fell is on the run, and all alone. On the streets of a strange city, friendless and without a pound to her name, Alice is not sure whether she’s losing her mind, or whether she is called by inescapable visions to some special destiny. Along with a strange man named Stillman Waters, who claims to be a retired occultist and spy, she finds herself pursued by strange creatures, and driven to steal the priceless vanishing gem that may contain the answers to the mysteries that plague her.

The three narratives Dark Ages fantasy, gaslit mystery, and modern day jewel heist alternate until the barriers between the different times begin to break down, and the characters confront the secrets that connect the Grail, the Glass Tower, and the vanishing gem. And lurking behind it all is the entity known only as Omega.

Cybermancy, Incorporated

Normal men and women made mind controlled zombies by a drug from another dimension. An ancient evil, fostered by occult Na*zis scientists, unleashed to destroy the modern world. A gallery of rogues and heroes stretching back over generations. At the center of it all, Jon Bonaventure Carmody, the Cybermancer. With Cybermancy, Incorporated, Roberson introduces Carmody, modern day pulp hero and scion of two proud families, both with centuries’ long histories of struggling against the forces of oppression. In two linked novellas and a series of shorts, mixing science fiction, fantasy, and adventure fiction, Carmody and his associates continue the fight begun by his ancestors in generations past. Na*zi sorcerers, lords of the jungle, super spies and scientific detectives fill the world of Cybermancy, Incorporated, unveiling a rich tapestry of explorers and adventurers, rogues and villains, danger and intrigue.

The Dragon’s Nine Sons

In a distant future where the Chinese have seized control of the world and colonised the stars, a disgraced naval captain and a commando who knows secrets he should never have learned are picked to lead a suicide mission. Piloting a salvaged Mexica spacecraft to Xolotl, the asteroid stronghold of their enemies, they are armed with enough explosives to reduce the Mexica base to dust. But when they arrive to find dozens of Chinese prisoners destined to be used as human sacrifices, their suicide mission suddenly becomes a rescue operation. This is a clash of empires old and new.

Iron Jaw and Hummingbird

Mars is controlled by the Chinese, who call their civilization the Celestial Empire. But for teenagers Gamine and Huang, it is anything but heavenly. Gamine was taken off the street by an aristocrat, schooled as a fine young lady then abandoned at her patron’s whim and forced to make her living as a grifter. Huang s army career is cut short by a bandit ambush. When the two meet, Gamine Iron Jaw is the leader of a sham religious movement, and Huang, or Hummingbird, is the bandits chief tactician. They join forces to bring down the corrupt government that has determined their lives. Iron Jaw and Hummingbird offers a planet s worth of adventure!

Three Unbroken

Three Unbroken is the next epic novel in the Celestial Empire sequence and details the explosive war between the Chinese and Aztec empires as they battle for control of the red planet, Fire Star.

Voices of Thunder

A private investigator working for shady magnate J. Nathan Pierce is dead. Spencer Finch, a freelance reporter desperate for meaningful work, leaps at the chance for a big story when his soft profile on Pierce becomes a murder mystery. Unfortunately, Finch has a whodunit with no leads. He also has an apartment with no furniture, and a life with no direction. When he begins to dig a little deeper, though, Spencer suddenly finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue that includes millionaires, mobsters and secret societies, with a priceless ancient book at its center. Told with a keen wit and an individual flair, Voices of Thunder is the rare mystery novel that successfully rises above the conventions of a single genre, incorporating elements of fantasy, adventure and true crime with a staggering knowledge of literary history. Using a dazzling variety of styles and voices, Roberson’s debut novel moves from Greek tragedy to pulp potboiler effortlessly, weaving a masterful, suspenseful tale with his own unique touch.

Adventure: vol. 1

ADVENTURE, the first volume of an annual anthology of original fiction in the spirit of early twentieth-century pulp fiction magazines, features stories from all genres, promising both literary sophistication and pulse-pounding action. Contributors to the first volume, among them leading lights and award-winners in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and western, include John Edward Ames, Lou Anders, Neal Asher, Kage Baker, Barry Baldwin, O’Neil De Noux, Paul Di Filippo, Mark Finn, Michael Kurland, John Meaney, Michael Moorcock, Chris Nakashima-Brown, Kim Newman, Mike Resnick, Chris Roberson, Matthew Rossi, and Marc Singer.