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Deep within the shadows of our groping minds, we reach for some sense of understanding as we stare out with keener vision into the vast, indifferent, and sometimes terrifying sea of unknowing that we call the Cosmos. To look deeply kindles an existential sensation of fear and dread within us, but yet, we are driven to go and see, to know, to learn and discover. All these impulses throb at the heart of the Earthforce Saga, which has become a voyage of discovery, a confrontation with the alien and unknown, both a military science fiction and Cosmic horror blended together.

The latest segment within the long Kirov Series, The Earthforce Saga now continues and intensifies discoveries made in the previous volume, Startides. Now Apollo is swept into the far off Eagle Nebula, where discovery comes with great personal risk for Anton Fedorov. Later, while searching for a missing commercial hauler, Apollo enters the bay of a Great Cosmic Void that Astronomers have named “Mordor.” There, new discoveries shock as much as they enlighten, and it is learned that even the great voids harbor hidden life. Then, as Apollo is struggling to return to friendly space, a grave danger comes out of the void from the depths of deep subspace, and it’s following them....

Available Now!...

The Cosmic horror of the unknown

With the contagion spreading on Earth, events here will move very quickly. Fedorov has learned of the deep subterranean ocean at Dharma-6, and he has a plan to drill through the crust to reach it, and inoculate the entire planet with the ES22 Phage. Then something no one expected happens, and it will eventually lead Apollo on a new mission.

Karpov meets with the four Directors of the AFA again, and sparks fly, leading to some sinister plots against his life. Then a mission to a distant star also leads to amazing discoveries, one which changes the military situation considerably.

Another visit to Mars in in the cards, and an encounter with a strange new arrival from the realm of Dark Matter poses a very grave threat, forcing Karpov to again defend the outer Colonies. Then, local unrest in the colonies builds to the point where an incipient rebellion is possible, and someone in the main character set meets with a most unfortunate fate. Action must be taken to prevent a destructive insurrection in the Colonies, and a meeting is taken with a charismatic Colonial leader who could end up as the Jefferson Davis of the Outworlds.

This will be a fast paced story, with clashes in Space, around vital colonial worlds, and in conference rooms setting up a dramatic conclusion, and a real dilemma for the Homeworld.

Available Now... 7 NOV 24

Karpov and company recon the Tau Ceti system and make an amazing discovery there!

Contagion... Available Now

The War Against the Shadows comes to Earth!

After holding the line in the Cyonid Sector, Earthforce is now forced to fall back on Sol when shocking reports of mutant beings emerge from the Trondheim Fjord. This can mean only one thing. In the Outer Worlds, the Shadows have vanished, but now they have found the Homeworld, and they are already beginning to mutate life there to take their war against Humanity to a dangerous new place.

Now Karpov must rush eggs of the Asect Marauders home to Earth to enable mass-production of the vaccine against the Colony Virus. Is it too late? The Shadows have created ghastly mutated beings in Norway, and then others appear in the Yukon Delta of Alaska, and finally in Central America, where an imminent migration aimed at Florida threatens to bring the contagion deep into the United States.

Yet Doctor Elena Chandros has a solution. Based on her extensive research on the Colony Virus to create her vaccine, she now designs a new weapon to deploy against the Virus and fight the war in the world of microorganisms. Fedorov then plans a demonstration of this new bioweapon to try and achieve credible deterrence with the Shadows and force them to make peace. Meanwhile, major events on Dharma-6 compel drastic measures to try and purge the Virus from that blighted world.

Below: Battle Station 4, Orbiting Earth

Below: Thy Hybrids from the Trondheim Fjord

ABOUT DARK MATTERS:

The Earthforce segment of the Kirov Series ramps up the war against a devious alien species unlike any other in the universe. Why? Because it has evolved in the domain of Dark Matter, and not the world of all the ordinary Baryonic matter that we can see around us in the galaxies, nebulae, stars, and planets. As late as 2185, Earth’s science does not yet know what Dark Matter even is, even though it occupies 23% of the total mass of the Universe, with its cousin, Dark Energy accounting for another 73%, and normal matter only 4%. If life arose in the world of Normal Matter, why could it not also arise in the much larger domain of Dark Matter? This is the story of an encounter with such an alien species, which has managed to cross domains into the Baryonic world.

In one form, it is a strange virus that can assemble itself in a colony and become conscious. It then infects the biospheres of many of Earth’s latest colony prospects. On the Planet Dharma-6, Fedorov and Karpov learn the alien microbial infection is not from the world of Normal Matter, but from the “dark side.” Then Karpov’s Outreach expedition clashes with alien ships they come to call “the Shadows.” They learn these mysterious ships can only be tracked by the way they disturb gravity in Spacetime, but they cannot be seen unless they cross domains and enter the Baryonic world. Yet the aliens within these shadow ships are just one manifestation of these dark beings. They are also on the planet below, in the Wild Zones of Dharma-6, and Fedorov and Karpov realize that the location of Earth must never be revealed, lest the Colony Virus invade the Homeworld.

This is Kirov Series Volume #78
The Earthforce segment Volume #8

AVAILABLE 8 SEP, 2024

The Earthforce Segment books are:

1) Earthforce Mars
2) Invasion Mars
3) Sons of Ares
4) Blood of the Ancients
5) The Lost Empire
6) Call of the Wolf
7) Outreach
8) Dark Matters
9) Contagion
10) Startides

Below: Some of the mutated life found on DSC-108

The Colony Virus does not kill, but it mutates...

COMING SOON!

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I shared my list of the five best books I used to write many of my Kirov Series books:

ABOUT OUTREACH: Humanity's First Journey to the Stars

   Humanity’s first great Outreach Expedition visits stars and exoplanets within 15 Light years of Earth. The list will include Sirenus, a blue ocean world; Beowulf, formerly Wolf 1061C, with its vast mineral wealth; Regia-7, another earth, but locked in an ice age; Draconis, where some startling life rules the ash ridden skies; and finally, Dharma-6, where a vast menagerie of life is found in the Wild Zone, and a dire threat is discovered.
   After founding the Colony and Safe Zone on Dharma-6, the Outreach Expedition departs to deliver much needed supplies, personnel, and vaccines to the other exoplanets discovered on this journey, and upon returning to the Dharman system, Karpov’s expedition meets Commodore Tico’s fleet as it retreats from Sauron’s Eye, the distant star Fomalhaut, 25 Light Years out. A great deal has happened since the Outreach Program launched. Now Karpov and Fedorov join Tico, Harper, and Ryan to learn the mystery of Dharma-6 and face the threat posed by a dangerous alien species emerging from Dark Matter onto the realm of Space Normal.
  Here the Earthforce segment of the Kirov Series joins with the Dharman Series trilogy as both story lines carry this amazing Military Science Fiction epic forward. Parts 1 thru 6 of this novel recounts the Outreach Expedition, which visits the Star Systems with Exoplanets on the map (lower Left). The mission ends at Dharma-6 where it established the Safe Zone and Star Gate there. Then the fleet returns to Regia-7 to finalize personnel assignments, resource allocation and vaccine inoculations on all colony base sites. When they return they encounter Commodore Tico and a small Earthforce Fleet which has returned from their mission to Fomalhaut, (As detailed in the Dharman Series Book 3, Nightwatch. This creates a union of the Dharman Series with the Earthforce segment of the Kirov series, which continues in the next book: Dark Matters.

Map of the Safe Zone on Dharma-6

Map of the Outreach Program

Published 10 AUG 2024

Call of the Wolf

The Kirov Series returns to the Earthforce story line, with a series of amazing discoveries that will shape the outcome of the Kroth War. Returning from 1972, Karpov the Elder finds Apollo, and every ship in the fleet, has more advanced engines that can give him a tactical edge to offset the numerical superiority of the Kroth. But In a surprise Kroth attack from behind the Sun aimed at Earth, Karpov must take desperate measures to save his Flag TF from destruction, and Apollo finds itself in a most unexpected place. A new adventure begins as they start the journey home, arriving just in time to fight the final battles of the War against the Kroth in space. But something has followed them....

Rippling with action and steeped in a blend of mystery and discovery, the Earthforce saga of the Kirov series takes the cast to places "where no man has gone before."

Kirov Series #76

Call of the Wolf

The Night Screamer of Orpheus

The Lyrians

The distant outpost in the newly prospected Dharman System has gone dark and does not respond to signals traffic. This sends Special Services Agent Lieutenant Timothy Scott Ryan to the main colony holding on Dharma VI. Ryan reaches the “Safe Zone” only to find out its facilities have come under attack and are mostly destroyed. He joins with three robotic aids to hold the Zone until more help can arrive from Frigate Achilles in orbit. Yet Ryan soon discovers the alien threat that ravaged the colony, and faces another terrible attack.

With help from Achilles, he then ventures into the Wild Zone to determine the fate of the original colony science and security team. One threat leads to another when he learns the primary predator on the planet is not the one he was attacked by, and that an insidious virus now threatens Dharma VI and many other colonies in the Cyonid spiral extension. In time, the real threat emerges as the Navy musters a fleet in the Dharman system to meet the arrival of a sinister new alien race they come to call the Shadows.

With themes involving bioengineering, robotics, AI, a riveting first contact scenario, and interstellar war, the story becomes a depiction of humanity’s first active conflict with a hostile alien species. It is a war fought on two fronts, both within the very bodies of those infected by the alien virus, and in the vast deeps of interstellar space where the Federal Navy faces a strange new enemy, unlike any life form ever encountered.

Three Linked Digital Editions: (Ten Parts presenting 116 Chapters, about 343,000 words) - $9.99 ( For entire series! )

Volume I: Wild Zone       Volume II: Mother Heart       Volume III: Nightwatch  - All in one file for kindle.

Already read the first two books? Get Book III: Nightwatch in digital format for $6.99 or Trade Paperback: $19.99

Three Linked Sci-fi Editions: The Dharman Series

Three New Linked Volumes for The Kirov Series

$6.99 $9.99

ABOUT GOLIATH– Kirov Series #70 ISBN: 9798871239063
This is the Prelude to the Earthforce Series.

Linked directly to Volume #69, the story begins with Fedorov still trapped inside the ancient Sphinx, but where it soon goes from there is a wild new twist, and a new story line. Hold on to your hats, Director Kamenski has another mission for Karpov, Fedorov, and crew, and it is different from anything they have ever been asked to do. Goliath is the prelude to the Mars Books that follow.

EARTHFORCE MARS -  Kirov Series #71 - Jan 15, 2024
The story then moves forward to 2130 when Karpov takes command of the newly built Earthforce Navy aboard the flagship Apollo. He begins by leading a task force to scour Mars, the Asteroid Belt, Jupiter and Saturn's moons to root out residual forces of the Kroth before their fleet arrives to attempt a second invasion of Earth.

THE SONS OF ARES– Kirov Series #73 - March 25,2024

Fedorov investigates an ancient Martian City and soon meets its makers, and almost meets his own maker. He finds evidence of a book that shocks him when he realizes who the author is. Meanwhile, Karpov faces the early arrival of the Kroth Fleet, and Troyak is pulled into the defense of Mars at Cydonia and Elysium.

INVASION MARS -  Kirov Series #72 - Feb 23, 2024
The story moves forward to 2130 when Karpov takes command of the newly built Earthforce Navy aboard the flagship Apollo. He begins by leading a task force to scour Mars, the Asteroid Belt, Jupiter and Saturn's moons to root out residual forces of the Kroth before their fleet arrives to attempt a second invasion of Earth.

Lt. Ryan, Cpt. Harper, Ens. Caruso, Ens. Gates, Beckerman

Anton Fedorov is alive! Major Troyak has brought back an artifact from the City of Night in Noctis Labyrinthus! It is a bound book containing a prologue and chapters, all speaking to the fate of Fedorov after he vanished on their recon mission.

Better yet, the Younger Fedorov reports to Karpov that these chapters are written by, and in the voice of, his elder brother, Fedorov himself! Karpov is greatly relieved, and wants a report every three chapters.

Here is that book in its entirety, The Blood of the Ancients, a story of how Fedorov survived the terrible fall through Time into the distant past of Mars and found the City of Night was occupied by its makers!

Nursed back to health by two exotic Amazons, Fedorov recovers and is known as Dorov by the Martians, who call him the "Great Prophet." He then sets his mind on helping the Sons of Ares make a great migration to the "Blue Star world" of Earth, where they will be moved by the Old Ones to critical points in the prehistory of Earth.

The Story of Fedorov's days with the heroes and Archons of Mars, and their daring journey to the Blue Star World of Earth!

Series Entry Points: The best entry is Volume 1: Kirov to meet the main character set and understand what has happened to the ship. Then books 2 through 40 will present an alternate history of WWII as a result of the interventions of Kirov and crew.

A second entry point is book 41: Homecoming, which presents what the fate of the ship and crew would have been if they had not been displaced in time in Volume 1. This segment of the series is all modern day warfare (WWIII), first in 2021 on the Prime Meridian with mostly naval operations in the Atlantic and Arctic in Books 41-48. Some strange encounters occur in this segment. Then Books 49-56 depict the war in the Pacific in the future of the Timeline altered by Kirov in WWII.

Books 60a-64 are special mission events, in a  linked story. Any book after 64 is a special edition, including a series of linked books in the Mars segment beginning with Volume #70 Goliath.

An accident during live fire exercises sends the most powerful surface combatant in the world back in time to the heart of WWII. There the officers and crew struggle to understand what has happened to them, where they are in time, and how they will use the power they have to shape the course of the war.

The Kirov Series!

"..Lose yourself in a world riveted with exacting detail, top notch historical research, a narrative style that is utterly captivating, with characters and dialog that keep you glued to every page. The Kirov Series is a masterpiece, by a master story teller in love with this history.

The author presents a world as real and visceral as the war he is writing about, and when that history alters in the whirlwind of Kirov’s many battles, the outcomes are completely convincing... This series sets a new standard for alternate history military fiction that is unsurpassed. Its scale and scope is simply awesome! ...”

A massive 80 Volume Series!

Historical Military Fiction

The Keyholders Series ~ Alternate History

Two mysterious men are traveling through time and wagering on the outcome of famous historical battles, with each taking a side and making interventions in the history to favor their desired outcome.

A FOUR BOOK SERIES!

Volume I: Field of Glory - An alternate history of the Battle of Waterloo

Volume II: Zulu Hour - Alternate History of the Zulu War ~ Isandlwana

Volume III: The Devil Ship ~ The Opium Wars

Volume IV: The Sands of Honor ~ Gordon, Kitchener and the Battle of Omdurman

The Award Winning Meridian Series Quintet!

The Meridian Series is a set of five linked volumes comprising a quintet of extraordinary novels in the popular time travel genre. It is the story of the first ever attempt to travel in time on a rainy Memorial Day weekend set in the very near future. The project team has acquired a site at Lawrence Berkeley Labs, and quietly built their “Arch Complex” to test new physics principles in Quantum Mechanics that could possibly allow for time travel. They succeed!

Volume I: Meridian ~ Forward Magazine Science Fiction Book of the year (2002) - Silver Medal Winner. Also Readers Digest rated 9.5/10
The Meridian team visits Lawrence of Arabia!

Volume II: Nexus Point - A Jaunt through the Crusades and the Medieval Assassin Cult.

Volume III: Touchstone ~ Napoleon's Invasion of Egypt & the Rossetta Stone.

Volume IV: Anvil of Fate ~ The Battle of Tours & the Fate of Christendom in Europe.

Volume V: Golem 7 ~ The Hunt for the Bismarck! (Naval Fiction)

Science Fiction: Enter the Wild Zone

The Silk Road Series is comprised of the novels Taklamakan - The Land of No Return, by John Schettler, and its sequel Khan Tengri - The Lord of the Sky.

This is epic historical fiction set in northwestern China in the year 757 A.D. It is the story of Tando Ghazi Khan, a simple caravaneer on the fabled Silk Road, who sets out from Dun Huang China on what he hopes will be his final trek to the western bazaars of Kashgar. But the mighty T’ang Empire of China has been shaken from within by the rebellion of the Turkic-Sogdian general An Lu Shan, and the balance of power in the Tarim Basin, where Tando must travel, suddenly shifts when the Chinese Western Garrisons are called home. Tando’s caravan is soon embroiled in political intrigue as the armies of Tibet, China’s long time rival, begin to advance into the Tarim Basin to choke off trade.

Tando must use all his skills to secure the lives of his men and the safety of his cargo. He soon discovers an unexpected ally in the Tibetan camp and circumstances lead him to pursue the mystery inscribed on a strange map that will lead to an ancient secret in the heart of the most forbidding and feared desert on earth--the Taklamakan.

The Mystery of Time Travel

The Colony on Dharma VI has gone dark, and Special Services Agent Timothy Scott Ryan is sent on the Frigate Achilles to investigate. He finds the Safe Zone colony site has been overrun in a vicious attack. Three robotic aids assist him, and as the mystery deepens he discovers the that the fate of humanity and all evolution is now at stake....

Historical Fiction The Silk Road Series

An Alternate History of the Desert War

Foxbane: Kirov Series Battle Book I of two Volumes: The Alternate History of the war in the desert! (Volume II also available).

In a move that stunned Great Britain in 1940, the Germans launched a daring operation to seize the vaunted Rock of Gibraltar and Malta. Now Erwin Rommel leads the Afrika Korps in a bid to conquer all of Egypt and knock England out of the war. But a strange event in the year 2021 sends the Great Grandsons of the Desert Rats back through time to pose a bold new challenge. Soon the hunter becomes the hunted, as the Desert Fox struggles for his very survival in this exciting alternate history of WWII.

Loaded with action, this book presents 58 chapters of all the action from the German Operation Felix attack on Gibraltar, the daring attack on Malta, the opening moves in North Africa with O'Connor's Raid, the Battle of Beda Fomm, and Operation Sonnenblume (Rommel's first offensive). Then, in the midst of the fighting, General O'Connor goes missing, and a desperate search and rescue operation is mounted. Fate takes the search team to a unexpected rendezvous in the deep desert, where a strange event in the midst of a new war in 2021 has displaced the modern British 7th Armored Brigade back in time to 1941.

As Rommel drives east towards Alexandria, he is soon confronted by a powerful new enemy that becomes the bane of the Desert Fox from that day forward. At the battle of Bir el Khamsa (alternative history), modern day Challenger II tanks and Warrior AFVs confront the cream of Rommel's Afrika Korps. But we're just getting started! Foxbane then continues as Rommel receives powerful new reinforcements to launch a bold attack on Tobruk. The fighting continues as the British launch their own counteroffensives in Operation Crusader, and finally Operation Supercharge, where the Desert Rats seek to push Rommel back to Tripoli.

Here is all the great desert war action extracted from the massive 24 volume Kirov Series novels by John Schettler, re-edited by the author and presented in one continuous file spanning 58 chapters. (Over 175,000 words).

An Alternate History of the Pacific War!

This is the alternate history of the war in the Pacific, extracted from many volumes of the long Kirov Series and re-edited into one continuous narrative. There are already 90 chapters featuring action from the Pacific, far too many to assemble in just one volume. That history will therefore be presented in a series of Battle Books, this being the first: Roll of Thunder. Volume II continues with Sea of Fire.

In editing this, I have revised certain segments to eliminate information not needed for this narrative, and also included new material in places to improve the flow. I worked a bit so that a reader who is new to the series can jump right in without having to read all of season 1 and 2. So if you are a Pacific War fan, I hope you will enjoy my spin on this history, though be advised that it will be heavily influenced by the underlying premise of the series as a whole—what if a modern day ship of war suddenly found itself transported into the midst of WWII? How would it, or how could it, influence the course of events and shape the outcome of the war, and by extension, of all the history that followed that war. The battlecruiser Kirov was that ship, launching a series that has become much more than I ever expected from the story, and this is but one of the many subplots presented in that series, which has covered wartime action on every key front.

Volume II for the Pacific War will then continue with the story concerning JS Takami, the Battle of the Coral Sea, Halsey’s raid on the Marshalls, Japanese Operation FS and the landings on Fiji, the Battle of the Koro Sea, US Landing at Suva Bay, Karpov’s Landings on Sakhalin Island, and finally the battle between Kirov and an unexpected challenger in the Sea of Okhotsk, (another 45 chapters in all). It will then probably take at least one more volume of this same length to cover the remainder of the Pacific War through 1944-45. For those many readers who have written and asked me to cover the Pacific in the next release for the Battle Book series, enjoy!

Volkov was nothing more than a nuisance to Karpov when he came aboard with Inspector General Kapustin in Vladivostok. Karpov called him a lapdog, but Volkov, who’s name translates as “Wolf” in Russian, became something very much more in this story. Pursuing Fedorov along the Trans-Siberian rail, he comes upon the railway inn at Ilanskiy, stumbles down that stairway and finds himself in 1908, just as Fedorov once did. But unlike Fedorov, who’s brief time there ended up profoundly changing the history of the 20th Century when he warned a young Sergei Kirov of an impending plot to take his life, Ivan Volkov never came back. Instead he used his foreknowledge of future events, the data stored in his service jacket computer, to co-opt the White Russian movement after the revolution, unseating Denikin and establishing his private little empire, the Orenburg Federation.

In time he hoped to easily defeat Kolchak’s fledgling Free Siberian State, and by so doing place himself in a position to challenge the Soviet Union, now led by Sergei Kirov, who murdered a young Josef Stalin as a result of Fedorov’s errant whisper. Then along came Vladimir Karpov, defeated in his second attempt to seize control of the ship named for Kirov, lost, forsaken, alone, and adrift at sea. But not for very long.

While the other main characters aboard Kirov, and the ship’s crew, harbor mixed feelings as they commemorate his apparent death, Karpov survives, makes his way to Siberia, and soon applies his unique personality and will to quickly rise in the ranks of the Siberian power elite. This is that story, of his fall in that last terrible moment aboard Kirov off Oki Island in the Sea of Japan, and his meteoric rise from the ashes, Phoenix like, to seize control of the Free Siberian State. In so doing, it is inevitable that he comes into conflict with his neighbor state to the west, Volkov’s Orenburg Federation, shocked to learn the real identity of the man behind it, and dedicated to his demise.

Here is their story, the clash and contest of wills between our saga’s two arch villains that became a long Vendetta. In presenting it here, re-edited into one continuous narrative, I also include what might be called “outtakes,” deleted scenes, and occasional new material that never appeared in the original Kirov Series. Consider it my “Director’s Cut” for this long intriguing subplot in the saga, all things Ilanskiy, the mystery, the mayhem, and oh yes, the Zeppelins!

Steampunk with Zeppelin Duels!

A Five Volume Epic Fantasy Series

Discover the world of the Alderenh as free men and the Imperial Empire of Innisfail struggle for survival against the rise of three terrible Dreadlords. A five Volume Military Fantasy series!

From Pearl Harbor to Operation FS against the Fiji Islands, Yamamoto shuns his Midway operation and moves to Isolate Australia!

Book III- Nightwatch: $6.99 Kindle

Or Get the Entire Series: $9.99 Kindle

The Dharman Series

Scroll Down to Explore the world of Innisfail on 22 Maps!

Meridian - 2002

Innisfail Map Library

You can click and "Save Image As" to download full size images.

These maps cover most ever segment of the story, including important battle sites.

About Us

The Writing Shop is the creative home of Author John Schettler, a place where imagination and storytelling come to life through military & historical fiction, time travel, science fiction, and fantasy. Join us on an adventure through the pages of his books.

Get in Touch!

John@writingshop.press