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Love and Conflict in a Powerful Novel of American Prehistory
ONE WOMAN’S RELENTLESS STRUGGLE TO PROTECT HER TRIBE!

“Entertaining and thought-provoking.” —Publishers Weekly

The last Ice Age in North America is ending. The glaciers are retreating, and the Great Plains are teeming with wildlife.

However, the plains are filled with marauding gangs of brutal men who are as dangerous to other human life as they are to the beasts they slaughter.

Against them stands Mara, a chieftain with a unique vision. She pursues peace and justice, giving females in her tribe equal footing with males. But now her people are threatened with destruction, not only by vicious enemies but by catastrophic changes in climate.

This is the epic story of Mara, who will let no man break her spirit, despite the frailty of her flesh. She resists the treachery and terror that threaten her people. She alone has the courage to lead them against the evil giant, Barem, and his tribe of thugs.

Here is the enthralling saga of an unforgettable woman and a momentous struggle in a time when humanity is reaching perilous crossroads—and history is waiting to be made.

This is what Amazon readers have to say about the Children of the Mesa:

“I love these kind of books .This one reads fast and smooth. Lots of Big surprises in this story.”

“She does a great job...keeps you turning the pages. I'll read all of her books.”

“Charlotte Prentiss is a wonderful writer and her books are hard to quit reading until you have finished the whole book.”

“I couldn't put the book down and read it in less than a day. I recommend it to anyone.”

Charlotte Prentiss is the celebrated author of Laena's Children, a five volume saga focusing on five key generations of women through 15,000 years of history, from their tribe's journey from the land bridge between Asia and Alaska through their slow spread south to what is now California.

[Originally published as People of the Mesa.]

The hilariously imaginative tale of Judd Morrow, who woke up one morning to find himself truly a giant among men … a modern day Gulliver with a giant-size hangover!

“Enjoyable … Definitely check it out.” —Goodreads

This is the story of Judd Morrow, a rather ordinary young man with a job in advertising, a girlfriend in Manhattan, and a six-foot bed that had always been plenty big enough for him—a commonplace young man who woke up one morning to find that he had turned into a giant overnight!.

It was in his line of duty as an account executive that Judd had the misfortune to tangle with one Dr. Leon Grist, who might have been the original mad scientist, but for one thing: Grist lusted after money as other men did for women, and it was Grist's consuming passion that put Judd in this awkward predicament.

At first Judd was amused by the situation; he merely had to sneeze and he could level New York.

The Mayor was helpless, and so was the Governor. For that matter, so was the Beloved President of These United States. Then the Military came up with a solution: destroy the enemy!—and they stood at the ready to do so.

Suddenly Judd no longer found it funny. But love, money, and politics (an unbeatable combination) finally saved the day, and how they did is one of the most hilarious flights of fantasy you will ever read.

"A modern-day classic still as tasty and relevant as ever. We watch as society coalesces around Judd, turning the appearance of the giant into an opportunity for big business, political maneuverings and party after party after party. It's a clever story and spares no opportunity to skewer all ideologies/political persuasions and viewpoints. I found it pretty amazing how similar the political posturings of yesterday mimic the practices of today. The way the Russians, English, Chinese and US were portrayed didn't bring to mind antiquated diplomacy of the mid-20th century but any ongoing political negotiations you'd find being debated today.” —Goodreads

"In the dawn's early light of an ordinary morning, a handful of early risers discovered a three-hundred-and-fifty foot giant lying stark naked on the pavement along Madison Avenue..."

These are the opening words of one of the most Rabelaisian and irreverent satires ever to point a finger at the absurdities of life. Set in the not-so-distant future, it takes a gentle swipe at the passing scene while it tells the off-center story of a handful of people who have to be seen to be believed—and such is the craftsmanship of the author that you will indeed SEE each of the characters he has so realistically drawn.

John Aylesworth was an Emmy finalist writer and producer of many successful television programs, including Hee-Haw, The Sonny and Cher Show and The Julie Andrews Hour.

A horrifying story from Weird Tales, the supreme shudder pulp, about a mysterious personality who claimed he was a descendant of Lord Byron—and the hideous doom that threatened all those around him!

Gilbert Connatt, former film star, now dead broke, would give his life for a good role—and he may yet get his wish, now that he's signed to be the lead in a newly-discovered play by George Gordon, Lord Byron. As an added inducement, Gilbert finds he will be playing opposite his former flame, Sigrid Holgar, who has become a megastar since they broke off their headline-making Hollywood romance.

The play is to be premiered at a summer theater, deep in the Berkshires, far from the madding crowd. Not long after the cast's arrival there, Sigrid and her manager are attacked by menacing, half-shaped entities in the dark, and barely escape with their lives and sanity. Then, Gilbert accidentally stabs Varduk with a sword—but no blood is drawn and the producer is apparently unharmed.

Things become stranger still when Judge Keith Pursuivant, an eminent authority on the occult, who has been invited by Varduk to authenticate the handwritten manuscript of the play, is stumped when he realizes it's the great poet's work—even though the paper is less than ten years old. As Judge Pursuivant and Gilbert are discussing these unearthly events, Varduk's valet warns them not to challenge his master who, he says, is a man of tremendous and uncanny powers.

Later that night, things become more terrifying Gilbert and Sigrid, finding the flame of their former love has not been entirely extinguished, discover everyone's life is threatened by terrifying forces from beyond…

Another dark masterpiece from Manly Wade Wellman, World Fantasy Award Lifetime Achievement and Hugo Award winner.

A spellbinding dark fantasy classic from Weird Tales!

Here are the final two adventures of multi-award-winning author of dark fantasy Manly Wade Wellman's Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant in his battles against occult forces of darkness. The penultimate story describes the terrifying consequences when someone violates the terms of a treaty his township signed with the local Native people, a clause that was intended to protect the settlers from their own heedlessness. In the second eldritch tale, Judge Pursuivant comes to the aid of a man who asks him, “How would you feel if something followed you all around your new home—something cold and sneaky, that wasn't even there when you turned your head?”

These are followed by a pair of very important Wellman stories. “Sin’s Doorway,” according to the fantasy historian G. W. Thomas whose work has appeared in The Armchair Detective, Mystery Review, and Dark Worlds Quarterly, was said by Wellman to feature “a younger, guitarless Silver John, although he is not named.” Its nameless protagonist moves into a remote cabin he has inherited, only to discover to his horror it is not truly a house, but something far different. The second of these reader-treats is, in a way, a sequel to the first Judge Pursuivant adventure The Hairy Ones Shall Dance, where he fought a desperate battle against darkest evil in a pine forest called “The Devil's Croft” by locals. In the “Pineys,” The Devil's Croft is revealed as the legendary land of the Shonokins. Among Wellman's most popular creations, the Shonokins appear frequently in his John Thunstone stories and the Silver John tales. The Shonokins (or pine-people) are a race of humanoid-like creatures who inhabited the U.S. before the first homo sapiens crossed the land bridge into the Americas—and they are still enraged by the intrusion. In this story a group of people find themselves at the end of a road deep in the Devil's Croft and have a deadly confrontation with the Shonokins and the King of the Pine People—in a denouement clearly inspired by a world-famous story fantasy story of the era.

We are sure fans of dark fantasy, or of Wellman's work, will find these four eerie stories display this winner of the World Fantasy Convention's Award for Lifetime Achievement at the height of his creative and literary powers.

From the pages of Weird Tales—the world's greatest shudder pulp!

"Manly Wade Wellman is a treasure that should not be missed … should be in the collection of everyone who loves pulp fiction in the “Weird Tales” style." —Goodreads review

The first spellbinding novel in multi-fantasy award winner Manley Wade Wellman's classic horror trilogy about Judge Hilary Pursuivant, the jurist so deeply seeped in the lore of deviltry and supernatural evil—that no one or thing, not even the most powerful of dark forces, can stand against him.

"Mr. Wellman's Occult investigators are at the top of the genre. All of them would have felt right at home working side by side with either Karl Kolchak or Mulder-Scully. One has even worked with a certain Mr. Jules de Grandin." —Amazon review

Talbot Wills, a skeptic, gave up his career as a stage magician to study psychic phenomena—and once and for all prove or disprove its existence to himself. Learning this, his friend Doctor Otto Zoberg, an expert in occult subjects, brings him to an isolated hamlet to attend a séance at the home of a spirit medium whose powers are legendary. There Talbot meets Susan Gird, an intelligent and likable young woman, and after an afternoon together finds himself attracted to her. The séance is held that night—and though everyone is handcuffed to someone else, a strange wolf-like shape moves in the dark. When Susan Gird's father cries out some sort of accusation, the shape leaps upon him and slaughters him.

The town constable investigates and, since Wills is a magician and escape artist, arrests him for the crime. Later, while Talbot is locked in jail, an angry mob gathers to lynch him. With his knowledge of locks, Talbot breaks out his cell and in eluding his pursuers finds himself in the Devil's Croft, a mysterious grove which most locals are afraid to approach. As he enters it, Wills falls, exhausted. What happens next shatters his skepticism for good.

Fleeing, Talbot meets Judge Pursuivant, a giant of a man both physically and mentally, and a man with an almost uncanny knowledge of the occult who promises to help him and Susan.

Thus begins this classic novel of hideous, stark horror from Weird Tales, the magazine that gave birth to the works of H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos. Soon Susan and Talbot find their only hope of saving themselves from sudden and frightful death is to battle side-by-side with Judge Pursuivant against the frightful thing that lives in the Devil's Croft.

"These stories are very well written, highly readable and immensely entertaining! A reader can't ask for more." —Amazon Review

"Heroic, horrifying, dark fantasy. Pursuivant is Rambo with the powers of Dr. Strange. For those who like/love/get a kick out of pulp, these stories are for you." —Goodreads Review

Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant lives in a small New England town and is sufficiently wealthy to travel the world and befriend those threatened by dark arts and beings. A man of great height and girth, with a drooping blonde moustache, he is keenly intelligent and well-read in the occult, the psychic, and the magical. Born in 1891, he took degrees at Yale and Oxford, and worked for U.S. intelligence during the First World War.

Judge Pursuivant's battles against the darkness are recounted in three volumes (The Harry Ones Shall Dance, The Black Drama, and The Half-Haunted) penned by the World Fantasy, Phoenix, and British Fantasy Award winning author Manley Wade Wellman, famed for his Silver John series and his eerie stories of dark fantasy for Weird Tales.

She Ruled the World, but Not Her Own Heart!

Margot of Urbs and her brother were brilliant scientists and immortal tyrants who had stopped Earth's decline back into savagery after a devastating series of wars. But their harsh rule, designed to eradicate those who would destabilize the Pax Urbana, had earned them many enemies who were determined to revolt at the first chance.

Then a man from the past awakens and changes the balance of power, for he joins those who are determined to rule against the cool, imperious, raven-haired Margot, also known as the Black Flame. But instead of hatred, the two spark flames of romance. What Margot does not know is that he intends to betray her and her brother at the first opportunity.

Here is unforgettable romance, deft characterization, and spellbinding pulp storytelling from Startling Stories by Stanley G. Weinbaum, who Isaac Asimov calls "a science fiction nova!"

HE RULED AMERICA WITH AN IRON HAND – BUT NOT HIS SISTER'S HEART

"Stanley G. Weinbaum was a leader of science fiction, with his easy style and realistic descriptions. [The Dictator's Sister] is a darned good story. What a writer that man was." —Isaac Asimov

Steel Jeffers stood America's enemies and his personal enemies up against the wall and had them shot without a trial. His ability to stir crowds to blind enthusiasm with fear and glowing promises had won him the presidency of the United States. The scores of yes-men—Senators, Congressmen, Governors, and minor officials—all carefully handpicked because they had sworn subservience to him and not the Constitution, had made Steel Jeffers Dictator.

But his own sister, who had once supported him uncritically, had deserted the cause and disappeared as he tightened his iron grip ruthlessly around democracy's throat day by day. Simeon Baldwin, head of the growing underground movement to remove Steel Jeffers from office, felt there was something suspicious about her disappearance he had to find out, and he had the perfect man for the job: the Dictator's personal military aide, Lieutenant Jack Adams, of the Federal Guards. Lt. Adams took one look at her photograph and gulped, he knew he would do anything to find her if she were still alive and to avenge her if she had been murdered.

Thus begins one of the strangest and most brilliant science fiction novels ever written by Stanley G. Weinbaum, one of its most influential practitioners. The Dictator's Sister is reprinted straight from the pages of the October 1938 Amazing Stories where it was dubbed "best in issue" by all the readers who wrote into in the magazine's letter department. Here is one of science fiction's greatest classics—brimming with adventure, peril, romance, sound science and pointed social commentary. A visionary novel from the 1930s with a scientific twist you will never forget, and which will set many readers thinking, even today—over eight decades later.

Hugo Nominee's Classic Novel of Possible Earths!

What if a single event in the past had a different result? What would the world be like? Dr. Simon Finch offers John Dow the possibility of entering such a world of 'if'.

Finch is especially interested in having John visit this particular World of If because previous volunteers have mentioned John in their own reports. Finch is eager to find out if John's experiences will be similar. John agrees, and brings along one of his employees and best friend, Joe Pace, to keep tabs on the proceedings. John has a feeling Finch has ulterior motives. There are some results the good doctor prefers not to share with his 'volunteer.'

Once under hypnosis, John goes back to the mid '50s when the presidential election has alternate results. Reflecting '50s Cold War concerns, the United States has been taken over by Communism and life is 'iffy' at best. While Dow may have the same job and family, the possibilities in this world are intriguing as well as dangerous. Survival is a matter of going along with the establishment and ruthlessly grabbing whatever opportunities present themselves. One wrong move or word and your life is over.

Here is a perceptive thinker's suspenseful take on the big issues of his time that still have eerie implications for our own. "Phillips is a master!" raved Robert Silverberg. Rog Philips Hugo Award nominee novelette, Rat in the Skull, is also available from Futures Past Editions.

In Colonial America, two lovers find themselves at the center of a series of bizarre and horrifying events. Here is a marvelous werewolf thriller set in upstate New York in the days close after the American Revolution. First the French Comte de Saint Loup arrives with a hound named DeRetz. Then the town is besieged by a giant wolf, possessed with evil intelligence and savage fury, who sates its desire for blood in a series of horrifying and supernatural killings.

Wolf in the Garden is a classic werewolf tale. First published in 1931, this long-forgotten novel may be the finest werewolf thriller ever written.

To Save the Universe, Johnny Mayhem Risked His Life—Over and Over and Over.

He could travel anywhere mentally and enter the body of anyone on any planet. But if he stayed longer than thirty days, Mayhem died.

An encounter with aliens had given him an extrahuman power. But it had also put him beyond the pale of love and friendship forever. For the first time ever in book form, here are the never-reprinted adventures of one of the most popular and notable pulp science fiction series heroes of the mid-1950s. Mayhem is literally "the man who saved the universe"—and the price he pays for it is a terrible one. But such is the life of the man who became Johnny Mayhem, and his origin is told in the first story of this series, "My Name is Mayhem." Contains the first three Mayhem novelettes.

Cover: Valigursky for the Johnny Mayhem story "The Burning Man."