Bøger af Robert Leader

WITCHFIRE The vengeance of the witch had to wait, until two of her lovers were reincarnated in the same time. The sensational press called it the Breckland Triangle, the three cornered area of Breckland where in the short space of a few weeks the outbreak of serious fire incidents soared out of all normal proportions. Houses, factories and crashed vehicles burst into infernos of flame. The toll mounted, often from what seemed to be some inexplicable form of internal human combustion. In the skies above the jet fighters from the nearby USAF Air Base pose the constant threat of a major disaster. Is the new and bitterly opposed toxic waste plant somehow responsible, contaminating the air with an invisible poison? Or is there something more sinister, a more ancient force of evil stalking the dark Breckland forests? Perhaps the key to the mystery lies in dreams, in the wild tormented nightmares of a once great monastery sacked by a howling mob, of Satanic orgies at the blood-soaked Druid's Altar, and the curse of a beautiful witch wreathed in flames.

From high above Vietnam the Marregh/Riken continue to observe the Buddhist Rebellion which finally brings down the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Two new mind-melts are sanctioned for the second tri-mind in the observation capsule, with the gentle monk Huong Lin Van, and with Mary Francis, the idealistic young volunteer nurse. The English girl and the monk are drawn together in what can only be a purely platonic friendship. Then Lin Van is injured in a bloody riot, rescued by Mary, and inadvertently breaks his vows by spending the night unconscious in her apartment. He sees fire suicide as his only means of atonement, until an older monk persuades him that his real duty is to toll the bell as their monastery is stormed by Diem's forces. The tolling of the great pagoda bell alerts the world to what is happening to the Buddhists in Vietnam. The Time watchers are appalled by the senseless savagery of the war and all of the corruption they have witnessed. However, they can also see hope in the selfless motives of the monk and the nurse. It leaves them still undecided on the issue of whether the human race should be preserved or destroyed. Then a second Marregh Timeship appears with dreadful news. In another galaxy an Earth-like species has detected and attacked the peaceful observers, forcing a terminal response. A precedent has been set and now both Timeships echo with an urgent clamour for humanity to be erased.

The alien surveillance of Vietnam has revealed only contradictions and madness. The Marregh/Riken have watched the war with the Americans through the eyes of the Viet Cong Guerrilla Nguyan Nam Kim, and now watch a mirror version of those war years through the mind melt with the US Marine Irvin Jones. In a desperate effort to stop an out of control massacre of helpless Vietnamese villagers Jones accidentally fires a shot that kills his commanding officer. His platoon sergeant is determined to cover the incident up and kill Jones before his tour of duty ends. The death of a tri-mind host will bring with it the extinction of the mental parasite within, a stupendous shock to the all observing Marregh/Riken.

PERSONS REPORTED BY ROBERT LEADER "Persons Reported Trapped," is the cryptic fire service message that accompanies every call to an incident where life is at risk. However, despite every effort of the Fire Brigade, and of Detective Sergeant Judy Kane who had been first on the scene, Helen Douglas had died. But it was not the fire that had killed her, Helen had been murdered. Helen was the wife of Mike Douglas, an Assistant Divisional Officer at Granchester Fire Station. Judy is married to Granchester's Station Officer, Ben Kane. The four had become close friends, and so for Judy the police investigation becomes a double nightmare, with Ben and Mike heading the list of possible suspects.

With two Timeships hidden in fixed orbit behind Pluto in the farthest reaches of the solar system, the extinction of the human race is imminent. It is only the watchers in the Earth observation capsule who are now pleading for more time and a longer study before the final decision is made. Reluctantly three more mind melts are sanctioned. The first new contact is with Nguyan Nam Kim who is taken as a boy from his home village and indoctrinated in the guerrilla camps in the jungles. Nam Kim grows from a hit and run fighter engaging in ambush and night attacks, to a seasoned veteran of the Viet Cong. The climax comes in the initially victorious battle for Hue, the old imperial capital on the Perfume River, followed by the merciless US counter-attack which drove the Viet Cong out of the city.

On the Third Planet the Great War with Maghalla has begun. The ancient Hindu Kingdom of Karakhor is under siege and facing its darkest hour. On the Fifth Planet the insane arms race between the continents of Alpha and Ghedda has come to its catastrophic conclusion. Earth is now the only inhabitable planet in the solar system. For Kananda, First Prince of Karakhor, and his sister the Princess Maryam, their homecomings are a mixture of pain and grief. For their lovers, Zela, Space Commander of Alpha, and Raven, the last Sword Lord of Ghedda, this final refuge is where they at last come face to face. Here, on the blood-soaked battlefield is where Zela demands her vengeance, and where Kananda must challenge Sardar the Merciless, the dread King of Maghalla.

THE FALL OF SAIGON The long years of surveillance are drawing to a close, and in the last days the focus is on three women. Mary Francis has returned to a second volunteer year in the hospital in Saigon. Phat Sang has grown up to become a bar girl in a Saigon bar, and she is Irvin Jones's "Number One Girl." Suzanne Chauvel and Vu Phan Quang are lovers and Rene Chauvel is ambushed in the street by assassins hired by Quang. Their concluding stories are played out against the background of the Great Tet Offensive and the Fall of Saigon. The Marregh/Riken observe and agonize from their hidden Timeship. Must they terminate the human race? The fate of a species still hovers on extinction's edge.

ANCIENT SINS The sudden appearance of a fifty year old human skull in a lorry load of sugar beet could hardly have come at a more inconvenient time. The top ranks of the Breckland CID were focussing on the final stages of a combined, three-county police operation that was coming to fruition after six months of dedicated, pains-taking work. The targets for Operation Longship were in their sights and any distraction was unwanted. However, the old wartime mystery could not be ignored and it was left to DS Judy Kane to unravel a tangled skein of ancient sins. It was a tortuous trail of lost loves and fiery passions that would lead her into terrible danger.

The Fifth Planet has been destroyed in the Holocaust War, and now the fate of Earth, The Third Planet, rests with Raven, the last Sword Lord of Ghedda. A gigantic fragment has broken away from the new asteroid belt formed by the destruction of the fifth planet and is on a collision course with Earth's moon. The impact will push the moon into a decaying orbit which will destroy the last life-bearing planet in the solar system. Raven's space ship can be repaired by cannibalizing parts of Zela's crashed space ship, but it will take Raven and Zela together to fly it on one last mission to deflect the asteroid. However, Raven has gone into exile with Maryam. Kananda and Zela, now King and Queen of Karakhor, set out to find them. Their twin journeys take them across Earth as it was between the last two ice ages.

THE GODS OF FIRE The race against time begins and the fate of the Third Planet is in the balance. Kananda and Zela have at last caught up with Raven and Maryam and now they must all return to Karakhor and Raven's spaceship. The flaming asteroid that was once part of the Fifth Planet is hurtling on its collision course with Earth's moon. In the time between the last two great ice ages they have three continents and two oceans to cross. The Hindu city of Karakhor is again under threat from an invading army and Kananda has one last battle to fight upon Earth. However, the final conflict will be in space and in the spiritual world of the astral plane. The vengeful entity that is Strang is still an awesome force for evil on the astral, despite his broken physical form. Strang places every possible obstacle in their path, and is determined that all his enemies and the planet itself must die. His powers of mental coercion mean that he can even get them to kill each other.

THE LOST COLONIAL WAR BOOK ONE OF EXTINCTION'S EDGE The Marregh/Riken are an aquatic race of amoebic time travellers. Their mother ship is hidden behind the furthest ice planet of the solar system, while an observation vessel orbits unseen high above the only partially inviting world of deep blue oceans. The oceans are too saline to colonize, but even worse they are divided by dry continents where insane land creatures wage an incomprehensible war. The first horrified instinct of the Marregh/Riken is to move on, to explore elsewhere in the galaxies, but then they discover an appalling fact. This insane human species stands on the edge of space exploration, already they have begun to explore their own solar system, and eventually they could pose a direct threat to the peaceful races of other star systems. So the Marregh/Riken begin a systematic study, to try and understand the motives and psychology of these alien creatures, by attaching themselves mentally to some of the key players in the long nightmare which the Earth beings have called the Vietnam War. The Marregh/Riken must decide whether the human race is fit to survive, or whether they should be destroyed before they can become too powerful and export their blind hatreds out into the galaxies. The first hosts chosen are the French Paratroop Lieutenant Rene Chauvel, and the orphan child who will eventually be called Phat Sang. Through their eyes the Marregh/Riken follow the events of the lost colonial war. The six books of EXTINCTION'S EDGE form the ultimate novel of Vietnam, spanning from the French defeat at Dienbienphu to the Great Tet Offensive which forced the final American withdrawal. The continuing books in the series are: BOOK TWO: THE YEARS OF THE WARLORDS. BOOK THREE: BLOOD ON THE YELLOW ROBE. BOOK FOUR: THE RISE OF THE VIET CONG. BOOK FIVE: THE AMERICAN WAR. BOOK SIX: THE FALL OF SAIGON.

They came from Dooma, the fifth planet in the solar system, a planet destined to destroy itself in the holocaust war between the two great continents of Alpha and Ghedda. They came in separate expeditions, each one seeking a potential refuge on the third planet, the only other inhabitable planet in the solar system. They came in the dawn of time, when the Earth was young, to discover an ancient India, where the splendid kingdom of Karakhor was locked in its own deathly struggle with the massed forces of Maghalla and their allies of sub-human tribes. And so began the tragic double love story; of Kananda, the First Prince of Golden Karakhor, for Zela, his beautiful golden-haired Alphan Goddess from the Stars -- and of his sister Maryam, the wild rebellious princess of Karakhor, who was fated to love, and be loved, by Raven, the ruthless, blue-skinned Sword Lord of Ghedda. From the exotic mists of Vedic mythology, to the harsh and barbaric Gheddan Empire, where the law of the Sword is carried godlessly into the space age -- and back again to the great climatic war of the Mahabarata, THE FIFTH PLANET chronicles the last desperate days of one world, and the grim, blood-stained beginnings of another.

In the second volume of this epic six part series telling the story of Vietnam, the alien surveillance continues. The Marragh/Riken sanction the third mind-melt with Vu Phan Quang, the corrupt politician first encountered by Phat Sang in a Hanoi refugee camp. Quang escapes from the horrors of the communist victory in the north to reach the dubious safety of Saigon and immediately becomes embroiled in the battles of the three rival groups who fought for political control before the USA threw its support behind the South Vietnamese government headed by Ngo Dinh Diem. The bloodshed and suffering resume as the warlords tear apart the new Vietnam, while the Time-watchers struggle to understand the motivation behind the madness. Rene Chauvel, the first mind-melt, returns to Saigon as a war correspondent for a Paris Newspaper, and Quang becomes captivated by Chauvel's new wife. The second mind-melt, the orphan girl Phat Sang, survives the Great Terror of the North Vietnamese Land Reform campaigns to become a refugee again in South Vietnam.

On the third planet, between the last two great ice ages, the quest continues. Raven, the last Sword Lord of Ghedda pursues his dream of leading a new military empire. He journeys from the southward drifting continent of Tar-Tika to the land of the Maytecs, where a blood stained pyramid is the scene of brutal human sacrifice. Raven is pursued in turn by Kananda and Zela who must bring him back to Karakhor. Only Raven can help to repair and fly the damaged spaceship he has abandoned. Only with Raven's help can the last life-bearing planet in the solar system be saved from total annihilation. But in the jungle city of Chaxal Raven must first face a cruel and terrible enemy, an astral adept who is the reincarnation of a historical monster.

THE MEDITERRANEAN ISN'T JUST SUN, SAND AND SANGRIA -- IT'S DRUG-RUNNING, HI-JACKING AND MURDER Judy and Ben Kane have moved to Porto Viejo in Spain to run a small, harbor-front bar. A car accident has forced Ben's early retirement from the Breckland Fire brigade and Judy has resigned from her job as a Detective Sergeant in the Breckland Police to join him. However, Judy's crime fighting instincts soon come to the fore when a body is trawled up from the sea in the nets of a local fishing boat. Judy recognizes the photo-fit picture that appears in the newspapers as an old friend from her training days. Soon it becomes clear that they are up against a highly skilled gang running a joint piracy and drug smuggling operation. Yachts are disappearing regularly in the Mediterranean. The owners are presumably being murdered and thrown overboard and the vessels then used to run one or two drug running trips before being re-registered and sold on. There are two prime suspects, both named Harry. "Tweedledum and Tweedledee," Ben observes wryly, "Harry A or Harry B?" Just one question to answer, but as Judy doggedly gets closer to the truth she finds that their lives depend upon getting the answer right.

SERPENTS IN EDEN BY ROBERT LEADER THEY WERE SHIP-WRECKED IN PARADISE - BUT PARADISE HID A TERRIBLE SECRET A romantic second honeymoon cruising around the paradise islands of the South pacific had seemed the perfect cure for a failing marriage. But for Nicola and Greg Conway it hadn't worked and a freak storm and sudden shipwreck with enigmatic skipper Jack Baker was not part of their plan.They were washed up on to a tropical island occupied by a small religious community. The Children of New Eden lived a seemingly idyllic existence but were shrouded in mystery. Why had the cult fled from California, and why was the small community graveyard filled with a disproportionate number of little girls. Soon Nicola begins to wonder if their presence here was entirely by chance, for it seems that Jack Baker has his own agenda.As the tensions heighten and the mysteries deepen the malevolent presence of an ancient stone idol watches over them from a forbidden cliff top temple site high above the beach.

SEASCREAM It came from the depths of the sea and from beyond the prehistoric mists of time. It was out there somewhere offshore in the thick swirling mist which filled the pitch black night. It was a diffused sound which could have come from any direction, or from all directions AS THOUGH THE SEA ITSELF WAS SCREAMING The sea creatures were not unknown. They were frequently sighted and recorded in the days of sail when ships moved silently under wind power, or lay becalmed in remote parts of the world's vast oceans. The sightings stopped when the ships were fitted with noisy thudding engines and kept to direct but relatively narrow sea lanes which the creatures learned to avoid. But the creatures were still there, far down in the abyss depths, where they might have remained, unseen and undisturbed, if Aztec Three had not exploded to turn the sea above them into a sea of fire. The creatures moved east across the Atlantic. They were angry and they were hungry, and for those who had to live and work upon the sea it was the beginning of a savage, screaming nightmare.

The first Gheddan mission to control the Third Planet has failed. The Sword Lord Raven has been driven out of the ancient Hindu Kingdom of Karakhor and forced to return to Dooma. He takes with him Maryam, princess of Karakhor, who sees him as her lover, and a possible savior in the coming battle against the might of Maghalla. They are pursued by Kananda, First Prince of Karakhor, drawn by his love for Zela, and his determination to find the sister he believes has been taken by force. On the Fifth Planet they are all hurled into the terrible arms race between the warring continents of Alpha and Geddha. A planetary cataclysm looms as Kananda and Zela undertake a desperate mission into the heart of the Sword Empire. For Zela it is a race against time to save her world. For Kananda it is a matter of love and honor to find Maryam. And both of them are seeking vengeance against the Sword Lord.

GOD FAITH AND TERROR BY ROBERT LEADER In God, God, Faith and Reason Robert Leader argued from a new working of the free will argument and a study of all the related fields of philosophy that in all probability God does exist. That book continued to argue that if God does exist then all faith must lead to God. In God, Faith and Terror these themes are continued in a study of the all-too-often hostile relationship between Christianity and Islam. It covers the crusades, the trade wars in the Mediterranean, the creation of Israel, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rise of al-Queda and ISIS and the modern blight of international terrorism. It is a story of a conflict between faiths and civilizations. At its heart is the question, can all this hatred, the murders and atrocities committed in the name of religion, really be what God wants?

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