Cryptozoica is a contemporary thriller, blending elements popularized by the TV series Lost, with speculative science and the exotic high adventure which are the hallmarks of my Outlanders series.

When a group of people are trapped on an island in the South China Seas, they find themselves not only engaged in a battle for survival, but also entangled in a web of ancient conspiracy that holds the final, terrifying truth of the origins of life on Earth.

Cryptozoica is my take on the classic Lost World theme, with strong scientific underpinnings. Shortly after visiting a dinosaur exhibition at the Museum of Natural History in NYC, I asked myself : “What if an honest-to-God lost world, a real-life version of Skull Island was actually discovered—not 100 years or 70 years ago, but right now? What effect would such a discovery have on the world’s scientific disciplines and religious beliefs?”

Aside from the scientific theory and philosophy, Cryptozoica is a stage for all the trademarks that have made Outlanders so popular for so many years--blazing action, adventure in exotic climes, secret societies, suspense, beautiful heroines, femme fatales, colorful heroes, ruthless villains, and some really bad-ass dinosaurs.

What if the lost civilizations of ancient Earth were never really lost—they were just displaced? On the planet Nibiru (AKA Nemesis), Atlantis, Lemuria and the Rama Empire all co-exist.

As fascinating as that seems, Nibiru is bearing down on Earth’s place in the solar system, as it was prophesied to do thousands of years ago. Earth has been living on borrowed time—and now the time is up.

When a United Nations special ops team travels to Nibiru in order to alter its world-destroying course, they find a wilderness of strange cultures and animals sampled from many different epochs of Earth’s history. Hidden somewhere in the vastness of this extraterrestrial twin of Terra lies the answer to how this was accomplished—and the terrifying force that perpetrated it.

The Lilith Reliquary explores the mysterious realms that haunt humanity's deepest memories––and the secrets of the forgotten past which mold our religious beliefs and perhaps even the future of the planet.

A group of investigators find themselves entangled in a web of ancient conspiracy and prophecy that reveals the final, terrifying truth of the Holy Grail and the bloodline of Jesus...and how the ancient legends of Lilith, the vampiric first wife of Adam, is linked directly to Mary Magadelene and the cult of the Black Madonna.

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Despite my many other credentials, I’m probably best known as “James Axler”, the pen-name under which I have written the Outlanders series since 1996.

Published internationally, Outlanders is one of the most successful series of the past 20 years. The books are known for their highly cinematic style, fast pace, and large scale action sequences--not to mention a colorful cast of characters.

After writing several books in the Deathlands series (as well as two novels in the Executioner series), I was asked by Harlequin to create Outlanders. At this point, Outlanders is distinct among the Gold Eagle imprint’s roster of series, in the sense that it was not created by an in-house editor nor was it immediately assigned to a revolving door system of writers.

Outlanders

Outlanders is unique in that out of a dozen series launched by Gold Eagle between 1991 and 1995 it is the only one that lasted more than four books. Currently in its 13th consecutive year of publication, Outlanders has to date sold well over a million copies--frankly, with the current state of book publishing, the sales, longevity and fan-following is not too shabby an accomplishment...especially when you consider that not a dime's worth of outside promotion money has ever been spent on it.

Set in the same fictional universe as the Deathlands series but separated by a century, Outlanders follows the adventures of a core group of explorers, Kane, Grant, Brigid Baptiste and Domi who operate out of a secret military base known as the Cerberus Redoubt.

Two hundred years after a nuclear holocaust devastated the Earth, the chaos and barbarism as depicted in the Deathlands series gave way to a centralized, despotic government ruled by nine mysterious barons.

Material taken from redoubts, secret pre-holocaust military installations with stores of weapons and the home of the gateways, matter-transfer devices supplied the baronial rule in what was known as the “Program of Unification.”

Rearmed from redoubt stockpiles, the barons consolidated their power and reclaimed very advanced technology created two centuries before by the so-called “Totality Concept”.

Their power bolstered by the invisible authority known only to an elite few as the Archons extended beyond the fortified city-states into what came to be called the Outlands. There, the rootstock of humanity survived, eking out an existence in hellzones and hounded by black-armored Magistrates, the enforcers of the barons’ laws.

When Cobaltville Magistrates Kane and Grant came across a piece of misplaced technology and Brigid Baptiste, an archivist began an investigation on their behalf, they found themselves branded as sedititionists, their citizenship stripped from them and they were reclassified as Outlanders.

Since 1997’s Exile To Hell, the first book in the series, the heroes and heroines of Outlanders slowly uncovered the truth behind the barons, the Archons and the nuclear holocaust and finally the hidden history of humanity.

They learn that Earth and humankind have been influenced since the dawn of time by the reptilian Anunnaki and the Tuatha Dé Danann. They realize that the baronies are a revival of the god-king system of ancient Sumeria.

Besides the nine barons, other threats arise in the early books, namely Sindri, a brilliant but deranged dwarf who rules a secret colony on Mars. First appearing in Parallax Red (1998), Sindri becomes the most persistent foe of the Cerberus warriors, appearing in six novels.

Other recurring enemies include Colonel Thrush, Sam the Imperator, Grigori Zakat and Maccan, the last prince of the Tuatha Dé Danann as well groups such as the Millennial Consortium.

In Shadow Scourge (2000), the heroes contend with Ocajinik, apparently one of H.P. Lovecraft’s Old Ones.

In Children of the Serpent (2005), the Cerberus warriors discover that the nuclear holocaust and the institution of the baronies were part of an ancient plan formulated over a thousand years before by Enlil, the last Anunnaki on Earth in order to reincarnate the pantheon of Sumerian gods and re-establish their rule over the world.

The reincarnated Enlil becomes the Outlanders main villain. He is considerably more evil and powerful than any of the barons, and has much of the knowledge and technology of the Anunnaki.

Employing conspiracy theories and myths from all cultures as underpinnings, Outlanders quickly distanced itself from the gun-fixated survivalist fantasies of Deathlands and struck out in new directions, providing explanations and a backstory for many of the unresolved science-fiction elements in the earlier series.

Despite statements to the contrary, Outlanders was not originally conceived as having any connection whatsoever to Deathlands. The link between the two series came after all the other elements had been envisioned.

I coined the term the “Axlerverse”, which is inclusive of events in both Outlanders and Deathlands-- however there is very little in the way of a cohesive fictional universe in the latter series.

Deathlands never developed much depth in the way of setting and I introduced many new concepts to make the Axlerverse into a plausible fictional world, particularly important in the books published post-2001.

Graphic Audio has been producing highly popular unabridged audio adaptations of the Outlanders series for several years. They feature a full cast of voice actors as well as music and sound effects.

Warlord of the Pit, the 51st book in the Outlanders series was released in November, 2009. 

Autographed copies of all my books will be available for sale here very soon.