FPW Works
The Secret History of the World
The preponderance of my work deals with a history of the world that remains undiscovered, unexplored, and unknown to most of humanity. Some of this secret history has been revealed in the Adversary Cycle, some in the Repairman Jack novels, and bits and pieces in other, seemingly unconnected works. Taken together, even these millions of words barely scratch the surface of what has been going on behind the scenes, hidden from the workaday world. I've listed them below in chronological order. (NB: "Year Zero" is the end of civilization as we know it; "Year Zero Minus One is the year preceding it, etc.)
The Past:
- "Demonsong" (prehistory)
- "Aryans and Absinthe" (1923-1924)
- BLACK WIND (1926-1945)
- THE KEEP (1941)
- REBORN (Feb-Mar 1968)
- "Dat Tay Vao" (Mar 1968)
- JACK: Secret Histories (1983)
Year Zero Minus Three:
- SIBS (February)
- "Faces" (early summer)
- THE TOMB (summer)*
- "The Barrens" (ends in September)
- "A Day in the Life" (October)
- "The Long Way Home"
- LEGACIES (December)
Year Zero Minus Two:
- CONSPIRACIES (April) (includes "Home Repairs")
- "Interlude at Duane's" (April)
- ALL THE RAGE (May) (includes "The Last Rakosh")
- HOSTS (June)
- THE HAUNTED AIR (August)
- GATEWAYS (September)
- CRISSCROSS (November)
- INFERNAL (December)
Year Zero Minus One:
- HARBINGERS (January)
- BLOODLINE (April)
- BY THE SWORD (May)
- THE TOUCH (ends in August)
- The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium (ends in September)
- "Tenants"
- yet-to-be-written Repairman Jack novels
Year Zero:
- "Pelts"
- REPRISAL (ends in February)
- the last Repairman Jack novel (ends in April)
- NIGHTWORLD (starts in May)
*Some of you who read pre-1998 editions of THE TOMB have questioned (and rightfully so) how LEGACIES, so obviously a contemporary novel, could take place only months after THE TOMB, which was definitely set in the mid 1980s.
The answer is simple: I cheated. I changed THE TOMB for the 1998 edition and edited it yet again for the 2006 reissue.
You see, I never planned to bring Jack back. But when I did, I realized I'd either have to set his new stories in the eighties, or go back and change THE TOMB. I chose the latter and removed all references that would moor THE TOMB in a specific era. All editions published since 2006 are what we authors like to call "the preferred text."
All the new Repairman Jack novels loop out from THE TOMB and will weave their way back toward NIGHTWORLD, where the Repairman Jack stories (and just about everything else) end. I don't know how many there'll be at that point, but they won't go on forever. When they stop being fun to write or when I notice I'm starting to repeat myself, I'll quit and move on to something else. Until then . . .
Bloodline Jack has been on hiatus since the events in Harbingers. With his lover Gia's encouragement he dips a toe back into the fix-it pool. Now available! |
Black Wind A strikingly beautiful edition of my "lost" novel, long out of print. After finishing THE TOUCH in 1985, the next story in line returned to WW2, but this time to the Pacific Theater. I'd been reading a few books that recounted how nicely the Pearl Harbor attack played into Roosevelt's desire to go to war against the Axis, hinting that Pearl had been set up. The result was a revisionist historical family saga horror war novel (try saying that fast 3 times) that took me almost two years to write and research. A mix of cultural fanaticism and wrenchingly dark supernatural horror. I'm very proud of BLACK WIND. Looking at it in terms of character development and sweeping plot, it's probably my most accomplished work. I'm delighted it will be back in print. It's got a high price tag, but it's high-quality bookcraft. |
Virgin A two-thousand-year-old scroll is found in the Negev Desert. It describes what might be the final resting place of Mary, the mother of Jesus. To the disappointment of all, the ink is dated as less than a dozen years old. A fake. But one woman believes and goes searching. What she finds will change the world – forever. VIRGIN is a religious thriller of international scope, traipsing through the Judean Wilderness, the shore of the Dead Sea, the River Lee in Ireland, the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Big Sur, and the Central Pacific. It's peopled with various believers and skeptics: a priest and nun who are lovers; a cardinal who has spent his life debunking miracles and is now desperately in need of one; a US Senator with a son dying of AIDS; his vicious chief of security; and Kesev, the mysterious Israeli Shin Bet officer who was derelict in his unofficial life task of guarding the remains of "The Mother" and is determined to retrieve her at any cost. A trade paperback edition at $16.95. The limited edition hardcover is almost sold out, but the good folks at Borderlands Press have decided to make the novel available to the non-collector at a fraction of the hardcover price. It’s now in large-format paperback. |
The Tery This novel had its start in 1971 as a novelette called "He Shall Be Jon." I expanded it to novella length for 1978 publication as "The Tery" in BINARY STARS #2. Unfortunately the accompanying Steve Fabian illustrations were muddy messes due to the printing process. I fleshed it out to novel length for the 1990 Baen version. Last year I did extensive revisions. So here you have the definitive text in hardcover for the first time, with bright, crisp reproductions Fabian's original art, plus new art by Steve Fabian and Courtney Skinner. |
"Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong" (The Audio Version) A fun Yellow Peril story (with the most lurid title I could think of) originally in RETRO PULP TALES edited by Joe Lansdale. I inserted a number of cameo appearances by famous characters; if you can’t identify them you are banned for life from reading anything else I write.
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Pelts The gory video version of my short story, starring Meat Loaf and John Saxon, directed by Dario Argento, is now available on DVD. Amazon has it at a discount. Be warned: Lots of blood, boobs, and booty. |
Do-Gooder Mark of Lavendier Books hit me up at NECon to do a Jack short-short for a broadside. Since I'd never been involved with anything like this before, I knocked out a piece for him. It's a single large sheet - illustrated with a woodcut - designed to be framed. A very small edition (200) of a very small story (700 words). Might not be any left by the time you read this. |
The Last Rakosh Originally a Repairman Jack short story I did for the 1990 World Fantasy Convention program book when I was Guest of Honor. (A copy recently sold for $38.50 on eBay.) It's been virtually impossible to find - until now. I incorporated the story into ALL THE RAGE, but this revised, expanded version is a signed stand-alone with a fabulous cover by Rick Sardinha. (For those of you who've wondered what a rakosh looks like, check out Rick's version.) This revision is unique in that I've combined the original short story (in which Vicky is present) with the new material written for ALL THE RAGE (in which Vicky is not). So this should be a new experience. But be warned: If you've read ALL THE RAGE, you've pretty much read this story. |
The Complete LaNague Federation Series: New large-size, trade paperback editions of the core science fiction novels of the LaNague Federation series (which include all the LaNague short fiction).
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Adversary Cycle Set THE KEEP THE TOUCH RAKOSHI REBORN REPRISAL NIGHTWORLD Borderlands Press has reprinted the Adversary Cycle in a matching set of limited-edition hardcovers. The six volumes fit into a single large slipcase. There are no titles on the spines, only icons to identity each book. The spines of the books, when lined up in order, form a single large painting that integrates all the icons and wraps around the sides of the slipcase. The set includes the 20th anniversary edition of THE TOMB under my original title, RAKOSHI. Once again I've revised the text and contributed a foreword recounting how the title was changed. Here's a chance to own a hardcover edition for a sensible price. |
The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium |
February
SECRET HISTORIES
A 500-copy signed first edition of the first of three Repairman Jack novels for young adults. Scheduled for February.
May
BY THE SWORD
A 500-copy signed first edition of the first of the 12th Repairman Jack novel. Scheduled for spring.
June
JACK: SECRET HISTORIES
The trade hardcover of the 1st young adult RJ novel.
October
BLOODLINE
The paperback edition of the 11th RJ novel November BY THE SWORD - the trade hardcover edition of the 12th RJ novel
I'll assume you know who Repairman Jack is. (I doubt you'd be here if you didn't.) But you may not know that Jack arose from a dream. The scene on the roof in The Tomb was the dream. I worked backward and forward from there to create a character who could survive that situation. I have a wide libertarian streak, so I figured I’d make this guy an anarchic urban mercenary with no identity.
By the time I reached the end of The Tomb, I realized I had a series character. I didn't feel I was ready to write a series then, so I left him bleeding to death at the end.
But the guy wouldn't die. The Tomb never went out of print, and through the years it amassed a huge following. So after 14 years of pleas from readers, I wrote a second Repairman Jack novel. Legacies was so much fun I had to do another, and it’s been a book a year since then.
But this is not an open-ended series. I will not run Jack into the ground. I'm figuring on ending his saga around 2012 or so, with book sixteen or seventeen.
Bloodline Jack has been on hiatus since the events in Harbingers. With his lover Gia's encouragement he dips a toe back into the fix-it pool. |
Harbingers It starts off so simply: Jack, still feeling down after the tragic events of Infernal, is hanging in Julio’s when a regular named Timmy asks him for help. His teenage niece has been missing since this morning; the police say it’s too early to worry, but Timmy knows something bad has happened. Jack says he’ll put the word out on the street. This innocent request triggers a chain of seemingly coincidental events that lead Jack into the darkest days of his life. As has become evident in the series, Jack has been singled out, unwillingly, as the champion of one of the two supernatural forces contending for control of all human life on Earth. Neither of these forces are good or evil, just dangerous and amoral. They value and notice individual humans about as much as we do mosquitos. Jack is desperate . . . and the last thing you want to do is make Jack desperate. That’s when things begin to blow up and people begin to die. A hang-onto-your-hat-and-heart thriller of triumph and tragedy that barrels along at F. Paul Wilson’s trademark breakneck pace. |
Infernal The ninth Repairman Jack novel begins with a tragedy that throws Jack together with his brother Tom, a judge from Philadelphia. They've never been close and Jack, the career criminal, soon finds that he adheres to a higher ethical standard than his brother the judge. Determined to get to know his brother better, Tom convinces Jack to go on a wild treasure hunt together. Armed only with a map pointing the way to a desolate wreck off the coast of Bermuda, the brothers come across something much stranger, and much more dangerous than mere treasure. |
Crisscross Jack can fix any problem, supernatural or otherwise, for a price. Now, in his latest gripping adventure, he takes on two cases at once. The first involves a nun being blackmailed by someone who has photos of her she doesn't want made public. What's in those photos, she won't say, but with her meager savings just about exhausted, she hires Jack to help her. The second seems straightforward enough, as an elderly woman hires Jack to find her missing son. But to locate his quarry, Jack must infiltrate the inner reaches of the Dormentalist Church, a secretive, globe-spanning cult whose members include some of the biggest and most powerful names in entertainment, sports, and politics. Ruthless in its pursuit of critics and enemies, the Church hides a sinister agenda known only to its ruling elite. But Jack can be ruthless, too, going to darker lengths than ever before as he crisscrosses the two fix-it jobs to settle the deadliest of scores! |
Gateways Another riveting episode in the saga of Repairman Jack, the secretive, ingenious, and heroic champion of those whose problems no one else can solve. Jack learns that his father is in a coma after a car accident in Florida. In the hospital he meets Anya, one of his father's neighbors. She's a weird old duck who seems to know an awful lot about his father, and even a lot about Jack. Jack's arrival does not go unnoticed. A young woman named Semelee, who has strange talents and lives in an isolated area of the Everglades with a group of misshapen men, feels his presence. She senses that he's "special," like her. Who is Anya? Who is Semelee, and what is her connection to the recent strange deaths of Gateways residents-killed by birds, spiders, and snakes-during the past year? And what are the "lights" Jack keeps hearing about-? Lights that emanate twice a year from a sinkhole deep in the Everglades . . . lights from another place, another reality. If he is to protect his father from becoming the next fatality at Gateways, there are questions Jack must answer, secrets he must uncover.Secrets . . . Jack has plenty of his own, and along the way he learns that even his father has secrets. |
The Haunted Air In Astoria, Queens, the lively ethnic neighborhood just across the river from Manhattan, a house is being haunted by the ghost of a nine-year-old girl in riding clothes. More than two decades before, she'd been abducted from stables in Brooklyn. Now it's up to Jack to uncover the truth of her story and liberate the pretty, blond spirit. Perhaps the answer is in the odd little store called the Shurio Coppe? Ah, but that would be telling. Jack does things no human being should be able to do, but we watch, in horrified fascination, as the forces of evil seem about to triumph and fill the world with eternal darkness. And then but you must read the book. |
Hosts After fifteen years of separation, Jack is contacted by his long-lost sister, Kate, to help her track down the source of her girlfriend Jeanette's sudden trance-like behavior. Referred by a mysterious stranger who gives only Jack's name and phone number, Kate is shocked to find out that the "repairman" she seeks is none other than her little brother-and not altogether happy to find out what little "Jackie" has been doing with himself for all these years. With Jack leading the way, Kate finds out that Jeannette's behavior can be traced back to the experimental therapy she underwent for a brain tumor: now Jeannette's brain and those of several other subjects are infected by a mutated virus. Like any good virus, it wants to multiply-and if Jack can't stop the virus in its path, there will be deadly results. Meanwhile, Jack is traveling on the 9 train when suddenly a passenger goes berserk and starts shooting at random-leaving Jack no choice but to throw himself into the spotlight by putting the shooter down. Worse for Jack, one of his fellow passengers is a reporter for the local tabloid, The Light, who sees Jack's heroism as his ticket to journalistic stardom. The reporter promises to make Jack a celebrity hero, a householdname-which could mean the end of Repairman Jack as we know him. |
All The Rage A new chemical compound, a non-addictive designer drug that heightens your assertiveness, opens the door to your primal self, giving you an edge wherever you compete—whether on the street or the football field, in a classroom or a boardroom. Wouldn’t you be tempted to try it . . . just once? Jack is hired by Dr. Nadia Radzminsky, a young researcher who’s concerned about the safety of her boss and mentor. She fears he’s being threatened or blackmailed by high-profile hood Milos Dragovic. Jack pokes around and soon finds himself knee deep in the glossy underworld of designer drugs. The hot new substance that’s sweeping the city goes by many names, but its most common street handle is Berzerk. Not just for all-night raves, it’s worming its way into daily life at all levels. Used in just the right amount, it enhances performance in any field; but take too much and you veer into mindless murderous rage. The street folk don’t call it Berzerk for nothing. As Jack tracks Berzerk through a maze of legal and illegal pharmaceuticals, he makes an enemy of Milos Dragovic. Soon Dragovic’s goons are threatening those Jack holds most dear. And when Jack uncovers the terrifying truth behind Berzerk’s ultimate source, he realizes that a maleficent force far greater than Milos Dragovic is at work . . . and Jack, and Nadia and everyone they love are in far more danger than they could have imagined. |
Conspiracies Repairman Jack, F. Paul Wilson's vigilante hero from 1984's New York Times bestseller The Tomb and 1998's Legacies, returns in a thriller that thrusts Jack back into the weird, supernatural world that he thrives in. Looking for clues to the mysterious disappearance of leading conspiracy theorist Melanie Ehler, Jack attends a convention of bizarre and avid conspiracy theorists. It's a place where aliens are real, the government is out to get you, and the world is hurtling toward an inevitable war of good versus evil incarnate. Jack finds that nobody can be trusted—and that few people are what they seem. Worse yet, Jack's been having vivid dreams that make him wonder whether he's headed for a clash with his own past—maybe The Tomb's evil rakoshi bests aren't through with him quite yet. Order Now: Amazon Barnes & Noble
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Legacies Repairman Jack isn't your average appliance repairman. He fixes situations for people, often risking his own life. Jack has no last name, no social security number, works only for cash, and has no qualms when it comes to seeing that the job gets done. Dr. Alicia Clayton, a pediatrician who treats children with AIDS, is full of secrets, and she has just inherited a house that holds another. Haunted by painful memories, Alicia wants the house destroyed but somehow everyone she enlists to help ends up violently killed. The house holds a powerful secret, and Alicia's charmless brother Thomas seems willing to do anything to get his hands on that secret himself. But not if Repairman Jack can find it first! Order Now: Amazon Barnes & Noble
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The Tomb Much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Gia, Repairman Jack doesn’t deal with electronic appliances—he fixes situations for people, situations that usually involve putting himself in deadly danger. His latest project is recovering a stolen necklace, which carries with it an ancient curse that may unleash a horde of Bengali demons. Jack is used to danger, but this time Gia’s daughter Vicky is threatened. Can Jack overcome the curse of the yellow necklace and bring Vicky safely back home? Order Now: |
A Day In The Life "The Last Rakosh" "Home Repairs" "The Long Way Home" The Wringer "Interlude at Duane's" |
The LaNague Federation future history developed from my long-term disdain for that hoary SF cliché, the galactic empire. Really, even with a faster-than-light-drive, the idea an iron-fisted centralized power micromanaging a collection of worlds spanning dozens of light years is absurd. My concept was a little more practical: a loose confederation of colonized worlds left pretty much to their own devices with a centralized Big Stick hanging over them to dampen any aggressive or acquisitive tendencies. In other words: Hands Off. Laissez Faire.
What a concept. It’s called libertarianism. It affronts the Left with its espousal of a free-market economy, and scandalizes the Right with its advocacy of legalized drugs and prostitution. From the outset I wanted my science fiction to incorporate this odd but fundamentally consistent view of the world. It felt right. Lots of SF concerns aliens, and libertarianism seemed pretty damn alien to just about everyone I knew.
Along the way, I coined the anagram KYFHO to capsulize the Federation’s underlying philosophy. The term seems to have taken on a life of its own. Google it and you’ll get thousands of hits. I’ve even seen a KYFHO license plate.
And it all started here.
The Tery Heroes don't always He was a tery, a lean, bearish creature with no name. The human soldiers left dead. Just another dumb animal on their extermination list. But he didn't die. Animals weren't the only beings on the list. Certain humans were marked for extinction as well. A fugitive band found him and brought him back from the brink. He became their pet, their mascot. And still he had no name. He was simply "the tery." He soon learned that these were no ordinary humans, and learned too that he was no ordinary tery. The humans had no idea that the creature they fed table scraps and patted on the head would soon turn their world upside down and change it forever. By then he had a name. THE TERY - A beauty-and-the-beast fable that only F. Paul Wilson could tell, full of wonder and horror, brimming with strange landscapes and hideous mutations from science run amok. An unforgettable tale of the extremes of the human spirit--of bravery and depravity, of innocence and evil. |
Dydeetown World DYDEETOWN WORLD started as a quiet little SF tribute to Raymond Chandler whose work has given me such pleasure over the years. I was going to use all the clichés—the down-and-out private eye, his seedy friends, the tired, seamy city, the bar hang-out, the ruthless mobster, the whore with the heart of gold. And I was going to set it in the far future, the future I had developed for my LaNague Federation science fiction stories. But this was going to be different. Rather than bright and full of hope like its predecessors, I set this on the grimy, disillusioned underbelly of that future. I wanted to move through the LaNague future at ground level, take a hard look at the social fall-out of the food shortages, the population-control measures, the wires into the pleasure centers of the brain—things I'd glossed over or mentioned only in passing before. But despite the downbeat milieu, the story would be about freedom, friendship, and self-esteem. One scene in “Dydeetown Girl” involves a tyrannosaurus rex used as a guard animal. That’s right: In a story written in 1985 I used a dinosaur cloned from reconstituted fossil DNA, but I tossed it off as background color. If only I’d thought to stick a bunch of them in a park . . . Order Now: |
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The Adversary Cycle didn’t start out as a cycle. I like doing connected stories – future histories or separate stories sharing the same milieu, like the Village of Monroe – but I had no intention of doing a series. The first three novels of the cycle (The Keep, The Tomb, and The Touch) were intended as stand alones, completely unrelated. They shared no characters or themes.
Then I went to work on a new novel that was also meant to be a stand-alone. I wanted it to look like a Rosemary's Baby or an Omen but actually be something different (just as The Keep looks like a vampire novel for a while, but is not). I wanted to use an evil entity other than the tired old Antichrist, but who? Then I realized I already had that entity in Rasalom from The Keep. I needed a suburban setting convenient to Manhattan, and realized I already had one in Monroe where The Touch took place. I became intrigued by the challenge of tying those two novels, and The Tomb as well, into Rasalom's reincarnation, bringing the books full circle. It worked so well that I suspect my subconscious might have been linking them all along.
The result was a 1,000-plus-page novel. Nobody was going to publish that, so I broke it into three parts – Reborn, Reprisal, and Nightworld.
Adversary Cycle Set THE KEEP RAKOSHI THE TOUCH REBORN REPRISAL NIGHTWORLD Borderlands Press has reprinted the Adversary Cycle in a matching set of limited-edition hardcovers. The six volumes fit into a single large slipcase. There are no titles on the spines, only icons to identity each book. The spines of the books, when lined up in order, form a single large painting that integrates all the icons and wraps around the sides of the slipcase. The set includes the 20th anniversary edition of THE TOMB under my original title, RAKOSHI. Once again I've revised the text and contributed a foreword recounting how the title was changed. Here's a chance to own a hardcover edition for a sensible price. |
The Keep (Mass Market) The Keep (Borderlands Edition) "Something is murdering my men." Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. And when an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find a something that's both powerful and terrifying. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore--who just happens to be Jewish--to shed some light on the mysterious happenings. And unbeknownst to anyone, there is another visitor on his way--a man who awoke from a nightmare and immediately set out to meet his destiny. The battle has begun: On one side, the ultimate evil created by man, and on the other...the unthinkable, unstoppable, unknowing terror that man has inevitably awakened. Order Now: Amazon Barnes & Noble |
The Tomb (Mass Market) Rakoshi ("The Tomb" Borderlands Edition) Much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Gia, Repairman Jack doesn’t deal with electronic appliances—he fixes situations for people, situations that usually involve putting himself in deadly danger. His latest project is recovering a stolen necklace, which carries with it an ancient curse that may unleash a horde of Bengali demons. Jack is used to danger, but this time Gia’s daughter Vicky is threatened. Can Jack overcome the curse of the yellow necklace and bring Vicky safely back home? Order Now: Amazon Barnes & Noble |
The Touch Suddenly he could work miracles. After a dozen years of practicing medicine, Dr. Alan Bulmer discovers that he can cure any illness with a mere touch of his hand. But there is a balance to be struck . . . a price to be paid for this healing touch. And Alan Bulmer has only begun to pay Order Now: Amazon Barnes & Noble
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Novels that are not part of a series are listed below. Please note that some of these novels may be hard to come by, but if you scour second-hand book stores, you can often find these gems.
Black Wind A strikingly beautiful edition of my "lost" novel, long out of print. After finishing THE TOUCH in 1985, the next story in line returned to WW2, but this time to the Pacific Theater. I'd been reading a few books that recounted how nicely the Pearl Harbor attack played into Roosevelt's desire to go to war against the Axis, hinting that Pearl had been set up. The result was a revisionist historical family saga horror war novel (try saying that fast 3 times) that took me almost two years to write and research. A mix of cultural fanaticism and wrenchingly dark supernatural horror. I'm very proud of BLACK WIND. Looking at it in terms of character development and sweeping plot, it's probably my most accomplished work. I'm delighted it will be back in print. It's got a high price tag, but it's high-quality bookcraft. Order Now: |
Sibs In an attempt to solve the mystery of her twin sister's death in a 12-story plunge from a hotel room, Kara Wade uncovers a bizarre world of sex and violence--and worse. Something strange and evil lurks in her sister's past that Kara must conquer. |
The Select Quinn Cleary is smart, idealistic and poor. She's been accepted at The Ingraham, a prestigious medical school, where a select few receive the finest education free of charge. But something is terribly wrong at The Ingraham. Quinn notices subtle changes in the bright, hand-picked students. Then she stumbles upon the silent, staring patients in locked Ward C. |
Implant A novel of chilling, medical suspense, written by a practicing physician. Young doctor Gina Panzella respects her boss, plastic surgeon Duncan Lathram, whose invention of a dissolving implant that allows incisions to heal without scarring has won him worldwide acclaim. But her curiosity about what ruined Duncan's personal life soon leads Gina to a lethal discovery. Order Now: |
Virgin A two-thousand-year-old scroll is found in the Negev Desert. It describes what might be the final resting place of Mary, the mother of Jesus. To the disappointment of all, the ink is dated as less than a dozen years old. A fake. But one woman believes and goes searching. What she finds will change the world – forever. VIRGIN is a religious thriller of international scope, traipsing through the Judean Wilderness, the shore of the Dead Sea, the River Lee in Ireland, the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Big Sur, and the Central Pacific. It's peopled with various believers and skeptics: a priest and nun who are lovers; a cardinal who has spent his life debunking miracles and is now desperately in need of one; a US Senator with a son dying of AIDS; his vicious chief of security; and Kesev, the mysterious Israeli Shin Bet officer who was derelict in his unofficial life task of guarding the remains of "The Mother" and is determined to retrieve her at any cost. A trade paperback edition at $16.95. The limited edition hardcover is almost sold out, but the good folks at Borderlands Press have decided to make the novel available to the non-collector at a fraction of the hardcover price. It’s now in large-format paperback. |
Deep as the Marrow Crackpots and left-wingers have talked about it for years, but no one with any real authority has ever considered it. It would be political suicide. But President Thomas Winston has taken the boldest and most bizarre step in the War on Drugs that the United States has ever seen. Vowing to make narcotics legal and to tax and regulate them to the brink of extinction, he intends to take the billions of dollars generated from their sale out of the hands of the drug cartels and move the money into the government's coffers. The conservatives and the Bible Belt are outraged. They swear they'll fight to the death to defeat the President's proposal and see him impeached. The drug lords laugh - they're sure decriminalization will never happen. But then important and respected figures begin to speak out in the media, guardedly supporting President Winston's ideas. Security at the White House is the tightest in its history as death threats pour in daily in ever-increasing numbers. Winston is not concerned. His men are handpicked, the best in the world. Nothing can get to him before he attends the International Drug Summit at The Hague. But they can get to Dr. John VanDuyne, Winston's personal physician and oldest friend, and the one man who can have an audience with the Chief Executive at any time. Someone has kidnapped the doctor's little girl and all he has to do to get her back is poison his best friend - the President of the United States. Order Now: |
Mirage Samantha Gordon has doctors mystified: There is no known physical cause for her deep coma. Nonetheless, Samantha is dying. Her only hope is her twin sister, Julia, a research scientist who has invented a virtual reality program that will let Julia enter Samantha's mind. The risks? Inescapable madness and sudden death. For once Julia enters the erotic, mysterious landscape of her sister's memories, she must relive them. And in this dark world of macabre revelations a killer is hiding, and the race for own life will begin. Order Now: |
Nightkill Jack Nacht knows how to take risks and believes in justice, even if it's of the skewed sort. he's one of the best at what he doesand what he does is kill people for a living. But it's a young man's game and he wants out. And his instincts are right. When Jake reluctantly agrees to go on one last hit, he's double-crossed, and ends up completely paralyzed. The mob thinks he's done a deal. But what they don't know is that a brilliant doctor has developed a dangerous and deadly new technique. And if he succeeds, Jack Nacht will not only walk away againbut might also get a shot at revenge. Order Now: |
Masque Tristan is the perfect spy: He has no identity, no family, no friends, no face, no rights. Tristan is a "mime." Not a street clown...not at all...but an artificially created and cloned human whose metamorphic DNA can be programmed to transform him into a "masque" - a perfect genetic copy of anyone, even an imagined creature. Owned by warring corporate city-states, mimes can be turned into tireless workers, monstrous gladiators, covert agents - until the stress of assuming masques triggers a meltdown in a mime's flesh. Earning Selfhood - citizenship and a permanent form - is a mime's sole hope for survival. And for Tristan, Selfhood is one mission away. To claim it, he must enter the heart of an enemy corporation's impenetrable nerve center, steal top-secret data, and escape through a lawless, surreal hell of psychopathic cults and mutant undergrounds. Order Now: |
Sims F. Paul Wilson turns his attention to the day after tomorrow and shows us how genetic engineering might change the world. Just a few hundred genes separate humans from chimpanzees. Imagine someone altering the chimp genome, splicing in human genes to increase the size of the cranium, reduce the amount of body hair, enable speech. What sort of creature would result? Sims takes place in the very near future, when the science of genetics is fulfilling its vaunted potential. It's a world where genetically transmitted diseases are being eliminated. A world where dangerous or boring manual labor is gradually being transferred to "sims," genetically altered chimps who occupy a gray zone between simian and human. The chief innovator in this world is SimGen, which owns the patent on the sim genome and has begun leasing the creatures worldwide. But SimGen is not quite what it seems. It has secrets . . . secrets beyond patents and proprietary processes . . . secrets it will go to any lengths to protect. Sims explores this brave new world as it is turned upside down and torn apart when lawyer Patrick Sullivan decides to try to unionize the sims. Right now, as you read these words, some company somewhere in the world is toying with the chimp genome. That is not fiction, it is fact. Sims is a science thriller that will come true. One way or another. Order Now: |
Artifact The discovery of four stones of non-Earthly origin triggers a deadly race to find the final piece and complete the mysterious artifact. Order Now: |
Midnight Mass Vampires have always lived in Eastern Europe. But with the fall of the Soviet Union, they began to spread across the continent, then the world, turning whole populations into vampires or human cattle. Having overrun India, the far East, and the great cities of North and South America, the forces of Night are now spreading into the countryside to consolidate their conquest. In a town on the New Jersey shore, the vampires have just arrived, along with their human henchmen, the cowboys, who round up human cattle for the overlords in return for the promise of eternal life later. For the vampires wish only a few of their own kind to rule, and feed. The rest of humanity are to be helpless herds, the source of the blood of life. Falsely accused of abuse, Father Dan is drunk in a basement waiting for the end. His superior has betrayed the local Catholic congregation and become a vampire. Sister Carolyn has become a formidable killer of cowboys and vampires. Dan's niece, escaped from the conquest of New York, has made her way south to find him. Brought together by Rabbi Zev Wolpin, who is shaken by the vampires' fear of the cross and holy water, they plan their resistance. Against all odds, they discover that there just might be a way for humanity to really fight back. But first they will have to kill the vampire king of New York. Order Now: |
The Fifth Harmonic The Fifth Harmonic is the story of Will Burleigh, a hard-nosed M.D. When he is diagnosed with throat cancer he faces a gut-wrenching decision: undergo massive radiation and radical surgery that will leave him permanently disfigured or trust his life to the mysterious and beautiful Maya, a woman who claims she can heal him-but at what cost? A fast-paced thriller. Order Now: |
The Christmas Thingy Eight-year-old Jessica Atkins wants a monster for Christmas. Not a big, mean monster; more of a friendly little one to play with when she comes home from school, and maybe scare away the mice who live in her big old London house. But the old housekeeper, Mrs. Murgatroyd, warns her against wishing for a monster in this house. Exactly one hundred years ago the Christmas Thingy visited this very house and stole a load of Christmas presents. As Mrs. Murgatroyd’s mum used to say, “Like a rose must bloom and a pig must squeal, a cow must moo and a thingy must steal. It simply must.” Be careful what you wish for, Jessica. A heartwarming story for all ages. When the transforming power of friendship is combined with the magic of the Christmas season, anything can happen. |
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Adversary Cycle Set THE KEEP RAKOSHI THE TOUCH REBORN REPRISAL NIGHTWORLD Borderlands Press has reprinted the Adversary Cycle in a matching set of limited-edition hardcovers. The six volumes fit into a single large slipcase. There are no titles on the spines, only icons to identity each book. The spines of the books, when lined up in order, form a single large painting that integrates all the icons and wraps around the sides of the slipcase. The set includes the 20th anniversary edition of THE TOMB under my original title, RAKOSHI. Once again I've revised the text and contributed a foreword recounting how the title was changed. Here's a chance to own a hardcover edition for a sensible price.
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The Complete LaNague Federation Series: New large-size, trade paperback editions of the core science fiction novels of the LaNague Federation series (which include all the LaNague short fiction). |
Soft & Others It's subtitled "16 Stories of Wonder and Dread." That's fairly accurate: 16 stories from my first 16 years as a writer. But it could also be subtitled: "Watch Wilson Learn to Write." I look back on these stories and see only their warts - a young writer searching for and finally finding his voice. But readers tell me time and time again it's their favorite collection. Who am I to argue? Order Now: |
The Barrens & Others The Barrens and Others is the first new collection of fiction in years by bestselling author F. Paul Wilson. From The Keep, nearly twenty years ago, to this year's Legacies, Wilson has been one of the most dependable names for fine storytelling in whatever genre he chooses. In The Barren and Others, Wilson lets his fertile imagination run wild, traveling from the Old West of Doc Holliday to the Pine Barrens of present-day New jersey and encountering many strange, suspect, and supernatural happenings along the way. From urban mercenary Repairman Jack, hero of Wilson's recent novel, Legacies, to the obese and food-obsessed Topsy, Wilson's wild array of characters get caught up in adventures both fascinating and horrifying. A first -rate collection of first-rate tales, ranging from Lovecraftian to Western supernatural, with many mysterious combination in between, The Barrens and Others will be a treasure for Wilson's established fans and to those discovering Wilson for the first time. Order Now:
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Freak Show FREAK SHOW is an anthology of 17 horror stories centered around a traveling circus. Assembling it took a year of my life and interfered with my own writing projects. But I was 90% satisfied with the outcome. The paperback was truly ugly, but I was especially pleased with the Borderlands Press edition (one of the most beautiful hardcovers I've ever been in). Phil Parks did the cover (a brilliant sideshow poster) and the interior art. My idea (for the hardcover only) was to write Phil himself into my backstory as an artist who was hanging around, sketching the freaks. Phil's artwork was given the look of pages torn from a sketch pad. This integration of art, artist, and story makes the hardcover unique. In 2007 I assembled and expanded my own story and all my interstitial material into "The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus and Oddity Emporium" for a small press. Order Now: |
Diagnosis: Terminal From alternative medicine to murder, F.Paul Wilson's Diagnosis: Terminal reveals terrors surgical, psychological, and institutional. In stark, operating-room light these fourteen writers take scalpel and pen to the body and soul of humanity as it lies stretched out on the stainless-steel page. Rendered in laser-sharp detail, these incisive narrative reveal our needs, our hurts, our desires, and our fears. This unsettling anthology submerges us in the near-witchcraft methods of a nineteenth abortionist and awes us with a post-apocalypse future where autistic mutants telepathically remove pain. But more than anything, it gives us frightening real glimpses of ourselves and a nightmarish medical future that may be here in five minutesif it's not already. Featuring stories by F. Paul Wilson, Bill Pronzini, Chet Williamson, Matthew Costello, Billie Sue Mosiman, Steve Spruill, Richard Lee Byers, Thomas F. Monteleone, Tina L.Jens, Ridley Pearson, Jack Nimersheim, Brunch H. Rogers, Ed Gorman, and Karl Edward Wagner. Order Now: |
Completely Doomed This special collection hearkens back to the best creepy, eerie horror comics of yesteryear, only these feature the added bonus of being adapted from stories by horror literature legends Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, David J. Schow and Paul F. Wilson by comics luminaries like Ashley Wood, Ted McKeever and many more. Completely Doomed features the Eisner-nominated "Blood Son" by Wood and Chris Ryall, and 15 other adapted tales of wretched excess and predestined downfall, all presided over by the macabre madame, Ms. Doomed.
Order Now: Barnes & Noble |
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Coming Soon.
The Keep Based on F. Paul Wilson's brilliant novel of the same name, this movie is not a favorite among fans and certainly not a favorite of F. Paul Wilson's. You've been warned. Nazis are sent to guard an old, mysterious fortress in a Romanian pass. One of them mistakenly releases an unknown force trapped within the walls. A mysterious stranger senses this from his home in Greece and travels to the keep to vanquish the force. As soldiers are killed, a Jewish man and his daughter (who are both knowledgable of the keep) are brought in to find out what is happening. Written by Brian House {ohmigod@ix.netcom.com} Order Now: |
Midnight Mass Based on F. Paul Wilson's novel of the same name. A group of people fight for their small town after vampires take over the world. Available at your |
Pelts The gory video version of my short story, starring Meat Loaf and John Saxon, directed by Dario Argento, is now available on DVD. Amazon has it at a discount. Be warned: Lots of blood, boobs, and booty. |
Others “Converted to film, Wilson’s stories gain new dimensions through the talents of these young filmmakers.” Over the years I've let young filmmakers adapt some of my stories into short films. I don't charge them for the rights and they're not allowed to use the films for commercial purposes. Think of them more as calling cards they can show at festivals to demonstrate their talents. Earlier this year I agreed to let three of them collect their films on a single DVD and make a few bucks. Here's another review. The 3 shorts in Others: “Foet” (12 min.) Pro Lifer Denise falls in love with Manhattan’s latest fashion trend: handbags made out of fetal skin. “Traps” (18 min.) Hank begins a game of cat and mouse when his attic is overrun with what he believes to be mice. “Lipidleggin’” (9 min.) In a near future where government controls what we eat, one man makes a stand for freedom of choice. The nice profit is a bonus. Order Now: |
Click here to download chronological bibliography (Word Format)
Coming Soon.
"Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong" (The Audio Version) A fun Yellow Peril story (with the most lurid title I could think of) originally in RETRO PULP TALES edited by Joe Lansdale. I inserted a number of cameo appearances by famous characters; if you can’t identify them you are banned for life from reading anything else I write. |
Black Wind A strikingly beautiful edition of my "lost" novel, long out of print. After finishing THE TOUCH in 1985, the next story in line returned to WW2, but this time to the Pacific Theater. I'd been reading a few books that recounted how nicely the Pearl Harbor attack played into Roosevelt's desire to go to war against the Axis, hinting that Pearl had been set up. The result was a revisionist historical family saga horror war novel (try saying that fast 3 times) that took me almost two years to write and research. A mix of cultural fanaticism and wrenchingly dark supernatural horror. I'm very proud of BLACK WIND. Looking at it in terms of character development and sweeping plot, it's probably my most accomplished work. I'm delighted it will be back in print. It's got a high price tag, but it's high-quality bookcraft. |
Virgin A two-thousand-year-old scroll is found in the Negev Desert. It describes what might be the final resting place of Mary, the mother of Jesus. To the disappointment of all, the ink is dated as less than a dozen years old. A fake. But one woman believes and goes searching. What she finds will change the world – forever. VIRGIN is a religious thriller of international scope, traipsing through the Judean Wilderness, the shore of the Dead Sea, the River Lee in Ireland, the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Big Sur, and the Central Pacific. It's peopled with various believers and skeptics: a priest and nun who are lovers; a cardinal who has spent his life debunking miracles and is now desperately in need of one; a US Senator with a son dying of AIDS; his vicious chief of security; and Kesev, the mysterious Israeli Shin Bet officer who was derelict in his unofficial life task of guarding the remains of "The Mother" and is determined to retrieve her at any cost. A trade paperback edition at $16.95. The limited edition hardcover is almost sold out, but the good folks at Borderlands Press have decided to make the novel available to the non-collector at a fraction of the hardcover price. It’s now in large-format paperback. |
The Tery This novel had its start in 1971 as a novelette called "He Shall Be Jon." I expanded it to novella length for 1978 publication as "The Tery" in BINARY STARS #2. Unfortunately the accompanying Steve Fabian illustrations were muddy messes due to the printing process. I fleshed it out to novel length for the 1990 Baen version. Last year I did extensive revisions. So here you have the definitive text in hardcover for the first time, with bright, crisp reproductions Fabian's original art, plus new art by Steve Fabian and Courtney Skinner. |
Do-Gooder Mark of Lavendier Books hit me up at NECon to do a Jack short-short for a broadside. Since I'd never been involved with anything like this before, I knocked out a piece for him. It's a single large sheet - illustrated with a woodcut - designed to be framed. A very small edition (200) of a very small story (700 words). Might not be any left by the time you read this. |
The Last Rakosh Originally a Repairman Jack short story I did for the 1990 World Fantasy Convention program book when I was Guest of Honor. (A copy recently sold for $38.50 on eBay.) It's been virtually impossible to find - until now. I incorporated the story into ALL THE RAGE, but this revised, expanded version is a signed stand-alone with a fabulous cover by Rick Sardinha. (For those of you who've wondered what a rakosh looks like, check out Rick's version.) This revision is unique in that I've combined the original short story (in which Vicky is present) with the new material written for ALL THE RAGE (in which Vicky is not). So this should be a new experience. But be warned: If you've read ALL THE RAGE, you've pretty much read this story. |
The Complete LaNague Federation Series: New large-size, trade paperback editions of the core science fiction novels of the LaNague Federation series (which include all the LaNague short fiction). |
Adversary Cycle Set THE KEEP THE TOUCH RAKOSHI REBORN REPRISAL NIGHTWORLD Borderlands Press has reprinted the Adversary Cycle in a matching set of limited-edition hardcovers. The six volumes fit into a single large slipcase. There are no titles on the spines, only icons to identity each book. The spines of the books, when lined up in order, form a single large painting that integrates all the icons and wraps around the sides of the slipcase. The set includes the 20th anniversary edition of THE TOMB under my original title, RAKOSHI. Once again I've revised the text and contributed a foreword recounting how the title was changed. Here's a chance to own a hardcover edition for a sensible price. |
The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium
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The Christmas Thingy Eight-year-old Jessica Atkins wants a monster for Christmas. Not a big, mean monster; more of a friendly little one to play with when she comes home from school, and maybe scare away the mice who live in her big old London house. But the old housekeeper, Mrs. Murgatroyd, warns her against wishing for a monster in this house. Exactly one hundred years ago the Christmas Thingy visited this very house and stole a load of Christmas presents. As Mrs. Murgatroyd’s mum used to say, “Like a rose must bloom and a pig must squeal, a cow must moo and a thingy must steal. It simply must.” Be careful what you wish for, Jessica. A heartwarming story for all ages. When the transforming power of friendship is combined with the magic of the Christmas season, anything can happen. |