The Book Of Ruin
WINNER OF THE 2020 INDIEREADER DISCOVERY AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION
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After solar storms plunged the world into a Second Dark Age, descendants of American soldiers trapped in Germania defend the last NATO outpost. Mysterious people called the Vucari emerge from the Asiatic Steppes. NATO sends Senior Chief Loveboy Weir and a team of rangers to investigate. Traveling in anti-gravity “skimmers,” they visit the beautiful city-state of New Reykjavik, mountains where giant eagles are used to hunt enemies, and a floating monastery where monks protect the Book of Ruin. They also encounter Vladimir the Resurrected, the Vucari’s warrior prince, who claims to want peace but leaves devastation wherever he goes. Weir struggles to convince NATO not to trust Vladimir. While politicians and clerics make backroom deals to appease Vladimir, Weir and his friends prepare for war they fear is coming…
The Flashfall Sword
IndieReader Approved and Readers’ Favorite Recommended. The Flashfall Sword is a follow-up to W.G. Hladky’s award-winning debut novel, The Book of Ruin.
Senior Chief Weir’s great grandsire, Ranger Lovecraft Weir, wields his Flashfall sword in the service of NATO at a time when a Dark Age torments the lands.
A deadly pestilence spreads, mutating with terrifying efficiency.
Shadowlanders flay enemies and ply women with potions to make them dimwitted and submissive.
And young boys undergo grisly rites of passage to teach them to follow the Lord of Putridity.
Only NATO keeps the Shadowlanders and pestilence at bay.
But when a traitor betrays the alliance, and Shadowlander tribes come together to annihilate all those who are unseeded, NATO must overcome catastrophic losses and face its greatest challenge yet…
Ranger Knights
IndieReader Approved and Readers’ Favorite Recommended for the third novel in The Book of Ruin series.
Drug-addicted Mutilators possess a book of secrets that a master scholar needs to protect his people.
Vicious Skinweavers threaten to flay the pontiff’s abducted nephew.
Inquisitors traumatize a princess’s mind, rendering her useless at the very moment she is negotiating an essential alliance.
Mysterious Sea People raid coastal settlements to increase their stock of slaves.
Only American RangerKnights, post-apocalyptic paladins, have the skills and weaponry to help.
The Andatunisian emir orders his inexperienced son, Prince Asem, to accompany the RangerKnights…
The Last Skinweaver
Readers’ Favorite gave this fourth novel in The Book of Ruin series a Five-Star recommendation.
To escape his father’s despotic claw, Roge Callan changes his name to serve as a sergeant under a banished RangerKnight. They live among former enemies, the Skinweavers, who seek help to find a path out of their barbaric tribal past.
But the benevolent Widow Witches and their sentient Yetis have gone missing, and only someone with Widow Witch blood can find and rescue them. Unbeknownst to Roge, he has the blood and is the League of American Castles’ only option. In a hobbled and sabotaged swiftship called the Drunken Stork, Roge pulls together a small crew of misfits and travels from Mitteleuropa to Russia to the Middle Kingdom. They confront along the way ambushers, pestilence, vicious chimeric predators and titanic storms.
However, Roge is not the only one with problems…
In The Time Of The Flash
Readers’ Favorite gave this fifth novel in The Book of Ruin series a Five-Star recommendation.
On a day like any other, a series of powerful coronal mass ejections hit Earth, fryingmuch of the planet’s tech infrastructure. The world doesn’t collapse overnight, and Abigail Tate, a Chicago-tough university student, tags along with her newfound wealthy half-sister to Miami for spring break.
But once there, she discovers South Florida has become a dystopian cityscape of prey and predator. A drug called Wisht runs rampant, distorting minds and morphing bodies. Violent cults called Malforms relentlessly battle each other and hunt Goodfolk in competition with genetically engineered cat-size Komo Spiders, a dangerous EPA failure. And solar storms keep striking Earth, slowly pushing Florida into a new version of the Middle Ages…
About The Author
W.G. Hladky
W.G. Hladky is a retired homicide detective from the Miami-Dade Police Department. Before becoming a cop, he was a newspaper reporter. Bill also is a published poet. He and his wife are travel addicts, and many years ago lived in Germany, where Bill taught officer survival skills to American M.P.’s.
He now travels across the country explaining to police officers how violent encounters impact their physiological and psychological responses. He has a bachelor’s degree in General Studies from the University of Iowa, a Master Degree in Public Administration from Florida Atlantic University and a Master Degree in Criminal Justice from Nova Southeastern University. Bill recently has been seen stumbling around a Fort Lauderdale dojo trying to learn Aikido.
Promotional
The Archivist
The Archivist, a short story that gives you a peek inside the post-apocalyptic world depicted in the Book of Ruin series. In this short tale, you will meet Father Taras, the last member of the Holy Order of Archivists. Cossacks brought the archivist to their settlement to die after rim bandits fell upon him during a robbery…
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What readers said about the Book of Ruin
The Indie Reader, which awarded The Book of Ruin the 2020 Discovery Award for Science Fiction, said this about the book: “War, greed, and political infighting still take center stage in W.G. Hladky’s wonderfully detailed and well researched dystopian novel, THE BOOK OF RUIN, which imagines life after a solar storm sends Earth into a second Dark Age and–with only a half-remembered past–industry and civilization start afresh.”
I loved the book. It has intrigue, action, strong and engaging characters.
The author has created a plausible future world that still has the human contrivances of faith and honor, cowardice and greed…Being something of a battle buff, I find the battle scenes detailed and tactically involved…
Full of details and vivid characters, it’s fun for anyone who fancies post-apocalyptic science fiction.
I was impressed with the characters and the story was exciting and easy to follow. Duty, honor, and self-sacrifice permeates the book.
Advanced Praise For RangerKnights
“RangerKnights brings together everything we’ve learned from the first two books of The Book of Ruin series for an adventurous, exciting experience. With such outstanding worldbuilding, it’s easy to feel as if you’ve really visited the locations in the book. I am always in awe of Hladky’s brilliant character development that is so well done, I find myself missing the characters after the book ends.”
– Christie Stratos, award-winning author
Advanced Praise For The Flashfall Sword
The whole idea of the Skinweavers, their culture, and where they originated is brilliant and sets up a lot of questions about where our society could head if technology is used against us. Hladky develops excellent relationships between realistic characters, and he excels at catching the reader off guard. The Flashfall Sword is sure to make a mark in its genre.
– Christie Stratos, award-winning author
Advanced Praise For In The Time Of The Flash
Author W. G. Hladky has crafted an atmospheric, detailed, and immersive experience in a post-apocalyptic world that is like nothing I’ve seen this year. The narrative is a smoothly-written blend of dystopia, survival, and conspiracy that keeps the fast-paced plot rolling on through different trials and tribulations, making it a gripping read with lots of action but also a thought-provoking exploration of humanity’s downfall…
– K.C. Finn, a multi-award-winning author for Readers’ Favorite.