Outlanders is a long-running series of science-fiction novels created by
Mark EllisMark Ellis is an American novelist who resides in Newport, Rhode Island with his wife of 28 years, Melissa Martin. Before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1986, Ellis worked as a journalist, newspaper columnist, advertising copywriter and refrigeration engineer.His freelance feature work...
and published by Gold Eagle, an imprint of
Harlequin EnterprisesHarlequin Enterprises Limited is a Toronto, Ontario-based company that is a leading publisher of series romance and women's fiction. Owned by the Torstar Corporation, the largest newspaper publisher in Canada, the company publishes approximately 120 new titles each month in 29 different languages...
.
Set in the same fictional universe as the
DeathlandsThe Deathlands is a series of novels published by Gold Eagle Publishing. The first novel 'Pilgrimage to Hell' was first published in 1986. This series of novels was first written by Christopher Lowder, under the pen name 'Jack Adrian'. Mr. Lowder became ill after developing the plot and writing...
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.
Although both Deathlands and
Outlanders bear the "
James AxlerJames Axler is a house name used by the publishing company Gold Eagle Books, the action adventure series published by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd....
" byline, the latter series is primarily (although not exclusively) written by its creator
Mark EllisMark Ellis is an American novelist who resides in Newport, Rhode Island with his wife of 28 years, Melissa Martin. Before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1986, Ellis worked as a journalist, newspaper columnist, advertising copywriter and refrigeration engineer.His freelance feature work...
whereas multiple authors produce Deathlands.
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 preholocaust military installations with stores of weapons and the home of the gateways,
matter-transferShort for "Matter-Transmitter", a teleporter used as a plot device in James Axler's Deathlands and Outlanders series.The device is typically a six-sided room with walls, floor and ceiling made of "armaglass", a likely fictitious type of glass which is very difficult to break or shatter. Each one...
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.
Outlanders is a long-running series of science-fiction novels created by
Mark EllisMark Ellis is an American novelist who resides in Newport, Rhode Island with his wife of 28 years, Melissa Martin. Before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1986, Ellis worked as a journalist, newspaper columnist, advertising copywriter and refrigeration engineer.His freelance feature work...
and published by Gold Eagle, an imprint of
Harlequin EnterprisesHarlequin Enterprises Limited is a Toronto, Ontario-based company that is a leading publisher of series romance and women's fiction. Owned by the Torstar Corporation, the largest newspaper publisher in Canada, the company publishes approximately 120 new titles each month in 29 different languages...
.
Plot
Set in the same fictional universe as the
DeathlandsThe Deathlands is a series of novels published by Gold Eagle Publishing. The first novel 'Pilgrimage to Hell' was first published in 1986. This series of novels was first written by Christopher Lowder, under the pen name 'Jack Adrian'. Mr. Lowder became ill after developing the plot and writing...
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.
Although both Deathlands and
Outlanders bear the "
James AxlerJames Axler is a house name used by the publishing company Gold Eagle Books, the action adventure series published by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd....
" byline, the latter series is primarily (although not exclusively) written by its creator
Mark EllisMark Ellis is an American novelist who resides in Newport, Rhode Island with his wife of 28 years, Melissa Martin. Before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1986, Ellis worked as a journalist, newspaper columnist, advertising copywriter and refrigeration engineer.His freelance feature work...
whereas multiple authors produce Deathlands.
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 preholocaust military installations with stores of weapons and the home of the gateways,
matter-transferShort for "Matter-Transmitter", a teleporter used as a plot device in James Axler's Deathlands and Outlanders series.The device is typically a six-sided room with walls, floor and ceiling made of "armaglass", a likely fictitious type of glass which is very difficult to break or shatter. Each one...
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"Exile to Hell" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It appeared in the May 1968 issue of Analog and was included in the 1975 collection Buy Jupiter and Other Stories...
, 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 has been influenced since the dawn of time by the reptilian
AnunnakiThe Anunnaki are a group of Sumerian, Akkadian and Babylonian deities...
and the
Tuatha Dé DanannThe Tuatha Dé Danann are a race of people in Irish mythology. In the invasions tradition which begins with the Lebor Gabála Érenn, they are the fifth group to settle Ireland, conquering the island from the Fir Bolg....
. They realize that the baronies are a revival of the god-king system of ancient
SumeriaSumeria may refer to:*A misnomer for Sumer, the city states of Ancient Mesopotamia....
.
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 several novels.
Other recurring enemies include Colonel Thrush, Sam the Imperator, Grigori Zakat and Maccan, the last prince of the
Tuatha Dé DanannThe Tuatha Dé Danann are a race of people in Irish mythology. In the invasions tradition which begins with the Lebor Gabála Érenn, they are the fifth group to settle Ireland, conquering the island from the Fir Bolg....
.
In
Shadow Scourge (2000), the heroes contend with Ocajinik, apparently one of
H. P. LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft was an American author of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, known then simply as weird fiction....
’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
EnlilEnlil , was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Canaanite and other Mesopotamian clay and stone tablets...
, 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 tone 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.
Miscellania
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 and was suggested by
Mark EllisMark Ellis is the name of:* Mark Ellis , Canadian actor* Mark Ellis , Major League Baseball player* Mark Ellis , English footballer who played for Bradford City...
who had already authored several novels in the Deathlands series.
The “Axlerverse”, a term coined by
Mark EllisMark Ellis is an American novelist who resides in Newport, Rhode Island with his wife of 28 years, Melissa Martin. Before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1986, Ellis worked as a journalist, newspaper columnist, advertising copywriter and refrigeration engineer.His freelance feature work...
, 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 did not develop much depth in the way of setting and Ellis introduced many new concepts to make the Axlerverse into a plausible fictional world, particularly important in the books published post-2001.
Outlanders has established a reputation for featuring strong yet sexy female characters both in the books and on the covers, particularly those produced by artist Cliff Nielsen.
Other writers who have contributed to the
Outlanders series are Mel Odom and Victor Milan.
Outlanders
- Exile to Hell (1997) (by Mark Ellis)
- Destiny Run (1997) (by Mark Ellis)
- Savage Sun (1997) (by Mark Ellis)
- Omega Path (1998) (by Mark Ellis)
- Parallax Red (1998) (by Mark Ellis)
- Doomstar Relic (1998) (by Mark Ellis)
- Iceblood (1998) (by Mark Ellis)
- Hellbound Fury - The Lost Earth Saga Book 1 (1999) (by Mark Ellis)
- Night Eternal: The Lost Earth Saga Book 2 (1999) (by Mel Odom & Mark Ellis)
- Outer Darkness - The Lost Earth Saga Book 3 (1999) (by Mark Ellis)
- Armageddon Axis (1999) (by Mark Ellis)
- Wreath of Fire (2000) (by Mel Odom with additional material by Mark Ellis)
- Shadow Scourge (2000) (by Mark Ellis)
- Hell Rising (2000) (by Mark Ellis)
- Doom Dynasty (2000) (by Mark Ellis)
- Tigers of Heaven - The Imperator Wars Book 2 (2001) (by Mark Ellis)
- Purgatory Road - The Imperator Wars Book 3 (2001) (by Mark Ellis)
- Sargasso Plunder (2001) (by Mel Odom)
- Tomb of Time (2001) (by Mark Ellis)
- Prodigal Chalice (2002) (by Mel Odom)
- Devil in the Moon: The Dragon Kings, Book 1 (2002) (by Mark Ellis)
- Dragoneye: The Dragon Kings, Book 2 (2002) (by Mark Ellis)
- Far Empire (2002) (by Mark Ellis)
- Equinox Zero (2002) (by Mark Ellis)
- Talon and Fang (2003) (by Mark Ellis)
- Sea of Plague: Heart of the World: Book 2 (2003) (by Mark Ellis)
- Awakening (2003) (by Victor Milán)
- Mad God's Wrath (2004) (by Mark Ellis)
- Sun Lord (2004) (by Victor Milán)
- Mask of the Sphinx (2004) (by Mark Ellis)
- Uluru Destiny (2004) (by Victor Milán)
- Evil Abyss (2005) (by Mark Ellis)
- Children of the Serpent (2005) (by Mark Ellis)
- Successors (2005) (by Victor Milán)
- Cerberus Storm (2005) (by Mark Ellis)
- Refuge (2006) (by Victor Milán)
- Rim Of the World (2006) (by Mark Ellis)
- Aftermath (2006) (by Mark Ellis)
- Lords of the Deep (2006) (by Victor Milán)
- Hydra's Ring (2006) (by Mark Ellis)
- Closing the Cosmic Eye (2007) (by Victor Milán)
- Skull Throne (2007) (by Mark Ellis)
- Satan's Seed (2007) (by Mark Ellis)
- Dark Goddess (2007) (by Mark Ellis)
- Grailstone Gambit (2008) (by Mark Ellis)
- Ghostwalk (2008) (by Mark Ellis)
- Pantheon of Vengeance (2008) (by Douglas Wojtowicz)
- Death Cry (2008) (by Rik Hoskin)
- Serpent's Tooth (2009) (by Douglas Wojtowicz)
- Warlord of the Pit (2009) (by Mark Ellis)
External links