The Book of Ruin Series

Winner of the 2020 IndieReader Discovery Award for Science Fiction   Generations after solar storms sent the world spiraling into a Second Dark Age, descendants of American soldiers defend the last NATO stronghold in Germania. From the Asiatic Steppes comes the mysterious Vucari. NATO sends Senior Chief Loveboy Weir and a team of rangers to investigate. Traveling in anti-gravity vessels, they visit the beautiful city-state of New Reykjavik and mountains where Kazaks use giant eagles to hunt enemies. The rangers also journey to the City of Ghost that spews poison and to 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 decimates any population that resists him. Weir struggles to convince NATO not to trust Vladimir. While politicians and clerics make backroom deals to appease Vladimir, Weir prepares for a war he fears is coming...   Praise for The Book of Ruin "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." - IndieReader

IndieReader Approved and Readers' Favorite Recommended, The Flashfall Sword is a follow-up to W.G. Hladky's well-received 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.   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   "The Flashfall Sword is an action-packed post-apocalyptic tale featuring creative worldbuilding, a cast of well-developed characters, and clever plot twists." - Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader   "W. G. Hladky creates an immersive background for the story, gives our protagonist a goal to follow, and just the right amount of grit to face horrible scenes...This is a must-read novel for dystopian fiction enthusiasts." - Rabia Tanveer for Readers' Favorite

Readers' Favorite Recommended 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. Traveling in anti-gravity skimmers, they journey to the Mutilators' deep winding caverns, a Jihadi-oppressed downtrodden town, the pontiff's foreboding basilica, New Reykjavik's colorful market and the Skinweavers' mountaintop lair. As Prince Asem grows accustomed to the American ways and closer to RangerKnight Lovell Weir and his close-knit warrior-companions, he is torn between his royal duty and his desire to become an American. RangerKnights is an action-packed tale of survival, political intrigue, and cross-cultural love and friendship in a diverse post-apocalyptic world.   THE BOOK OF RUIN SERIES BOOK 1: The Book of Ruin (Winner of the 2020 Indie Reader Discovery Book Award for Science Fiction) BOOK 2: The Flashfall Sword (Recommended by Indie Reader and Readers' Favorite) BOOK 3: RangerKnights BOOK 4: The Last Skinweaver BOOK 5: In the Time of the Flash 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

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.   Thousands of dead Han soldiers keep disappearing after battling brutal steppe invaders. Plus, alien-looking outlanders are stalking the Middle Kingdom in powerful skyships no one can match. All the while, court intrigue, well-guarded secrets and backstabbing keep Luminous Emperor Zhong Ren from learning the meaning of his diviner's mysterious predictions.   THE BOOK OF RUIN SERIES BOOK 1: The Book of Ruin (Winner of the 2020 Indie Reader Discovery Book Award for Science Fiction) BOOK 2: The Flashfall Sword (Recommended by Indie Reader and Readers' Favorite) BOOK 3: RangerKnights BOOK 4: The Last Skinweaver BOOK 5: In the Time of the Flash

On a day like any other, a series of powerful coronal mass ejections hit Earth, frying much 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. Abagail's only hope of survival is a group of Miami-Dade sheriff's deputies who save her during a shootout between two cults. The problem is her half-sister got left behind in the rescue – and finding her is not the deputies' top priority. Searching for a mysterious Father Benoit is, and they won't divulge why. In the meantime, she becomes entangled in government conspiracies, religious zealots and a surprising new passion: aiding the deputies in protecting those who can't defend themselves. THE BOOK OF RUIN SERIES BOOK 1: The Book of Ruin (Winner of the 2020 Indie Reader Discovery Book Award for Science Fiction) BOOK 2: The Flashfall Sword (Recommended by Indie Reader and Readers' Favorite) BOOK 3: RangerKnights BOOK 4: The Last Skinweaver BOOK 5: In the Time of the Flash