John Helfers

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About John Helfers

John Helfers is an author and editor currently living in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
During his sixteen years working at Tekno Books (the largest commercial book packager in the nation), he co-edited more than twenty short story anthologies, as well as overseeing many others for publishers in all genres. He has worked with many well-known authors and co-editors, including Lawrence Block, Larry Bond, Elizabeth George, Dale Brown, Stephen Coonts, Nelson DeMille, Charlaine Harris, John Jakes, Anne Perry, Jeffery Deaver, Michael Connelly, Walter J. Boyne, Harold W. Coyle, Mercedes Lackey, Margaret Weis, Kevin J. Anderson, Ice-T, Richard Belzer, and Max Allan Collins. He has also edited more than forty novels by such authors as Doug Allyn, Brendan DuBois, James Patrick Hunt, and Jean Rabe.
He has also published more than forty short stories in anthologies such as If I Were An Evil Overlord, Time Twisters, and Places to Be, People to Kill. His fiction has appeared in anthologies, game books, and novels for the Dragonlance®, Transformers®, BattleTech® and Shadowrun® universes. He has written both fiction and nonfiction, including the third novel in the first authorized trilogy based on The Twilight Zone™ television series, the YA novel Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers: Cloak and Dagger, and a history of the United States Navy. He also wrote three novels in the Room 59™ espionage series for Gold Eagle/Worldwide Publishing (including the launch book, The Powers That Be) and has written novels in their Deathlands™ and Mack Bolan/Executioner™ series.
His essays on the military have appeared in Beyond Shock and Awe, edited by U.S. Navy SEAL founder Eric Haney, and in the Civil War and World War II volumes of the How to Lose a War series. His most recent nonfiction book, The Vorkosigan Companion (co-edited with Lillian Stewart Carl) a guide to the science fictional world of award-winning author Lois McMaster Bujold, was nominated for a 2009 Hugo Award. In 2010, the original Shadowrun anthology Spells & Chrome won the Origins Award for Best Game-Related Publication. He's also appeared on writing and editorial panels at national conventions, including GenCon, Love Is Murder, and the World Science Fiction Convention.
Currently he's working on several tie-in and original projects in both the adult and YA genres. He also operates Stonehenge Art & Word, an editorial and literary fiction management company, which has worked with Mercedes Lackey on her first Elemental Masters shared-world anthology.

Mercedes Lackey

Dylan Birtolo

Stephanie Shaver

Elisabeth Waters

John Yezeguielian

Steve Perry

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Books By John Helfers

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Tom Clancy's Net Force Feb 3, 2009

by Steve Perry , Tom Clancy , Steve Pieczenik

( 142 )

$4.99

From the #1 New York Times bestselling creators of Op-Center comes a different kind of law enforcement. In the year 2010, computers are the new superpowers. Those who control them, control the world. To enforce the Net Laws, Congress forms the ultimate computer security agency within the FBI: the Net Force.

Other Formats: Library Binding , Paperback , Mass Market Paperback , Audio CD

Shadowrun: Spells and Chrome (Shadowrun Anthology Book 1) May 14, 2010

by John Helfers

( 70 )

$0.99

*** CORRECTED EDITION ***

WELCOME TO THE YEAR 2072…

…And a world unlike anything you’ve ever imagined. A world where magic and machines exist side-by-side. Where cybernetics can replace organs or entire limbs with ease, and arcane spells can make the impossible happen. Where the Matrix has become an artificial world of its own, filled with all kinds of pleasure, treasure, and trouble. Where dwarves, elves, orks, and trolls walk alongside humans every day. Some work for megacorporations whose invisible tentacles wrap around every aspect of modern life. Others choose a much less legal career, doing whatever dirty work the corp executives need done—for a price.

Welcome to the world of Shadowrun.

Featuring fifteen new stories about the men and women who make their living in the shadows of the Sixth World, Spells and Chrome takes you into the dark and dirty streets of the future. Whether risking their lives to execute a mission for an employer who might be planning to double-cross them anyway, or just doing whatever they need to do to survive another day, shadowrunners use everything they’ve got—cyberware, spells, or a very big gun—to get the job done.

This corrected 10th anniversary edition features a new foreword by the editor.

Other Formats: Paperback

Shadowrun: The Complete Frame Job Dec 4, 2019

by John Helfers , Dylan Birtolo , Brooke Chang , Bryan Steele , CZ Wright , Jason Schmetzer , Jason Hardy

( 25 )

$4.99

FIVE RUNNERS. ONE JOB.

And a Whole Lot of Trouble...

It should have been a simple walk in the corp. Stroll into a mid-level corporation disguised as a nameless mid-level manager in a suit, deliver an unknown data package to an isolated network, and stroll out again.

But nothing is ever simple in the shadows.

Now five shadowrunners are on the run themselves. Framed by their employer, the mysterious Mr. Johnson, and marked for termination by every hired cop, corp security man, and shadowrunner in Seattle, the team must find out who set them up, why they did it, and figure out how to deliver their payback—without getting killed in the process.

The Complete Frame Job is the collected six-novella story set in the gritty, dark future, magic-and-machine world of Shadowrun.

Other Formats: Paperback

Shattered Shields Oct 15, 2014

by Jennifer Brozek , Bryan Thomas Schmidt

( 30 )

$6.99

Swords and Shields. Faith and Magic.

Grab your weapons and prepare, for the enemy is on the move.

High fantasy and mighty conflicts go hand-in-hand. In great wars, armies rise to fight evil hordes and heroes struggle to push beyond their imperfections to save the day. These stories include more than just epic landscapes and characters…they also feature epic battles.

Imagine a doctor struggling to identify the spy who has infiltrated his company’s ranks and poisoned his colleagues or a boy suspected of murder by a king yet protected by a princess as he helps her father against his own people. Imagine a butcher discovering that he’s called to lead an uprising, or a First Born knowing that she must betray her own in order to save humanity.

The possibilities are endless, but at the heart they have this in common: soldiers—ordinary and otherwise–struggling against extraordinary odds to survive the day. They must withstand dark magic, dodge enemy blades, and defy the odds to survive SHATTERED SHIELDS.

Contributors:

Larry Correia
Sarah A. Hoyt
Gray Rinehart
David Farland
Glen Cook
Seanan McGuire
John Helfers
Annie Bellet
Joseph Zieja
Wendy N. Wagner
David Farland
Cat Rambo
Robin Wayne Bailey
Nancy Fulda
John R. Fultz
Dave Gross
James L. Sutter
Elizabeth Moon

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

About Shattered Shields:
"An inventive and thought-provoking set of tales that capture the bravery and terrors of battle. Carries the banner of military fantasy proudly."--John Marco, author of The Bronze Knight Series

About The Raygun Chronicles edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt:
"Fans of sf should enjoy this stylistically varied homage to a genre as old as the fiction . . . "--Library Journal

About Beyond the Sun edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt:
"Beyond the Sun mixes courage, redemption, and stark terror in tales of distant worlds. Buckle in."--Jack McDevitt, author of Firebird

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children's speculative fiction. His debut science fiction novel was The Worker Prince, followed by sequels The Returning and The Exodus. His childrens' books include 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter--Land Of Legends. Schmidt has edited edited anthologies Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6, Beyond The Sun, Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age and, with Jennifer Brozek, coedited military high fantasy original anthology, Shattered Shields. Schmidt hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer's Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter.

Jennifer Brozek is an award winning editor, game designer, and author. Winner of the Australian Shadows Award for best edited publication, Jennifer has edited ten anthologies. Author of In a Gilded Light, The Lady of Seeking in the City of Waiting, Industry Talk, and the Karen Wilson Chronicles, she has more than fifty published short stories, and is the Creative Director o

Other Formats: Paperback , Mass Market Paperback

The Vorkosigan Companion (The Vorkosigan Universe Book 1) Jan 8, 2014

by Lois McMaster Bujold , Lillian Stewart Carl , John Helfers

( 38 )

$6.99

Master the Vorkosiverse!

"I've always tried to write the kind of book I most loved to read: character-centered adventure. Readers return to such books because those characters have become their friends, and there is no limit to the number of times you want to be with your friends again."
—Lois McMaster Bujold, from The Vorkosigan Companion.

It's the companion for everything Miles and Vorkosigan: Insightful essays, encyclopedic entries on the characters, the plots and—most of all—the fantastic world-building! Plus, an extensive story-behind-the-story essay on the creation of the books, and a Bujold mini-biography!

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

"Bujold mixes quirky humor with action [and] superb character development. [E]normously satisfying."
—Publishers Weekly

Lois McMaster Bujold burst upon the science fiction world in 1986 with the first of the Vorkosigan Saga novels, Shards of Honor, closely followed by The Warrior's Apprentice, which introduced Miles Vorkosigan, the hyperkinetic military genius with bones of glass. She has won an unprecedented four Hugo Awards for works in the Vorkosigan Saga. Bujold has published sixteen novels to date, all but one with Baen Books. The mother of two, Bujold lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Other Formats: Hardcover , Mass Market Paperback

Fiction River: How to Save the World (Fiction River: An Original Anthology Magazine Book 2) Jun 10, 2013

by David Gerrold , William H. Keith , Kristine Kathryn Rusch , Dean Wesley Smith , Laura Resnick , Annie Reed , Lisa Silverthorne , Ron Collins , Travis Heermaan , John Helfers

( 1 )

$6.99

The second original anthology in the Fiction River line, How to Save the World brings together eleven of today’s brightest authors, presenting their answers to solve a pressing problem facing the human race. From the growing energy crisis to women’s rights to overpopulation to the survival of humanity in the future, the stories in this anthology examine the issues facing our planet today—and offer hope for our survival tomorrow.

Fiction River: How to Save the World includes stories by: David Gerrold, William H. Keith, Ron Collins, Laura Resnick, Stephanie Writt, Angela Penrose, Annie Reed, Dean Wesley Smith, Lisa Silverthorne, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Travis Heermaan.

"Fiction River is off to an auspicious start. It's a worthy heir to the original anthology series of the 60s and 70s. ... It's certainly the top anthology of the year to date."
—Amazing Stories on Fiction River: Unnatural Worlds

Fiction River is an original fiction anthology series. Modeled on successful anthology series of the past, from Orbit to Universe to Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, the goal of Fiction River is to provide a forum for “original ground-breaking fiction of all genres.”
Each Fiction River volume will have electronic and trade paperback issues published by WMG Publishing, and will feature some of the best new and established fiction writers in publishing.
Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch are award-winning editors, as well as award-winning writers, and will act as series editors for the anthologies.
For more information about the authors or Fiction River, go to www.wmgpublishing.com.

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

The Unauthorized Dan Brown Companion Mar 1, 2012

by John Helfers

$12.71

The definitive truth within Dan Brown's fantastic fiction—revealed at last.

With millions of copies of his books in print, a major motion picture based on The Da Vinci Code in theaters, and religious leaders everywhere launching scathing attacks on his work, Dan Brown is, quite simply, a phenomenon. His novels, intricate mosaics combining well-researched facts with action-packed storytelling, have created their own industry of location tours, seminars—even PBS specials. But perhaps the one thing that still keeps his readers guessing is that nagging question: How much of this is true?

The Unauthorized Dan Brown Companion tells all. Unlike the avalanche of books specifically about The Da Vinci Code , The Unauthorized Dan Brown Companion covers all of Dan Brown's books and, crucially, has no religious agenda or political axe to grind—these are the facts.

• Could there actually be an unbreakable code that would cripple US intelligence, as in Digital Fortress?

• How much truth lies in The Da Vinci Code's history-altering propositions that have so angered the Vatican?

• Are the Illuminati from Angels and Demons really alive and well?

The answers are here, covering every picture, place, proper name, and historical event through all of Brown's books, explaining what's absolutely true, possible, improbable, or completely fictitious.

One of Dan Brown's greatest accomplishments as a writer is his uncanny ability to blur the line between fact and fiction. Now, with The Unauthorized Dan Brown Companion, readers will at last have all of the information to distinguish for themselves between the inventions of a master storyteller and the historical revelations of a first-rate investigator.

John Helfers is a full-time writer and editor currently living on Green Bay, Wisconsin. He is the co-editor of The Valdemar Companion, a guide to the work and life of fantasy writer Mercedes Lackey. Recent published books include two anthologies he edited, In the Shadow of Evil and Slipstreams. He has also written nonfiction, with his history of the United States Navy, The Alpha Bravo Delta Guide to the U.S. Navy, published in 2003.

Other Formats: Paperback

Fiction River: Recycled Pulp (Fiction River: An Original Anthology Magazine Book 15) Sep 28, 2015

by Cat Rambo , Phaedra Weldon , Rebecca M. Senese , Dayle A. Dermatis , Lisa Silverthorne , Kristine Kathryn Rusch , Dean Wesley Smith , Annie Reed , Thea Hutcheson , John Helfers

( 2 )

$6.99

The old becomes new again as fifteen talented authors go back to the lurid pulp titles of yesteryear through today’s rich, nuanced storytelling. Enjoy original tales featuring rebel angels fighting a heavenly enforcement squad, a cop whose life might depend on ordering the right deli sandwich, and a wizard who has just three days to pay off the loan on his tower or lose his very soul. Whatever your taste in stories, Recycled Pulp is sure to have something that will amaze, surprise, and delight you.

“…a unique collection 15 tales worthy of the Fiction River name. … Don’t miss Recycled Pulp for a great set of unique and fast-paced tales of the imagination!”
—Astro Guyz

Table of Contents
“The Revolt of the Philosophers of Fomalhaut” by Phaedra Weldon
“Marvelous Contrivances of the Heart” by Cat Rambo
“The Flower of the Tabernacle” by Annie Reed
“Lost in the Tarnished Cube” by Thomas K. Carpenter
“Crypt of the Metal Ghouls” by Angela Penrose
“The Imperfect Otter Empire” by Dayle A. Dermatis
“The Unknowable Mansion of the Night” by Sandra M. Odell
“The Portal of Wrong Love” by Dean Wesley Smith
“Sacred Poet from the Future” by Kelly Cairo
“Swamp of the Prehistoric Clan” by Christy Fifield
“The Magnificent Citadel” by Rebecca M. Senese
“Night of the Dancing Champions” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“The Delicatessen from Beyond the Monolith” by Lisa Silverthorne
“Prism of the Crab Gods” by Kelly Washington
“The Gleaming Crater” by Thea Hutcheson

Other Formats: Paperback

Army of the Fantastic May 1, 2007

by John Marco , John Helfers

( 4 )

$4.99

13 original tales of fantastical battles for anyone who needs a dose of un-reality.

How might the course of World War II have changed if civilized dragons ran bombing missions for the Germans? Here are 13 tales of war in alternate worlds where magical creatures are real and often prove victorious. Human troops fight alongside gryphons, unicorns, and a sea serpent, who can give submarine warfare a whole new slant.

These are just a few of the stories gathered together in this all-original volume that opens the way to magical places in our own world where the armies of the fantastic are on the march, waging wars both vast and personal.

Other Formats: Mass Market Paperback

Master of Orion: To the Stars Mar 7, 2020

by John Helfers

( 1 )

$4.99

VENTURE OUT INTO THE UNIVERSE…

The Master of Orion game lets players take their place as one of thirteen different races of the galaxy, each seeking to carve out their own empire from the stars. Now, Catalyst Game Labs and Wargaming.Net are pleased to present the first anthology set in the Master of Orion universe.

Ranging from one end of the galaxy to the other, these original stories explore the galactic politics, backwater planets, and outlaw bases of the Master of Orion universe. A Sakkra ship duels with a mysterious Meklar vessel near the Race Track, the most dangerous area in space. The leader of a Gnolam merchant empire family discovers that danger can come from any direction—even right next to him. A cargo ship crew stranded by pirates must accept an offer of help from an unlikely source. And a special operations team sets a trap to capture the wily creature that has led them on a chase halfway across the galaxy.

Featuring sixteen stories by Michael A. Stackpole, Jody Lynn Nye, Aaron Rosenberg, Jean Rabe, Robert E. Vardeman, Jane Lindskold, and many others, To the Stars explores the races, planets, and secrets of the Master of Orion universe like never before. So ready your fleet, take stock of your planets, and prepare to embark on adventures unlike any other…

Man Vs Machine Jul 3, 2007

by Martin H. Greenberg , John Helfers

( 4 )

$4.99

Fifteen original tales envision ever-more sophisticated technology-and the repercussions on humankind...

As our world and daily lives become more and more involved with and dependent on complex technology, concern over what the future holds increases. If computers develop genuine Artificial Intelligence will they still willingly serve humankind? If the machines rebel, can we shut them down? And what kind of world would we be left with if we did?

These are just a few of the questions explored in fifteen brand-new stories by some of science fiction's most visionary minds-inventive and cautionary tales about some of the futures we may be building for ourselves right now.

Other Formats: Mass Market Paperback

The Nightmare Expeditions: Welcome to Nocturnea Nov 24, 2009

by John Helfers , Shannon Eric Denton , Patrick Coyle

$2.99

When an orphaned teen’s childhood imaginary friend starts visiting him again, telling him his parents are still alive in another dimension, it’s only natural that the boy would begin to wonder if he’s gone crazy. It’s only when the orphan, Ian, overhears the clinical psychologist at the orphanage making plans to kill the “imaginary” friend that Ian realizes there is more to his imprisonment and the disappearance of his parents than meets the eye, and begins a quest to free an entire world from the clutches of a dark Nightmare King.

The Nightmare Expeditions is a children’s gothic horror adventure, in the vein of Harry Potter, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Lemony Snicket, written by John Helfers, writer of young adult novels such as Tom Clancy’s Net Force.

Cover illustration by Stephen King artist BERNIE WRIGHTSON & Mike Geiger.

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