recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Liberating Earth

**Liberating Earth** is a Faction Paradox short story collection published by Obverse Books in 2015 and edited by Kate Orman. *Liberating Earth* is notable for being the first Obverse published anthology to be written and edited entirely by women. It takes the form of a series of altenative histories created by members of Faction Paradox.

## Concept

In the 1953 short story *The Liberation of Earth*by William Tenn, two warring alien species take turns “liberating” planet Earth from each another, until the planet is wrecked and its inhabitants are doomed. Tenn was satirising the cold war, and the way the superpowers, vying with each other for territory, insisted that it was all for the inhabitants’ own good.

This anthology pits two Cousins from Faction Paradox against each other. As members of the Faction, the Cousins, named Tefen and Triphis, have the ability to travel in time and change history. Tefen alters Earth’s reality, so that it has been conquered and colonised – a definite improvement, according to Tefen. Triphis thinks she can do better; she alters the planet’s reality once more, so that a different set of conquerors rules the Earth.

Tefen and Triphis continue to take turns, creating one alternative reality after another, trying to best one other – so that in each story, we visit an Earth on which human beings are at best second-class citizens and at worst slaves.

## Blurb

“*The human race had every opportunity. We blew it, darling*

Take two Cousins from Faction Paradox.

Give them a world – the Earth, for example – and give them the power to change that world's history as they see fit.

Then stand back and watch what happens…

Just what would happen if a couple of Cousins used our planet as their personal game board? As they create one alternative reality after another, twisting history and reality into knots, only one outcome is sure: whoever wins, the human race loses.”

## Contents

*Dreamer in the Dark* by EH Timms

*Annie’s Arms* by Xanna Chown

*The Mountains are Higher at Home* by Juliet Kemp

*Judy’s War* by Rachael Redhead

*Red Rover Red Rover* by Q

*The Vikingr Mystique* by Dorothy Ail

*Life of Julia* by Tansy Rayner Roberts

*Project Thunderbird* by Kelly Hale

*Playing for Time* by Kate Orman
Warlords of Utopia

**Warlords of Utopia** is a novel by Lance Parkin, originally published by Mad Norwegian Press, and part of the Faction Paradox fiction universe. The novel follows a series of events that culminate in a multi-universal war between the Roman Empire (centred around a universe where the Roman Empire never collapsed) and Nazi Germany (specifically an alliance of parallel Earths where the Nazis won and led by a council of Adolf Hitlers).

## Blurb

Rome never fell. Hitler won. Now they are at war.

Marcus Americanius Scriptor’s memoirs of the war between every parallel universe where Rome never fell, and every parallel universe where Hitler won the Second World War, have long been regarded as the definitive account of that turbulent time.

Scriptor’s life story, from his early life among the housesteads of an obscure province to his role in the ultimate confrontation with Nazism, was intimately connected with the major political and social developments of his time. His highly personal record of events was praised even in his own lifetime for its honesty and intimacy, as well for capturing the scale of a war that consumed thousands of worlds.

This exciting new translation of a classic work of military history is accessible to new readers and existing students of the War alike.

## References

Faction Paradox

House Mirraflex

Cwejen

The enemy

The War in Heaven
Iris at the Oche

**Iris at the Oche** is an Iris Wildthyme audio play from Big Finish, written by Mark Wright.

## Blurb

Super, smashing, great! It's the annual Pondside World Darts Championship. As down-at-heel pub darts player Ted Taylor steps up to the oche, Iris realises that the fate of the entire universe depends on the result of this one game of arrows. What are the calculations streaming through Ted's mind, why are the bullish Hankians determined to drag a Kent Country Club into a temporal rift and will Panda ever get to enjoy his chicken-in-a-basket in peace? Game on!

## Trivia

An 'oche' is the line behind which a player's front foot must be placed when throwing a dart
Orna Petit

**Orna Petit** is queen indisputed of the Obverse Books authors.

She is best known in her native France for the novella, Lacuna Fob. She has, through connections of her sisters who write in English more frequently than she, become a contributor to two of the most laudable Obverse Books-

The Panda Book of Horreur and Storyteller.

On both occasions she aided the less experienced author Jacqueline Rayner, allowing her to unlock vistas of the imagining to which she would ordinarily have no access.
Tonton Macoute

**Tonton Macoute** is a Faction Paradox short story by Dave Hoskin.

## Synopsis

Once upon a time, Tonton Macoute was the first chef of the Eleven Day Empire, one who experimented with the idea of voodoo cuisine far past the point of sanity. After sampling every kind of meat in creation, he turned his hunger inward, cutting into his own flesh at the quantum level and feeding on alternate versions of himself, creating a very strange space-time event, with a multitude of faces, arms and teeth jockeying for dominance at the quantum level. The Faction initially tolerated his behaviour because of his legendary culinary abilities. However when it was discovered that Macoute's appetites had rendered him such a distinctive space-time event, something that would attract the other time-active powers like wasps to jam (to say nothing of the fact that he'd begun stalking unwary Cousins and feeding them to the rest of the Faction family at banquets), the decision was made to imprison him.

In the intervening years Tonton Macoute has become a kind of Faction bogeyman, a story used to frighten the Faction's new recruits. But now Andraiz needs that bogeyman's expertise...
The Tale of Sir Hedwyn

"The Tale of Sir Hedwyn" is a story by Kara Dennison in the anthology Tales of the Civil War edited by Philip Purser-Hallard for Obverse Books.

## Synopsis

Slain in battle and reborn in the City, Sir Hedwyn is initially confounded as to whether he is in Heaven or Hell, but upon discovering that he is unable to bring harm to any other, he sets off on a quest to prove himself the master of the Knightly arts. Sir Hedwyn, the Laughing Knight, becomes a legend in the City - until the day that death returns to humanity and the Laughing Knight finds that enemies make in a long life have long memories...

## Notes

* Sir Hedwyn visits and trains in a Roman controlled/inspired part of the City, although not named, its is more than likely the Romuline District.
The Taking of Planet 5

Written by Simon Bucher-Jones and Mark Clapham, **The Taking of Planet 5** is the 28th book released by the BBC featuring the eighth incarnation of The Doctor, It is notable for being the only War in Heaven focused novel to not feature Faction Paradox.

## Blurb

Twelve million years ago, a creature evolved that was capable of consuming all life in the universe.

Now someone, or something, is desperate enough to want to revive it.

Outside the ordered universe, things move.

They’re hungry.

And something has given them the scent of our space/time.

## Plot Synopsis

The Doctor becomes involved, once again, in the looming future war. Uncovering a mystery associated with the Antarctic, the Doctor is separated from his companion.

The Doctor encounters various agents of Gallifrey who regard him, at best, as a liabilty or worse an enemy agent and a monster capable of consuming the fundamental basis of intelligence.

Compassion faces agents of the Celestis.

Fitz Kreiner just tries to survive millions of years before he was born, surrounded by madness.

The survival of every idea from the most complex equation to the ability to remember how to breath rests upon the legacy of the Doctor and his relationship with his TARDIS...
Of the City of the Saved...

**Of the City of the Saved...**  is a novel by Philip Purser-Hallard, originally published by Mad Norwegian Press, and part of the Faction Paradox fiction universe.

The novel concerns Laura Tobin, a private investigator investigating a murder in The City of the Saved. All well and good, except the city is actually a galaxy sized conglomeration at the end of the Universe, in which every human being or pseudo-human being who’s ever lived currently resides.

Oh, and in the City, all murders are impossible...

## Blurb

#### FOR HUMANITY, THE WAR IS OVER.

We all remember Resurrection Day.

     Even now, three centuries later, we cannot forget that awakening: our bewilderment, our terror and our joy. Each of us had experienced death, imagining ourselves bound for oblivion, Heaven or Nirvana, according to taste. Instead, we found, each member of the many human species – from tool-wielding australopithecines to posthuman philosopher-gods – had been harvested, gathered here by the Founders’ unfathomable technologies.

     Reborn in our countless immortal bodies, we were given the freedom of the City of the Saved. A single conurbation as broad as a spiral galaxy, she has been our sanctuary from the ravages of the War. That monstrous conflict between inhuman cultures cannot touch us here: we live our afterlives beyond the end of time, in perfect safety.

     We may be certain, therefore, that these rumours of a murder (the brutal stabbing of a City Councillor, no less!) are nothing more than lurid fabrications. The supposition that the murder weapon is missing, or that it could have been – as hysterical conjecture has claimed – a “potent weapon”, capable of injuring a Citizen within the haven of the City, is equally absurd. The idea that a guerrilla war has already begun in one of our less harmonious enclaves need not be dignified with refutation.

     Please go about your business, Citizens, as normal. We are perfectly safe, here in the City.

     Humanity has never been safer.
Tales of the City

**Tales of the City** was edited by Philip Purser-Hallard and is the first anthology published by Obverse Books about The City of the Saved.

## Blurb

Beyond the end of the universe exists a city the size of a galaxy, packed with every human being that ever lived, from the first Australopithecus to the last posthuman, resurrected in a city in which nobody can die… or rather, that used to be the case.

## Contents

* Akroates by Philip Purser-Hallard
* Happily Ever After is a High-Risk Strategy by Blair Bidmead
* The Socratic Problem by Elizabeth Evershed
* Lost Ships and Lost Lands by Juliet Kemp
* Highbury by Helen Angrove
* Bruises by Dave Hoskin
* About a Girl by Dale Smith
* Apocalypse Day by Philip Purser-Hallard
The Annotated Autopsy of Agent A

”The Annotated Autopsy of Agent A” is a story by Simon Bucher-Jones in the anthology The Book of the Enemy published by Obverse Books.

## Synopsis

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 37th President of the United States of America, is dead, killed by a heart attack age 50 at the end of his second term as President. An agent of the Great Houses, fearing that their Wartime Enemy has infiltrated the 1970s, conducts an autopsy of the President and comes to some shocking and timeline shaking conclusions.

## Notes

* “The Enemy” has not infiltrated (or infested) further back than what from a human perspective would be the 1950s.
* It is suggested that “the Enemy” has no conception of time and instead moves from one “event” to another irrespective of time, often (from the perspective of linnear beings) backwards through time.
* Although it is possible to create envelopes of ”paused time”, doing so for longer than 30 minutes of relative time (ie, time for people to act within the paused time) creates waves that are detectable by higher order technologies, such as those used by the Great Houses and those species who have been encompassed by “the Enemy”.
Miss Wildthyme and Friends Investigate

**Miss Wildthyme and Friends Investigate** is a collection of four linked novellas featuring Senor 105, The Manleigh Halt Irregulars, Iris and Panda and Professor Challenger, in search of a mysterious artefact.

Cover artwork is by Bret Herholz.

## Contents

* The Found World – James Cooray Smith (as Jim Smith)

* The Irredeemable Love – Nick Wallace

* Elementary, My Dear Sheila – Cody Schell (as Cody Quijano-Schell)

* The Shape of Things – Stuart Douglas

## Blurb

When Edward Malone discovers a peculiar yellow bottle on the banks of an ancient South American river, it takes the combined efforts of Professor Challenger, the Manleigh Halt Irregulars and Señor 105 to keep the contents safely under wraps. And that’s before Miss Iris Wildthyme sticks her nose in…

Time for Miss Wildthyme and friends to investigate!
Abbott and Costello versus the Hitlertron of the Daleks

**This page is a candidate for deletion.**

*Remember to check what links here and the page history before deletion.*

***Abbott and Costello versus the Hitlertron of the Daleks*** does not exist, it was neither written by Alan Titchmarsh or Gaz Top and certainly wasn't authorised by the estate of Terry Nation nor did either Mad Norwegian Press or Obverse Books ever publish it Because who in their right mind would?

## Synopsis

Abbott and Costello, through a series of predictably humorous (depending on your standards of humour, this editor for example is more of a Marx Brothers fan) misadventures ended up in a temple in Outer Mongolia repent with Nazi regalia and mysterious vaguely suggestive bumps.
Wing Finger

"Wing Finger" is a story by Helen Angrove part of the anthology Burning with Optimism's Flame edited by Jay Eales. The title is the English translation of the word "Pterodactyl".

## Synopsis

George Dimchurch, upstanding, sensible and above all God-fearing man sets out to disprove the recent Heresy of "evolution" by finding none other than an existant specimen of Pterodactyl. He knows, as he is a sensible God-fearing person that to do so would prove the immutabilty of species as per God's plan. Through a series of letters to his sister Fanny, George narrates his travels with a pair of individuals who were bankrolling his exploration, charming gentlemen who refer to each other as *Cousin...*
The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Enemy

"The Enemy of My Enemy is My Enemy" is a short story by Jay Eales in the anthology The Book of the Enemy edited by Simon Bucher-Jones and published by Obverse Books.

## Synopsis

There is a power in the written word, many have used it to literally as well as figuratively change the world.

But from where do the ideas that power those written words come? Is there a secret spring of knowledge from which those gifted wordsmiths can sup? An otherworld of ideas that those so inclined can explore? A vast, indescribable stacking of possibilities that those in-tune with the flux of the cosmos can tap?

Where do they start, these world changing words?

For four people, the answer is different but their impact upon the world undeniable and their fates interlinked and woven together like the branches of a tree, or the scenes of a play orchestrated by shadow-y sceneshifters.

## Notes

* Any resemblance to any individual, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
* Honest.
* No, you're imagining it.
The Age of Meeting Ourselves Again

"The Age of Meeting Ourselves Again" is a story by Kelly Hale in the anthology Tales of the Civil War edited by Philip Purser-Hallard for Obverse Books.

Content Warning: One of the characters in the story is a paedophile and two others are his victims.

## Synopsis

The City is a vast place, so unimaginably vast that encountering someone, by accident, that you knew in your first life is deeply unlikely. But coincidences happen, as do vendettas. Those who suffered in one life, carry their wounds into their second, sometimes it drives them to repentance, sometimes to attempting to protect others who suffered and sometimes it drives them to seek vengeance upon those who made them suffer.
Cobweb and Ivory

”Cobweb and Ivory” is a story by Nate Bumber published in the anthology The Book of the Enemy edited by Simon Bucher-Jones for Obverse Books.

## Synopsis

It is said God is in the details, but the Great Houses don’t believe in God. For them, instead, “the Enemy” is in the details. A poor traveller, lost and confused is dosed with a potent drug that causes him to explore some of the finer details of existence and perhaps come face-to-face with his destiny... and a wooly mammoth.

## Notes

* ”Cobweb And Ivory” bears a great deal of similarity to the mysterious “Saragossa Manuscript” first mentioned in the Appendices of The Book of the War.
* The central figure of the tale possesses both an “Altertime Doorway” and a “transcendant lock pick” suggesting that he is a Member of the Great Houses.
Philip Marsh

**Philip Marsh** is a two headed entity, still slouching towards Bethlehem, also known as Phil Craggs.

## Bibliography

As Writer

* 'Just the Ticket' *in The Panda Book of Horror* (as Philip Craggs)
* 'Mr Dogberry’s Christmas' in *The Casebook of the Manleigh Halt Irregulars* (as Philip Craggs)
* 'The Ugly Spirit', in *The Book of the Peace*
* 'The End of the Beginning' (with George Mann) in *The Book of the Peace*
* 'The Exploding Somewhat Inevitable' in *Wild Thymes on the 22*

### As Editor

* *The Casebook of the Manleigh Halt Irregulars*(as Philip Craggs)
* *The Book of the Peace*
First Draft

"First Draft" is a short story by Nick Wallace in the anthology The Book of the War edited by Simon Bucher-Jones published by Obverse Books.

## Synopsis

It has been said that a single idea can change your life. It has been said that a single idea can change the world. It has been said that the quintessence of "Voodoo" is that "an idea can kill". Some ideas are more powerful than others.

Few are as powerful as the idea of Dracula. Not the man. Not the terrifying and terrible man that Vlad Tepes was. But the idea of him. The one that Bram Stoker gave form and shape to. The idea that he set alight in the minds of billions to come.

And for a single member of Faction Paradox, inspired by the Loa, that idea might just be so powerful as to shape reality. To change the very fabric of existence by the very weight of it's existence.

Dracula isn't the Enemy, because Dracula isn't real... isn't he?

## Notes

* Vlad Tepes was (within the fictional framework of the series) a real person who become tied up within the machinations of just about all the War-Time powers. He was also, categorically, not a vampire (despite many coming to believe that he was).
A Hundred Words from a Civil War

Written by Philip Purser-Hallard and part of the anthology A Romance in Twelve Parts, "A Hundred Words from a Civil War" serves as both an introduction to the City of the Saved for new readers and a continuation of the overarching plot started in the novel "Of the City of the Saved...".

The story takes the form of a series of vignettes (in the form of 100 word drabbles) from across the City, involving either previously introduced characters, characters from other Obverse titles or characters who are stand ins for other famous fictional characters, all occurring at roughly the same moment in time. Of particular note are those drabbles written by the other authors in the collection, each invited by Purser-Hallard to imagine their own main characters in the City.

## References

* Iris Wildthyme
* Compassion
* Laura Tobin
* Professor Melicia Clutterbuck
* Posthumanity
Project Thunderbird

"Project Thunderbird" is a story by Kelly Hale in the anthology Liberating Earth edited by Kate Orman for Obverse Books.

## Synopsis

Just prior to the battle at Wounded Knee, a deal was struck between one of the Indian warriors and a spirit, victory in exchange for rejection of everything the White Man brought to the Americas.

At the Battle of Wounded Knee, the Indians made a decisive victory that turned the conflict with the white man on its head and begun a Charms Race where the spirits of the dead were weaponised by all sides and set loose to wipe out their enemies.

Now, decades later, the fallout from this is being felt, and the Druids, Medicine Women, Voodoo Priests and all the other spiritualists agree, the world no longer belongs to the living but rather the weaponised dead.

In fact, if nothing is done soon, there will be no place in the world for the living at all...
The Massacre (Black Archive)

**The Massacre** is the second volume of the Black Archive series. It is written by James Cooray Smith and was published in March 2016.

## Blurb

*‘Here in Paris we know what is right.’*During its first three years on air **Doctor Who**’s production team divided its stories roughly equally into two categories: ‘future’ – science fiction stories set on alien worlds, involving monsters or both – and ‘past’ – serials set in human history which, initially, had no science fiction elements beyond the presence of the series’ leads in the historical period portrayed.

*The Massacre* (1966), a serial of disputed authorship, of which no video copy is known to survive, was one of the last of **Doctor Who**’s ‘past’ stories as originally defined. Produced during a fractious, transitional period in the series’ evolution, it nevertheless deals with the topic of religious civil strife in the Paris of 1572 with maturity and complexity, and from a variety of angles, many surprising for a tea-time adventure serial.

This Black Archive title looks at*The Massacre* both in terms of its place in **Doctor Who**’s ongoing production and public reception, and as a piece of historical fiction intimately concerned with Christianity which draws on a variety of primary and secondary sources, many of them never previously acknowledged in discussion of the serial.

**James Cooray Smith** contributed production notes to a number of the BBC’s **Doctor Who** DVD releases.
Warring States

**Warring States** is a Faction Paradox novel by Mags L Halliday, originally published by Mad Norwegian Press.

## Blurb

The Year of the Metal Rat has brought with it greed and self-preservation. The Everlasting Empire is dying, eaten up from within, and the young upstarts Britain and Russia are circling like carrion-birds, for crows of every nation are equally black. The peasant-sect of the Righteous Harmonious Fists attacks all foreign devils. In the capital, the ancient heart of the Empire, the Europeans are besieged by the Dragon Empress’ army and the blood of a thousand Christian converts runs in the gutters.

When there is War in Heaven, there is War in the Land. A dagger can be concealed in a smile and this House of Paradox smiles often. Its servant here carries grief like dead petals in her hands and wakes the ancient spirits.

Their anger makes the sky weep blood, and we shall all pay dearly for her trespass.
The Perennial Miss Wildthyme

**The Perennial Miss Wildthyme** is the eighth Iris Wildthyme short story collection from Obverse Books. It was edited by Dale Smith, with cover artwork by Paul Hanley.

## Contents

* Death of the Author, by Jay Eales
* Right vs Left vs Wrong, by Paul Vayro
* Wildthyme and The Wolf, by Graham Tedesco-Blair
* Dolores Smith and the Birthday Bear, by Kara Dennison
* The Girl Who Went Up In Smoke, by Greg Maughan
* Onesies, by Steve Palace
* The Opera of Samhain, by Donald McCarthy
* A Grove Invisible, by Juliet Kemp
* Michael Drake, by Dale Smith
* The Midnight Empire, by Julio Angel Ortiz
* Doppler Shift, by Ian Potter
* Closure, by Paul Castle

## Blurb

Samhain is one of those little snow-covered villages that look as if they haven’t changed in the last thousand years. But Iris Wildthyme has been back to the village time and time again, and every visit brings its own unique adventures. Because there is a fancy dress shop in the heart of the village, with changing rooms that are doorways to anywhere in time and space. And one of these days, Iris is determined that she will get to the bottom of just what exactly is going on.

Or perhaps, on one of those days, she already has…
Burning with Optimism's Flames

**Burning with Optimism's Flames** is a Faction Paradox collection from Obverse Books.

## Contents

* *Raleigh Dreaming*, by Elizabeth Evershed
* *Office Politics*, by Alan Taylor
* *…and from the Tower she did fall*, by Cate Gardner
* *La Santa Muerte*, by Daniel Ribot
* *Dos Hombres – A Fable*, by Kelly Hale
* *All the Fun of the Fear*, by Stephen Marley
* *Wing Finger*, by Helen Angove
* *The Strings*, by James Worrad
* *Squatters Rights*, by Juliet Kemp
* *After the Velvet Eon*, by Simon Bucher-Jones
* *Remake/Remodel*, by Jonathan Dennis
* *Dharmayuddha*, by Aditya Bidikar
* *A Star’s View of Caroline*, by Sarah Hadley
* *De Umbris Idearum*, by Philip Purser-Hallard
Grandfather Paradox

## Grandfather Paradox: Orthodox View

Grandfather Paradox was a radical renegade member of the Time Lords, who in defiance of all Time Lord tradition and rules embraces the Lesser Species and a spirit of innovation and defiance. In a culture bound by science, he became a voodoo priest. In an immortal society he openly wore the images of death.

His greatest act of defiance was to write himself out of history altogether in order to defy being bound by even the laws of history and physics.
Lawrence Burton

Noted hat wearer, prodigious and talented artist responsible for much of the cover art work for Obverse Book's Faction Paradox series. He is also the author of *Against Nature**,* the first full length Faction Paradox novel from Obverse Books.

He lives and works in San Antonio, Texas.

## As author

* *Smoking Mirror (*Novel*,* Ce Acatl, 2014)
* *The Great Divide* (Novel, Ce Acatl, 2014)
* *Against Nature* (Novel, Obverse Books, 2012)
* The Unwoken Princess in *The Obverse Book of Detectives* (2014)
* Driving Home for Atonatiuh(short story, in *Furthest Tales of the City*, Obverse Books, 2015)

## As artist

* *A Romance in Twelve Parts*
* *Liberating Earth*
* *Against Nature*
* *The Breakspeare Voyage*
* *Head of State*
* *Weapons Grade Snake Oil*
* *Spinning Jenny*
* *The Book of the Enemy*
* *The Book of the Peace*
About a Girl

"About a Girl" is a story by Dale Smith in the anthology Tales of the City edited by Philip Purser-Hallard for Obverse Books.

## Synopsis

Not everyone appreciates rebirth in the City of the Saved. There are those for whom life itself was too much of a struggle that death was a release. There are those who never got a chance at a first life, so whose imagos (their bodies in the City as shaped by self image) never had time to develop beyond that of a newborn. Some of those people gravitate towards each other, and some of those try to find ways to escape immortality itself.
The Mystery of the Rose

"The Mystery of the Rose" by Richard Wright is a story in the anthology More Tales of the City edited by Philip Purser-Hallard for Obverse Books. It is written as if it was a classic tale in the style of "Paradise Lost".

## Synopsis the First

A Remake is he, one of many,

with the face of McKellen and the soul of a king,

a life of inquiry and a mission new,

charged to find by the Elizabeth true,

who in the towers, did princes slew.

If he knows but one thing,

tis that Richard the Thirds are ten-a-penny.

## Synopsis the Second

A Remake of Richard the third, modelled he tells us on Sir Ian McKellen's performance as the character, waxes lyrical upon his life in the City, upon how he sees himself and how others (including other Richard the Thirds) see him. Shorn of his role in his original tale, he found solace in another role - private detective. Now confronted by the genuine Elizabeth Woodville, he has a case uniquely suited to a Richard the Third ... who killed the Princes in the Tower?
Zeeter

**Zeeter** is the Zula Patrol's primary pilot and one of the main protagonists of the series. She is mainly Bula's companion and is best friends with Multo, Wizzy, Wigg, and Gorga. When not piloting her ship, Zeeter often rides her zula-scooter for fun, which is made from iron.

Zeeter is described as a "hot-dogging go-getter" and as such she's very energetic in comparison to the laid-back Bula. She has her own flaws, however, such as jumping into situations without thinking and being very impatient. She also has a slight temper at times, and can get irritated easily. She dislikes Dark Truder most out of the team.

## Trivia

* Zeeter's voice actress also voiced Jazz Fenton in *Danny Phantom*, as well as Tails in *Sonic Boom*.
Manleigh Halt Irregulars

**The Manleigh Halt Irregulars** are a group of people apparently from the first half of the twentieth century in England, who travel through space and time inside the police station of Manleigh Halt, a small English village.

They were created by Stuart Douglas for an aborted short story collection (as the Cranleigh Halt Irregulars).

## The Irregulars

* Clarissa Miller – a feminist writer, widowed by the Great War.
* Constable Wilson – a newly appointed policeman, full of youthful eagerness.
* Sergeant Whitney – a policeman whose slow but methodical approach causes many to underestimate his determination to get to the bottom of matters.
* Dogberry – an old man with experience of times and places of which he should have no knowledge.

## Appearances

* The Delightful Bag (Paul Magrs, short story, in *The Panda Book of Horror*)
* The Irredeemable Love (Nick Wallace, Novella, in *Miss Wildthyme and Friends Investigate*)
* Moon Eyes (Stuart Douglas, short story, in *Storyteller*)
* *The Casebook of the Manleigh Halt Irregulars* (ed. Philip Craggs)
Kara Dennison

Kara Dennison is a writer, editor, illustrator, and presenter. She fell in love with the legends of the Knights of the Round Table at an early age, and specialized in medieval and Arthurian literature at the College of William and Mary. By day, she subtitles anime and works as community manager for the US Doctor Who convention (Re)Generation Who. Her works can also be read in The Perennial Miss Wildthyme, *Associates of Sherlock Holmes*, and the light novel series *Owl’s Flower*, which she co-created with artist Ginger Hoesly.

She wrote the final book in the Sextet series of novellas, *Vanishing Tales of the City*.

Kara lives in Virginia with four guinea-pigs and a bass guitar.

Biography from Tales of the Civil War.
Alchemy

**Alchemy** is a Faction Paradox short story by James Milton.

## Synopsis

In its distant future, Tagonique will be the centre of rational scientific thought in its galaxy and the prime mover of a tremendous technological flowering. But that future is on the cusp of being undone - Tagonique is a world where science and technology are losing ground to effective magic, and the Naturalists of the Wizard’s Parliament have been ousted by the now ruling Esotericists.

Mesquividas, a disgraced Wizard Naturalist, is visited by three fallen angels who give him a machine they promise will manufacture vengeance against those who betrayed him. But are these angels all they seem to be?
Highbury

"Highbury" is a story by Helen Angrove in the anthology Tales of the City edited by Philip Purser-Hallard published by Obverse Books.

## Synopsis

What is life like for reborn humanity from eras before mass telecommunication and mass transport? How do they cope? One enclave of humanity copes by ignoring anything uptime from their pre-death world, they live lives of high tea, formal balls and living a life little different to that of a Brönte or Austin hero or heroine. However, just because *they* eshue the wider human ecosystem, it doesn't mean they're invisible to *it* ...
Library Pictures

**Library Pictures** is a Faction Paradox short story by Stuart Douglas. As well as various members of the Faction, it also features Iris Wildthyme and Panda.

## Synopsis

Iris Wildthyme - in search for the missing Panda - lands her bus in what appears to be an alt-Earth, in which slavery was never abolished in the United States. As she flits in and out of a series of apparently unconnected events in Earth history, she discovers she is actually in The Boulevard of Alternate Brutalities, a Faction prison.
The Panda Book of Horror

**The Panda Book of Horror** is the second Iris Wildthyme short story collection from Obverse Books. Edited by Stuart Douglas and Paul Magrs, with cover art by Magrs, it was released in 2009.

## **Contents**

* *Iris Wildthyme and the Unholy Ghost* by Ian Potter
* *Framed* by Mark Michalowski
* *Just the Ticket* by Philip Craggs
* *The Party in Room Four* by Simon Guerrier
* *Party Kill Accelerator!* by Blair Bidmead
* *Apocalypse Slough* by Mark Morris
* *The Delightful Bag* by Paul Magrs
* *Iris Wildthyme’s Rainy Day Adventure* by Nicholas Nada
* *The Colour Scheme* by Eddie Robson
* *Shadow of the Times Before* by Matt Kimpton
* *The Fag Hag from Hell* by Dale Smith
* *The Niceness* by Jacqueline Rayner and Orna Petit
* *Channel 666* by Mark Clapham

## Blurb

Witness a slender neck being circled by rough hands…sharp metal violently stabbing and twisting… the emerging viscous dark red liquid being guzzled greedily, lingering on lips and teeth, followed by the laughter of madness. And that’s just Iris and Panda at a wine tasting!

*“Pass me the bottle, woman! We might as well KILL it…”*

THE PANDA BOOK OF HORROR will make your fur stand on end.  Your blood AND your G&T will run ice cold.
Sexton Blake

**Sexton Blake** is a fictional detective who appeared in British comic strips, novels and television from the late 19th 20th century to the present day. Obverse Books held the license for the character from 2014 to 2019 and published a new Sexton Blake novel, *The Silent Thunder Caper* by Mark Hodder.

Amongst Blake's more celebrated enemies is Zenith the Albino. Obverse published a Zenith short story collection, *Zenith Lives* as part of the Obverse Quarterly.

## Sexton Blake Library Series 6

* The Silent Thunder Caper, by Mark Hodder (2014)
Wild Thymes on the 22

Wild Thymes on the 22 is an Iris Wildthyme anthology from Obverse Books, edited by Stewart Sheargold-Pearce.

## Contents

The Heart Pendulums – Steve Cole

Rain and Regency – Neil Chester

Iris Wildthyme & the Bush Offensive – Stewart Sheargold-Pearce

Drowned in Moonlight – Kenneth James McGowan

The Most Faithful Panda in the World – Richard Wright

Hillbilly Heavens – Brad Wolfe

The Haberdasher’s Tale – Brendan Jones

The Exploding Somewhat Inevitable – Philip Marsh

The Brightest Stars in the Demimonde – Matt Bright

Starstation to Starstation – Jon Wesley Huff

The Magrs Conundrum! – Vivienne Fox

Untitled No. 22 – Cody Schell

## Description

Iris has always been a bit of a name-dropper. She was there when it all began, when it peaked, when it started going pear-shaped. Iris was there: tinkering with the spaceship design on the *Star Wars* set, upsetting Warhol’s films in the Factory, sexing it up with Chaucer, conjuring ghosts with Kate Bush, cross-dressing and undressing with Fanny and Stella, and arguing for her very existence with a nefarious biographer known as Magrs…

Pop star, fashion diva, writer, artiste, botherer, ratbag and liar. She’s done it all. Or undone it all.

Now, in this exclusive tell-all collection, taken from her journals, we hear Iris in her own words and get the inside gossip on her wild times…
Furthest Tales Of The City

**Furthest Tales of the City** is the fourth anthology edited by Philip Purser-Hallard for Obverse Books and set in The City of the Saved.

## Blurb

Even the secular afterlife created for humanity by the Secret Architects has its limits – and there will always be those Citizens who chafe against those limits. Environmentally, culturally, biologically, cosmologically, politically, experientially, some will always seek to go further.

For instance...

A group mind facing the troubling truth of resurrection. A comatose giant with human inhabitants of its own. A civilisation re-enacting an impossible apocalypse. A woman with negligible human ancestry out on the dating scene. A cult who inhabit the deep infrastructure underlying the City. A fictional adventurer starved of the risks his narrative craves.

*These are their tales.*

## Contents

* *Salutation* by Philip Purser-Hallard
* *Weighty Questions* by Juliet Kemp
* *Sleeping Giants* by Elizabeth Evershed
* *Driving Home from Atonatiuh* by Lawrence Burton
* *The Smallest Spark* by Paul Hiscock
* *The Places Above, Between and Below* by Louise Sellers
* *We Only Live Twice (but the City is not Enough)* by Helen Angrove
* *God Encompasses* by Philip Purser-Hallard
Stranger Tales of the City

”Stranger Tales of the City” is a 2018 anthology published by Obverse Books and edited by Elizabeth Evershed.

## Synopsis

*The knights hospitaller have just woken to a second life in a City the size of a galaxy.*

*Two strangers from a far-distant future are flung together on Resurrection Day.*

*A window-seller visits a claustrophobic suburb and finds it full of mystery.*

*A Remake gunslinger seeks a new role from the one he was  always meant to play…*

In this, the sixth anthology in the City of the Saved series, we meet a host of human and not-so-human characters getting to grips with life in the afterlife: alien adoptees with no previous experience of human cultures; *Citizens permanently missing and not merely misplaced; priestesses of long-forgotten religions; posthumans with their own baffling version of the Civil Tongue; a viral strain of humankind that has never known community…*

*The City is full of strangers and these are their tales.*

## Contents

* Farewell to a World By Alexandra Marchon
* Mourning the Story by Robert Shepherd
* Riding Shotgun on a Stage from Grief by Paul Hiscock
* Bubble People by Richard Wright
* Philology: The Real Professional Bag of Tricks by James Bojaciuk
* Buried on Sunday by Jay Eales
* The Wandering Child by Kara Dennison
* Post Script by James Bojaciuk and Elizabeth Evershed
* Linking material by Elizabeth Evershed
God Encompasses

Written by series editor and creator Philip Purser-Hallard, "God Encompasses" is the eighth and final story in the anthology Furthest Tales Of The City published by Obverse Books. It is a monumentous story and one that concludes a plotline begun in the novel Of the City of the Saved... and continued in the short stories A Hundred Words from a Civil War and Apocalypse Day (both by Purser-Hallard).

## Synopsis

The end has come for the City of the Saved. A wave of all consuming unknowableness is consuming the City and nothing, not even the last stand of the combined might of all of humanity's armed forces, could stop it. Standing before it is Compassion, the last human descendant. Does she have a plan to succeed? Obviously....

## Characters

* Compassion
* The Anonymity
David Bowie

Simply the greatest creative artist of the last century. The inspiration for Lady Stardust, his image (sort) of features on the cover to that book.

More importantly, the run of albums from his debut in 1969 to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) in 1980 is the finest uninterrupted run of genius music the world has ever seen.
More Tales of the City

**More Tales of the City** is the second anthology edited by Philip Purser-Hallard for Obverse Books about The City of the Saved. Purser-Hallard also contributed the linking material for the anthology.

## Blurb

Beyond the end of the universe exists a city the size of a galaxy, packed with every human being that ever lived, from the first Australopithecus to the last posthuman, resurrected in a city in which nobody can die…

The second City of the Saved short story collection, edited by its creator, Philip Purser-Hallard, and with new stories – and one extraordinary poem – from many of Obverse Book’s favourite authors!

## Contents

* The Long-Distance Somnambulist by Ian Potter
* Double Trouble at the Parasites on the Proletariat Club by Simon Bucher-Jones
* Eternity is Just for Starters by Susannah Tiller
* Born Among Briars by Jay Eales
* The Mystery of the Rose by Richard Wright
* The Isis Method by Kelly Hale
Juliet Kemp

Juliet Kemp (julietkemp.com) lives in London with a garden, a dog, a child, and two partners. She stares at the river a lot. Sometimes words come out. Previous stories of hers have featured in Obverse anthologies including Iris Wildthyme of Mars, Furthest Tales Of The City, and Burning with Optimism's Flame; and online in Luna Station Quarterly and others.

Biography from Tales of the Civil War.
Weapons Grade Snake Oil

**Weapons Grade Snake Oil** by Blair Bidmead is the fourth full length Faction Paradox novel published by Obverse Books.

## Synopsis

When the Great Houses anchored (in effect, created) history some of them equivocated and worried that they needed a back-up just in case they failed. Thus the Second second was created. It fell, as ancient artefacts from before the dawn of time are want to do, into the annals of legend, and then myth.

Now, this myth has been recovered and is in the hands of the universe's premiere gambling empire, and Father Christémas of Faction Paradox has decided the Second second deserves to reside in the hands of none other than the Faction itself. In order to fulfil this, he collects a motley crew of renegades, pirates and a rogue time machine with a penchant for disguising itself as a giant squid (not to mention an empathic robotic mammoth).

## Characters

* Sojourner Hooper-Agogô (President, former revolutionary, former miner, former Cousin)
* L-Event (empathic robot mammoth)
* Anne Bonny (pirate)
* The Hussar (renegade Houseworlder)
* Scacia de Ren (Indeterminatrix)
* Chantelle (Cousin)
* Harribeaux (Cousin)
* Rupert (Cousin)
* Kharon (Cousin)
* Chistémas (Father)
* Antigone (Godmother, former Houseworlder)
* The Kraken (transdimensional squid)
Erasing Sherlock

**Erasing Sherlock** is a Faction Paradox novel by Kelly Hale , published by Mad Norwegian Press .

## Blurb

Seeking: Maid of all Work. Master of Arts required.
She thought she was there to observe and document the methods of the twenty-five-year-old Sherlock Holmes before he gained notoriety--
'Rooftop Robber Strikes Again!'
A barely noticed automaton; quiet, efficient, and unobtrusive--
'The partially clad body of a young girl was found Sunday morning at the London Dock.'
A remarkable opportunity for research in the field--
'Gilbert & Sullivan's comic opera, Perola, premieres at the Savoy Theatre.'
Bestowed upon her by a benefactor who has sold his soul--
'American Oil Tycoon, Henry Barstow, has begun annulment proceedings on behalf of his daughter Lady Henrietta Holbrook. Lord Merrill Holbrook's whereabouts still unknown.'
For a technology that only works if the devil he sold it to is sufficiently entertained.
'Dr Grimsley Roylott of Stoke Moran arrested in connection with suspicious deaths of his stepdaughters, Julia and Helen Stoner.'
The life of Sherlock Holmes is being written by another hand--
'Woman held captive for forty days, rescued. White slave gang suspected.'
And maid must become master if she wants to survive--
'Krakatoa explodes with a force of 1,300 megatons. Thousands perish.'
Because the devil loves a spectacle. The more blood, the better.
Iris Wildthyme of Mars

**Iris Wildthyme of Mars** is the seventh Iris Wildthyme collection from Obverse Books.

## Contents

* Wandering Stars, by Ian Potter
* Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Bad Weekend, by Daniel Tessier
* Iris: Chess-Mistress of Mars, by Simon Bucher-Jones
* Death on the Euphrates, by Selina Lock
* And a Dog to Walk - Dale Smith
* Talking with Spores, by Juliet Kemp
* Doomed, by Richard Wright
* The Last Martian, by Rachel Churcher
* Lilac Mars, by Lance Parkin and Mark Clapham
* City of Dust, by Aditya Bidikar
* The Calamari-Men Of Mare Cimmerium, by Blair Bidmead
* Green Mars Blues, by Philip Purser-Hallard

## Blurb

Everyone agrees about the colour, at least. The rest is up for grabs.

Is Mars a dead and sterile desert, or teeming with life?

Are Martians red, green or blue? Nubile and lithe, or monstrously tentacular?

Are they long gone, or waiting still? How do they feel about visitors?

Will we become the Martians? What kind of a world might we build on Mars? What myths, new or old, might we create there?

Oh – and how many different colours can you put in front of “Mars” to make a clever title?

*These Marses are of course incompatible, contradictory, and in many cases quite impossible. And Iris Wildthyme has visited them all*
Party Fears Two

"Party Fears Two" is a story by Stuart Douglas in the anthology Fifteen also edited by Douglas for Obverse Books.

## Synopsis

Brenda Scoobie attends a party in Las Vegas, rubbing shoulders with the glitterati and generally avoiding her responsibilities.

She also foils the nefarious Ninnies, despite her best intentions.

## Notes

* In addition to Brenda Scoobie, another version of Iris cameos as part of the plot to defeat the Ninnies.
* The party Brenda attends features a number of celebrities, including a time travelling Marlene Dietrich and Noel Coward, and many of the writers and illustrators who have worked for Obverse, as well as the author and Iris creator Paul Magrs.
Kelly Hale

Kelly Hale lives in magical Portland, Oregon, USA in a tiny-house village next to an adorable food cart pod on a street paved with espresso beans near the homeless camps along the Springwater Trail and right around the corner from a strip club called the Pitiful Princess.

She has published several short stories in anthologies, co-written a TV tie-in novel called Grimm Reality for the iconic series Doctor Who, and won grand prize (with cash!) for her first novel Erasing Sherlock in January of 2000.

Biography from Tales of the Civil War.
Print the Legend

"Print the Legend" is a story by Daniel O'Mahony from the 2011 anthology A Romance in Twelve Parts.

## Synopsis

In an "Amerika" that could only be myth, a man who shouldn't exist seeks out a man who is the epitome of "The Amerikan Spirit". Along the way he will encounter skull masked shamans, eldritch abominations, Gods, the hangman's noose, weaponised shadows and dancing girls.
Jonathan Dennis

**Jonathan Dennis** is an American writer, who has written short stories featuring Iris Wildthyme, Faction Paradox, Bernice Summerfield and Senor 105, in addition to co-authoring the novel, *The Brakespeare Voyage*.

He is believed to be the original of Dennis the Menace from the comic books.

## Bibliography

### Novels

* *The Brakespeare Voyage* (with Simon Bucher-Jones, Obverse Books)

### Short stories

* Why? Because We Like You in *Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus*
* Redacted in *Secret Histories* (Big Finish, 2009)
* Chicken Fried Banana Republic in *Iris: Abroad*
* Mechaluchador vs Iguanadios in *Senor 105 and The Elements of Danger*
* Gramps in *A Romance in Twelve Parts*
* Remake/Remodel in *Burning With Optimism's Flames*
Happily Ever After is a High-Risk Strategy

"Happily Ever After is a High-Risk Strategy" is a story by Blair Bidmead in the anthology Tales of the City edited by Philip Purser-Hallard for Obverse Books. As with all the stories in the anthology, this story addresses some of the ways rebirth in the City affects the common man, offering them second chances at life, or even a chance to build an entirely new life.

## Synopsis

Rebirth In the City of the Saved means a second chance humanity. How that second chance is used is entirely up to the individual. Five people, a human from the 1940s, a post-human Autoform and a visitor from the Houseworld, their former companion and a famous beauty find their lives crossing and interweaving. One is looking for a place in the City, one is rebuilding their lives after heartbreak, one simply wants to go home, one wants to change their destiny and one wants to escape their past.

Along the way, they'll share their stories ... and get involved in the Trojan War.

## Notes

* Due to their bitter rivalry in their first lives, the Grecian and Trojan soldiers who fought at the Battle of Troy continued their rivalry in the City, but due to the immortality protocols, their contests evolved to take the form of contests of strength, stamina and speed. Or a beach party, depending on your perspective.