Dray Prescot must answer to the Star Lords for his disobedience. But the Star Lords argue over him and Dray is dropped accidentally in a walled garden. He is lost. Even the Star Lords don't know where he is. He knows he is on the splendid if horrific planet of Kregen, and in the continent of Loh, but nothing is familiar. He must find his way back to Makilorn, and from there to Tarankar to train an army to repel the Shanks... Scorpio Invasion is the fortieth book in the epic fifty-two book saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen by Kenneth Bulmer, writing as Alan Burt Akers. The series continues with Scorpio Ablaze.
Four hundred light years from Earth, Kregen is a marvelous world, peopled by wonderful beings, filled with light and clamor and furor of life lived to the hilt. But Kregen has its darker side, where horror and terror bind innocent people, where sorceries rend reason, where injustice denies light. Here, in the unforgiving yet rewarding world of Kregen, struggling through disaster and triumph, Dray Prescot has made his home. He has acquired a number of titles and estates but now the people of the island empire of Vallia, which has been ripped to shreds by ambitious and mercenary invaders, have called on him to lead them to freedom as their emperor. Reluctant to accept the imperium, he shoulders the burden because, rightly or wrongly, he sees this as the lesser evil... A Life for Kregen: Prescot is the unwilling battle arm of the mysterious Star Lords who contend for that planet with the powerful Savanti. Yet Prescot's ambitions are his own, for he has inherited the remnant of a shattered empire and must fight to bring hope and freedom to all its peoples. By his side stands his princess, Delia of the Blue Mountains, and a band of stalwart companions of many races and species. But arrayed against him are flying armadas, armed hordes, the wizardry of a super scientist, and, most shocking of all, the fury and steel claws of his own daughter, Dayra! A Sword for Kregen: The most popular game among the many peoples of Kregen is one that resembles chess, called Jikaida. Jikaida is a battle of wits and war game pieces that suits well the tension charged atmosphere that envelops Dray Prescot. Because reconquering Vallia is assuming the aspect of such a game, move versus countermove, horde against horde! But Dray Prescot finds himself no longer in control of the game when he becomes a living chessman on a real-life board at the dreaded arena of Jikaida City. There every move is accompanied by bloodshed and behind every game might hang the fate of a city, an island, or even a nation! A Fortune for Kregen: Fame and fortune may await the winners of the life and death game called Jikaida, but for Dray Prescot his triumphs seem to bring only infamy and misfortune. Prescot needs to find a way out of his Jikaida City exile, for his homeland needs him in its hour of danger. But it seems that fate will place him in an even more terrifying game: a treasure hunt played out in the illusion webbed catacombs of a haunted valley where desperate men come to find fortunes at the risk of their followers lives and their own sanity. A Victory for Kregen: The ending of Prescot's stark adventures as a living chess piece in the city of blood games was to be as terrifying as the perils that had gone before. Because now that transposed Earthman has to fight his way back to his embattled Vallian homeland across a sky full of danger and a sea full of death. And when he returns he will find the combat joined, his son at doom's door, his troops up against superior odds, and a battle he must personally fight that would be two battles in two different places at the same time! This edition contains a glossary to the Jikaida cycle.
Together, the three books in this volume make up the first part of the Havilfar Cycle of the Saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen. Dray Prescot is launched headlong into a brand-new series of adventures upon the planet of Kregen, that marvelous and beautiful, mystical and terrible world four hundred light-years away beneath the Suns of Scorpio. A new life opens for Dray, but that new life is cruelly different from all he expected and dreamed, hurling him into fresh adventure and danger among peoples and places far removed from those he knows and loves. Dray Prescot's saga has been aclaimed as the best planetary adventure series since Burroughs stopped writing about Barsoom. Manhounds of Antares: Will Dray Prescot be able to remain a prince of proud Vallia or will he become just another human victim of the hunters and manhounds of the mysterious Southern Continent? For that is the enigmatic fate that the Star Lords have suddenly confronted him with. They want someone freed from the terrified pack of human prey among whom Prescot finds himself. But who it is and how it is to be done, they have left to Dray to work out... Arena of Antares: Never a man to leave something half done, Dray Prescot knows his task on the mysterious continent of Havilfar is far from complete. There are cruel conquerors to be overthrown, the pursuit of the manhounds and their masters to continue, and there is the dreaded arena. Can he survive the life of a gladiator against the killers and monsters of a spoiled queen while the Star Lords wait for his mission to continue? Fliers of Antares: Dray Prescot confronts his most baffling task while he is a hunted and harried wanderer of the continent of Havilfar. That task is to discover the means by which the aircraft of that continent's most advanced civilization operate. Prescot is no scientist, but fulfill his task he must or he will never return to the princess and homeland he has won. So, for Dray Prescot there is but one course. With a whole continent against him, with time itself conspiring to balk him, the secrets of an unknown science must be made his...
Triple trouble always follows Dray Prescot, especially when he thinks he has things under control. This time, while involved with setting things right on the continent of Pandahem, the Star Lords yank him away from his friends and dump him, weaponless, at the gates of the terrible temple of the Leem. Rescuing a girl sacrifice is only the start, for next he has to help Pompino to torch all the temples of the Silver Wonder, and take to the sea to confront the next wave of the fish-headed marauders from Kregen's Southern Hemisphere. Fires of Scorpio is the twenty-ninth book in the epic fifty-two book saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen by Kenneth Bulmer, writing as Alan Burt Akers. The series continues with Talons of Scorpio.
Dray Prescot, Earthman of Kregen, that wonderful world circling the twin suns of Antares, had risen high in the empire of Vallia, but luck could not always sustain him. When, at last, all the forces opposed to his lands, his princess, his emperor, and to him personally, converged, it was to produce the darkest hour of his long career. For treason struck at the court, while rebel armies marched from the backlands, the war fleets of enemy nations were aloft, and the uncanny wizardry of a master scientist launched a spell of doom for all Prescot held dear. With his back to the wall, Dray Prescot faced that time of peril with unflinching will... until the cruelest blow of all was struck: his warrior daughter Dayra rode in the vanguard of his foes!
What does a man do when fate makes him the protector of the royal head of the land of his enemies? If he is Dray Prescot, Earthman on Antares, he sets aside his quest to do his duty. His duty is to reach Vallia and his princess Delia and help her claim her throne. His duty is to defend Vallia's ancient foe and place its rightful heir on its throne -- sworn to attack Vallia. So when the third force, the pirate fleets known as the swordships, come between the two contending demands, Dray sees that only by following his own personal star could the contradiction be resolved. Swordships of Scorpio is the fourth book in the epic fifty-two book saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen.
For the first time ever, the ÿbooks in the Saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen are being brought together in omnibus editions. In the first Havilfar Cycle omnibus, Dray Prescot was launched headlong into a brand-new series of adventures upon the planet of Kregen, that marvelous and beautiful, mystical and terrible world four hundred light-years away beneath the Suns of Scorpio. Now Hamal, the greatest power in Havilfar, is bent on conquest, and Prescot hates the Hamalese because he slaved in their diabolical Heavenly Mines. His mission is to discover the secrets of the Hamalese airboats for his own people. This book contains... Bladesman of Antares Avenger of Antares Armada of Antares
On the magnificent and mysterious, beautiful and terrible world of Kregen, a planet orbiting Antares four-hundred light-years from Earth, much may be achieved and much lost. Far more than merely a strong sword arm is required for victory. Far more than a cunning and devious brain is needed to secure success. Having won his princess, Delia of Delphond, Delia of the Blue Mountains, and having become the Emperor of Vallia with Delia at his side as Empress, Dray Prescot has renounced the crown and throne. Any thoughts of a quiet life are foolish, as he well knows. Among the many problems besetting him, the most important are uniting the lands of Paz and beating off the viciously hostile raiders from over the curve of the sea, the feared and hated Shanks. Scorpio Ablaze:Under the twin sun, Antares, the planet Kregen is a world of wonder and terror, of beauty and horror. Now, in the streaming mingled lights of the Suns of Scorpio, Prescot, slave of the Shanks, takes up the Krozair brand to attempt to save his friends who are about to be killed by the vicious Shank lord. Next he must rally the coalition of forces from Vallia, Hamel and Tsungfaril to expel the Shanks from Tarankar. But things rarely go according to plan on Kregen... Scorpio Drums:The forces of Paz have driven off the Shanks and the mysterious Carazaar from the city of Taranjin. People are beginning to call Dray Prescot the Emperor of Emperors, the Emperor of Paz. As he enters the city to assist in the rout of the Shanks and their slaving allies, the whiptailed Katakis, to his horror he sees Delia being carried off by a group of the slavers, galloping off astride zorcas. Frenziedly he charges after them... Scorpio Triumph:Many expeditions have ventured below the City of Eternal Twilight into the Realm of the Drums in search of one of the rubies of the Skantiklar. A Wizard of Loh, Na-Si-Fantong, is collecting the rubies, and it is believed he wants them for no good purpose. He has succeeded in obtaining a ruby and vanishes into the maze of tunnels under the city. Not really convinced of the importance of the Skantiklar, Prescot has to go in pursuit. Alone, he threads his way through the labyrinth, already feeling he will never catch Na-Si-Fantong... This edition includes a glossary to the Lohvian cycle.
The brightest star in the Constellation Scorpio is the brilliant double sun Antares, around which orbits the inhabited planet called Kregen. Kregen is an Earthlike world, but strange, far stranger, than ours. For it is the scene of a conflict between galactic powers who utilize its many human nations and its astonishing variety of humanoid peoples as their battleground. Dray Prescot of Earth had been a tool of those powers, but courage and ingenuity had won him a high role in the Vallian Empire and a certain independence of his own. Thus when a mysterious monster cult began to undermine the empire and when his own beloved princess became a victim of those secret schemers, Prescot had to go into action. Secret Scorpio launches a new cycle in the magnificent history of Kregen and brings Prescot at long last into direct confrontation with the forces that had once dared make him their pawn.
Four hundred light years from Earth, Kregen is a marvelous world, peopled by wonderful beings, filled with the light and clamor and furor of life lived to the hilt. But Kregen has its darker side, where horror and terror bind innocent people, where sorceries rend reason, where injustice denies light. Down in the island of Pandahem, Prescot and his comrades, having burned a temple or two, must now press on and open a fresh campaign against the Silver Wonder. Of course, life is not as simple as that, particularly on the horrific and fascinating world of Kregen where, under the mingled streaming radiance of the Suns of Scorpio, the unexpected is always to be expected. Talons of Scorpio: Finishing the job of destroying the hideous cult of the Leem is just one of the problems confronting Dray Prescot. For he must also rally all the world's forces to combat the onslaught that is on its way from the unexplored Southern Hemisphere. While rescuing kidnapped children from the altars of sacrifice, Dray finds himself fighting side by side with his own worst enemy, his renegade daughter, Ros the Claw, who has pledged his death. Masks of Scorpio: The task of burning out the cult of the Silver Leem had been given Star Lords priority. Although Dray Prescot was emperor of Vallia, still he has to work incognito on an enemy island until that task is done. Aided by a valiant crew of piratical swashbucklers, Dray invaded the capital of the secret order only to find treachery and terror where he had thought to find treasure and triumph. It became a battle of golden masks against silver masks, and behind each facepiece could be hiding the bony features of the Grim Reaper himself! Seg the Bowman: Dray Prescot's fighting comrade, Seg, is the finest archer in two worlds. Seg is a wild and reckless fellow, courageous in the face of any adversity, and this is the account of his greatest challenge. On an enemy island, Seg becomes knight-protector of the mysterious lady Milsi, and by her side he beats off frightful beasts and inhuman foemen intent on blocking her path to a rightful royal inheritance. This edition includes a glossary of the Pandahem cycle and the short story “Green Shadows”