The Amtrak Wars First Family

Hundreds of years after civilisation has been destroyed by nuclear war, the Earth is divided between the Trackers of the Amtrak Federation – a community living in vast subterranean cities – and the Mutes, who have evolved to withstand the radiation that has driven their foes underground. A long war for possession of the overground has killed and enslaved many of the Mutes, leaving only the Plainfolk to resist the Federation. And now the Iron Masters – a powerful people living in the traditions of the Samurai – have joined the battle for dominance. It is time for Steve Brickman, who has long struggled with split loyalties, to finally pick a side. His duty to his own people, the Amtrak Federation, wars against his spiritual bond to the Mute clan M'Call. Honoured with promotion into to the First Family, it looks as though Brickman may choose his home over that of his love's, the pregnant Clearwater. But when Clearwater gives birth to his child at the exact moment that Mount Saint Helens explodes, it looks as if the Mute Prophesy has come to fruition. Meanwhile Roz – Brickman's powerfully psychic kin-sister – and Cadillac, last free living member of the clan M'Call, must travel into the treacherous lands of the Iron Masters to stave off a deadly retribution, whilst becoming embroiled in another land's civil war. Now that the First Family believe Clearwater's child to be the Talisman – heralded messiah of the Plainfolk – their grip tightens as they plan to use this child of prophesy for their own ends. Earth-Thunder, book six of The Amtrak Wars Saga, first published in 1990, concludes Patrick Tilley's internationally best selling science fiction epic.

Hundreds of years after civilisation has been destroyed by nuclear war, the Earth is divided between the Trackers of the Amtrak Federation – a community living in vast subterranean cities – and the Mutes, who have evolved to withstand the radiation that has driven their foes underground. A long war for possession of the overground has killed and enslaved many of the Mutes, leaving only the Plainfolk to resist the Federation. After escaping from the clan M'Call in his handmade glider, wingman Steve Brickman expects a hero's welcome from his fellow Trackers. Kidnapped on his first mission above ground by the Mutes, he has spent the last five months under the enforced tutelage of Mr Snow, clan M'Call's wise and magically gifted wordsmith. The months have also garnered a friendship with Cadillac, Mr Snow's protégé, a dawning love of the beautiful Clearwater, and a realisation that the Mutes are not the sub-humans that his masters would have him believe. But instead of a happy homecoming, he receives suspicion and interrogation. Still officially 'dead' until he receives the proper clearance, Brickman must face long hours of speculation and questioning at the hands of the First Family. Only the chance of seeing his kin-sister Roz – with whom he shares a psychic connection – offers any comfort. He is soon drawn into the complicated world of AMEXICO, a top-secret intelligence force where nothing is as it seems, and Brickman must face the reality that everything he has believed in could be false. If the First Family have lied to them about the Mutes, then what else have they been covering up? Is there really any harmful radiation left in the blue-sky world at all? Split by a terrible division of loyalties, what will Brickman choose? The world he knows of order and duty? Or the new life glimpsed through his love for Clearwater? Either way, his role in the Mute prophesy of the Talisman is far from over. First Family, first published in 1985, is the second instalment of Patrick Tilley's internationally best selling science fiction epic, The Amtrak Wars Saga.

The New York Times bestselling dramatic and never-before-told story of a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II: “A must-read….The Train to Crystal City is compelling, thought-provoking, and impossible to put down” (Star-Tribune, Minneapolis). During World War II, trains delivered thousands of civilians from the United States and Latin America to Crystal City, Texas. The trains carried Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants and their American-born children. The only family internment camp during the war, Crystal City was the center of a government prisoner exchange program called “quiet passage.” Hundreds of prisoners in Crystal City were exchanged for other more ostensibly important Americans—diplomats, businessmen, soldiers, and missionaries—behind enemy lines in Japan and Germany. “In this quietly moving book” (The Boston Globe), Jan Jarboe Russell focuses on two American-born teenage girls, uncovering the details of their years spent in the camp; the struggles of their fathers; their families’ subsequent journeys to war-devastated Germany and Japan; and their years-long attempt to survive and return to the United States, transformed from incarcerated enemies to American loyalists. Their stories of day-to-day life at the camp, from the ten-foot high security fence to the armed guards, daily roll call, and censored mail, have never been told. Combining big-picture World War II history with a little-known event in American history, The Train to Crystal City reveals the war-time hysteria against the Japanese and Germans in America, the secrets of FDR’s tactics to rescue high-profile POWs in Germany and Japan, and above all, “is about identity, allegiance, and home, and the difficulty of determining the loyalties that lie in individual human hearts” (Texas Observer).

At the end of BLOOD RIVER Clearwater is in trouble on board the wagon-train while Cadillac heads West. Caught up in double treachery Roz and Steve together pretend loyalty to the Federation. While Mutes mount a dranmatic raid on the train, Mr Snow is worrying about the whereabouts of Steve, Cadillac and Clearwater and decides to seek them out at the trading post. An elaborate plot sees Steve joining Cadillac to destroy the strongest Mute clan. Meanwhile the Iron Masters are determined to settle their score with the Mutes and increase their landholding. Having convened a meeting with the Summoners, Mr Snow raises a tidal wave and aborts the iron master' plan; sweeping their boats inland and breaking up the battle. Though Steve feaars for Clearwater's safety and appeals to Mr Snoe to intervene, the answer in severe. Steve and Clearwater must go back and face their destiny.

Detailed artwork, maps, strips and narrative bringing to life visually the world of the trackers, the mutes and the iron masters - the three sets of inhabitants of the amtrak wars series. 11/1/88-resubmit on far eastern & european costs. 18/1/88-produce from crc: 15000 at $6.99: 64p: uc=182p(far eastern costs). 25/1/88-resubmitted via pricing system: 20000 at $5.99: uc=148p(far eastern costs). UK LEAD TITLE