Craig Robertson

Life is the cure for happiness. Someone always wants what you have. If you have a lot to lose, you better watch your back very closely. Jon Ryan has lived two centuries. He has save humanity, bested hostile alien races, and helped create an ideal society on a new world. He should be able to rest for the first time in centuries, and enjoy the fruits of his labor. But, he's never been that lucky. There's an alternate time-line version of Jon out there somewhere, one who suffered the loss of his species. Jon must find his duplicate who's lost in time and space. He must ease his pain. Along the way, an immensely evil man allies with an unbelievably vicious race to end the humanity once and for all. Jon must also decide if he believes in magic. There is truly no rest for the weary. As the chances of failure skyrocket, can one good man stand against unbeatable odds one more time?

The Forever Series Book 4

The Forever Quest

There is hope, but first you must find it. Jon Ryan has saved humanity time and again. But he is called upon by fate to once again defend his species. As He prepares for an horrific war with the vicious and ruthless Berrillians, a new, more deadly threat arises. A mythical race know as the Last Nightmare enters our universe, intent of destroying it. They have consumed twelve universes in the infinite past they've lived. So far, no force has been able to even slow their conquest. The annihilation of everything looks to be a certainty.As the last hope to combat the indomitable threat, an alliance is made between old friends and bitter enemies. Every civilization realizes that defeat is so certain that only such a cooperation might stop the Nightmare. Humans are gifted the fantastic technologies to walk among the stars to help in the fight. To be so close to a magical era for humanity yet so likely to perish is a crushing weight. Can Jon pull one more miracle out of his hat?

The Forever Alliance

Yesterday, he lost everything. Today, his list of enemies grows. Tomorrow, they all want him dead. Jon Ryan did the impossible. After being uploaded to an android host, he successfully journeyed for decades to far away star systems. Before the Earth was destroyed, he found humankind a new home. Jon also found love, discovered the power of family, and for once experienced true peace. He was beginning to know the wonders life could hold, even for an immortal. But, no good deed, or good man, goes unpunished. The US President wants him dead and is willing to sacrifice his own people to eliminate Jon. An alien species has vowed a holy war to eliminate all humans, either on Earth or wherever they might run to. Only Jon can protect humans from their enemies. He must find the strength, skills, and luck to keep his kind alive. With the best planet for colonization ruled by an ancient, malevolent species, there may be no hope for humans in a crowded galaxy. Jon must fight to save everyone he loves, even knowing he will watch them all die, one by one, as time marches on. The limits of human technology may not be sufficient. The limits of Jon's endurance may not be enough. His endless enemies may prove to be unstoppable. Jon may have forever, but does humanity have any future at all?

The Forever Enemy

Associate Professor of Communication Studies Craig Robertson

The planet Jupiter, thrown off orbit, is poised to hit Earth in 97 years. Project Ark is humanity's only hope for salvation, and one man, traveling alone, must find a suitable location for the entire population. Major Jonathan Ryan, fighter pilot, is the one chosen for the unenviable task. With his consciousness transferred to an android, he takes the helm of Ark 1 to search the farthest reaches of space for a new home. He understands the implications of his mission all too well: he will not age, and by the time he returns home all the people he knew will be dead. His lone companion on the quest is the ship's irritable AI. Jon will not only pushed to the extremes of human exploration, but the extremes of his own psychological limits. The Forever Life follows the solo mission of a resourceful and resilient fighter, as Jon encounters unexpectedly hostile natives on the various planets he visits. He is able to befriends precious few. But as time goes by, all communications with his superiors gradually cease, leaving him in an eerie silence with more questions than answers. The home he left may have turned its back on him, but his mission still stands: save humanity, even when it refuses to save itself.

The Forever Life

The history of how a deceptively ordinary piece of office furniture transformed our relationship with information The ubiquity of the filing cabinet in the twentieth-century office space, along with its noticeable absence of style, has obscured its transformative role in the histories of both information technology and work. In the first in-depth history of this neglected artifact, Craig Robertson explores how the filing cabinet profoundly shaped the way that information and data have been sorted, stored, retrieved, and used. Invented in the 1890s, the filing cabinet was a result of the nineteenth-century faith in efficiency. Previously, paper records were arranged haphazardly: bound into books, stacked in piles, curled into slots, or impaled on spindles. The filing cabinet organized loose papers in tabbed folders that could be sorted alphanumerically, radically changing how people accessed, circulated, and structured information. Robertson's unconventional history of the origins of the information age posits the filing cabinet as an information storage container, an "automatic memory" machine that contributed to a new type of information labor privileging manual dexterity over mental deliberation. Gendered assumptions about women's nimble fingers helped to naturalize the changes that brought women into the workforce as low-level clerical workers. The filing cabinet emerges from this unexpected account as a sophisticated piece of information technology and a site of gendered labor that with its folders, files, and tabs continues to shape how we interact with information and data in today's digital world.

A Vertical History of Information

The Filing Cabinet

There is a time for everything under the heavens. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to love and a time to hate. But when it's a time war you're looking at, it's Ryan Time. Jon is called back two billion years to save the Earth from an unprecedented threat. A alien clan is stealing time. It uses that time energy to power its quest to amass even more time. Soon, there will be no time for any race but them. No civilization has yet been able to even bloody the clan, let alone stop them. But that irresistable force is about to run smack into an immovable object, one pissed off Jon Ryan. As the very real possibility of never having existed closes in on humanity, Jon must rally his ragtag forces to do the impossible, yet again. But how can you defeat an enemy who can cause you to never have lived to face them in battle? A brilliant young scientist, Sachiko Jones, has foreseen the aliens' advance. Then she is thrust into a pivotal role in the defense of our planet. But though she commands unlimited power, she's a graduate student, not a warrior. If she can't learn quickly, the very worst outcome will be inevitable.Even a seasoned veteran like Jon is thrust out of his comfort zone. Time war is completely new to him, mind-blowing, and his enemy is a master of the skill. Battling -- surviving -- throughout all of time and space simultaneously defies common sense. One false move, one faulty assumption, and you're not dead. You will have never existed. And that which never was cannot be resurrected. It can't even be remembered. But, then again, impossible odds and cataclysmic consequences are what Jon does. It is possible, however, that just this once, Jon will find himself out of time.

Ryan Time: Ryanverse

If you can't be dead make sure someone pays for that fact dearly. When he was a human, Jon Ryan always looked forward to a better future. We all do. But his tomorrows turned out poorly. Ripped from his original time, he's being tested severely two-billion years down the time stream. He only wants to protect the shapeshifting teens he rescued from genocide. The Adamant and his evil twin aren't going to make that easy. After he nearly rescues the teens Jon slips into a deep funk. All the while the teens are being probed and tortured by a cruel priestess bent on discovering their transformative secrets. Jon must resort to infiltrating the Adamant ranks in a covert attempt to learn where his precious kids have been taken. The alternate Jon Ryan is becoming more insane and more determined to take the shapeshifters for his own dark purposes. A magical galactic dragon volunteers to take the teens under her wing and teach them. But can the Adamant or either Jon let them go?

Galaxy On Fire

Firestorm

For Jon Ryan it always seems to be the hard way. But he likes it like that. When he finally wins it's all the more satisfying. A cataclysmic fight with his evil twin leaves Jon marooned on a desolate planet. He has no ship, no radio, and no one knows he's there. Meanwhile the shapeshifter teens are spirited to the court of the Adamant emperor himself. Malraff, his torture master, takes control of the teens and is bent on finding the secret of their ability to transform. She will do anything to find out the truth and she will revels in their suffering. Somehow Jon must find his way out of his imprisonment and rescue the teens. But will there be anything left for him to save even if he can escape? A galaxy on fire with the destructive conquests of the Adamant empire still stands between Jon and any for chance of success. Without allies, recourses, or any reason for hope, his only path is to release the darkness that he is capable of. But can Jon triumph and and still be worthy of that victory?

Galaxy on Fire

Flames

Book 4, Galaxy On Fire Series

The Fires Of Hell

The galaxy is on fire. The ruthless Adamant Empire is sweeping across all of space leaving only chard ashes in their wake. No civilization can withstand their firestorm of conquest. But they made one serious mistake along their path to galactic domination. They pissed off Jon Ryan. Bad move. That's never a healthy thing to do. Now in their darkest hour, the few remaining islands of freedom and light left untouched band together in a last-stand effort to stop the evil juggernaut. But will their best efforts and Jon's uncanny knack to pull off miracles be enough? And will the magical race of dragons join the fray and possibly turn the tide of war? If they remain aloof and uninvolved, it's likely the final surviving planets will surely fall. Dragon Fire is Book 5 in the fast paced, funny, and fresh Galaxy On Fire Series

Dragon Fire

For the first time in millions of years the Adamant Empire finds itself shaken and on the ropes. The alliance established by Jon Ryan dealt them their first major defeat. But a wounded animal is all the more dangerous. If the splintered power structure of Adamant society is allowed to reunify, the galaxy will be lost to the blow of their iron-paw. Jon and Sapale are in for the greatest shock and challenge of their eternal lives. While rescuing an associate they discover the secret of the Adamant's dominance. It's an old friend who they thought was lost in time. Will they be able to save their their old friend, or is he forever destine to serve the cruel canivir raiders? It will take all Jon's recourses, allies, and luck to pull this one off. But if he can it might just spell doom for the evil empire. If he fails, however, the galaxy and all those he loves will burn. Enjoy this finale of Galaxy On Fire Series. You will be so glad you did.

Ashes

The more contact Jon Ryan has with the ancient gods the more he loses all hope. Every contact with the Cleinoids in out universe ends in complete destruction. And Jon's assault team in the Cleinoid universe is constantly half a step ahead of absolute disaster. From hopeless captivity to slowly gaining a foothold in the ancient gods's world, it takes every bit of Jon's experience, trickery, and spunk to survive.Even when Jon convinces so Cleinoids he is one of them, failure resulting in an horrific death is never more than a heartbeat away. And Jon is haunted with the knowledge that no matter how successful he is in the land of the gods, the devastation in his home universe will be impossible to disrupt. But the absence of hope never stopped a fighter pilot before. It won't even slow Jon's efforts. And woe betide any god of supernatural force in his way.In the near term Jon must disable the ancient gods's transportation vortex. There are already more then enough hateful agents of death in our universe, but Jon will see to it no more join the party. But what happens to a man who dashes the hopes of millions of cruel and vengeful gods? If Jon's very luck in his efforts to foil their travel plans, he's about to find out. Spoiler alert: It ain't pretty.

Rage of the Ancient Gods

It it's peace you want don't ever be Jon Ryan. He's lived two billion years in the android host he transferred to when asked to save humankind. Darn thing won't wear out. Since successfully ensuring the survival of the population of doomed Earth, Jon wanted to die. He was switched off with the promise of never being powered up again. Yeah, Jon's never been that kind of lucky. He was forced to fight and win a war with the most powerful enemy he'd ever faced, the Berrillians. Then he longed for rest.Not in a universe that Jon lives in. A few hundred years after the Berrillian War whispers of a new and existential threat began to be heard. People disappeared without a trace. Planets vanished without leaving a pebble behind. And some one was hiding impossible elements at the scenes of these mysteries. Anti-gold sitting right out in the open where it could not possibly be stable.For better or worse Jon came to learn that the impending invasion of our universe would be by a species calling themselves the Ancient Gods. This malevolent, destructive, and merciless horde was bent on one thing alone. They wanted to have fun destroying our universe. They'd done it to others and couldn't wait to get the party started here. One factor, one force of nature stood between the Ancient Gods's success or their failure. You have to know it was the reluctant Jon Ryan.But could he pull another miracle out of his hat? Could he triumph over the unbeaten Ancient Gods? If Las Vegas still existed no one there would touch Jon's odds.Jon assembles his old crew, To

Return of the Ancient Gods

Gordon Brown

Val McDermid

Sara Sheridan

Ann Cleeves

Lin Anderson

Chris Brookmyre

Denise Mina

Doug Johnstone

Stuart McBride

In Bloody Scotland a selection of Scotland's best crime writers use the sinister side of the country's built heritage in stories that are by turns gripping, chilling and redemptive.

Stellar contributors Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre, Denise Mina, Ann Cleeves, Louise Welsh, Lin Anderson, Doug Johnstone, Gordon Brown, Craig Robertson, E S Thomson, Sara Sheridan and Stuart MacBride explore the thrilling potential of Scotland's iconic sites and structures. From murder in an Iron Age broch and a macabre tale of revenge among the furious clamour of an eighteenth century mill, to a dark psychological thriller set within the tourist throng of Edinburgh Castle and a rivalry turning fatal in the concrete galleries of an abandoned modernist ruin, this collection uncovers the intimate - and deadly - connections between people and places.

Prepare for a dangerous journey into the dark shadows of our nation's buildings - where passion, fury, desire and death collide.


Bloody Scotland

In Place of Death

‘I can’t recommend this book highly enough’ Martina Cole The first commuter train of the morning slowly rumbles away from platform seven of Queen St station. Everyone on board is sleepy, avoiding eye contact, reluctant to admit the day has begun. And then, as the train emerges from a tunnel, the screaming starts. Hanging from the bridge ahead of them is a body. Placed neatly on the ground below him are the victim's clothes. Why? Detective Inspector Narey is assigned the investigation and then just as quickly taken off it again. Tony Winter, now a journalist, must pursue the case for her. The line of questioning centres around the victim's clothes - why leave them in full view? And what did the killer take with them, and where might it appear again? Murderabilia - the practice of collecting items from crime scenes. Items only available on the dark web. The collector must be prepared to pay a high price. As Narey is about to find out …

Everyone has a hobby. Some people collect death.

Murderabilia

A series of high-profile shootings by a lone sniper leaves Glasgow terrorised and police photographer Tony Winter - a man with a tragic hidden past - mystified. Who is behind the executions of some of the most notorious drug lords in the city? As more shootings occur - including those of police officers - the authorities realise they have a vigilante on their hands. Meanwhile, Tony investigates a link between the victims and a schoolboy who has been badly beaten. Seemingly unconnected, they share a strange link. As Tony delves deeper, his quest for the truth and his search for the killer lead him down dark and dangerous paths.

Snapshot

'Robertson is doing for Glasgow what Rankin did for Edinburgh' Mirror 1993. Scotland is in the grip of an ice-cold winter and the Lake of Menteith is frozen over. A young man and woman walk across the ice to the historic island of Inchmahome which lies in the middle of the lake. Only the man returns.In the spring, as staff prepare the abbey ruins for summer visitors, they discover the body of a girl, her skull violently crushed. Now. Retired detective Alan Narey is still haunted by the unsolved crime. Desperate to relieve her ailing father's conscience, DS Rachel Narey risks her job and reputation by returning to the Lake of Menteith and unofficially reopening the cold case. With the help of police photographer Tony Winter, Rachel prepares a dangerous gambit to uncover the killer's identity. Despite the freezing temperatures the ice cold case begins to thaw, and with it a tide of secrets long frozen in time are suddenly and shockingly unleashed.

An unsolved crime; a tide of secrets suddenly and shockingly unleashed ...

Cold Grave

NOMINATED FOR THE McILVANNEY PRIZE 2020 FOR SCOTTISH CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Truly difficult to put down’ Daily Mail 'High-concept plot keeps the 'tecs and the reader on their toes’ Sunday Times Crime Club 'Robertson is a master storyteller . . . never less than gripping’ Scotsman 'Devilishly clever . . . This might be his best yet' SJI Holliday?, author of Violet 'Perfect for fans of Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh' Reader review ONLY ONE PERSON CAN SAVE YOU. AND HE WANTS YOU DEAD. Police find a man dead at his home in Los Angeles. Nothing suggests foul-play but elements of the victim’s house show that something is deeply wrong. Meanwhile, in Glasgow, DI Rachel Narey is searching for a missing young woman – and the man she suspects of killing her. When a feed broadcasting the slow and painful death of a final victim is discovered, these two cases become linked. There’s no way to identify him. No way to find him No way to save him. Not without the cooperation of a killer. And the only way he will cooperate is if he can watch him die. Praise for Craig Robertson: 'Robertson does something bold with this one, adding a storyline set in America, and he pulls it off magnificently . . . The links to real murders from history, most notably The Black Dahlia case, are soon brought to the fore and the investigation’s relevance to Narey’s own search for a missing woman in Glasgow is made apparent via some skillful plotting' Spectator ‘A maestro of Tartan noir . . . High-concept plot keeps the 'tecs and the reader on their toes’ Sunday Times, Crime Club ‘Exceptionally talented . . . Robertson’s skill in matching the atmosphere of LA with that of Scotland is mightily impressive, as is his ability to maintain the suspense that lies at the heart of the search for a dying man. This is truly difficult to put down’ Daily Mail 'Robertson is a master storyteller – sensitive, realistic, terrifying and humorous – and Watch Him Die is never less than gripping’ The Scotsman 'Robertson’s latest criminal masterpiece . . . a thoroughly modern, breathless thriller that not only showcases the writer’s broad spectrum of talents. Plenty for fans to get on board with here and a fantastic introduction to one of Scotland’s premier crime writers’ Scottish Sun 'Brilliantly and sensitively written' Steve Cavanagh, bestselling author of Thirteen 'I can't recommend this book highly enough' Martina Cole

'Truly difficult to put down'

Watch Him Die

'Brilliantly and sensitively written' Steve Cavanagh, bestselling author of Thirteen 'Craig Robertson’s Narey and Winter series goes from strength to strength, and this latest instalment is the most compelling. Brace yourself to be horrified and hooked' Eva Dolan, acclaimed author of This is How it Ends The sergeant took some from each box and spread them around the floor so they could all see. Dozens upon dozens of them. DI Rachel Narey’s guess was that there were a few hundred in all. Photographs. Many of them were in crowd scenes, some just sitting on a park bench or walking a dog or waiting for a bus or working in shops. They seemed to have no idea they’d been photographed. A dawn raid on the home of a suspected rapist leads to a chilling discovery, a disturbing collection hidden under floorboards. Narey is terrified at the potential scale of what they’ve found and of what brutalities it may signal. When the photographs are ruled inadmissible as evidence and the man walks free from court, Narey knows she’s let down the victim she’d promised to protect and a monster is back on the streets. Tony Winter’s young family is under threat from internet trolls and he is determined to protect them whatever the cost. He and Narey are in a race against time to find the unknown victims of the photographer’s lens – before he strikes again. Praise for Craig Robertson: 'I can't recommend this book highly enough' Martina Cole 'Fantastic characterisation, great plotting, page-turning and gripping. The best kind of intelligent and moving crime fiction writing' Luca Veste 'Really enjoyed Murderabilia - disturbing, inventive, and powerfully and stylishly written. Recommended' Steve Mosby

Craig Robertson

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