Constantinople 1302.Luca Baldi, a young shepherd, is catapulted into the violent world of mercenary warfare when he is forced to flee his native Sicily. He falls in with the Almogavars – ruthless mercenaries from the Catalonia region of Spain who have just finished butchering the French during a 20-year war on the island. He and they take ship to Constantinople when they are hired by the Byzantine emperor, whose empire is disintegrating in the face of remorseless Muslim advances.

The Sword Brothers have won a great victory and the implacable enemy of their order is dead. There is now nothing to stop the Bishop of Riga from marching north and seizing the whole of Estonia. But in the moment of triumph the seeds of future difficulties have been sown, for the bishop's German crusaders believe that the fight against the pagans has been won and thus there is no reason for them to stay in Livonia. Faced with a lack of holy warriors to complete his task, the bishop is forc...

Leon Muller, resident of the city of Bern, has it all – a wealthy family, an excellent education and a very bright future. But he throws it all away on a rash impulse and as a result is thrown into a world that is totally alien to him. Cast out of his home city, he is forced to join an army of impoverished, half-starved soldiers that is fighting for the freedom of the Swiss people.Derided as 'alpine shepherds' by their aristocratic enemies, Leon and his comrades are plunged into a l...

In the closing months of World War II, Axel Steiner, a young German soldier, fights desperately on the collapsing Eastern Front in the defence of the Third Reich. Meanwhile, Hannah Katz, a young Hungarian Jew, endures the unspeakable horrors of a concentration camp when she is forcibly evicted from her home in Budapest, clinging to memories of her family and the faint hope of freedom.As Soviet forces push west and the German Army disintegrates, Axel fights to survive against overwh...

'The Ice March' is the story of Mikhail Petrov, an impoverished peasant from a small village near Moscow who is drafted into the Imperial Russian Army at the beginning of World War I in 1914. The belligerent nations all believe that the war will be short, glorious and victorious. But for men like Mikhail the grim reality is one of privations, defeats and death on the battlefield in a war that seemingly has no end.Weeks turn into months and then years as the Imperial Army is bled whi...

Triumph and tragedy are two sides of the same coin.Leon Muller is now the most powerful man in all Wallachia, more powerful than its king and stronger than the man who hired him to win the crown of that kingdom: Prince Vlad Dracula. But pride comes before a fall and as the divided powers of Western Europe prepare to face the might of a ravenous Ottoman Empire, all Leon's plans and dreams turn to dust and he is forced to walk another path. That path leads to him taking part in a bat...

'How will history judge you, Leon Muller?'Fresh from their exploits in Switzerland, Leon and his comrades march south to Italy to fight for the Duchy of Milan against the Republic of Venice. Italy is the most cultured country in Europe, but its politicians, churchmen and generals are cunning and clever as well as learned. And they are expert puppet masters, as Leon and his comrades discover to their cost.Leon, now a captain, becomes central to the success of the Swiss army bu...

Before the Romans. Before the Parthians. Before Alexander the Great. There were the Persians.In the fertile land of ancient Persia a rising leader, Cyrus, challenges the power of the mighty Median Empire to forge a new world from the ashes of the old. Among the countless warriors who gather beneath the banner of Cyrus, one name would rise from obscurity to become both feared and revered across Persia and beyond: Kian Mihran.The son of a slave born into a noble household, th...

Jerusalem may have fallen to the Saracens but in the Baltic Bishop Albert of Riga has created the crusader state of Livonia to bring the word of God to the indigenous pagans. The battle to convert the natives is savage and unrelenting and into this holy war is thrust Conrad Wolff, a young native of the city of Lübeck whose family has suffered a terrible injustice.Forced to leave his homeland to seek sanctuary in Livonia, Conrad's fate is soon entwined with that of the Sword Brother...

Leon Muller is now the most formidable mercenary leader in all Christendom and a powerbroker in Hungary. With a sharp mind and a fierce spirit, he commands a loyal group of soldiers renowned for their strategic brilliance and unmatched tactical skills. But his band of mercenaries is not just a group of fighters but a brotherhood forged in the fires of battle, a mighty instrument victorious on battlefields in Italy, Thrace, Wallachia and Hungary.But now, after the Ottoman hordes hav...

Vengeful rebels to the north, a deranged and bloodthirsty Vlad Dracula in the east, restless Ottoman hordes in the south and menacing Habsburgs in the west.Facing multiple threats, Leon Muller, Swiss mercenary leader and saviour of the Hungarian crown, is in the fight of his life.Leon is a man of contradictions: a brilliant battlefield tactician and ruthless warrior; a passionate lover but a flawed individual; a leader revered by his comrades but hamstrung by his own imperf...

'You are Leon Muller, the man who has never lost a battle and the maker of miracles.'Leon and his mercenaries have escaped Constantinople and are now wandering beggars. But veterans are never unemployed for long and soon Leon is offered a contract by Vlad Dracula, prince of Wallachia and enemy of the sultan.But the sultan is now more powerful than ever and Leon finds himself fighting not only the enemy in Wallachia but also lending aid to the beleaguered rulers of Hungary and...