Lords of Terror

by Allan Cole, Nick Perumov

What if the Cold War never ended? What if a demonic cabal altered history to feed off a hatred that could never end? And then kept Americans and Russians on the razor-edge of war for a thousand years to satisfy that hunger? Then one day, in uttermost space, thousands of innocents are killed, victims of "military error," and the deadly balance is upset. Suddenly, all that stands between galactic annihilation of human and spirit-world creatures alike is a boy and a cranky old Engine Devil named Scratch. For the first time in literary history an American and a Russian writer combine forces to tell a tale that soars to the outer reaches of imagination. A place where fantasy and science fiction collide to create a world you have never experienced.

300 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2006

About the author

Allan Cole was an American author and television writer, who wrote or co-wrote nearly thirty books.The son of a CIA operative, Cole was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. He collaborated with Chris Bunch on the Sten science fiction series, as well the Far Kingdoms Series, and the historical novels, A Reckoning For Kings and Daughter Of Liberty.

He co-authored a non-fiction book A Cop's Life with his uncle, Thomas Grubb; and a fantasy novel Lords Of Terror with Russian author Nick Perumov.His solo books include the fantasy novels that make up the Timura Trilogy and the thrillers, Dying Good and Drowned Hopes.

He sold more than a hundred television episodes, including ones for Quincy, M.E., The Rockford Files, The Incredible Hulk, Dinosaucers, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Magnum, P.I., Werewolf, and Walker, Texas Ranger.

He was also a Los Angeles newspaper editor and investigative reporter for 14 years.

Cole was married to Chris Bunch's sister, Kathryn. He died of cancer in Boca Raton, Florida, aged 75, on March 29, 2019.

Reviews

[Justin Hourigan · Rating 1 out of 5]

"What if the Cold War never ended -- but continued for a thousand years? " is the tag line for the book. While is does involve the Russian and Americas, it is not about the cold war, it is about magic!

I was hoping for an alternative-history / sci-fi tory, but gone a book about terrifying all powerful magical forces that could destroy the universe but for some reason can do it right now because ... magic word, magic word, science sounding word, etc, etc.

The dialog is painfully poor 1950s style cold war insults mixed randomly assembled super-natural creatures and spells. It feels like a poor sci-fi book that someone did a find-and-replace for technical words and replaced them with magical words.