Nicholas Sansbury Smith – författare

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling series

They will dive, but will humanity survive?

Left for dead on the nightmarish surface of the planet, Commander Michael Everhart and his team of Hell Divers barely escape with their lives aboard a new airship called Deliverance. After learning that Xavier “X” Rodriguez may still be alive, they mount a rescue mission for the long-lost hero.

In the skies, the Hive is falling apart, but Captain Jordan is more determined than ever to keep humanity in their outdated lifeboat. He will do whatever it takes to keep the ship in the air—even murder. But when he learns the Hell Divers he exiled have found Deliverance, he changes course for a new mission—find the divers, kill them, and make their new ship his own.

In the third installment of the Hell Divers series, Michael and his fellow divers fight across the mutated landscape in search of X. But what they find will change everything.

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Nicholas Sansbury Smith comes a brand new novella set in the world of the Hell Divers series.

Before you knew him as the king or the Immortal, he was Commander Xavier “X” Rodriguez—with ninety-six dives under his belt, the most experienced Hell Diver on the airship known as the Hive. Time after time, he dived through the electrical storms, returning with parts to keep his home in the sky. Then, on a jump into Hades, the most hostile environment in North America, he sacrificed everything for mission and team. They returned to the airship with the fuel cells needed to keep the Hive running, but X was left behind.

This is the story of how he becomes the last man on Earth. His will drives him to keep fighting, to survive the monsters and the radiation in the wastes, to find a way back home. But as the days pass, he feels the things that make him human slipping away. He has become a waif, a phantom, with little to live for. Then he stumbles upon something that makes him feel again.

This is the chronicle of those lost years, told for the first time ever.

The seventh and never-before-published book in USA Today bestselling author Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s propulsive postapocalyptic series about a soldier’s mission to save the world

An army advances …

In Europe, Master Sergeant Joe Fitzpatrick and Team Ghost return from a mission deep into enemy territory only to find that the Variant army has grown stronger, and they are advancing toward the EUF’s stronghold in Paris.

On the brink of civil war …

Back in the United States, President Ringgold and Dr. Kate Lovato are on the run. The safe-zone territories continue to rally behind the ROT flag, leaving Ringgold more enemies than allies. But there are still those who will stand and fight for America. Captain Rachel Davis and Captain Reed Beckham will risk everything to defeat ROT and save the country from collapsing into civil war.

No power. No rules. No help coming.

The end of the world is just the beginning of the hunt …

Estes Park Police Chief Marcus Colton and tracker Sam ‘Raven’ Spears have never liked one another, but when a young girl goes missing in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colton hires Spears to help find her. Their search ends after a night of catastrophic events. When word reaches Estes Park that the nation has been hit by a coordinated electromagnetic pulse attack, Colton and Spears are forced to work together again. But they quickly realize they aren’t just tracking a killer—they are tracking a madman during the middle of a war on American soil.

Halfway across the country, Senator Charlize Montgomery awakes to find the nation’s capital has gone dark. Forced to set off on foot, she treks across a city that has woken to a new world, and as the night progresses, she learns the EMP attack was just the beginning of the horror.

The explosive Trackers series is a harrowing story of survival and a realistic depiction of what an EMP attack and the aftermath might look like from former Homeland Security Disaster Mitigation Officer and New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sansbury Smith. Packed full of action, survival tips, and a unique twist on the EMP genre, the Trackers series has thrilled hundreds of thousands of readers across the world.

The deadly hunt continues as the hunters become the hunted …

Five days ago North Korea detonated three nuclear warheads over the United States, triggering an electromagnetic pulse that crippled the country. A second attack destroyed the nerve center of America in a nuclear blast that flattened the nation’s capital. As the United States descends into chaos, the survivors must decide how far they will go to save the ones they love.

Police Chief Marcus Colton has struggled to maintain order in the isolated mountain town of Estes Park, Colorado, with the help of expert tracker Raven Spears and stranded pilot Major Nathan Sardetti. Together, they fought the evil terrorizing the town, but new threats are rising and old rivalries are coming to a head.

Charlize Montgomery, newly promoted to Secretary of Defense, is caught between loyalty to her country and love for her son, Ty. When the Marines sent to find Ty in Colorado discover a scene of unspeakable carnage, the straightforward rescue mission turns into a deadly chase.

The worst of nature and the worst of science will bring the human race to the brink of extinction.

Master Sergeant Reed Beckham has led his Delta Force Team, codenamed Ghost, through every kind of hell imaginable and never lost a man. When a top secret Medical Corps research facility goes dark, Team Ghost is called in to face their deadliest enemy yet—a variant strain of Ebola that turns men into monsters.

After barely escaping with his life, Beckham returns to Fort Bragg in the midst of a new type of war. The virus is already spreading. As cities fall, Team Ghost is ordered to keep CDC virologist Dr. Kate Lovato alive long enough to find a cure. What she uncovers will change everything.

Total extinction is just on the horizon, but will the cure be worse than the virus?

A bioweapon designed to save the world …A scientific discovery that will alter human history …And a new threat that will bring humanity to the Edge of Exctinction.

The dust from Dr. Kate Lovato’s bioweapon has settled. Projections put death counts in the billions. Her weapon was supposed to be the endgame, but it turned a small percentage of those infected with the Hemorrhage Virus into something even worse.

Survivors call them Variants. Irreversible epigenetic changes have transformed them into predators unlike any the human race has ever seen. And they are evolving.

With the doomsday clock ticking, the fractured military plans Operation Liberty—a desperate mission designed to take back the cities and destroy the Variant threat. Master Sergeant Reed Beckham agrees to lead a strike team into New York City, but first he must return to Fort Bragg to search for the only family he has left.

At Plum Island, Kate discovers Central Command may have considerably underestimated the Variant population in New York. As Operation Liberty draws closer, Kate warns Beckham that Team Ghost won’t just face their deadliest adversary yet—they may be heading into a trap.

Extinction Evolution

Central Command is gone, the military is fractured, and the surviving members of Team Ghost, led by Master Sergeant Reed Beckham, have been pushed to the breaking point. While the strong return to the battlefield, the wounded are forced to stay behind on Plum Island and fight their inner demons.

Betrayed by the country they swore to defend and surrounded by enemies on all sides, Team Ghost has one mission left: protect Dr. Kate Lovato and Dr. Pat Ellis while they develop a weapon to defeat the Variants once and for all. But after a grisly discovery in Atlanta, Kate and Ellis realize their weapon might not be able to stop the evolution of the monsters.

Joined by unexpected allies and facing a new threat none of them saw coming, the survivors are running out of time to save the human race from extinction.

Extinction End

Almost seven weeks have passed since the Hemorrhage Virus ravaged the world. The remnants of the United States military have regrouped and relocated Central Command to the George Washington Carrier Strike Group. It’s here, in the North Atlantic, that President Jan Ringgold and Vice President George Johnson prepare to deploy a new bioweapon and embark on the final mission to take back the country from the Variants.

With his home gone and his friends kidnapped, Master Sergeant Reed Beckham and his remaining men must take drastic measures to save what’s left of the human race. But not everyone at Central Command has the same plan for victory. As the Variants continue to evolve, only a handful of heroes stand between the creatures and mankind’s total extinction.

One way or another, the battle for the United States of America ends here.

Extinction Aftermath

Newly christened as the leader of Delta Force Team Ghost, Master Sergeant Joe Fitzpatrick arrives in Normandy over seventy years after Allied Forces joined the fight against the Nazis. The war to free survivors and eradicate pockets of adult Variants and their offspring is underway by the European Unified Forces. But as the troops push east, rumors of a new type of monster spread through the ranks. Fitz and his new team quickly realize that the fight for Europe might be harder than anyone ever imagined.

Back in the States, Captain Reed Beckham and Dr. Kate Lovato are settling into a new life on Plum Island. Across the United States, the adult Variants have all been wiped out, and the juveniles are on the run. But survivors soon realize there are other monsters at home, and they may be human.

As the doomsday clock ticks down and military bases fall across the country, the human race enters the age of extinction. Will science prevail—or will mankind vanish off the face of the planet?

On the eve of extinction all seems to be lost, but there is still one final hope …

Operation Liberty has failed. Humans are losing the war. With no other option, General Kennor decides to pull back the troops and give science a second chance.

Trapped in the extensive sewer system beneath New York, Master Sergeant Reed Beckham and the survivors of 1st Platoon must battle through the tunnels—where they make a grisly discovery in their attempt to escape.

At Plum Island, Dr. Kate Lovato is working on a new bioweapon to destroy the Variants. But when a derelict Navy destroyer crashes into the Connecticut shoreline, she is forced to deal with a nightmare she thought had ended.

As the doomsday clock ticks down and military bases fall across the country, the human race enters the age of extinction. Will science prevail—or will mankind vanish off the face of the planet?

There’s a storm on the horizon …

Central Command is gone, the military is fractured, and the surviving members of Team Ghost, led by Master Sergeant Reed Beckham, have been pushed to the breaking point. While the strong return to the battlefield, the wounded are forced to stay behind on Plum Island and fight their inner demons.

Betrayed by the country they swore to defend and surrounded by enemies on all sides, Team Ghost has one mission left: protect Dr. Kate Lovato and Dr. Pat Ellis while they develop a weapon to defeat the Variants once and for all. But after a grisly discovery in Atlanta, Kate and Ellis realize their weapon might not be able to stop the evolution of the monsters.

Joined by unexpected allies and facing a new threat none of them saw coming, the survivors are running out of time to save the human race from extinction.

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling series

They dive so humanity survives …

More than two centuries after World War III poisoned the planet, the final bastion of humanity lives on massive airships circling the globe in search of a habitable area to call home. Aging and outdated, most of the ships plummeted back to earth long ago. The only thing keeping the two surviving lifeboats in the sky are Hell Divers—men and women who risk their lives by skydiving to the surface to scavenge for parts the ships desperately need.

When one of the remaining airships is damaged in an electrical storm, a Hell Diver team is deployed to a hostile zone called Hades. But there’s something down there far worse than the mutated creatures discovered on dives in the past—something that threatens the fragile future of humanity.

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling series

Betrayal and sacrifice in the skies …

Ten years ago, Hell Diver Xavier “X” Rodriguez fell to Earth. Those he left behind went on without him aboard the airship he once called home. Michael Everhart—the boy once known as Tin—has grown into a man and the commander of Hell Diver Raptor Team. While Michael dives to help keep the Hive in the air, Captain Leon Jordan rules with an iron fist at the helm of the ship. But unrest stirs under his strict leadership as a prophecy of hope sweeps the lower decks.

When a mysterious distress signal calls the Hell Divers to the surface, Michael and his loyal team begin to uncover long-buried truths and the secrets Captain Jordan will do anything to keep. They dive so humanity survives … but will they survive the ultimate betrayal?

Nicholas Sansbury Smith delivers another heart-pounding thriller in Hell Divers II: Ghosts, the second book in the acclaimed science fiction series.

Hope rises in the hearts of those still left standing, but safety seems to be just an illusion. In a single night of shattering terror, Plum Island is destroyed, and key scientist Dr. Kate Lovato is abducted.

The end has arrived …

Almost seven weeks have passed since the Hemorrhage Virus ravaged the world. The remnants of the United States military have regrouped and relocated Central Command to the George Washington Carrier Strike Group. It’s here, in the North Atlantic, that President Jan Ringgold and Vice President George Johnson prepare to deploy a new bioweapon and embark on the final mission to take back the country from the Variants.

With his home gone and his friends kidnapped, Master Sergeant Reed Beckham and his remaining men must take drastic measures to save what’s left of the human race. But not everyone at Central Command has the same plan for victory. As the Variants continue to evolve, only a handful of heroes stand between the creatures and mankind’s total extinction.

One way or another, the battle for the United States of America ends here.

Here are the first three books of the bestselling, award-winning, and top-rated Extinction Cycle series.

Extinction Horizon

The worst of nature and the worst of science will bring the human race to the brink of extinction.

Master Sergeant Reed Beckham has led his Delta Force team, code named Ghost, through every kind of hell imaginable and never lost a man. When a top secret medical corps research facility goes dark, Team Ghost is called in to face their deadliest enemy yet—a variant strain of Ebola that turns men into monsters.

After barely escaping with his life, Beckham returns to Fort Bragg in the midst of a new type of war. The virus is already spreading. As cities fall, Team Ghost is ordered to keep CDC virologist Dr. Kate Lovato alive long enough to find a cure. What she uncovers will change everything.

Total extinction is just on the horizon, but will the cure be worse than the virus?

Extinction Edge

A new threat that will bring humanity to the edge of extinction.

The dust from Dr. Kate Lovato’s bioweapon has settled. Projections put death counts in the billions. Her weapon was supposed to be the endgame, but it turned a small percentage of those infected with the hemorrhage virus into something even worse.

Survivors call them Variants. Irreversible epigenetic changes have transformed them into predators unlike any the human race has ever seen. And they are evolving.

With the doomsday clock ticking, the fractured military plans Operation Liberty—a desperate mission designed to take back the cities and destroy the Variant threat. Master Sergeant Reed Beckham agrees to lead a strike team into New York City, but first he must return to Fort Bragg to search for the only family he has left.

At Plum Island, Kate discovers Central Command may have considerably underestimated the Variant population in New York. As Operation Liberty draws closer, Kate warns Beckham that Team Ghost won’t just face their deadliest adversary yet, they may be heading into a trap.

Extinction Age

On the eve of extinction, all seems to be lost, but there is still one final hope.

Operation Liberty has failed. Humans are losing the war. With no other option, General Kennor decides to pull back the troops and give science a second chance.

Trapped in the extensive sewer system beneath New York, Master Sergeant Reed Beckham and the survivors of 1st Platoon must battle through the tunnels—where they make a grisly discovery in their attempt to escape.

At Plum Island, Dr. Kate Lovato is working on a new bioweapon to destroy the Variants. But when a derelict Navy destroyer crashes into the Connecticut shoreline, she is forced to deal with a nightmare she thought had ended.

As the doomsday clock ticks down and military bases fall across the country, the human race enters the age of extinction. Will science prevail—or will mankind vanish off the face of the planet?

“Extinction Lost” is a short story that should be read after book 6, Extinction Aftermath. NOTE: This story was originally published in SNAFU: Black Ops.

The war continues …

Two days after the events of Extinction Aftermath, European Unified Command calls on Team Ghost for a top secret mission. The residents of a small Inuit fishing village in Greenland have gone missing and reports of Variants unaffected by Kryptonite have surfaced.

Fatigued, injured, and unaware of the events back in the United States, Master Sergeant Joe Fitzpatrick leads Team Ghost into the remote and alien winter landscape to determine the fate of the missing villagers. But as the operation unfolds they discover a harrowing revelation that could impact the world war against the Variants, and the future of the human race.

At the end of the world, who will escape?

Operation Redemption, the final desperate mission in taking back the planet from the Organics has failed. Captain Rick Noble and his soldiers have been captured and imprisoned on an alien ship. But not all is lost. Their sacrifice allowed Doctor Sophie Winston, Doctor Emanuel Rodriguez, and their small team to escape in the NTC Sunspot—their destination, Mars. The perilous journey to find a lost human colony may offer Sophie and the rest of humanity a chance at life.

Those left on Earth are caught in a life-and-death struggle. Corporal Athena Rollins of the NTC Ghosts of Atlantis submarine still believes they can beat the aliens with the help of AI Alexia, but time is running out. The oceans are draining, the temperatures are rising, and the other pockets of survivors are perishing every day.

Trapped on the Organic ship, Captain Rick Noble is desperate to escape and save his crew back on Earth. As he waits for his opportunity he finds an ally in the most unlikely of places.

The fight for Earth may be lost, but the fight for Mars and the future of the human race may have just begun …

A deadly storm of violence sweeps across the United States …

One month after the North Korean attack, the United States continues to fall into anarchy. In Estes Park, Colorado, Police Chief Marcus Colton and tracker Sam ‘Raven’ Spears work tirelessly to defend their hometown. But after a brutal coordinated attack, they realize it will take much more than roadblocks and a volunteer militia to protect their borders and keep their families safe.

Defense Secretary Charlize Montgomery has been reunited with her son, but his homecoming is short-lived due to the state of the FEMA survival centers around the country. She heads to the one in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her loyal bodyguard, Albert Randall. Outside the camp’s walls, the city has descended into chaos and desperate civilians will do anything to get inside. When Albert stays behind to rescue his sister, he is caught in the middle of a turf war between rival gangs.

In this lawless new world where the most ruthless thrive while innocents suffer, Colton, Raven, and Charlize are faced with their toughest challenges yet.

The deadly hunt ends in the thrilling final book of the Trackers saga …

The mountain town of Estes Park, Colorado is scrambling to recover from the betrayal of two of their police officers, and prepare for threats outside their borders. But with Chief of Police Marcus Colton imprisoned by rival Sheriff Mike Thompson, the job to protect the isolated town is left to Sam ‘Raven’ Spears and newly promoted Captain Lindsey Plymouth. They will do everything they can to bring Colton home, and save their citizens, but one thing is certain: a war is coming to Estes Park, and no one will be spared from the horrors.

Across the country, Secretary of Defense Charlize Montgomery continues to lead recovery efforts in the wake of the arriving Chinese workers and soldiers. But the threat of foreign soldiers on American soil isn’t the only problem—the Sons of Liberty and other domestic terrorist groups continue to rise to power, enacting a wave of violence, and chaos that threatens to derail the recovery efforts.

Will Raven, Colton, and Charlize save the United States from collapse? One thing is certain—they won’t be able to save everyone. Not with their humanity still intact.

At the end of the world, who will survive?

The year is 2061, and the planet is dying. Cataclysmic solar storms have forced leaders from around the world to finally put aside their differences and agree on one thing—to jump ship. The human race is headed to Mars.

Dr. Sophie Winston is hired by New Tech Corporation to test a biosphere deep within the heart of Cheyenne Mountain; a mission she believes will help prepare the company for the three-year flight to the red planet. But, just days into the assignment, things start to go wrong. When the blast doors hiss open, Winston’s team finds a changed world outside. Humans are gone, vanished without a trace, and they aren’t the only thing missing. The planet’s water has disappeared, too.

As the team explores their surroundings, they find thousands of luminous blue orbs lining the streets. It isn’t until they uncover what’s inside that they realize the nightmare that lies ahead.

At the end of the world, who do you save?

With their numbers diminishing and the alien armies growing stronger, Sophie’s biosphere decides to join forces with the team from NTC’s submarine.

Using data from a surviving satellite, they discover strange, alien poles at each of the world’s seven highest summits: alien technology that the survivors believe may hold the key to shutting down the alien ships once and for all.

That’s not all. The satellite also discovers an encrypted set of coordinates that reveal SOS messages from US Military bases around the world, all activated on invasion day, except for one: Offutt Air Force Base.

But before they can launch an offensive, the biosphere team must deal with sabotage from within and a strange nanotechnology that has infected several of the survivors. As tensions rise, Sophie and team must decide whether a new discovery at Offutt is worth abandoning the biosphere. The more the team learns, the more they realize the planet may be beyond saving and that salvation may require leaving the planet forever.

At the end of the world, who can you trust?

The aliens have invaded, wiping out almost all life on Earth. Their goal: water. Huge spaceships are draining the oceans, and the few remaining humans have been herded into farms, where their bodies are harvested to support the growing alien army.

Humanity’s last chance lies in the biospheres that have been planted secretly across the globe. But all is not peaceful in the biome led by Dr. Sophie Winston. With resources dwindling and tensions high, her small group of survivors is divided. Some want to fight, some want to stay hidden, and Sophie just wants to keep everyone alive.

When one of their own, eleven-year-old Jeff, is kidnapped by the Organics, Sophie is forced to pick sides. With the help of a promising new magnetic weapon, the biosphere team just might have a fighting chance to save Jeff and the world—if they live long enough to use it.

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling series

They dive so humanity survives. Now they take to the sea.

In the fourth installment of the Hell Divers series, the Sea Wolf sets out to search for the Metal Islands. Leading the expedition is legendary Hell Diver Xavier Rodriguez. After enduring for a decade on the poisoned surface, his survival skills will be put to the test on the dangerous open seas.

But storms, sea monsters, and the cannibalistic Cazadores aren’t the only threat to X and his small crew. Their mission will uncover hard truths about the history of the war that left humankind stranded in the air for centuries. And the fate of those still living on the airships might very well rest on this fragile and perilous journey to find a new home.

The explosive new Sons of War series is a harrowing and realistic depiction of what a second American Civil War and the aftermath might look like, from former Homeland Security Disaster Mitigation Officer and New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

All empires eventually fall…The United States is no exception…And out of the embers, a lawless new empire will rise…

Across the world, the United States recalls troops to combat civil unrest after the biggest economic meltdown in history. Marine Sergeant Ronaldo Salvatore’s platoon comes home to a powder keg that could ignite a civil war.

While some see the coming collapse as the end, others see opportunity. Fleeing Naples after rival crime lords decimated his family, Don Antonio Moretti settles in Los Angeles to rebuild his criminal empire. But he is far from alone in his ambitions—the cartel and rival gangs all want the same turf, and they will sacrifice their own soldiers and the blood of innocents to get it.

As open warfare erupts across the states, Salvatore fights his way back to LA, where his son has joined the police in the battle for a city spiraling into anarchy. Family is everything, and the Morettis and Salvatores will do what they must to protect their own. But how far will they go to survive in a new economy where the only currency is violence?

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling series

The war for the Metal Islands is over, but the search for survivors has just begun.

After a long and bloody battle, legendary Hell Diver Xavier Rodriguez reigns as the dutiful but reluctant new king of the islands. Advised by a council of former sky citizens as well as Cazadores, he works to assimilate the two societies peacefully. But not all Cazadores have accepted the new order.

While X tries to ease tensions at home, a rookie team of divers, led by Michael Everhart, returns to the skies in Discovery, formerly the ITC Deliverance. Their mission: to locate other human survivors throughout the world and rescue them. But Michael’s team aren’t the only ones searching for survivors. A gruesome discovery reveals that android defectors continue to hunt humans across the globe. And they may not be the only ones.

In a race against time, the Hell Divers may be the only obstacle to enemies bent on wiping out the final pockets of survivors and extinguishing the human genome forever.