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Rogue Angel is a series of paperback novels produced bi-monthly since July 2006 by Harlequin Enterprises, published under a succession of imprints and written under the house name of "Alex Archer". Actual authors are credited with small notes inside the books but not on the front covers or spines. Each novel relates to history or mythology with a heavy fantasy slant, and the main character is Annja Creed.
Books in the series can be read individually, although when read in order, character development and sub-plots may be followed.
Typically, each volume is named after a historical or mythological artefact, around which the plot revolves. The plot structure tends to follow a pattern where the heroine discovers the item in question. The villain or another party then steals the item or abducts the heroine, motivated by their believing the item holds special power or significance. In the course of the story, the heroine discovers more about a historical period and the people who lived in it.
The series was first envisioned by Randall Toye, a Harlequin executive who fell in love with the history concerning Joan of Arc and wanted to develop the idea of a present-day Joan. Veteran action-adventure editors Feroze Mohammed and Nicole Brebner teamed up with Mel Odom to flesh out their series.
The first eight novels were written by Mel Odom and Victor Milán. New writers joining the series starting with book nine include Jon Merz, Michele Hauf, Jean Rabe, and Joseph Nassise.
Rogue Angel's premise and execution display similarities with earlier franchises such as the Witchblade comic book (published since 1995) and TV series (2001-02), Tomb Raider (1996-present), and Outlanders (1997–present).
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Annja Creed is a world-traveling archaeologist with a penchant for arcane history and adventure. Heir to Joan of Arc's mystic sword and an ambiguous heroic destiny, she frequently finds herself exposed to both. She is portrayed as beautiful and intelligent.
Growing up in an orphanage, Annja, partly due to her lack of knowledge of her own origins, developed a love of history, as well as an interest in martial arts. She then earned a college scholarship and achieved a Masters in Archeology, concentrating on medieval and renaissance time periods, while also acquiring specialized knowledge in anthropology and art. She has written several scholarly as well as popular-scientific articles and books.
Not long after graduating, Annja was offered a job working as a host on Chasing History’s Monsters, a syndicated television show investigating all manner of cryptids drawn from pop culture, folklore, and mythology, and occasionally less far-fetched types of "monsters" such as serial killers. She tries to bring a certain amount of factual material to the episodes she hosts, but the show's producer insists on a more sensationalist and speculative slant. This regularly frustrates her, but the salary and expense account involved allow her to travel freely, and she often puts her status as a minor celebrity to good use.
She resides in a loft in Brooklyn, New York.
When Joan of Arc was burned at the stake for heresy, her sword was shattered by an English soldier, and the fragments were widely dispersed. However, Roux and Garin, two of the knights in her personal retinue, were cursed with immortality in order to be able to eventually track down and reassemble the artifact.
Annja was present when this came to pass, and at her touch, the blade magically reformed, making her its new bearer. It cannot be taken from her against her will, and she has the power to remove it to and retrieve it from a supernatural location referred to as "the Otherwhere". This process works regardless of the Sword's current location, giving her the ability to, for example, use the weapon as a projectile and then immediately recall it to her hand.
Moreover, it also enhances her general constitution and helps her recover from injuries.
Roux is apparently in his sixties, but has actually been alive for more than five hundred years. The precise extent of his immortality has not been revealed, though one of the later books (River of Nightmares) shows that it is not merely longevity but imbues him with an ability to recover from wounds that outstrip even Annja's.
He and Annja are in a mentor-protege relationship, however reluctant and long-distance. At the same time, he has his own agenda, such as tracking down a variety of other reportedly magical items for reasons ranging from simple personal ambition to the genuine desire to keep them out of hands that would use them for harm, and he is not above manipulating others, including Annja, to accomplish this.
He resides in a castle-like mansion outside of Paris, France.
Garin Braden was Roux's apprentice in Joan's day. Physically, he falls squarely into the "tall, dark, and handsome" category, and he has grown considerably wealthy and powerful, with a wide range of employees and resources at his beck and call. He is arrogant and ruthless, but also experiences and acts on the occasional selfless impulse.
His relationships with both Roux and Annja are complicated. He was initially afraid that the reforming of the Sword would put an end to his longevity and consequently made several attempts to destroy or at least separate Annja and the artifact. This concern lessens over time, though, and he increasingly develops fondness of and respect for her. His feelings towards Roux appear to be a mix of deep-rooted attachment and resentment.
His main residence is in Germany, but his lifestyle is even more cosmopolitan than Annja's.
Doug Morrell produces Chasing History's Monsters and is a stereotypical media personality - young, supremely self-involved, and with a staggering disregard for facts, especially when they threaten to get in the way of ratings. His relationship with Annja is sufficiently solid to survive the frequent disagreements this causes, though.
| Series no. | Title | Author(s) | Date Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Destiny | Mel Odom | July 2006 |
| 02 | Solomon's Jar | Victor Milán | September 2006 |
| 03 | The Spider Stone | Mel Odom | November 2006 |
| 04 | The Chosen | Victor Milán | January 2007 |
| 05 | Forbidden City | Mel Odom | March 2007 |
| 06 | The Lost Scrolls | Victor Milán | May 2007 |
| 07 | God of Thunder | Mel Odom | July 2007 |
| 08 | Secret of the Slaves | Victor Milán | September 2007 |
| 09 | Warrior Spirit | Jon F. Merz | November 2007 |
| 10 | Serpent's Kiss | Mel Odom | January 2008 |
| 11 | Provenance | Victor Milán | March 2008 |
| 12 | The Soul Stealer | Jon F. Merz | May 2008 |
| 13 | Gabriel's Horn | Mel Odom | July 2008 |
| 14 | The Golden Elephant | Victor Milán | September 2008 |
| 15 | Swordsman's Legacy | Michele Hauf | November 2008 |
| 16 | Polar Quest | Jon F. Merz | January 2009 |
| 17 | Eternal Journey | Jean Rabe | March 2009 |
| 18 | Sacrifice | Jon F. Merz | May 2009 |
| 19 | Seeker's Curse | Victor Milán | July 2009 |
| 20 | Footprints | Jon F. Merz | September 2009 |
| 21 | Paradox | Victor Milán | November 2009 |
| 22 | The Spirit Banner | Joseph Nassise | January 2010 |
| 23 | Sacred Ground | Jon F. Merz | March 2010 |
| 24 | The Bone Conjurer | Michele Hauf | May 2010 |
| 25 | Tribal Ways | Victor Milán | July 2010 |
| 26 | The Dragon's Mark | Joseph Nassise | September 2010 |
| 27 | Phantom Prospect | Jon F. Merz | November 2010 |
| 28 | Restless Soul | Jean Rabe | January 2011 |
| 29 | False Horizon | Jon F. Merz | March 2011 |
| 30 | The Other Crowd | Michele Hauf | May 2011 |
| 31 | Tear of the Gods | Joseph Nassise | July 2011 |
| 32 | The Oracle's Message | Jon F. Merz | September 2011 |
| 33 | Cradle of Solitude | Joseph Nassise | November 2011 |
| 34 | Labyrinth | Jon F. Merz | January 2012 |
| 35 | Fury's Goddess | Jon F. Merz | March 2012 |
| 36 | Magic Lantern | Mel Odom | May 2012 |
| 37 | Library of Gold | Joseph Nassise | July 2012 |
| 38 | The Matador's Crown | Michele Hauf | September 2012 |
| 39 | City of Swords | Jean Rabe | November 2012 |
| 40 | The Third Caliph | Mel Odom | January 2013 |
| 41 | The Staff of Judea | Joseph Nassise | March 2013 |
| 42 | The Vanishing Tribe | Joseph Nassise | May 2013 |
| 43 | Clockwork Doomsday | Mel Odom | July 2013 |
| 44 | Blood Cursed | Michele Hauf | September 2013 |
| 45 | Sunken Pyramid | Jean Rabe | November 2013 |
| 46 | Treasure of Lima | Joseph Nassise | January 2014 |
| 47 | River of Nightmares | Jean Rabe | March 2014 |
| 48 | Grendel's Curse | Steven Savile | May 2014 |
| 49 | The Devil's Chord | Michele Hauf | July 2014 |
| 50 | Celtic Fire | Steven Savile | September 2014 |
| 51 | Pretender's Gambit | Mel Odom | November 2014 |
| 52 | Death Mask | Steven Savile | January 2015 |
| 53 | Bathed in Blood | Joe Nassisse | March 2015 |
| 54 | Day of Atonement | Steven Savile | May 2015 |
| 55 | Beneath Still Waters | Joe Nassise | July 2015 |
| 56 | The Mortality Principle | Steven Savile | September 2015 |
| 57 | Mystic Warrior | Mel Odom | November 2015 |
Following the shutdown of Gold Eagle Publishing by Harlequin, the primary creator of audiobook adaptions of the franchise, Graphic Audio, acquired the rights to create original, in-house sequels to the novels, available exclusively in a narrated audio drama format.
| Series # | Title | Author(s) | Date Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| 58 | Death Looms [2] | Nanette Savard | December 2017 |
| 59 | Eyes of the Beholder [3] | Scott McCormick/Jillian Levine-Sisson | May 2018 |
| 60 | In the Serpent's Tomb [4] | Scott McCormick/Jillian Levine-Sisson | May 2019 |
| 61 | Secret of the Monkey King [5] | Christopher L. Bennett/Nanette Savard | August 2022 |
| 62 | Treasure of the Monkey King [6] | Christopher L. Bennett/Nanette Savard | August 2023 |
In January 2007, GraphicAudio began releasing the books in a dramatized audio format, starting at issue #1.
As of February 2016 they have produced the entire series up to Rogue Angel #57 "Mystic Warrior".
As of May 21, 2019 they have produced up to book #60 "In the Serpent's Tomb".
In 2008 IDW Publishing released a miniseries (five issues) written by Barbara Kesel and featuring art by Renae De Liz. [7]
The Virgin New Adventures are a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. They continued the story of the Doctor from the point at which the television programme went into hiatus from television in 1989.
Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield, or simply Benny, is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures. The New Adventures were authorised novels carrying on from where the Doctor Who television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel Love and War in 1992.
Michelle Michiko Sagara is a Canadian author of fantasy literature, active since the early 1990s. She has published as Michelle Sagara, as Michelle West and as Michelle Sagara West. Sagara has received two nominations for the John W. Campbell Award.
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc is a 1999 English-language French epic historical drama film directed by Luc Besson and starring Milla Jovovich, John Malkovich, Faye Dunaway and Dustin Hoffman. The screenplay was written by Besson and Andrew Birkin, and the original score was composed by Éric Serra.
Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw about 15th-century French military figure Joan of Arc. Premiering in 1923, three years after her canonization by the Roman Catholic Church, the play reflects Shaw's belief that the people involved in Joan's trial acted according to what they thought was right. He wrote in his preface to the play:
There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all [there is] about it. It is what men do at their best, with good intentions, and what normal men and women find that they must and will do in spite of their intentions, that really concern us.
James Axler is a house name used by the publishing company Gold Eagle Publishing, the action adventure series published by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.
Mark Ellis is an American novelist/graphic novelist, journalist, and comics creator who under the pen name James Axler has written scores of books for the Outlanders and Deathlands paperback novel series as well as numerous other books under his own name.
Mel Odom is an American writer known primarily for science fiction and fantasy novels set in existing properties.
Honey West is a fictional character created by the husband and wife writing team Gloria and Forest Fickling under the pseudonym "G.G. Fickling", and appearing in eleven mystery novels by the duo.
Image is a 2002 novel by Mel Odom, based on the U.S. television series Angel.
GraphicAudio is an audiobook publishing imprint of RBMedia. Its tagline is "A Movie In Your Mind". The GraphicAudio format includes a full cast of actors, narration, sound effects and cinematic music. GraphicAudio has published over 1,600 action-adventure titles and over 180 series in the fantasy, science fiction, post-apocalyptic, comic and western genres.
The Titan's Curse is an American fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology written by Rick Riordan. It was released on May 1, 2007, and is the third novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and the sequel to The Sea of Monsters. It is about the adventures of the 14-year-old demigod Percy Jackson as he and his friends go on a dangerous quest to rescue his 14-year-old demigod friend Annabeth Chase and the Greek goddess Artemis, who have both been kidnapped by the titans.
Rogue Queen is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the third book in his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1951, and in paperback by Dell Books in 1952. A later hardcover edition was issued by The Easton Press in its The Masterpieces of Science Fiction series in 1996; later paperback editions were issued by Ace Books (1965) and Signet Books. A trade paperback edition was issued by Bluejay Books in June 1985. The first British edition was published in paperback by Pinnacle Books in 1954; a British hardcover reprint followed from Remploy in 1974. The novel has been translated into Portuguese, Italian, French and German. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.
Maggie Shayne is an American author of more than 70 novels. Shayne has won multiple awards, including the Romance Writers of America RITA Award, multiple Reviewers' Choice and Career Achievement Awards, The Readers' Choice Award, and the P.E.A.R.L. Award, among others. In addition to her work as a novelist, Shayne is active in the Wiccan religion.
The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel is a fantasy novel by Michael Scott. It is the sequel to The Alchemyst, and the second installment in the six part book series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. It was released on 5 June 2008 in the United Kingdom, and 24 June 2008 in the United States. It was nominated for an Irish Book of the Year Award, The Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children's Book of the Year – Senior Category.
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The Assassin's Creed series is a collection of novels by various authors, set within the fictional universe of the Assassin's Creed video game franchise created by Ubisoft. The books are set across various time periods and, like the games, revolve around the secret war fought for centuries between the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order. The series includes both direct novelizations of several Assassin's Creed games, and books that function as standalone narratives, although some of these tie-in with one or more of the games in the franchise. British publishing house Penguin Books was responsible for the publication of most of the novels in the series, as well as their respective audiobook versions, until 2020, when Aconyte Books took over as the main publisher of the series.
Catherine: One Love is Enough, first published in France as Il suffit d'un amour is the first of a series of seven historical romance novels written by the best-selling author Juliette Benzoni between 1963 and 1978.