The Amtrak Wars is a series of novels written by British author Patrick Tilley. The series is a post-apocalyptic science fiction with some fantasy elements such as the existence of magic. Six novels and an illustrated companion guidebook were published between 1983 and 1990, with additional books planned but never completed. The books were optioned in 2007 by an Australian production company with the intent of turning them into a series of feature films. Rumours circulated for several years that additional novels in the sequence were being written, reaching a height in 1999 when a seventh volume was listed for publication by several websites. Unsubstantiated rumours surfaced in 2001 that Book 7 would be called Ghost Rider, and that one of the characters apparently killed at the end of book 6 was not actually dead.
In 2007 Patrick Tilley once again hinted that the series would continue, although possibly only as a trilogy rather than six more books.
Tilley died in May 2020.
Film adaptation
In 2007 the books were optioned by an Australian production company with the intention of turning them into a series of feature films. In 2008–09 Patrick Tilley wrote a draft of the first script, entitled like the book, Cloud Warrior, and the production company continued pursuing the project in 2010, showing the script and tentative production artwork to several companies at the Cannes Film Festival. The proposed movie series is entitled The Talisman Prophecy rather than The Amtrak Wars and continues the practice from the revised edition of naming the Amtrak Federation as 'The Lone Star Confederation'. Other changes include proposed variations to the design of Federation vehicles and technology from the books, and the moving of Ne-Issan to the Pacific Northwest rather than the Eastern Seaboard.