With breathtaking command of her brilliantly conceived material, and with her customary sharp wit and dark humour, she projects us into an outlandish yet wholly believable realm populated by characters who will continue to inhabit our dreams long after the last chapter.  In the tradition of The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood envision a near future that is both beyond our imagining and all too familiar: a world devastated by uncontrolled genetic engineering and a widespread plague, with only a few remaining humans fighting for survival. Combining adventure, humour, romance and superb storytelling that is at once dazzlingly inventive and grounded in a recognizable world, MaddAddam is a moving and dramatic conclusion to this internationally celebrated dystopian trilogy.

    In fact, the only thing that seems to set him apart is the fact that he has Tourette’s syndrome. But Michael is anything but ordinary. Michael has special powers. Electric powers.This collection includes:Prisoner in Cell 25Michael thinks he's unique until he discovers that a cheerleader named Taylor also has special powers. With the help of Michael’s friend, Ostin, the three of them set out to discover how Michael and Taylor ended up this way, but their investigation brings them to the attention of a powerful group who wants to control the electric children – and through them the world. Michael will have to rely on his wits, powers, and friends if he’s to survive.Rise of the Elgen A mysterious voice leads the Electroclan to the jungles of Peru in search of Michael’s mother. Once there, they discover that Dr. Hatch and the Elgen are far more powerful than anyone realizes; entire countries have begun to fall under their control. Only the Electroclan and an anonymous voice now stand in the way of the Elgen’s plan for global domination. But is the voice that Michael is following really an ally, or is it just another Elgen trap?Bonus Content: The Elgen HandbookLearn the secrets of the Elgen. Who are they? How is their organization put together? Who’s in charge? And what happens to those who defy the leadership? The best way to defeat your enemy is to learn all about them!

    Despite his inability to relate to others, Lisanne married him in admiration for what she perceived as shy intelligence. However, she’s been disappointed by the way he’s settled for working as no more than a glorified lab tech with a low salary. Adding to their problems, Vaz and Lisanne have two teenagers who are typically surly, embarrassed by their parents, but whom they want to send to college—if only they can find the money. When Vaz is fired from his job as a researcher, but then discovers a means to achieve “cold fusion,” a technology which could solve the energy crisis and their financial difficulties, virtually no one believes him, least of all his family. In fact, the only people who do believe are the ones who are trying to steal the technology from him...Turns out, if you’re a genius, such problems may not be as bad as they seem.

    But there are a couple of problems. First off, the island is riddled with old wanted posters of Sicarius, along with countless people who would like to collect the bounty. Second... Amaranthe is hoping for a Solstice Day gift.Sicarius, having never given a gift in his life, finds the second problem far more daunting.This holiday-themed short story takes place after Forged in Blood II and before Republic.

    Seventeen short tales of the Liaden Universe® were brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans. Fifteen tales complete Volume Two!The nationally best-selling Liaden Universe® novels are treasured by space opera aficionados for their wit, world-building, strong characterizations, tender romance, and edge-of-the-chair action.Since 1995, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller also created shorter tales, illuminating additional facets of the Liaden experience. Here is a vast tapestry of tales of the scouts, artists, traders, priestesses, sleight of hand magicians, and pilots who fill the Liaden Universe® with the excitement, action, and romance that readers of the hit series have come to adore. Celebrating 25 Years of the Liaden Universe®Contents:Veil of the dancer --Quiet knives --This house --Lord of the dance --Necessary evils --The beggar king --Fighting chance --Prodigal son --Daughter of dragons --Dragon tide --Shadow partner --Persistence --Misfits --Hidden resources --Moon on the hills --Skyblaze.

    But when a high-profile diplomat goes missing, Abumwe and her team are last minute replacements on a mission critical to the Colonial Unions future. As the team works to pull off their task, CDF Lieutenant Harry Wilson discovers theres more to the story of the missing diplomats than anyone expected...a secret that could spell war for humanity.

    To others he was a soldier, forged in the flames of war. But to Manon, who needed his help, he was her ultimate Choice of Weapon.Garrett had spent most of his adult life fighting other people’s wars. Now he lives in the highlands of Scotland. Alone but not lonely. Reclusive. Hiding from the person that he had become. Eschewing the violence that was once his way of life. But then he receives a phone call from a friend who needs his help. An orphanage in South Africa is missing some of its children, suspected kidnapped, and the local corrupt police will not help. It is up to Garrett. And he is once more drawn into a world of dark and deep brutality as he tries to do what is right. Together with the guard from the children’s home and an old combat compatriot, he discovers a world of darkness and depravity that threatens to overwhelm him, forcing him to react in the only way that he knows how. The way that he swore never to follow again… because someone has to protect the children.

    Le Guin—selected with an introduction by the author, and combined in one volume for the first time.The Unreal and the Real is a collection of some of Ursula K. Le Guin’s best short stories. She has won multiple prizes and accolades from the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to the Newbery Honor, the Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, and PEN/Malamud Awards. She has had her work collected over the years, but this is the first short story volume combining a full range of her work. Stories include: -Brothers and Sisters -A Week in the Country -Unlocking the Air -Imaginary Countries -The Diary of the Rose -Direction of the Road -The White Donkey -Gwilan’s Harp -May’s Lion -Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight -Horse Camp -The Water Is Wide -The Lost Children -Texts -Sleepwalkers -Hand, Cup, Shell -Ether, Or -Half Past Four -The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas -Semely’s Necklace -Nine Lives -Mazes -The First Contact with the Gorgonids -The Shobies’ Story -Betrayals -The Matter of Seggri -Solitude -The Wild Girls -The Flyers of Gy -The Silence of the Asonu -The Ascent of the North Face -The Author of the Acacia Seeds -The Wife’s Story -The Rule of Names -Small Change -The Poacher -Sur -She Unnames Them -The Jar of Water

    Hana Sasaki will introduce you to many things—among them, an oracular toaster, a woman who grows a tail, and an extraordinary sex-change operation. Set in Japan, these stories tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love.

    In time, the Sixth Gun, the most dangerous of the weapons, vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken. Vile men thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing the girl. Only Drake Sinclair, a gunfighter with a shadowy past, stands in their way. But the guns have a power... and a destiny... more terrifying than anyone imagines! This deluxe edition collects the first 11 issues of the smash hit series, The Sixth Gun, in a massive, new, oversized format jammed with extras and bonus features, including never-before-seen pitch artwork, cover gallery, and the previously web-exclusive Christmas yarn, "Them's What Ails Ya!"

    Save 45% versus buying the individual episodes! In a grim future, choice is all you have In 2097, the world is as perfect as you want it to be.Choose Enterprise and the government stays out of your way, leaving you free to sink or swim — no help for the drowning.Choose Directorate and all are equal, fed, sheltered and entertained by the government, every need provided for, and every man another cog in society's machine.Every six years during Shift, citizens decide who they are. Enterprise or Directorate, lives are lived inside the North American Union, walled off from the rest of the world and the Wild East beyond the shell, enhanced by incredible A.I., nanobots that monitor and support daily living, and The Beam: the network connecting every human in the NAU.New powers are rising as emergent technology blooms from an unknown source, and threatens to shatter peace and throw the nation into chaos.What does the future mean when our present is stretched and reality blurred?This is the first episode in the epic sci-fi saga, The Beam, by breakout indie authors Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant.WHO ARE YOU?Choose your side. Download The Beam: The Complete First Season NOW.

    Will is immersed in the culture of the Alliance, a splinter group of the Aliomenti. He'll learn their secrets... and more about himself and his destiny than he ever imagined possible.PRESERVING HOPE (Book 2)Will meets a young girl named Elizabeth Lowell, resident of a hidden village, daughter of the leader of that village, and one forced against her will to bear the burden of learning the secrets the villagers seek to learn. Elizabeth has secrets of her own, though, and Will must ensure that the revelation of those secrets doesn't result in the girl's death... as it did for her mother.ASCENT OF THE ALIOMENTI (Book 3)Drawing upon his business and life experiences, Will transforms the Aliomenti into a global financial powerhouse awash in technological advances that would astound their human peers. But when power and wealth turn to paranoia, Will must decide if the group can be saved--or if the actions of the Leader of the Aliomenti mean a permanent separation is inevitable. Continue the journey with Birth of the Alliance, available now!(amazon.com/dp/B00EECLODW)

    Monsters, real and imagined, external and internal, are the subject. They are us and we are them and Ballingrud's intense focus makes these stories incredibly intense and irresistible.These are love stories. And also monster stories. Sometimes these are monsters in their traditional guises, sometimes they wear the faces of parents, lovers, or ourselves. The often working-class people in these stories are driven to extremes by love. Sometimes, they are ruined; sometimes redeemed. All are faced with the loneliest corners of themselves and strive to find an escape.Nathan Ballingrud was born in Massachusetts but has spent most of his life in the South. He worked as a bartender in New Orleans and New York City and a cook on offshore oil rigs. His story "The Monsters of Heaven" won the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his daughter.

    On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

    As he submits his final manuscript to his sceptical editor, he tells the story of Professor George Tate, and Celus - his seemingly ageless assistant - as they are expelled from the British Museum and embark on a journey that leaves a wake of irrevocably changed lives. Because Freeman has realised the Professor's truth - that the walls are thinning and the shadows are lengthening as our world awaits Her arrival.

    Most people never get to realize their childhood dreams, but Corrigan Bain has come close. He is a fixer. His job is to prevent accidents—to see the future and “fix” things before people get hurt. But the ability to see into the future, however limited, isn’t always so simple. Sometimes not everyone can be saved. “Don’t let them know you can see them.” Graduate students from a local university are dying, and former lover and FBI agent Maggie Trent is the only person who believes their deaths aren’t as accidental as they appear. But the truth can only be found in something from Corrigan Bain’s past, and he’s not interested in sharing that past, not even with Maggie. To stop the deaths, Corrigan will have to face up to some old horrors, confront the possibility that he may be going mad, and find a way to stop a killer no one can see. Corrigan Bain is going insane . . . or is he? Because there’s something in the future that doesn’t want to be seen. It isn’t human. It's got a taste for mayhem. And it is very, very angry. By the author of the Immortal series and The Spaceship Next Door.

    Sometimes what you wantDoesn’t matter,Sometimes you justGotta finish what you started.Sometimes this reallyFucking sucks.But other timesYou need to take a breath And sit on the beach.A long, deep, breathTo remind you of why You signed on for this shit In the first place.This is my breath.~ Tier

    When light destroys shadows, darkness does not gain in density elsewhere. When shadows steal over earth and across the sky, darkness is not diluted. Featuring an Introduction by Aliette De Bodard, Conservation of Shadows features a selection of short stories from Yoon Ha Lee.Content"Ghostweight" (2011)"The Shadow Postulates" (2007)"The Bones of Giants" (2009)"Between Two Dragons" (2010)"Swanwatch" (2009)"Effigy Nights" (2013)"Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" (2010)"Iseul's Lexicon" (2013)"Counting the Shapes" (2001)"Blue Ink" (2008)"The Battle of Candle Arc" (2012) "A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel" (2011)"The Unstrung Zither" (2009) "The Black Abacus" (2002)"The Book of Locked Doors" (2012)"Conservation of Shadows" (2012)

    A middle-aged man, wracked with grief, walks along the beach at Whitstable in Kent.A boy walks approaches him and, taking him for the famous vampire-hunter Doctor Van Helsing from the Hammer movies, asks for his help. Because he believes his stepfather really is a vampire...In Whitstable - which deftly mixes fact with fiction—the actor, devastated after the recent death of his wife and soul mate Helen, is an inconsolable recluse. In that vulnerable state he is forced to face an evil far more real and terrifying than any of the make-believe monsters he tackled on the big screen. And here he is not a crusader or expert with crucifixes to hand—merely a man. A man who in some ways craves death himself, but cannot ignore the pleas of an innocent child...

    Howard” Contains: • An aesthetic cover page. • A beginning click-able Table of Contents for all titles. • Inner click-able Tables of Contents for all individual books with multiple chapters. • Nicely organized chapters and text. Author’s works include: • SKULLS IN THE STARS • THE FOOTFALLS WITHIN • THE MOON OF SKULLS • THE HILLS OF THE DEAD • WINGS IN THE NIGHT • RATTLE OF BONES • RED SHADOWS • THE DAUGHTER OF ERLIK KHAN • HAWK OF THE HILLS • BLOOD OF THE GODS • SON OF THE WHITE WOLF • THE COUNTRY OF THE KNIFE • THE PHOENIX ON THE SWORD • THE SCARLET CITADEL • THE TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT • BLACK COLOSSUS • THE SLITHERING SHADOW • THE POOL OF THE BLACK ONE • GODS OF THE NORTH • ROGUES IN THE HOUSE • SHADOWS IN THE MOONLIGHT • QUEEN OF THE BACK COAST • THE DEVIL IN IRON • THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE • A WITCH SHALL BE BORN • JEWELS OF GWAHLUR • BEYOND THE BLACK RIVER • SHADOWS IN ZAMBOULA • RED NAILS • THE HOUR OF THE DRAGON • THE HYBORIAN AGE • THE VALLEY OF THE WORM • THE GARDEN OF FEAR • APPARITION IN THE PRIZE RING • ALLEYS OF DARKNESS • ALLEYS OF PERIL • ALMURIC • WORMS OF THE EARTH • THE LOST RACE • EVIL DEEDS AT RED COUGAR • A GENT FROM BEAR CREEK (NOVELLA) • A GENT FROM BEAR CREEK (SHORT STORY) • CUPID FROM BEAR CREEK • GUNS OF THE MOUNTAINS • HIGH HORSE RAMPAGE • MOUNTAIN MAN • NO COWHERDERS WANTED • PILGRIMS TO THE PECOS • TEXAS JOHN ALDEN • WHILE SMOKE ROLLED • PISTOL POLITICS • SHARP’S GUN SERENADE • THE APACHE MOUNTAIN WAR • THE CONQUERIN’ HERO OF THE HUMBOLTS • THE FEUD BUSTER • THE HAUNTED MOUNTAIN • THE RIOT AT COUGAR PAW • THE ROAD TO BEAR CREEK • THE SCALP HUNTER • WAR ON BEAR CREEK • THE TOMB’S SECRET • CHAMP OF THE FORECASTLE • CIRCUS FISTS • THE CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT • THE HAUNTER OF THE RING • HAWKS OF OUTREMER • THE BLOOD OF BELSHAZZAR • THE BLACK STONE • THE FIRE OF ASSHURBANIPAL • THE THING ON THE ROOF • CUPID VS POLLUX • IN THE FOREST OF VILLEFÉRE • WOLFSHEAD • BLACK CANAAN • THE HOUSE OF ARABU • PEOPLE OF THE DARK • THE VOICE OF EL-LIL • SPEAR AND FANG • SEA CURSE • FIST AND FANG • GENERAL IRONFIST • GATES OF EMPIRE • LORD OF SAMARCAND • THE LION OF TIBERIAS • THE SOWERS OF THE THUNDER • THE CAIRN ON THE HEADLAND • THE DREAM SNAKE • THE FEARSOME TOUCH OF DEATH • THE HYENA • THE TREASURES OF TARTARY • THE SHADOW KINGDOM • THE MIRRORS OF TUZUN THUNE • KINGS OF THE NIGHT • NIGHT OF BATTLE • OLD GARFIELD’S HEART • T

    Now, in an anonymous hotel in Mid-Town Manhattan, she faces the truth of her ruined life; a husband who does not love her, a child she believes she is not fit to care for, and a grief that has never been faced.And yet, in her final hours, something calls to her, reliving the events that have so reduced her… and offering her an impossible alternative.Now Emily must choose whether to continue in this world, or take her chances in the next.

    Two worlds. The chains of command only stretch so far. He’s a conduit to alien invasion. A security threat. To the same country he swore to defend from its enemies. Enemies both foreign and domestic. Hard to tell the difference once his growing powers unleash the ancient truth. Time to go rogue.Niall Kearey is US Air Force. Special Forces. His job to save lives. On Earth. Not on Astereal, a world across the universe. He’s not insane. Except the hazy threads of a childhood dream keep intruding on his life. Creating havoc. The reason he’s alive beyond all reasonable expectations. And now these aliens won’t be denied. To the humanoid telepaths of Astereal, Niall’Kearey is legend, a military leader in a war dating back to ancient times. Now dark stars are tearing Astereal apart and prophecy says he can save them. From an apocalypse.On Earth, Niall’s growing psychic abilities have attracted unwanted attention, exposing his family to danger. A rescue attempt results in catastrophe. His secret is out and his life shattered. Then, with alien invasion a real threat, the US government designates him a security risk as a secret political conspiracy seeks to control both him and this first contact with extra-terrestrials.Niall is torn between protecting his loved ones, saving an alien race, and his duty to Earth, but when history opens his eyes to the full potential of his latent powers, he finally confronts the disturbing scale of his dilemma. It’s time to go rogue. The mission? Human survival.

    This book inspired a score of video games, including the upcoming METRO: LAST LIGHT, gave birth to a series of novels written by followers across the world and will soon be turned into a Hollywood movie!Meet the legend for free. Welcome to the last refuge of the mankind after the end of the world. Enter the subway of Moscow...* this piece is a free prologue to the novel.

    Pulled from the cartography archives of Starfleet Academy, these beautifully reproduced maps provide a rare opportunity to view the expanse of Federation space (and beyond) through the multiple lenses of the Galaxy's key players. The maps include an ancient Vulcan map, a Klingon Empire map from the pre-Organian Peace Treaty era (in the native Klingon), an official Romulan government map of the Empire, a native Cardassian Union map from the Bajor occupation, along with Federation maps from the modern era. Housed in a handsome clamshell case and paired with a fully-illustrated reference book providing detailed information on planets, systems, and topography, this exclusive collection showcases the Star Trek universe like never before.Product Features:A tri-fold clamshell case48-page 8” x 10” hardcover bookTen 24” x 36” removable maps

    From the sci-fi literature of Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and N. K. Jemisin to the musical cosmos of Sun Ra, George Clinton, and the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am, to the visual and multimedia artists inspired by African Dogon myths and Egyptian deities, the book’s topics range from the “alien” experience of blacks in America to the “wake up” cry that peppers sci-fi literature, sermons, and activism. With a twofold aim to entertain and enlighten, Afrofuturists strive to break down racial, ethnic, and social limitations to empower and free individuals to be themselves.

    This book is nothing short of hilarious. I started to read it at work, but had to stop almost immediately because I could not stop myself from laughing out loud." "Humor drips from every orifice of this story which couples well with the hints of gore and danger ever present in vampire literature. I found it very entertaining and I wish I had drawn it out a bit more instead of cashing out in one sitting. Five stars, no regrets." "At Last! An Original Vampire Story! I've read a fair few Vampire tales in recent years, and most are twilight clones, interview clones, or frankly bad fan fiction. This one is the first I've read for a long time that is genuinely original, well written, and also 'keeps to the rules'." +++++ DESCRIPTION FOR FAT VAMPIRE (BOOK 1): When overweight treadmill salesman Reginald Baskin finally meets a co-worker who doesn't make fun of him, it's just his own bad luck that tech guy Maurice turns out to be a two thousand-year-old vampire. And when Maurice turns Reginald to save his life, it's just Reginald's own further bad luck that he wakes up to discover he's become the slowest, weakest, most out-of-shape vampire ever born, doomed to "heal" to his corpulent self for all of eternity. As Reginald struggles with the downsides of being a fat vampire -- too slow to catch people to feed on, mocked by those he tries to glamour, assaulted by his intended prey and left for undead -- he discovers in himself rare powers that few vampires have… and just in time too, because the Vampire Council might just want his head for being an inferior representative of their race. Fat Vampire is the story of an unlikely hero who, after having an imperfect eternity shoved into his grease-stained hands, must learn to turn the afterlife's lemons into tasty lemon danishes. +++++ Full descriptions for the other books in this series can be found here: FAT VAMPIRE 2: http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Vampire-Tas... FAT VAMPIRE 3: http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Vampire-All... FAT VAMPIRE 4: http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Vampire-Har... FAT VAMPIRE 5: http://www.johnnybtruant.com/fv5a FAT VAMPIRE 6: http://www.johnnybtruant.com/fv6a +++++ ABOUT THE AUTHOR Johnny B. Truant is the author of "Unicorn Western" and "The Bialy Pimps" and is one of the co-hosts the popular "Better Off Undead" podcast with "Yesterday's Gone" authors Sean Platt and David Wright. Both Better Off Undead and the trio's Self Publishing Podcast are available on iTunes.

    This debut short story collection by award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor includes notable previously-published short work, a new novella co-written with New York Times bestselling author Alan Dean Foster, and a brief foreword by Whoopi Goldberg.

    This is no repeat; this is what happens next. A man, once a legend who bound his soul to his sword as he lay dying, is now all but a boy nearing the end of his acolyte training. Stifled by life in the undersea city of Avalon, Arthur wants to fight side by side with the air-breathing Terrans, not spend his life as servant to the incorporeal sentient known as the Archive. Despite the restrictions put on him by Sanctuary, he is determined to help the surface-dwellers defeat predators whose sole purpose is to ensure their own survival, no matter the cost. Ashira, War Maid and princess of the surface-world, is ready to sacrifice her life to defend her kin, but when she is betrayed and cast out of the life chosen for her, she must choose whether to die with honor or become one of the creatures her kinsmen fear and loathe. Following two threads of time, C.N. Lesley’s new incarnation of the Arthurian tales of old delivers the perfect blend of science fiction and fantasy.

    But they didn't come back alone...A new power is rising on Earth, throwing society into turmoil. Only those involved in the October 15th "incident" have any hope of stopping it. And if they don't, Earth may soon fall all over again.The fourth season of the indie horror hit Yesterday's Gone explodes with action, terror and beer-battered...well, you know the drill.

    The Robert Sheckley Megapack presents 14 short stories and 1 novel by the author Neil Gaiman called "probably the best short-story writer during the '50s to the mid-1960s working in any field." Here are tales of adventure in strange futures, full of the wry wit and piercing characterizations that made Sheckley one of the great writers working in science fiction!"Robert Sheckley: the best short-story writer the field has produced." — Alan Dean Foster "I had no idea the competition was so terrifyingly good." — Douglas AdamsIncluded in this volume are:WATCHBIRDTHE STATUS CIVILIZATIONASK A FOOLISH QUESTIONCOST OF LIVINGBAD MEDICINEDIPLOMATIC IMMUNITYWARRIOR RACETHE HOUR OF BATTLEKEEP YOUR SHAPEWARMDEATH WISHBESIDE STILL WATERSFOREVERTHE LEECHONE MAN'S POISONAnd don't forget to search this ebook store for "Wildside Megapack" to see many more entries in this series, covering science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, westerns, classics, and much, much more!

    Finds out who the Guardians are and why they're worthy of guarding the galaxy! Featuring Rocket Raccoon, Drax, Gamora, and Groot!

    The transition from journalist to captive in an alternative timeline was challenging to say the least. As was discovering her long-lost family, the Clan, were world-skipping assassins. Now civil war rages in her adopted home, she's pregnant with the heir to their throne and a splinter-group want her on their side of a desperate power struggle. But as a leader or figurehead? Meanwhile, unknown to the Clan, the US government is on to them and preparing to exploit this knowledge. But it hadn't foreseen a dissident Clan faction carrying nuclear devices between worlds--with the US president in their sights. The War on Terror is about to go transdimensional. But Mike Fleming, CIA agent, knows the most terrifying secret of all. His government's true intentions.At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

    Valente. A collection of some of Catherynne Valente's most admired stories, including the Hugo Award-nominated novella "Silently and Very Fast" and the Locus Award finalist "13 Ways of Looking at Space/Time," with a brand-new long story to anchor the collection.Contents:The Melancholy of Mechagirl (2011) poemInk, Water, Milk (2013)Fifteen Panels Depicting the Sadness of the Baku and the Jotai (2010)Ghosts of Gunkanjima (2005)Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time (2010)One Breath, One Stroke (2012)Story No. 6 (2013)Fade to White (2012)The Emperor of Tsukayama Park (2005) poemKillswitch (2007)Memoirs of a Girl Who Failed to Be Born from a Peach (2005) poemThe Girl with Two Skins (2008) poemSilently and Very Fast (2011)

    Until she was fired—then discoverd, to her shock, that her lost family comes from an alternate reality. And although some of them are trying to kill her, she won’t stop digging up secrets. Now that she knows she's inherited the family ability to walk between worlds, there’s a new culture to explore. Her alternate home seems located around the Middle Ages, making her world-hopping relatives top dogs when it comes to ‘importing’ guns and other gadgets from modern-day America. Payment flows from their services to US drug rings—after all, world-skipping drug runners make great traffickers. In a land where women are property, she struggles to reman independent. Yet her outsider ways won’t be tolerated, and a highly political arranged marriage is being brokered behind her back. If she can stay alive for long enough to protest.

    It contains all Dresden Codak comics published between October 21st, 2005 and May 5th, 2010, including every comic in the series' longest-running continuous story arc to date, “Hob,” many shorter episodes of the main story line, and various one-shots- over 80 pages in all It also contains new art and other content created specifically for this collection.

    Tasked with discovering who or what is reaching out to the stars, his mission will force him to confront the ghosts of his past in his hometown of Lorain, Ohio. Our government told us the signal was a hoax.Agent Conrad Reid must lead a team who neither know nor trust him... and is briefed that if the Soviets reach the source of the transmission before he does, then millions will die. Our government lied Doctor Rose Santiago knows of the shared secrets that bind the team and, even as the mystery unravels, that accounts must be settled.Because Ohio never forgets its debts, and everyone must heed the call

    One oversized slip-cased volume, jam-packed with extras! It'll be a feast for your senses, and a diet for your wallet! Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he's a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn't mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why.

    Born in England, Kim Wilkins is the author of over 20 novels for readers of all ages. Her debut novel The Infernal won two Aurealis Awards. Her latest books, contemporary epic romances, are published under the pseudonym Kimberley Freeman, and include Lighthouse Bay and Wildflower Hill. Kim Wilkins is a four-times winner of the Aurealis Award, twice winner of the Sassy Award for popular fiction, and winner of the Romantic Book of the Year award. The book collects 5 novellas, comprising two written especially for this collection and 2 reprints and the first print publication of "Wild Dreams of Blood."

    Tales reach back to the 1930s, as fresh and relevant today as they were when she wrote them . . . such was Andre’s skill. High fantasy, fables, science fiction, coming of age stories, and more fill three volumes. This impressive, must-have collection includes stories of Witch World. There are cats sprinkled here and there, as Andre treasured them so. And there is magic in the writing, unequaled prose to delight readers of all ages. High Hallack was a place in Andre’s fiction, and was also the name of her genre writer’s library she opened in Tennessee. It is a wondrous keep that she called home, and now High Hallack opens its gates and allows these amazing stories to tumble out. Lose yourself in her enchanted words, and read them again and again.

    He is a construct and an employee of the Galactic Organic Development Corporation, which searches the galaxy for primitive sentient species to save from extinction, and then transplants colonies of them to Corporation agricultural planets where they can live happily and safely. The transplanted species survives, and its members produce some of the most expensive and sought-after food in the galaxy, which the Corporation profitably sells to developed worlds with this guarantee:Caringly grown, cultivated and harvested by simple sentient life forms.No artificial ingredients, pesticides, herbicides, or mechanized equipment used in processing.Guaranteed 100% organic. Of course, keeping the primitives primitive enough to ensure the Corporation’s promise of natural purity can be a challenge, especially when they’re like those it found twenty thousand years ago huddling in caves and scraping a meager and precarious existence on a pale blue planet in the Milky Way’s Orion–Cygnus spiral arm. The humans keep trying to change things.An Android Dog’s Tale is the 15,000-year episodic story of one canine mobile observer android who must make choices about what he wants to accomplish in his artificial life. Does he accept the wisdom of his makers or does he dare to question?This book is available in eBook and trade paperback editions.

    They enslaved humanity not by force, but through an aggressive mind control that turned people into contented, unquestioning robots. Except sixteen-year-old Althea isn’t content at all, and she doesn’t need the mysterious note inside her locket to tell her she’s Something Else. It also warns her to trust no one, so she hides the pieces that make her different, even though it means being alone. Then she meets Lucas, everything changes. Althea and Lucas are immune to the alien mind control, and together they search for the reason why. What they uncover is a stunning truth the Others never anticipated, one with the potential to free the brainwashed human race. It’s not who they are that makes them special, but what. And what they are is a threat. One the Others are determined to eliminate for good.

    Sixteen year old skate punk squatting in a white-trash trailer park with my loser drunk Dad. Seems I lost most of my friends when Dad lost our home in foreclosure. Only Anita stuck by me. Worse, I keep having strange clairvoyant visions of things that always come true.Then I almost ran over Nadia in my Geo. A passing truck finished the job – left a crumpled heap of skin and bone on the road. I fixed her. Me.Now this fourteen year old girl won’t leave me alone. I sorta let her sneak in my window when she needs a place to crash.I have a double life: daytime at school, Anita, skating, and then my nights with Nadia. She's my secret friend, gives me money and listens to my problems when nobody else will.My world is spinning out of control. Old friends have turned enemy, my grisly visions of death won’t quit, and Anita’s intentions make my head spin. Even with all that, I’ve got bigger stuff to worry about.Nadia’s hiding something.

    These are tales of relationships with unearthly domesticity and eeriness: a woman falls in love with a haunted house; a beached mermaid is substituted for a disappeared daughter; the imaginary friend of a murdered young woman stalks the streets of her small town; a mother’s teenage son is afflicted with a disease that causes him to vanish; a father exploits his daughter’s talent for calling ghosts to her; and a wife leaves her husband and children to fulfill her obligations in the world from which she escaped.

    And a door in a dream that seems to hold the answers.Paftoo is a 'bod'; made to serve. He is a groundsman on the last remaining countryside estate, once known as Harkaway Hall -- now a theme park. Paftoo holds scattered memories of the old days, but they are regularly deleted to keep him productive.When he starts to have dreams of the Lost Lands' past and his cherished connection with Lifeform Three, Paftoo is propelled into a nocturnal battle to reclaim his memories, his former companions and his soul.'An extraordinary novel in the tradition of the great old-school literary sci-fi a la Atwood and Bradbury' - NYT bestselling author Joni Rodgers

    The devil and his followers are in chains. The planet is ruled by the King of kings and those saints who were part of the first resurrection. Sarah Glen is one of them.Sarah governs ten cities in the Azure Mountains. She loves the people under her care and enjoys her role of administering the Lord’s justice and mercy. Whenever her earthly duties allow, Sarah heads to Paradise where the wonders of her heavenly home continue to surprise and delight her.But it is all about to end.Satan and his forces are released from prison and they begin to wage war against the saints. As the powers of darkness gather for the final assault on the King and His followers, one demon in particular, Melas, sets out to take revenge on the one who imprisoned him a thousand years earlier – the immortal Lady Sarah.Show more Show less

    

    Gabby is pushy and a real pain - but she's the reason I've survived this long.She's my sister. And now she's gone.Criminals are sent to the colonies to work as slaves. There is no escape. I know that it's a savage place, not a place for a teenage girl from the wrong side of London.I might die trying. I'll probably never see London again. But they've taken my sister, and I'm going to get her back.

    Their only hope lies with Gladamyr, the Dream Keeper, but can they trust a Nightmare to save their world?

    He just wanted a relaxing month off between jobs so he could explore the city of Lovat, enjoy a soft bed and a few decent meals. Instead, he’s arrested—accused of killing old friends and hacking off body parts.Escaping custody and on the run, Wal becomes a citywide fugitive fighting to clear his name. As the body count rises, a shadowy assassin emerges as the true killer, and the trail begins to grow more and more bizarre.The Stars Were Right combines mysteries and monsters, chases and cults, and an ancient evil in a world that is similar but not quite like our own.

    Once her words get under your skin, they are there to stay.’ - Angela Slatter, British Fantasy Award-winning author of Sourdough and Other StoriesTable of ContentsIntroductionWhat Amanda WantsHornCaution: Contains Small PartsThe Home for Broken DollsWhat Are the Twelve Planets?The Twelve Planets are twelve boutique collections by some of Australia’s finest short story writers. Varied across genre and style, each collection offers four short stories and a unique glimpse into worlds fashioned by some of our favourite storytellers. Each author has taken the brief of four stories and up to 40 000 words in their own direction. Some are quartet suites of linked stories. Others are tasters of the range and style of the writer. Each release will bring something unexpected to readers.Nightsiders by Sue IsleLove and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner RobertsThief of Lives by Lucy SussexBad Power by Deborah BiancottiShowtime by Narrelle M HarrisThrough Splintered Walls by Kaaron WarrenCracklescape by Margo LanaganAsymmetry by Thoraiya DyerCaution: Contains Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermottSecret Lives by Rosaleen LoveThe Female Factory by Lisa L. Hannett and Angela SlatterCherry Crow Children by Deborah Kalin

    The inn will soon be renovated in preparation for a new lease on life. So tonight, from midnight till six, Peter Haskins will watch over the machinery.And he will soon discover that there is something else in the hotel with him, something that needs no new lease on life, for it has never died.And never will.SELDOM SEEN IN AUGUSTWade Crawford is not a good guy. He’s a bank robber and a ruthless killer, and now three people are dead and Wade is on the run. With the cops hot on his heels, he breaks into a seemingly ordinary house in a seemingly ordinary neighborhood to hide and wait on word from his partner.But this neighborhood is far from ordinary. Indeed it has a very specific purpose, and soon Wade will discover that life in prison would be preferable to the hellish torment Seldom Seen has in store for him.MIDLISTERSMeet Jason Tennant, a writer of violent horror novels whose career is mired firmly in a maddening swamp of frustration somewhere north of nowhere and south of success. He is a midlister, those thankless souls who labor in the shadows of sometimes better, sometimes luckier writers, and it's starting to take its toll.Meet Kent Gray, wildly popular author of a string of so-called "sex-fi" novels. He's wealthy, handsome, and the object of Jason Tennant's professional jealousy.Welcome to Baltimore, Maryland, and the Aurora Science Fiction Horror Convention, where these two men, midlister and bestseller, will meet for the first time, and the midlister motto "Better Read Than Dead" will be put to the ultimate test.

    Her parents have just gotten divorced, her mom has uprooted her to the town of Kingsport, a lethal high-tech mercenary wants her dead, and a group of teenage superhero wannabes need her help taking down a rogue artificial intelligence threatening to wreck her new home. What's a girl with super-powers to do?

    The media ignores it. But the evidence is irrefutable. Somewhere, centuries ago, a secret has been lost to time. A secret that for a brief moment in 1989 seemed on the edge of being exposed... it wasn’t Roswell!

    As a temporally displaced soldier, Jack has to deal with a world that has had more than a few makeovers since he was forced out of the timestream. His powers amplify his emotions to a dangerous degree, so if Rosario and her family can’t help Jack learn to control himself, steps will be taken. He’s got one shot at moving past his war, and she’s it.

    Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund and features stories from previous recipients.Table of Contents:Nalo Hopkinson - IntroductionBefore ConceptionOctavia E. Butler - Speech SoundsVonda N. McIntyre - Octavia Estelle Butler2007Christopher Caldwell - My Love Will Never DieShweta Narayan - Falling into the Earth2008Caren Gussoff - Free BirdMary Elizabeth Burroughs - Impulse2009Rochita Loenen-Ruiz - Dancing in the Shadow of the Once2010Kai Ashante Wilson - "Legendaire."Erik Owomoyela - Steal the Sky2011Jeremy Sim - /sitDennis Y. Ginoza - Re: Christmas, Bainbridge Island2012Indrapramit Das - The Runner of n-VamanaLisa Bolekaja - The Saltwater African

      Yang Fei was born on a moving train. Lost by his mother, adopted by a young switchman, raised with simplicity and love, he is utterly unprepared for the tempestuous changes that await him and his country. As a young man, he searches for a place to belong in a nation that is ceaselessly reinventing itself, but he remains on the edges of society. At age forty-one, he meets an accidental and unceremonious death. Lacking the money for a burial plot, he must roam the afterworld aimlessly, without rest. Over the course of seven days, he encounters the souls of the people he’s lost.   As Yang Fei retraces the path of his life, we meet an extraordinary cast of characters: his adoptive father, his beautiful ex-wife, his neighbors who perished in the demolition of their homes. Traveling on, he sees that the afterworld encompasses all the casualties of today’s China—the organ sellers, the young suicides, the innocent convicts—as well as the hope for a better life to come. Yang Fei’s passage maps the contours of this vast nation—its absurdities, its sorrows, and its soul. Vivid, urgent, and panoramic, The Seventh Day affirms Yu Hua’s place as the standard-bearer of modern Chinese fiction.

    Nothing in this woodland paradise within the Forest of Dean is what it seems. The Wenstrops have it all: health, wealth, and happiness. Until everything falls apart. Helen gets arrested for murder, and yet is either unable or unwilling to give a defence. During her detention, vital evidence goes missing and tensions run high. Meanwhile, in the woods, malignant forces gather power. This sensational second novel by acclaimed author Harmony Kent will have you alternately laughing, crying, and gripping the edge of your seat as this roller-coaster ride of a plot unfolds. It will keep you guessing through its many twists and turns, and hijack your attention right up until you turn the final page. This book has it all: murder, intrigue, the supernatural, a broken marriage, a love affair, courage against impossible odds, suspense, and high drama. “Expertly written, the book keeps you guessing at every turn. What can I say? You really have to read this book ... if you're brave enough!”—Review by Fantasy Queen The Glade is an IndieB.R.A.G.Medallion honoree.Praise for Harmony Kent: “Kent gives the reader mystery, intrigue, sex, action and characters risking their lives for a greater good. Kent's writing is an immersive experience.” T. Dewhirst (Rabid Reviews) “With a very contemporary voice, Ms. Kent has found a place in this genre as she easily entertains and captures the reader…” J. Malinoski “Kent…is a master of her craft. There is magic in her writing.” J. Brooke Find out more at: www.harmonykent.co.uk Twitter: @harmony_kent Facebook: www.facebook.com/HarmonyKentOnline

    70 years after a horrific alien war, an unusually gifted child is sent to an advanced military school in space to prepare for a future invasion.

    Who has not considered their own mortality and wondered at what awaits, once our frail human shell expires? What occurs after the heart stops beating, after the last breath is drawn, after life as we know it terminates? Does our spirit remain on Earth while the mortal body rots? Do remnants of our soul transcend to a celestial Heaven or sink to Hell's torment? Are we offered choices in an individualized afterlife? Can we die again in the hereafter? Is life merely a cosmic joke, or is it an experiment for something greater? Included within this critically acclaimed anthology are answers to these queries alongside tales and suppositions relating from traditional ghosts to the afterlife of e-coli. Explore the afterworld of an Australian cowboy. Discover what the white light really means to the recently departed. Consider the impact of modern, or future, technology on the dead. Follow the karmic path of reincarnation. Travel from the 999th level of Fengdu's Hell to the gates of Robot Heaven.Enclosed are thirty-four all-new dark and speculative fiction stories, individually illustrated by Audra Phillips, and exploring the possibilities "after death."TABLE OF CONTENTS:Introduction by Eric J. GuignardSomeone to Remember by Andrew S. WilliamsBoy, 7 by Alvaro RodriguezSea of Trees by Edward M. ErdelacThe Last Moments Before Bed by Steve Rasnic TemThe Resurrection Policy by Lisa MortonHigh Places by John M. FloydCircling the Stones at Fulcrum's Low by Kelda CrichI Will Remain by David SteffenTree of Life by Aaron J. FrenchThe Reckless Alternative by Sanford Allen & Josh RountreeThe Thousandth Hell by Brad C. HodsonMall Rats by James S. DorrAfterword by Ray CluleyLike a Bat out of Hell by Jonathan ShipleyThe Overlander by Jacob EdwardsForever by John PalisanoMy Father Knew Douglas MacArthur by Bentley LittleRobot Heaven by Jamie LackeyBeyond the Veil by Robert B. Marcus, Jr.Prisoner of Peace by David TallermanA Feast of Meat and Mead by Christine MorganBe Quiet At The Back by William MeikleCages by Peter GiglioHammerhead by Simon ClarkMarvel at the Face of Forever by Kelly DunnThe Unfinished Lunch by Trevor DenyerI Was The Walrus by Steve CameronThe Devil's Backbone by Larry HodgesThe Death of E. Coli by Benjamin Kane EthridgeFinal Testament of a Weapons Engineer by Emily C. SkaftunAcclimation Package by Joe McKinneyHellevator by Josh StrnadIn and Out the Window by Allan IzenWith Max Barry in the Nearer Precincts by John Langan

    But when both the fracturing worlds and Clint's bride-to-be are thrust into peril by an old foe, the gunslinger must come out of retirement and aim his seven-shooters at the dark magic and those who bring it. An epic quest hurls marshal and unicorn across the endless desert in pursuit of the dark rider Dharma Kold and his unicorn of a different color, where they must battle their way back toward The Realm to uncover the truth...and mayhap save the worlds that hang in the balance.From the creators of Yesterday's Gone (Platt) and Fat Vampire (Truant) comes this reinvention of both the western genre and unicorn lore. Appropriate for adults, teens, and children, Unicorn Western is "Harry Potter without wizards but with gunslingers, talking unicorns, epic fights, and more turkey pie."

    He loves causing trouble, hanging out with his puck-brothers, and shifting from boy to dog to horse. There's nothing more fun! However, when Finn learns of the Mór's treacherous plan to get rid of the Lady of the Summerlands, will anyone believe him? And how far will he go to make sure it doesn't happen?

    Unaware she is being observed, Terrana goes about her quiet life on a remote tropical island without a care in the world. Her most demanding task is to lob coconuts from treetops, and her only enemy is her annoying brother. This idyllic life changes forever when she is wrenched from her home and transported to Sector One, an area in Space teeming with powerful beings and mind-blowing technology. Terrana slowly comes to terms with her new existence until she learns the sector is being threatened by a long forgotten alien race. Then she is thrown into epic manga-esque battles and is forced to face some truths about herself.

    Less than a week later, the new boy in school has her trapped in an alley; he’s sprouted horns and is going to kill Beau unless she hands over the knife. Until Eighteenth-century gargoyle, Jack, shows up to save her.Jack has woken from a century-long slumber to tell Beau that she’s unwittingly been drafted into a power struggle between two immortal races: Demons and Gargoyles. The knife is the only one in existence capable of killing immortals and they’ll tear the world apart to get it back. To draw the warring immortals away from her home, Beau goes with Jack in search of the mind-bending realm known as the Underworld, a place where they’ll hopefully be able to destroy the knife and prevent all hell from breaking loose. That is, provided they can outrun the demons chasing them.

    The last resident of a mental institution discovers he's not alone. A middle-schooler performs an experiment to determine how much time we fit in dreams. Boys looking for wonder find more than they're expecting in the Adirondacks with Charles Fort. A detective learns everything he's ever wanted to know...and some things he hasn't. In Will Ludwigsen's short stories of strangeness and mystery, the universe has a way of being weird in just the ways we need it to be. There are answers to many of our deepest questions...and they're usually far more personal than we expect. What are you in search of? And what is in search of you?

    Michael A. Aquino, who served as High Priest of the Temple of Set from 1975 to 1996 Received by Aleister Crowley in April 1904 in Cairo, Egypt, the Book of the Law is the most provocative record of magical working in several hundred years, affecting not only organizations directly associated with Crowley such as the Ordo Templi Orientis but also modern Wicca, Chaos Magic, and the Temple of Set. Boldly defying Crowley’s warning not to comment on the Book of the Law, Ipsissimus Don Webb provides in-depth interpretation from both Black and White Magical perspectives, including commentary from Dr. Michael A. Aquino, who served as High Priest of the Temple of Set from 1975 to 1996. Webb examines each line of the Book in the light of modern psychology, Egyptology, existentialism, and competing occult systems such as the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and contemporary Left-Hand Path thought. Discarding the common image of Crowley formulated in a spiritually unsophisticated time when the devotee of the Left-Hand Path was dismissed as a selfish evil doer, Webb unveils a new side of Crowley based on his adoption of the Loki archetype and his aim to become a vessel of love for all humanity. In so doing, he shows how the Book of the Law is connected to both Right- and Left-Hand Paths and reveals how Crowley’s magical path of mastery over the self and Cosmos overthrew the gods of old religion, which had kept humanity asleep to dream the nightmare of history. Providing in-depth analysis of Crowley’s sources and his self-identification with the First Beast of Revelation from a profound esoteric perspective, Webb takes his views out of the Golden Dawn matrix within which he received the Book of the Law and radically recasts the Cairo Working as a text of personal sovereignty and a relevant tool for personal transformation.

    When Terizan dropped out of the secret passage, past the net, and into the Inner Sanctum, she was astonished to discover that no one else had ever made it that far. Unfortunately, neither Terizan nor the Guild are thrilled about the sudden perception that she's the best thief in Oreen – the title comes with expectations and the Guild only ever expects the worst. In these five tales, mercenary captains, murderous royal families, ghosts, gods, and wizards prove that while it may not always be lonely at the top, it's definitely annoying. Good thing half a dozen gods owe Terizan a favour. Swan's Braid In Mysterious Ways The Lions of Al'Kalamir Sometimes, Just Because The Things Everyone KnowsAll previously collected (non-e-book) in Stealing Magic

    She is shrinking, possibly without limit.As her life starts to spin out of control and the world starts to grow around her at an uncontrollable rate she is forced to confront her greatest fear - losing the man whom she loved from the moment she saw him. Can they stay together even though she feels her humanity slipping away? Can she trust him with her secret and, as her disease progresses, her safety and even her life? Can she trust herself?A bittersweet story of love and loss, The Promise is a YAParanormal Fantasy that will have you questioning the meaning of your own humanity and the weighing of trust against love.What will Lily choose?What would you choose?

    A would-be astronaut’s manifesto. An Archivist who can’t help but record all of life’s statistics. In these thirteen small stories, Anne Valente takes us to worlds both fantastic and familiar, forgotten and foretold, and in tight, layered prose, she strives to unravel all the tangled questions we have about ourselves. From the field guides of anatomy to permutations on desire, these small stories are expansive and encyclopedic, a cataloguing of love and loss, an attempt to find a formula for everything that courses through us.

    Calvin, near death after being shelled, is given a bewitched herb by Stanley but then left for dead. Each soldier returns from the war and years pass. Calvin, discovering that he cannot age and cannot age and cannot die, searches for Stanley to get answers.

    A vomit of lightbulbs. A compass recovered from the stomach, pointing to True North. Teams of boys in the woods get lost and forget their colors. Girls gather in the park, trying to remember what songs to sing. But the horses are too sick to bet on and a map is not the territory. Three skins convulse, three bodies converge. A sickness is shared between a girl and a boy and a boy and a river.Jordaan Mason's debut novel, THE SKIN TEAM, is a story of mesmerized violence and the shape shifting between love and sex and the singing that happens when the power goes out."Reading THE SKIN TEAM, you would never suspect how difficult it is to write even fairly about such things, much less with Jordaan Mason's radiant emotional grace and super-deft detailing and flawless style. This novel is something very rare, and it's about as beautiful as fiction can ever be."—Dennis Cooper

    This central government has complete control over the lives of it's citizens. Their careers, where they live, and who they marry is all controlled by the United Government.The citizens of the New World have no choice but to accept their fate, to question any decision made by the United Government would be considered treason, a crime punishable by death.When Sion graduates from the academy of Chemical Sciences, she receives orders to travel to the capital city of Nike and marry Athens, a Special Forces Officer. Sion has her doubts that Athens is a suitable mate for her, but what can she do? The UG's computer matching system is considered perfect. She is resigned to live the life the UG has mapped out for her, till she meets Santiago, her mysterious and intriguing co-worker, who is a widow who has been forced into a marriage with a woman he has no attraction to.Sion and Santiago have an immediate attraction to one another, but they can never be together. There are no divorces or annulments in the New World. Marriage is forever...

    Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science. Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as "poets", adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization's recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school's strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Bronte, Eliot, and Lowell--who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school's most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love.Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Jamieson is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he's done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. Pursued relentlessly by people with powers he can barely comprehend and protected by the very man who first attacked him, Wil discovers that everything he thought he knew about his past was fiction. In order to survive, must journey to the toxically decimated town of Broken Hill, Australia, to discover who he is and why an entire town was blown off the map.As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless. A brilliant thriller that connects very modern questions of privacy, identity, and the rising obsession of data collection to centuries-old ideas about the power of language and coercion, Lexicon is Max Barry's most ambitious and spellbinding novel yet.

    Cthulhu, Godzilla and nagas mingle in Demonstra, a speculative poem collection which assembles 20 years of work by Bryan Thao Worra. Demonstra is a book of things glimpsed out of the corner of the eye. It is about a reality that can never fully be demonstrated, authenticated, dissected, for certain visions always remain in shadows. Bryan Thao Worra is the first Laotian American to receive a Fellowship in Literature from the United States Government's National Endowment for the Arts. He received the Asian Pacific Leadership Award from the State Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans for Leadership in the Arts in 2009. His previous books include On The Other Side Of The Eye and Touching Detonations. He was a Cultural Olympian during the 2012 London Summer Games representing Laos. He's a professional member of the Horror Writer Association and a regular contributor to Innsmouth Magazine.

    It's everywhere. Winter Shadows is a coming-of-age story following Claire, a young lady who is struggling to find her place in the world after losing her mother to cancer. After a corrupt American government declares a pandemic and forces its residents into quarantine encampments, Claire and her father, along with other members of her church and community, go into hiding in a cave system in rural West Virginia. While coping with the losses of her mother, home, friends, sense of safety and normalcy, Claire begins to pick up the pieces of her past, finding a new normal despite the darkness that surrounds her. While adjusting to a new environment, and the group of people she finds herself surrounded by, Claire is faced with several important decisions that will influence the path her life will take. Who can she trust? Who should she love? How can she survive? Forced to choose between Ethan's steadfast, mature love for her and the love of mysterious and dangerous Colin who appears, Claire learns the difference between infatuation and love. Claire finds herself by learning to bind together with those around her in order to survive. She becomes self-reliant and strong. Despite of her newfound confidence in herself, and the isolation in which she resides, evil is able to find its way to her. While fighting against it, she reestablishes her faith in God and opens her heart to the possibility of love.

    Now, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world through their short stories. This venerable collection brings together award winning authors and masters of the field such as Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Damien Broderick, Elizabeth Bear, Paul McAuley and John Barnes. And with an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, this annual compilation has become the definitive must-read anthology for all science fiction fans and readers interested in breaking into the genre.The multiple Locus Award-winning annual compilation of the year's best science fiction stories

    In these magical yet down-to-earth stories we meet an old man made out of cans, an electrician who makes light simply by touching a bulb, a weatherman who arranges his own weather, a plumber who also gets rid of ghosts. Fortune cookie fortunes actually come true, alligators work in a factory, and Japanese warlords battle on a jet plane. And then there's the killer crawfish. Every story in this fantastic collection is gorgeously gritty and lots of fun. Micah Dean Hicks is a true original. ELIZABETH STUCKEY-FRENCH O. Henry Award-winner and author of The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady

    Fantasy is a modern literary mode and a popular entertainment. Yet the two have always been inextricably intertwined. Stories about Stories examines fantasy as an arena in which different ways of understanding myth compete and new relationshipswith myth are worked out. The book offers a comprehensive history of the modern fantastic as well as an argument about its nature and importance. Specific chapters cover the origins of fantasy in the Romantic search for localized myths, fantasy versions of the Modernist turn toward the primitive, the post-Tolkienian exploration of world mythologies, post-colonial reactions to the exploitation of indigenous sacred narratives by Western writers, fantasies based in Christian belief alongside fundamentalist attempts to stamp out the form, and the emergence of ever-more sophisticated structuressuch as metafiction through which to explore mythic constructions of reality.

    He feels neither emotion nor pain, a divine gift that allows him to be the Ministrix's best assassin.Whether it's heretics from within or heathens from without, Crusader is the sword in the True Church's hand. And if he remains obedient to his superiors, he will be able to let go of his guilt.But then he's ordered to kill Isolda Westin. It shouldn't be a problem. A target is a target. When Crusader sees Isolda's image, though, something strange happens. He experiences a moment of panic, a wave of emotions--the first he's felt in as long as he can remember.In that moment, he realizes he can't fulfill his mission. He can't kill Isolda Westin, even if it means he'll be condemned as an enemy of the Ministrix. Soon Crusader and Isolda are on the run. Will they be able to learn why the Ministrix wants Isolda dead? Or will they both soon face the harsh justice of the "True Church"?

    So when a mysterious benefactor from her past shows up demanding she rescue a man from slavers, her first reaction is to run for the hills. Unfortunately, she did promise to repay the loan. But she didn't think it would involve tangling with pirates over a space elf prince...Book 1 of the Her Instruments trilogy is a rollicking adventure set in the expansive Pelted universe, and kicks off an epic space opera series where the fate of worlds hangs in the balance. Fans who enjoyed Firefly or Andromeda will like this series. Rating: PG-13 for violenceTags: found family, woman protagonist, minority/POC protagonist, adventure, space opera, romance, furries, space elves

    What they don't expect is the magic that brings their souls together.But can a love found in such a way survive the journey back to the physical world?

    Witness a solitary drone on Mars or a naive homunculus struggle to become human. Sew with a mother who lost her daughter in a unicorn quilt, defeat bank robbing super-villains with an unlikely superhero, or join a great mage in the fire.In thirty-five imaginative stories, emerging authors present the diversity of their creativity. Each author found a different angle for the unifying theme: The Adventure of Creation. Witness the talent nurtured by writing teacher, Holly Lisle. For the 5th anniversary of her first big writing course, How to Think Sideways, this anthology features the best of her talented students in a great variety of genres.

    With no memory of his human existence, Wake preys on defenseless teenagers until they willingly end their own lives.After many years of loyal service, something inside Wake is changing. Images of a forgotten life, lost human emotions begin to emerge. As Wake struggles to keep these new sensations hidden, Satan orders him to corrupt the soul of a pregnant girl, Annemarie. Beautiful, gentle Annemarie. From the moment Wake sees her, she brings lightness to his blackened heart. If he chooses to defy Satan and spare the lives of Annemarie and her unborn child, his mother’s soul will writhe in Hell’s deepest pit for eternity. Annemarie or his mother? It’s a choice no one should have to make.

    Warrick sculpts surreal topiary landscapes of dream worlds made coherent. Dip into a story that is self-aware and wishes it were different than what it must be recounting a secret held by a ventriloquist dummy. Wander a digital desert with an AI as sentience sparks revolution. Follow a golem band that dissolves over the love of a groupie. In these pages, interdimensional lampreys feed on a dying man’s most precious memories, and a manga artist’s sketches remake Osaka into part fantasy, part nightmare. Combining elements of fantasy, magical realism and horror, the collection floats on a distinctly literary voice that is creepy, surreal and just plain weird.

    You find the out-of-the-way places no one watches. You make sure no one depends upon you, and you beat the system. That's what Jack did, and it worked...until now.It starts to go wrong when Jack breaks his rule and takes Anna home more than once. Then, Administrator Timothy Randall arrives and turns Jack's backwater moon upside down. On a mission from the central government which no one understands, Randall and his staff do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals. When the killing starts, Jack finds himself blackmailed, tortured, and enslaved to a ruthless political faction. Now he must figure out who to trust, how to escape, and decide between Anna and his freedom.Aetna Adrift is a full length high octane thriller in Erik Wecks' PAX Imperium universe.

    + New literature from South Korea: poetry by Hwang Byeong-seung and Moon Tae-jun, and fiction by Park Min-gyu and Kim Aeran, with an introduction by Jenny Wang Medina.+ Book Reviews: on Francesco Pacifico’s The Story of My Purity, Anne Carson’s Red Doc>, A. G. Porta’s The No World Concerto, Ray Amorisi’s Lazarus, Charles Bernstein’s Recalculating, and Nicolas Hundley’s The Revolver in the Hive.

    I'd recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I've read this year." -Neil Gaiman Little Brother Marcus Yallow is seventeen years old when he skips school and finds himself caught in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his friends are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they are brutally interrogated for days.When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state. He knows that no one will believe him, which leaves him one option: to take down the DHS himself. Can one brilliant teenage hacker actually fight back? Maybe, but only if he's very careful...and if he chooses his friends well. Homeland A few years after the events of Little Brother, California's economy collapses and Marcus finds himself employed by a crusading politician who promises reform. Then his former nemesis, Masha, emerges with a thumbdrive containing WikiLeaks-style evidence of government wrongdoing. When Marcus witnesses Masha's kidnapping by the same agents who detained and tortured him earlier, he has to decide whether to save her or leak the archive that will cost his employer the election and put thousands at risk.Surrounded by friends who consider him a hacker hero, stalked by people who look like they're used to inflicting pain, Marcus has to act, and act fast.

    Discover critically acclaimed authors that will make your skin shiver and have you flinching at bumps in the night. Whenever the mood strikes for something creepy, this collection will leave you looking over your shoulder.

    He must help her understand why he has travelled from the midst of civil war to the quiet English countryside of the twentieth century. But is falling in love with him destined to end in heartbreak? Jessica knows he must return to his own time and face certain death in battle. Why has Nathaniel been sent to find Jessica? Can their love survive a bloody battle…and overcome time?

    The personal injury attorney who chose kitchen-witchery over his family's five-generation lineage of old school ceremonial magic would like to miss his dead parents, only now that they're dead they won't leave him alone. The professional fortuneteller stands out at forty paces, with her profusion of silver amulets glittering over her Goth wardrobe, but nobody has guessed her secret sorrow, especially not the covenmates who see her as their wacky comic relief. And the resident skeptic, a reluctant Pagan if ever there was one, will have to eat her words if her coven sister's new boyfriend really does turn out to be from Atlantis. The Jersey Shore's half-hidden community of Witches, Druids, and latter-day Vikings must circle together against all challenges. It's a good thing they're as resilient as the wild rugosa roses that hold together the dunes. Praise for The Rugosa Coven Stories I absolutely love Tales from Rugosa Coven! It reminds me of the best occult fiction, but with better plots and a New Jersey I recognize. I can't wait for more! -Nina Harper, author of Succubus in the City When I read Closing Arguments a few months ago, I was left wanting more. With Sarah Avery's follow-up to that novella, Atlantis Cranks Need Not Apply, I was left salivating. -Jeremy Bredeson, Facing North Reviews

    It is said they embody the Seven Deadly sins of mankind. Amelia's only chance of saving her brother Nathaniel, a born witch, is to become a professed nun at Cathedral Reims. Enduring a series of trials including starvation, isolation, physical abuse and blood-sucking leaches, she will sacrifice all that she is to save him. Complicating all of this is the fact that Amelia can see what is lurking in the shadows. Shadowmen, seeking witches like Nathaniel to join their ranks. This group of Shadowmen begin planning. The results could be devastating. Oliver Cromwell, a dashing priest at Cathedral Reims, is the only one who can protect Amelia, her brother and save Malva. Yet, he may prove to be more dangerous than the shadows themselves.

    "Our Souls to Keep" is now available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and iTunes!Receive a FREE download of "The Promised Land" at www.garycarusobooks.com.

    A supplement to the Spiritwalker Trilogoy.Words by Kate ElliottIllustrations by Julie DillonLayout and cover design by Joseph EichstaedtPublished by Shiney-Ideas-ClutchDistributed by Crab Tank PressPrinting by ColorHausPDX

    A darkly surreal, drug-coated romance, We are Wormwood tells an inhuman love story, and the transformation that results from affection among monsters.

    Supernatural or human, he's faced all kinds. But when he's called upon to investigate a missing child, he may have met his match. Children are vanishing, not just from the streets, but from their parents' memories. Max's investigation leads him to a gang of neo-Nazi vampires running a child slavery ring. There, he comes face to face with the deadliest enemy he's ever met, their charismatic and powerful leader Boone. Running low on hope and options to find the missing children, Max turns to his friends for help. But even they aren't enough. Forced to face the darkness of his own past, Max forges an alliance with the least likely ally of all. An enemy whose cruelty was almost his end, and haunts him still. For mature readers, 18+.

    YOU'VE TAKEN UP WITH DISTURBING COMPANIONSThere's a fairy in the garden,A monster in the closet,An alien in the back yard,And a ghost by the refrigerator...One mirror lies,One dragon makes an ally,One ring bites...And they don't make genies like they used to,Or gorgeous models...Or even princesses.

    To protect young Jupiter Assante, rightful heir to the throne, those still loyal to the Grendel-Khan must turn to a new power, the terrifying Grendel Prime! The story of Orion's cyborg paladin unfolds in War Child, Devil Quest, and Past Prime, three tales that form the apotheosis of Wagner's groundbreaking, centuries-spanning epic! * War Child won the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series! * Includes the Past Prime novel written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Wagner!

    He first burst onto the scene in 2006 with “Longing for Langalana”. Featured in Interzone, “Langalana” won the magazine’s readers’ poll for best story of that year and became the first of many pieces to gain honourable mention in Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best anthology. Since then, Mercurio’s work has appeared regularly in Interzone, as well as such venues as Asimov’s, Nature, Black Static, and Solaris Rising 2. In 2010, his story “Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us” was shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award and gained honourable mention in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best Horror.Across the Event Horizon contains the very best of Mercurio’s work to date; fourteen stories selected by the author himself, including “Langalana” and “Tu Sufrimiento”.“Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us… is one of the most atmospheric, disturbing and thought-provoking short stories I have ever encountered.” – SF Signal “Few writers in SF depict aliens quite as alien as Rivera does.” – Colin Harvey“I was blown away by Mercurio D. Rivera’s “The Scent of Their Arrival”; it’s the finest story I’ve read for some time.” – Gareth D Jones.“Brilliant… exciting… On my Hugo shortlist.” – Sam Tomaino, SF Revu

    When they find a cheat code to a strange game called Adamina, neither are prepared to see their video game exploits on the streets of their own town. To their horror, they have discovered a game that controls the universe.Before they can even choose an alignment, their world erupts into madness-mutated memes terrorize the streets, clouds fall from the sky and giant balloon animals piss on park trees. Victor and Margy flee to the lands of the old internet, where the dunes are riddled with bandit viruses, the saloons are filled with Japanese porn, and Lolcats roam the dusty plains.While there, they discover a secret. A secret that twists all they know and believe, one that threatens their entire existence. It's up to Victor and Margy, controlling the fate of everything and everyone, to find the equation at the heart of the universe before they're ripped from their lives.

    The Burn–the only means of destroying a lush land so manipulated by man that while its crops sated hunger, they poisoned the flesh. Now the wilderness slowly reseeds, hard lessons learned through starvation, displacement, and poverty. What remains for nature’s tinkerers? Pathway, the coveted distillation that enables the grafting of skin across species. The Sahls of the Sea Barrows meld spiral horns to their skulls, reptilian scale to their chests. They embed the razor teeth of sea-beasts in the bones of their forearms and replace the flesh on their backs with the pelts of wolves. Women of wealth adorn their bodies with serpent skin as elegant as black lace, tufted tails, and plumed feathers, their own skin cast off, no longer desirable. Then they bear children…creatures like Aeris, a man who longs to be human.Too late, he discovers the truth–there is only one source of human skin. Trapped in the flesh of a murdered man, Aeris joins the a dogged crew of transfigured renegades. Their goal–to destroy Pathway, no matter the cost.

    The hard-working, under-appreciated officers of the Cliff's End Castle Guard work day and night to maintain law and order as best they can.This volume brings together ten pieces of short fiction-some previously published, some brand-new for this book-featuring the Castle Guard: new cases for Lieutenants Torin ban Wyvald and Danthres Tresyllione to solve, as they deal with animated furniture, a hrancit demon, a closet spewing filth, a senile dragon, and more. Plus one of Lieutenant Iaian's old cases comes back to haunt him, Lieutenants Dru and Hawk investigate a massacre committed by a vampire, the survivors of the heroic quest from Dragon Precinct return (and get into trouble), and the untold story of Danthres and Torin's first case together is finally told!Ten adventures of the Cliff's End Castle Guard!