In “Vortex,” by Gregory Benford, astronauts find a once thriving microbial lifeform that carpets the caves of Mars dying off. A code monkey tracks down the vain creator of a pernicious software virus that people jack cerebrally in “RedKing,” by Craig DeLancey. In “Number Nine Moon,” by Alex Irvine, illicit scavengers on Mars are on a rescue mission to save themselves after one of their team members dies. A young girl’s thirst for vengeance becomes a struggle for survival when she is swallowed by a gigantic sea creature on an alien planet in “Of the Beast in the Belly,” by C.W. Johnson. In “The Seventh Gamer,” by Gwyneth Jones, a writer immerses herself into a MMORPG community to search for characters being played by real aliens from other worlds. A woman armed with a rifle stalks a herd of cloned wooly mammoths in British Columbia in “Chasing Ivory,” by Ted Kosmatka. In “Fieldwork,” by Shariann Lewitt, a volcanologist struggles with her research on Europa where both her mother and grandmother suffered dire consequences. A daughter pays homage to her mother with mega-engineering projects to deal with climate change over eons in “Seven Birthdays,” by Ken Liu. In “The Visitor from Taured,” by Ian R. MacLeod, a cosmologist in the near future is obsessed with proving his theory of multiverses. The citizens of a small town on a “Jackaroo” planet object to a corporation placing a radio telescope near local alien artifacts in “Something Happened Here, But We’re Not Quite Sure What It Was,” by Paul McAuley. And finally, in “Sixteen Questions for Kamala Chatterjee,” by Alastair Reynolds, a graduate student defends her dissertation on a solar anomaly that threatens humanity.

    The power of the zombie horde is amplified by the chaos of Ancient Rome's competing religions and superstitions, and the terror the undead bring in their wake foreshadows the incipient medieval darkness already creeping into the world at the end of Rome's Antonine age.Richly annotated, this mashup of survival horror and alternate history takes the reader on a bracing journey into one of ancient Rome's dark corners.

     Someone with the same habits, the same hobbies, the same interests. She wants The One. And she will do anything to find her. If you like a quick, little read with a touch of romance, a touch of spooky, then you will love KC Luck’s page-turning short story. Note: This is a short story and includes strong female characters in a lesbian relationship.

    The series has been a critically acclaimed worldwide Amazon bestseller and it is optioned for TV.The two-part box set features the books with the ancillary novellas and short stories presented in the order the author Caimh McDonnell thinks they should be read in, with new introductions written especially for this edition. Please note - This is the second part!The Dublin Trilogy Deluxe Part 2 contains:Angels in The Moonlight (The Dublin Trilogy Book 3)For Detective Bunny McGarry, life is complicated, and it is about to get more so. He’s set the task of bringing down the most skilled and ruthless armed robbery gang in Irish history. So the last thing he needs in his life is yet another complication. Her name is Simone. She is smart, funny, talented and, well, complicated.Sisters Gonna Work It Out (Novella)Annoying a drug baron is usually a very bad idea but it is just another day at work for the sisters of the saint. An ex-communicated order of kickass nuns, they take no prisoners but they might just free a few.How To Send A Message (Short Story)Bunny McGarry is the kind of man who is inclined to take it personally when someone tries to threaten his life. Two gangland thugs find out to their cost that if you’re going up the meanest copper in Dublin, you’d better be prepared for a truly unforgettable experience.Last Orders (The Dublin Trilogy Book 4)As a wise man once said, just because you're done with the past, doesn't mean the past is done with you. When long-buried bodies are discovered in the Wicklow Mountains, Bunny's past starts closing in on him. Who can he trust when he can't even trust himself? When he’s got nowhere left to run and nobody he can turn to, will the big fella make the ultimate sacrifice to protect the ones he loves?Please note: All of the novels and short stories have been previously available to readers separately.

    Thick black roots shoot up through the ground and attach themselves to the feet of every man, woman and child, locking them in place so that they can no longer move. Nobody is safe. The roots reach up through buildings, into vehicles, even up into planes. All of humanity is now stuck exactly where they were when the disaster occurred.For Andy Riley, that means being out in the car park of a London hotel, right next to a woman he'd happened to be walking past. Andy and Marie had never met before, had never even noticed one another in the hotel's conference center, but now they're stranded together in a fight for survival. And when night falls, another side of the disaster becomes apparent, as mysterious creatures roam the dark city.The root feeds on blood, and now it has all of humanity connected to its feeding system. As Andy and Marie struggle to survive, however, they begin to realize that they might be the only two people on the whole planet who have a chance of defeating the root and saving the human race.

    Until a hiking trip to the mountains of Arkansas with some friends, takes a dangerous turn.Breezy soon discovers, they’re not alone. A group of crazed psychopaths are hunting them, picking them off one by one. With no hope of escape, Breezy is forced into a cat-and-mouse game of death and survival.But her attackers made one mistake. They left her alive…*****WARNING***** This book contains violent scenes that may be considered offensive to some readers. Purchase with caution.

    A crowded fairground. A simple sequence of numbers that appear over and over again... and a horrible feeling that something is very, very wrong.Nina Vogel is haunted by a recurring nightmarish vision - but what does it mean?In this powerful short story by Jack Harding, step into this nerve-racking, fast-paced fever dream that blurs the lines between the real and the unreal.

    Ghosts, ghouls, incubi: all have one thing in common. They know Booth for one of their own . . .

    Even Simon's mother told her son he was crazy to buy the horse. But Simon never listened to other people, otherwise he wouldn't have decided to forgo going to college to become a working student at an eventing barn in the first place. Simon has always struggled--with fitting in, with being a poor boy in a rich man's sport, and also with his sexuality. To be a rider, after all, is to be...Fortune's Fool.

    It’s a passion project made unexpectedly sweeter by provoking the surly tour manager who seems intent on derailing his film.Guys like Eli are everything Mars Camden hates: smooth-talkers out to make a buck off someone else’s creativity. He knows; he’s seen it happen before, and he isn’t about to let the band he manages get taken for another ride.Even more annoying than how much pleasure Eli takes in ruffling his feathers is Mars’s growing discovery that he might actually like it. And Eli.Maybe a little.Or a lot.But damned if he’s going to be the one to break.***NOTE: This is a 21K SHORT STORY that was first available as part of a promotional giveaway. No new content has been added. It can be read as a fluffy standalone or as a part of the Rhythm of Love world, and could be considered book 1.5. The first book in the series is Dedicated.

    An expert in all things extraordinary, she’s approached to lead the formation of a new team into the West Virginia wilderness to evaluate reports of a giant spider, but her quest for answers leads her to the discovery of an eight-legged monstrosity no one could have prepared for. Existing for eons beneath our earth, these aren’t your garden variety spiders. They’re bloodthirsty monsters that will rip apart anything—and anyone—in their path, and while a town fights to survive Emily and her team will have to do everything they can to beat back the terror before there’s a new species at the top of the food chain!

    No one has heard from him. He’s disconnected from his friends, from his family, and from the job he dedicated his life to—the job that cost him everything.Then a new, all too familiar murder occurs on his patch and Kidd has no choice but to throw himself back into the fold. A young woman has been found with a smile cut into her throat, eyes carved into her cheeks, the brutal signature of The Grinning Murders—one of the most ruthless serial killers the country has ever seen. A killer who lies behind bars.However things are not as they seem and not everything adds up. Only one thing is clear: Kidd may be the only one who can figure this out before this copycat killer strikes again.

    It is said that even the Czarina Anastasia Romanova had received one in her trousseau. The workers come from the three neighboring villages on the border of Romania and Ukraine. Nourished, dressed and educated, they are the envy of all at a time when a famine programmed by Stalin sweeps the countryside and cannibalism rages from city to town to farm. But what is the secret of this factory and why does the Grazyn family protect its employees so scrupulously?The Bone Mother revives the great figures of Slavic mythology on the eve of the Second World War, from rusalka and Baba Yaga--The Bone Mother herself--to the golem. The existence of mortals is intimately linked to that of witches and vampires, in a universe where strigois rub shoulders with mermaids, ghosts and seers...and all are in peril from the Nichni Politsiyi, the Night Police, which wish to eradicate them.

    His lakeside neighborhood has become a cemetery, the houses now tombstones.THE DEAD ARE RISINGOut of the shadows, they creep… the streets, the woods, the lake… Will defends his home, his dogs, his sanctuary—but for how long?THEIR NUMBERS ARE INCREASINGHe must choose—complacency or the unknown… making irrevocable decisions that will lead to escape or demise… Will must overcome the odds and break the confines of…THE DEAD NEXT DOOR

    But this year it wakes an ancient terror."From Embers" is a short story set in the fantasy world of the bestselling novel Taming Fire. Originally written as the prologue to the Dragonprince trilogy, this story provides a dramatic glimpse at the first days of the cataclysmic dragonswarm.Approximately 5,000 words.