Hungry monstrosities that the sons of man cannot fathom. It is The Herald's place to hunt them, protecting us from the darkness that we cannot see. Every year, with the death of summer, Tommy Maple, the Herald of Autumn, awakens to again wander the land. Wherever he goes, red and golden leaves follow him, and he hunts the twisted creatures in the darkness. This Autumn, however, is different from those in the past. Tommy awakens to the taunting of a depraved enemy, a mysterious and elusive shaman. Tommy is powerless before his strange, bent magics, and knows that the old man has slaughtered his kind in the past. He is the last person the Herald should trust. And yet, Tommy is forced to listen. Soon, a sinister tale unfolds- a story that spans centuries and the entire continent. A story made from the whispering of forgotten legends that ends with a dark revelation. A story that Tommy has always been part of, even though he didn't know it. Now the Herald faces an ancient abomination, unlike anything he has ever known before. For once, the hunter is the one that is hunted, chased through a misbegotten wood by a creature who seems to be little more than darkness and feckless hunger. The behemoth is pure horror, and can unmake everything Tommy is. As the Herald faces a foe unlike any other, will he fall to the darkness that haunts our world? Will the shadows of a lost age devour him, causing him to be reborn as one of the world's terrors? Or can he trust the shaman, a creature spun from little more than trickery, malevolence and deceit?

    Sixteen-year-old Rosa lives in one of the eight enclosed cities of The Woodlands. Where the lone survivors of a devastating race war have settled in the Russian wilderness because it’s the only scrap of land left habitable on the planet. In these circular cities, everyone must abide by the law or face harsh punishment. Rosa's inability to conform and obey the rules brands her a leper and no one wants to be within two feet of her, until she meets Joseph. He's blonde, fair-skinned, green-eyed, and the laid-back complete opposite of Rosa. She's never met anyone quite like him, and she knows that spells danger. But differences weren't always a bad thing. People used to think being unique was one of the most treasured of traits to have. Now, the Superiors, who ruthlessly control the concrete cities with an iron fist, are obsessed with creating a 'raceless' race. They are convinced this is the only way to avoid another war. Any anomalies must be destroyed. The Superiors are unstoppable and can do anything they want. After all, they are considered superheroes by the general public. But not everyone sees them this way. When they continue to abuse their power by collecting young girls for use in their secret, high-tech breeding program, they have no idea that one of those girls has somehow managed to make friends even she didn't know she had. And one man will stop at nothing to save her.

    If you like fun, adventure, and interesting tech, you’ll be sure to love something within this collection. Comprising three full length novels, and two novellas, these stories will keep you entertained for many hours. Warning: Readers might not want to come back to the real world after adventuring through these stories. Hollow Space: Venture Forced to hyperjump during a brutal ambush, Sara Lorelle, navigator of the the last human colony ship, discovers they’ve jumped to somewhere that shouldn’t exist. Trapped inside a pocket universe known only as Hollow Space, where technology inexplicably fails, Sara and her crew have to face the lethal politics of their only destination: Haven—a decrepit space station, home to hostile aliens and rival factions that soon sees the Venture crew up to their necks in trouble. With their only hope placed in Tairon Cauder, a reckless scoundrel, they will battle impossible species, confront their fears, and uncover ancient and terrible secrets. In a place where those who shoot first live the longest, the Venture crew will have to push their limits if they are to save themselves and the human race from extinction. Hollow Space: Shadowkill Kina wants to be an assassin—to join the mysterious Wraiths and secure her future on the space station of Haven. A place where it’s kill or be killed and career options are limited. But Haven is not your granddad’s space station. It’s rotten to the core and every scumbag is out for one thing only: themselves. With just her two daggers for protection, Kina is thrown into the darkness to confront a pack of bounty hunters eager to end her ambitions—and life. Code Breakers: Alpha In a post-apocalyptic future, humanity survives within a single domed city run by a shadowy benefactor known only as The Family. Each week the death lottery claims more lives and Gerry Cardle, head of the lottery, inexplicably finds himself the next on the list. Something's wrong with the system. A deadly artificial intelligence has breached security. Gerry has just 7 days to live. Forced off the grid, Gerry has to do the unthinkable: willingly leave the city. What he finds in the abandoned lands will shatter his perception of what it means to be human. Everything he had been told before was a lie. Code Breakers: Beta The fanatical Red Widows sweep destruction across the abandoned lands. Their aggression threatens to destroy the city Gerry had risked his life to save. Petal, the woman Gerry has come to love is dying. The despotic cabal, The Family, demand he brings her to them, but she's missing, running from the Widows, searching for the truth of her origins before it's too late. When their paths cross, Petal and Gerry will hold the fate of humankind in their hands—if they can survive the malevolent digital entity that stalks them from the shadows. The Daedalus Code When agents Phaedra and Aegeus of New Crete's Intelligent Data Enforcement Agency are tasked to find five missing Artificial Intelligence students, their single lead takes them to a notorious hacker known as 'The Cretian.' With his help, they uncover a terrible truth: Ariadne, one of the students, is involved with a rogue AI program called The Daedalus Project. The AI is out of control, people are going missing, and a great swathe of the world’s data is being secured within its digital labyrinth.

    Scared out of his wits, he soon discovers that the aliens, Simon and Leonidas, aren’t planning to probe him… huge relief. Instead, after injecting Luke with nano-translators so he can understand them, they tell him that his parents, both astronauts who were pronounced dead during a failed mission to Mars, are still alive... and they need his help to rescue them from an evil spider-alien dictator named Drac Moor. There’s just one itsy bitsy catch. Luke will first need to be “reconditioned” so that he can withstand the harsh alien atmospheres that he’ll be subjected to. Oh… and it’s probably going to hurt a little. Follow along as Luke stumbles through one disaster after another, in an attempt to pull off a daring prison break and free his parents before it’s too late.

    With no idea how to cure himself of this odd new compulsion, he decides to let it take its course and go for a drive, hoping that once he proves to himself that there is nowhere to go, he can return to his normal life. Instead, he finds himself hurled headlong into a nightmare adventure across a fractured Wisconsin as the dream reveals itself one heart-pounding detail at a time. <br><br>Horror, science fiction, dark fantasy. From the author of The Temple of the Blind. 84,000 words.

    At the end of the last installment, Freya had led Gardener and his friends (Night, Ninja, Max, and Shelli) into an abandoned coal mine to hide out from the violent outpouring of people desperately trying to escape the Washington DC area. Autumn passes and their story resumes near winter's end. Gardener and his friends emerge from the mine and must come to grips with the horrors that took place while they were in safe hiding. Throughout the following months, they gather more and more people to them, growing from their small, tight band to a large Horde traveling across the country to a new home.

    This was published as a Clarkesworld audiobook podcast in 2020.

    But Chad has a secret. Uncovering that secret throws Cara into a world of danger fraught with werewolves and shapeshifters. Through the dark perils that beset her on every side, Cara discovers her love for Chad while Chad’s heart is torn between two lovers. Will Cara eventually win Chad’s heart, even as she struggles to win the battle that will save his life?

    Great storms destroy cities. Rising seas reshape the continents. Afraid for its survival, mankind constructs a fleet of space stations in orbit, and steps off-world. Among the humans fighting for their future are Micah Sparrow, a widower who uncovers a plot to return mankind to the dark ages; Tasneem Kyoh, who undergoes life-extension treatments and begins the search for humanity's next home; and David Dewbury, a prodigy who believes he knows where that home might be. But in space, the rules aren't the only things that have changed. Man himself has changed, and with the Earth in tatters behind him, man turns his attention to the one thing left to destroy: himself.The Settlers is the explosive first book in Jason Gurley's Movement Trilogy, the epic story of man's small step into space, and the great leaps humanity must make to save its own future.

    

    Hephaestus Books represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Hephaestus Books continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. We believe books such as this represent a new and exciting lexicon in the sharing of human knowledge. This particular book contains chapters focused on The Chronicles of Amber, Chronicles of Amber books, and The Chronicles of Amber characters. More info: The Chronicles of Amber is a popular fantasy series by Roger Zelazny. The main series consists of two story arcs, each five novels in length. Additionally, there are a number of Amber short stories and other works.

    Within the city of Summerfeld the last mythical creatures live out their days in peace, fiercely protected by twelve immortals: brave defenders known as the Guardians.A Guardian is dead. For the first time in one thousand years, no replacement has come forward. Following the murder of her twin sister, Quinn Harden abandons the Guardianship in order to take care of her sister’s children in the modern realm of man. Shortly after their second birthday, the children are taken, against her will, in an attempt by the Guardians to bring her back into the fold. Quinn will stop at nothing to find her niece and nephew, but as she is drawn deeper into the world of Summerfeld, she finds herself torn between her loyalty to her family and the wards she has sworn to protect. As their enemies close in the Guardians must unite or Summerfeld will fall.The Cathedral of Cliffdale is the first book in the highly anticipated "Guardians of Summerfeld Series"

    With powers so mighty that even kings bowed to them, they existed outside the common laws of men. But a thousand years ago, the gods, angry at their creations for giving adulation and worship to wizards, withdrew magic from the world. The wonders of a lost age faded from memory with history giving birth to myths and children's stories... For one common stableboy, Sorial of Vantok, wizards are no more a real concern than the other long-gone creatures of legend: elves, wyrms, dragons, and trolls. There is only the immediacy of keeping the straw clean and the animals fed to avoid the wrath of his master, the innkeeper Warburm. But Sorial's mysterious past is about to impinge on his present. The secrets surrounding his birth are set to collide with a heretical theology decreeing that the gods are no more. With assassins lurking in the shadowy recesses of the stable, a relentless heat wave turning Winter to Summer, and a duke's daughter showing more interest in him than is proper, Sorial discovers that the "safe" world of his childhood is under assault. His destiny will not allow him to merely observe the disintegration of the social order; he must uncover his past so he can act to safeguard the future.

    Zane and Luna go on a date and discover some deeply hidden secrets about one another.

    Changed by captivity and torture, hunted by the Reapers of Hellsbreach and wanted by the Fleet, Kin hides on a lost planet near an unstable wormhole. When a distant space battle propels a ravaged Earth Fleet Armada through the same wormhole, a Reaper follows, hunting for the man who burned his home world. Kin fights to save a mysterious native of Crashdown from the Reaper and learns there are worse things in the galaxy than his hunters. The end is coming and he is about to pay for a sin that will change the galaxy forever.