The nights are dark, the days a stumbling venture from one horror to the next. In one place, William Hill stands in the center of a town where the scattered remains of the dead lie next to the road like litter tossed from passing cars, where the search for the living fails to turn up even one soul. Infected by a parasite destined to steal his mind, hunted by the Chosen, and dogged by a beautiful woman who claims to be an elf, he sometimes wonders if life can get any stranger. Then Daniel offers a glimpse of the coming world, a place where cavorting beasts feast upon the dead, where dragons haunt nearby forests, where the hordes crawl from the ground by the millions and sweep across the earth. The elf says she needs his blood to repair the rift between worlds, to finally put an end to the madness. He doesn't mind donating a little to the cause, but the more he hears, the more he doubts her intentions and the more the ceremony sounds like a full-scale sacrifice. In the end, William discovers that he can count on nothing, not even his sanity.

    Collecting the cards and imagining himself in the wild world the monsters exist, has become his favorite pastime. Depressed that the fictitious monsters don’t exist in his world, a thought occurs to him. Maybe they don’t just have to be fiction. Maybe the fantasy can become real. But at what cost?

    The girl was new. She hadn’t been there for the past three days the way that everything else had. I was sitting under a tree looking out at the ocean. It was probably the Pacific Ocean. I didn’t know for sure. When she got closer, she called out, but not loudly. It sounded something like, “Aquilala soma towatsina.” Or something like that. I didn’t understand a word of it. It was a nice language though. I liked the sound of it. She looked like some kind of cave girl, fur bikini and everything. If she didn’t try to kill me, maybe I’d at least have some company. This was weird. I was calmly accepting, and maybe actually embracing the idea that I was stranded on the edge of a jungle with no way home. Maybe there was a village with a telephone on the other side of the trees. In a way, I hoped not. I felt happy to see her, but not exactly excited. It wasn’t like I thought, “Oh my gosh, I’m rescued!” It was more like, “Hey, she’s kind of cute. Nice bikini. Nice tan too.” When she was about 50 feet away I stood up and stepped onto the sand.

    

    Until now.The kingdom Urgan is on the brink of chaos. Goblins are being attacked, dark entities abound, and the king can’t be trusted.Beautiful women are coming to Wyatt for help. And Wyatt has never been one to turn down a gorgeous woman in need.Brink Mage is a sword-swinging high fantasy adventure across a world in chaos. This is the first book of a harem series that has magic, violence, and sex with elves, dwarves, goblins, and princesses.

    “Ethshar” is the invented world that has been the setting for almost a dozen novels from the pen of Lawrence Watt-Evans. Its inhabitants don’t call it that; they call it “the World.” For readers, though, that’s not specific enough. The dominant nation on the World is the Hegemony of the Three Ethshars, while the largest, richest city, where most of the stories are set, is Ethshar of the Spices, so “Ethshar” is close enough. The name itself comes from words meaning “safe harbor.” You don’t need to have read any of the novels to enjoy the stories herein; each one should stand alone. And if you've read the novels, you will enjoy this return to the world of Ethshar with 11 stories... This is the first time they have all been collected in one book!

    E. "Doc" Smith MEGAPACK™ collects 11 works by Smith, including entries in the Lensman, Skylark, Subspace, and Lord Tedric series -- in all, more than 1,700 pages of galaxy-spanning adventure! Included are:TRIPLANETARYFIRST LENSMANTHE VORTEX BLASTERTHE GALAXY PRIMESMASTERS OF SPACETHE SKYLARK OF SPACESKYLARK THREESPACEHOUNDS OF IPCSUBSPACE SURVIVORSTEDRICLORD TEDRICIf you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 250+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!