Red Moon


Kim Stanley Robinson - 2018
    But hours after his arrival he witnesses a murder and is forced into hiding.It is also the first visit for celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu. He has contacts and influence, but he too will find that the moon can be a perilous place for any traveler.Finally, there is Chan Qi. She is the daughter of the Minister of Finance, and without doubt a person of interest to those in power. She is on the moon for reasons of her own, but when she attempts to return to China, in secret, the events that unfold will change everything - on the moon, and on Earth.

Mercury Falls


Robert Kroese - 2009
    That is, until she meets Mercury, an anti-establishment angel who's frittering his time away whipping up batches of Rice Krispy Treats and perfecting his ping-pong backhand instead of doing his job: helping to orchestrate Armageddon. With the end near and angels and demons debating the finer political points of the Apocalypse, Christine and Mercury accidentally foil an attempt to assassinate one Karl Grissom, a thirty-seven-year-old film school dropout about to make his big break as the Antichrist. Now, to save the world, she must negotiate the byzantine bureaucracies of Heaven and Hell and convince the apathetic Mercury to take a stand, all the while putting up with the obnoxious mouth-breathing Antichrist.

Nightseer


Laurell K. Hamilton - 1992
    For years she has asked the gods for the strength she'll need to avenge this foul death, and it seems the gods have answered her. She's been granted an array of powers never before seen in one person, but she has also acquired a most terrifying burden, a demonmark. This mark can open the door to undreamed abilities, but it can also open her soul to the forbidden dark side of magic. Keleios must choose between the demonmark's tainted power and the lives of those she holds most dear. In an epic battle of good versus evil, of enchanted swords and shapeshifting dragons, of unquenchable hatred and unlikely love, Keleios must face her own demons—before she can acquire the most important power of all: the power to forgive.

The Stardance Trilogy


Spider Robinson - 1997
    Stardance: Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but could not pursue her dream of dancing on Earth, so she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. And when the aliens arrived, there was only one way to prove that the human race deserved not just to survive, but to reach the stars. The only hope was Shara, with her stardance. Starseed: Years later, another dancer of genius faced the end of her career when her body failed her, and Rain McLeod followed Shara into space. If she joined with a symbiotic lifeform that would let her live without artificial protection in the vacuum of space, she would take a quantum leap in human evolution. Starmind: Rand Porter has been offered the job of a lifetime, as a shaper of visual effects and music for the world's most famous zero-gravity dance company in High Orbit. But his beloved novelist wife Rhea Paixao has her roots sunk deep in the Earth, in her beloved Cape Cod. And as they wrestle with their private dilemma, bizarre things-small miracles-are beginning to occur everywhere on Earth and throughout the entire Solar System. The human race-and its evolutionary successors, the space-dwelling Stardancers-find themselves approaching the terrifying cusp of their shared destiny, an appointment made for them a million years ago, a make-or-break point beyond which nothing, anywhere, can ever be the same again.

My Name is Markham


Jodi Taylor - 2016
    Discovered practising his illegal reindeer dance and poo-dropping routine, our hero, along with fellow disaster-magnets Peterson and Maxwell, is despatched to Anglo-Saxon England to discover the truth about Alfred and the cakes.In his own words, our hero reveals Major Guthrie’s six-point guide to a successful assignment and the Security Section’s true opinion of the History Department. And of historians in general. And of one historian in particular.And, just to be clear, it is time travel, for God’s sake. Forget all that pretentious ‘investigating major historical events in contemporary time’ rubbish.This is history without the capital ‘H’. Because this is the way the Security Section rolls!

Treasure Box


Orson Scott Card - 1996
    It didn't, however, prevent him from making millions through brilliant investments, and now the enigmatic recluse has experienced the extraordinarily unexpected: love at first sight.But a whirlwind courtship and marriage to Madeleine -- beautiful, witty, and equally ill-at-ease with reality -- is bringing Quentin something other than the bliss he anticipated, for now he must meet his new wife's family.A bizarre, dysfunctional collection of extreme characters, they are guarding a secret both shocking and terrifying -- as is Madeleine herself. And suddenly Quentin Fears must prevent his dream woman from unleashing an ageless malevolence intent on ruling the world.

Wired


Douglas E. Richards - 2005
    But what if this transcendent level of intelligence brings with it a ruthless megalomania? David Desh left the special forces after his team was brutally butchered in Iran. Now he has been reactivated for one last mission: find Kira Miller, the enigmatic genius behind a bioterror plot that threatens millions. But when Desh learns that the bioterror plot is just the tip of the iceberg, he is thrust into a byzantine maze of deception and intrigue, and he becomes a key player in a deadly game he can't begin to understand. A game that is certain to have a dramatic impact on the future course of human history. . .

The Mirror of Her Dreams


Stephen R. Donaldson - 1986
    Donaldson changed the face of fantasy fiction forever. In The Mirror of Her Dreams, the astonishing first novel in the two-volume Mordant’s Need series, Donaldson shows us a world of wondrous beauty and seductive illusion, where mirrors hold the deadliest of magics and nothing is what it seems. . . .The daughter of rich but neglectful parents, Terisa Morgan lives alone in a New York City apartment, a young woman who has grown to doubt her own existence. Surrounded by the flat reassurance of mirrors, she leads an unfulfilled life—until the night a strange man named Geraden comes crashing through one of her mirrors, on a quest to find a champion to save his kingdom of Mordant from a pervasive evil that threatens the land. Terisa is no champion. She wields neither magic nor power. And yet, much to her own surprise, when Geraden begs her to come back with him, she agrees.Now, in a culture where women are little more than the playthings of powerful men, in a castle honeycombed with secret passages and clever traps, in a kingdom threatened from without and within by enemies able to appear and vanish out of thin air, Terisa must become more than the pale reflection of a person. For the way back to Earth is closed to her. And the enemies of Mordant will stop at nothing to see her dead.

Working for Bigfoot


Jim Butcher - 2014
    "I Was a Teenage Bigfoot" takes place circa Deadbeat. "Bigfoot on Campus" takes place between Turn Coat and Changes.Chicago wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden is used to mysterious clients with long hair and legs up to here. But when it turns out the long hair covers every square inch of his latest client’s body, and the legs contribute to a nine-foot height, even the redoubtable detective realizes he’s treading new ground. Strength of a River in His Shoulders is one of the legendary forest people, a Bigfoot, and he has a problem that only Harry can solve. His son Irwin is a scion, the child of a supernatural creature and a human. He’s a good kid, but the extraordinary strength of his magical aura has a way of attracting trouble.In the three novellas that make up Working For Bigfoot, collected together for the first time here, readers encounter Dresden at different points in his storied career, and in Irwin’s life. As a middle-schooler, in “B Is for Bigfoot,” Irwin attracts the unwelcome attention of a pair of bullying brothers who are more than they seem, and when Harry steps in, it turns out they have a mystical guardian of their own. At a fancy private high school in “I Was a Teenage Bigfoot,” Harry is called in when Irwin grows ill for the first time, and it’s not just a case of mono. Finally, Irwin is all grown up and has a grown-up’s typical problems as a freshman in college in “Bigfoot on Campus,” or would have if typical included vampires.

Truthseeker


C.E. Murphy - 2010
    All that changes when a handsome but mysterious man enters her quiet Boston tailor shop and reveals himself to be a prince of Faerie. What's more, Dafydd ap Caerwyn claims that Lara is a truthseeker, a person with the rare talent of being able to tell truth from falsehood. Dafydd begs Lara to help solve his brother's murder, of which Dafydd himself is the only suspect.Acting against her practical nature, Lara agrees to step through a window into another world. Caught between bitterly opposed Seelie forces and Dafydd's secrets, which are as perilous as he is irresistible, Lara finds that her abilities are increasing in unexpected and uncontrollable ways. With the fate of two worlds at stake and a malevolent entity wielding the darkest of magic, Lara and Dafydd will risk everything on a love that may be their salvation--or the most treacherous illusion of all.

The Stars, Like Dust


Isaac Asimov - 1951
    A radiation bomb planted in his dorm room changed him from an innocent student at the University of Earth to a marked man, fleeing desperately from an unknown assassin.He soon discovers that, many light-years away, his father, the highly respected Rancher of Widemos, has been murdered. Stunned, grief-stricken, and outraged, Biron is determined to uncover the reasons behind his father’s death, and becomes entangled in an intricate saga of rebellion, political intrigue, and espionage.The mystery takes him deep into space where he finds himself in a relentless struggle with the power-mad despots of Tyrann. Now it is not just a case of life or death for Biron, but a question of freedom for the galaxy.

The Warslayer: The Incredibly True Adventures of Vixen the Slayer, the Beginning


Rosemary Edghill - 2002
    The wizards of Erchanen have been searching all the worlds to find a hero, and Vixen the Slayer is the last name on their list.The Warmother, imprisoned a thousand years before by Ginnas the Warkiller, has broken free of her ancient chains. If a hero can't be found somewhere in all the universes to fight for them, the people of Erchanen are toast. But is it Glory they're looking for... or Vixen?It all seemed to be a perfectly straightforward misunderstanding when Belegir was explaining it in Glory's dressing room. The reality—if you could call it that—isn't just fighting for her life. Faced with a challenge like that, what can a girl do but pick up her magic sword and her stuffed elephant and give her trademark battle cry:"Hi-yi-yi-yi! Come, Camrado! Evil wakes!"At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (DRM Rights Management).Can be found online at Baen Free Library

The Soprano Sorceress


L.E. Modesitt Jr. - 1997
    When Anna Marshall, a singer and music instructor at Iowa State University, is drawn into Erde, she becomes a sorceress - potentially their strongest. Her power soon makes her the target of ruthless political factions.

Tales From Gavagan's Bar


L. Sprague de Camp - 1953
    The authors patterned them after Lord Dunsany's "Jorkens" stories. The Gavagan's stories are widely considered classics.Contents:· Preface · pr · Elephas Frumenti [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Win/Spr ’50 · The Ancestral Amethyst [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Aug ’52 · Here, Putzi! [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · More Than Skin Deep [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Apr ’51 · Beasts of Bourbon [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Oct ’51 · The Gift of God [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Win/Spr ’50 · The Better Mousetrap [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Dec ’50 · No Forwarding Address [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · The Untimely Toper [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Jul ’53 · The Eve of St. John [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · The Love Nest [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · The Stone of the Sages [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · Corpus Delectable [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · The Palimpsest of St. Augustine [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · Where to, Please? [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Weird Tales Sep ’52 · Methought I Heard a Voice [“When the Night Wind Howls”; Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Weird Tales Nov ’51 · One Man’s Meat [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Sep ’53 · My Brother’s Keeper [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · A Dime Brings You Success [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · Oh, Say! Can You See [“Ward of the Argonaut”; Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Fantastic Universe Jan ’59 · The Rape of the Lock [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Feb ’52 · Bell, Book, and Candle [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Fantastic Universe Oct ’59 · All That Glitters [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · Gin Comes in Bottles [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Tales from Gavagan’s Bar, Twayne, 1953 · There’d Be Thousands in It [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss * · The Black Ball [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Oct ’52 · The Green Thumb [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Feb ’53 · Caveat Emptor [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss Weird Tales Mar ’53 · The Weissenbroch Spectacles [Gavagan’s Bar] · ss F&SF Nov ’54

Knight of Ghosts and Shadows


Mercedes Lackey - 1990
    Eric Banyon, musician, is out playing the blues on his flute one day, but he couldn't have known that the desperate sadness of his music would free a young elven noble from the magical prison he has been languishing in for centuries--nor does he believe it!