Then we ask a team of ruthless judges to scour that ore and pick out the gems. The result is All These Shiny Worlds II:A world of today where cosplay and stagecraft are bright lights hiding dark shadowsA world of tomorrow, where kitchen appliances fend for themselves and take solace in each other's arms, refugees from indifferent ownersA world of little cogs in big machines, where the humble trash collector is the unsung hero of getting evil doneA world of small magics and big hearts, where a little chaos can go a long, long wayFrom the brutal curators at ImmerseOrDie.com comes another collection of indie short stories, each a distinct jewel forged in the fires of judgment, and all continuing to carry our one simple promise:Guaranteed not to suck.

    The effects varied widely and influenced billions of individuals. It most directly affected people who appear to be at the precise inflection point to jump them into a world that was almost the same as the place where they left. Heinrich Schloss had arrived at Berlin's Tempelhof airport in 1982 to pick up his wife. After a brief migraine-like spasm, he opened his eyes to Tempelhof in 1941 to witness Hitler's death in an airplane accident. A history professor who had grown up in a divided Berlin was now a party chieftain in Nazi Germany. All of those speculative conversations around the table with colleagues about what could have been changed to avoid the fall of Germany now had immediacy. The Schloss of this parallel world had replaced Martin Bormann to assume his role of party leader. The transplant now had to make himself into the alternate Schloss and interact with the murderous Nazis who surrounded Hitler. Schloss discovers the perils of simply trying to do the right thing.

    Harry Irons dreams of escaping poverty and an over-crowded Earth by gaining employment with the Braithwaite Corporation. After proving himself in a series of tests, Harry gets his wish and soon enough finds himself struggling to survive on an alien world. TO THE STARS was written for a general audience and is sure to satisfy both younger and older fans of alternative fiction.

    Her own survival soon becomes doubtful when the band’s leader threatens to cast her out onto the steppe for what he sees as dangerous willfulness. Raven feels an unexpected empathy for the mysterious Neanderthal. But while trying to preserve his life and health, will she go so far as to commit what could be the worst error of her own life? Mark Hayek will never find out that Raven faced a frightening dilemma. But if he did know, he would understand that the present reality exists because of choices made in the past. As meticulously researched as Jean Auel’s Earth Children series but with the benefit of recent discoveries, this novella is an updated story revealing how contact between Neanderthals and Early Humans had surprising results.

    On her twenty-first birthday, when she registers her Right to Amend, Emelia is filled with hope for the first time in years. Hope for her sister, Finola. Hope for her and Gabe. Maybe even hope for humanity.But fate forces her hand far quicker than she could have imagined and Emelia quickly learns that acting upon the little envelope containing her amendment is far harder than sending it. Even armed with a message from the future, the way forward is far from clear.Faced with an impossible decision, her sister or her soulmate, Emelia must try and predict exactly just how far the ripples of her amendments will spread…

    To download free eBooks directly, you must use Kindle Fire. Amazon has changed their other Kindle reader software (PaperWhite, eInk and Touch) so those users must use this eBook in Amazon's downloadable Cloud Reader (read.amazon.com) on a PC or laptop to select and send the free classics to their Kindle. iPad users must use the Cloud Reader from "Manage Your Kindle" to use the download links, see "From The Author" below. Amazon Prime members are welcome to use their free monthly borrow to get this list and download hundreds of the free classics for future reading.This linked list of over 350 free science fiction stories and novels in Amazon's permanent collection was recently updated with hundreds of works from famous science fiction writers who wrote in the 1950's and 1960's and apparently forgot to extend their copyright protection. For the more recent authors SciFi fans will be familiar with, I just list the links (arranged by author) that will take you to their titles in the Kindle store for free download. For the earlier writers, I usually include a one or two line summary of their books.I thought I read all the classic SciFi twenty years ago, but I found a couple dozen authors I'd never heard of while researching Amazon's free collection. Most of the titles in this linked list of the free classic science fiction on Amazon were written before the "Golden Age" of science fiction, but influenced the authors who came later. I've included several early utopia/dystopia books, a popular subject in the late Victorian period. A few supernatural titles are included when the author also wrote other types of books. I didn't include fairy tales, and I made judgment calls on skipping science fiction/fantasy that was written for children and young adults, or just included a few samples from those authors.This list of free science fiction eBooks on Amazon works best on Kindle WiFi devices, and Fire. The newest 3G and 4G Kindle Paperwhite and Touch readers will only allow you to use the clickable links for free Amazon eBooks when you are using them on a WiFi network. Clicking the linked titles will bring you directly to the product page for the free eBook in the Kindle store, where you can sign into your Amazon account (required the first time only) and download the eBook immediately. (source: Amazon)

    He's a brilliant but chilly alien. When he escapes his xenophobic planet and becomes the first Korvali to ever live among humans, the repercussions are far greater than anyone imagined.When Eshel arrives on Starship Cornelia, no one knows what to make of him or his cold, arrogant personality. Catherine, fellow scientist and the only human Eshel trusts, helps him navigate the world of "outsiders"... but she can only teach him so much. Eshel faces those who don't understand or trust him, political barriers to conducting his prized scientific work, and other challenges he never anticipated. When he crosses the line by violating one of his people's most rigid taboos, Eshel must face his own internal struggle... until he discovers that he has a far more treacherous enemy.

    The United States became the Seven Cities of America.Chicago, cut off from the other cities, ruled in darkness, is home to the scientist who created the virus. Hateful of humanity, hateful of himself, the dying scientist passes his knowledge on to his apprentice, who he believes will use it to damn all life to everlasting misery.The apprentice, Harold, his own past stained with unforgivable acts, does not share his master's hatred. But he wants this knowledge, and would shamelessly kill innocents to get it. But to what end, he struggles to realize--- all the while wondering if humanity, worthless as it seems, deserves compassion more than he deserves omniscience.As Harold struggles with his future and his identity, Chicago's ruler, the host, learns of the knowledge he has. Harold is has to flee his home.The host, Grakus, is on a journey of his own--- to prove that humanity should never have existed, to guide it to its destiny of self-destruction. He will not allow the apprentice to thwart his delicate plan to do so.But the apprentice will not allow the host to steal his decision before he's had the chance to make it.The Last City of America is a character-driven epic touching every corner of America, exposing every level of its beauty. The individual emulates humanity, and humanity's faults are written in the individual. The two walk with one another into the final decision. Cities fall one-by-one to man's ignorance. The world is ending. This time forever. Two hands reach out to save it: good and evil.This is the story of how we will be remembered.

    He must understand and survive the perils of a savage new world, a world of purple skies over canyons and prairie, where everyone and everything – be they outlaws and mountain men, or monstrous creatures of the dark, seem to want him dead.And if that wasn’t problem enough, a man with green eyes is hunting him, a man from another dimension who will stop at nothing to put the universe right.The Fifth Place is about the universe under mysterious control, and the group of antiheroic misfits determined to survive it and be free no matter what comes. Ideal for fans of Stephen King's The Dark Tower books, Garth Ennis’s Preacher comics, Joe Abercrombie, and the Farscape TV series, The Fifth Place is for those who want a pull-no-punches adult series merging western, sci-fi, gritty fantasy, dystopian, adventure and horror genres, with a diverse, irreverent and tragically flawed cast of characters to root for against all odds.

     The anomaly sails through the solar system and the International Space Station along with three astronauts and one cosmonaut are thrown back to the Cretaceous period where dinosaurs roam Earth hunting prey and great pterosaurs patrol the skies. Supplies on the station run low and desperation takes hold, but morale grows when the crew sees a bright multi-colored light blinking on the surface below. The astronauts decide to evacuate the station in the Soyuz escape capsule and investigate. As the adventurers struggle to survive in the primordial jungle, the party discovers artifacts of an ancient civilization that could help them find the light beacon. If they can stay alive long enough.

     Fired from his job of twenty-two years, Mack is contemplating his bleak prospects when things take a turn from bad to worse. While desperately trying to survive, he unwittingly helps Amber, a fourteen year old girl with a dark, troubled past. Brought together by overwhelming circumstances, Mack tries his best to protect her as they travel through lawless lands with roaming undead. But what they are forced to endure may be more than either of them can handle. Contains all three books in the series: Nano Z Nano Z: Salvation Nano Z: Oblivion

    He may have wanted a quiet place to hide, but instead he will team up with the last good cop in Dockside to try to stop a gang war and protect the hard-working folks just trying to make an honest living.It's good cop vs, bad cop, gang leader vs. mobster, and Roland Tankowicz vs. everybody in a high-stakes contest for control of Dockside. He may be brand new to the job, but the smart money is on everybody's favorite Army surplus cyborg as he doubles down on the deadliest game in Dockside:ESCALANTE.

    He’s taken up his dead father’s cause, speaking out and protesting against unfair GAP policies that are responsible for the massive social divide between wealthy GAPs and poorer naturals.If only he could keep his mind off of perfect Zoe Vanderveen, daughter of the GAP family his mother works for.And can he really fill his father’s shoes?Ambition is a free short story prequel (5K- approx. 20 pages) to Perception, capturing the beginning of Noah and Zoe’s story from Noah’s POV.

    When his sponsors are killed in an ambush a short time later, he instead finds his probationary status revoked, and becomes a pawn between various factions inside the Guadel ruling body. Jain's never known any life but that of a Guadel in training. She'd thought herself reconciled to the idea of a loveless marriage for the good of her people, but meeting Va'del changes everything. Their growing attraction flies against hundreds of years of precedent, but as wide-spread attacks threaten their world, the Guadel have no choice but to use even Jain and Va'del in their fight for survival. Publisher's Note: Frozen Prospects is followed by Thawed Fortunes.

    Most people thank President Meyers for this. Many can no longer remember when there was last an election, but as long as he keeps the country safe from the terrorist group Hariq Jihad (‘Fire War’), this seems a small price to pay. Gunnery Sergeant Anthony Jackson is the model Marine: highly trained, absolutely efficient, and unquestioningly dedicated to his country. The only thing he can conceive of putting before his nation is his family, his wife Courtney and two daughters Maya and MacKenzie. Conscripted into the personal security detail of President Meyers, he begins to get glimpses that not everyone is as content with the current situation as he is, but attributes this to terrorist agitation and fringe lunacy. When his older daughter Maya begins to question the creeping erosion of personal liberties and the revoking of democratic rights, however, he begins to fear for her safety, as well as his own and that of his family. In a climate in which entire families disappear due to minor offenses, one can’t be too careful. The tensions between liberty and safety, between family and country, will force Jackson to rethink all his beliefs, and lead to a collision with the system he has dedicated his life to serving. Fire War is a suspenseful, gripping and unnerving examination of the paradoxes of power, the price of liberty, and the dictates of conscience. The world you live in will never look the same again.