A network of wormholes connects the far-flung segments of humanity, allowing virtually instantaneous travel between Star Systems connected by this vast, invaluable network. But what happens when one of those wormholes collapses and an entire Sector of relatively poor worlds is left to fend for itself without support, without guidance, and without the vast infrastructure of the Imperium available to its citizens? What might such a society look like after two centuries of independence, having been left to devise their own culture, values, and government? Welcome to the Chimera Sector. The citizens of this seemingly-forgotten splinter of the Imperium hold one belief above all others: Only when the leaders fear the voters as much as the voters fear the leaders can harmony be achieved. To achieve this harmony, a special type of guild was created called the Timent Electorum. The operatives of this guild -- called 'Adjusters' -- work at the behest of the voting public, and exclusively punish political corruption, tyranny, and treason with the ultimate sanction: assassination. This is the story of one such Adjuster, Jericho, who forges an unlikely alliance with an urban detective, Masozi, whose steadfast adherence to the Sector's core principles have placed her in harm's way. Acting together in a tenuous alliance, they will follow a trail of corruption across the Virgin Star System and witness the birth of a conflict which will forever change them -- along with the entire Chimera Sector.

    So when her innermost desires conflict with her rigidly planned life, she must hide them or risk losing everything.Fresh out of the academy, she loathes her new assignment as a medical technician, but those who complain tend to disappear, so what can she do? Deciding to make the best of it, she works hard to become one of the top techs at the hospital, specializing in the use of memory retrieval equipment. As her skills gain recognition, she begins to make peace with the system until the day a loved one vanishes without a trace.Seeking answers, Clara's retrieves a memory nobody was supposed to see. Suspense with a touch of romance—Avant Nation will take you on a thought-provoking ride into the near future.

    In this Legend of ZERO novella, Joe Dobbs' eccentric, ceiling-lurking groundmate Flea teams up with Forgotten to stop a Trith from killing his friends. The task, however, is harder than it sounds--often because of Flea's own dubious choices. Will Flea succeed in defying all odds and ending the Trith's reign of terror, or will he end up spitting on one too many bad guys with guns? Will he balk in the face of danger, or will he become FLEA, AGENT OF CHAOS?! You get to decide... Author's Note: This story was written AND illustrated in 14 days. (14 sleepless, zombie-shuffling, caffeine-powered days). Lance and I wrote and illustrated it for fans of The Legend of ZERO who wanted to donate money to help with the repurchase of the rights to Outer Bounds because we felt we needed to create something fun and entertaining in return for their amazing support. Flea, Agent of Chaos is shorter than the standard ZERO novels (about 60,000 words) but contains over 45 different images detailing Flea's crazy misadventures, with a link to the wallpaper-sized images in the back of the book, in case you fall in love with a particular scene. It's fun, snarky, and you'll probably find yourself reading it several times before you can put it down. Thanks again, and please enjoy the mindscrew you are about to endure. :)WARNING: THIS IS NOT BOOK 4 OF THE LEGEND OF ZERO SERIES. The Misadventures of Flea, Agent of Chaos is a mind-bendingly complex stand-alone novella featuring the Baga character of Flea from ZERO 2. It contains lots of hints as to what's to come in ZERO 4, so it is best read after Book 2, but before Book 4. It is best classified as ZERO 3.5, but since the publishing system doesn't recognize decimal places, it is ZERO4. :)

    As Rubberman's sidekick, Alex hopes to not only learn how to use his powers, but also save up enough money to buy his first car before he heads off to college. But Alex gets more than he bargains for when a powerful supervillain with mysterious connections to Rubberman's past appears in his city with a dangerous agenda. Now Alex must master his powers in time to help Rubberman defeat this supervillain before he succeeds in his vile plans. Yet when Alex learns about the darker side of the superhero industry, he finds himself unsure whether to keep working for Rubberman or to stand against him for the greater good. If Alex makes the wrong choice, it will change his life—and the fate of his hometown—forever.

    Slavery is a common plague along the European coast and into this wild time, an ancient Egyptian general armed with dark arts has managed to return and re-embody, intent on recreating the reign of terror he began as Pharaoh. René Gilbert must remember his own lifetime at the feet of Akhenaten to have a chance to defeat Horemheb. A secret sect has waited in Morocco for three thousand years for his arrival.

    Sent to do a fluff piece about lights in the night sky over Arizona, he discovers far more than he ever expected when he comes upon a mysterious young woman held prisoner in a basement. After helping her to escape, she disappears before he can learn the truth about who she is or where she came from. His search for her leads him back to the lights in the sky and leaves him with more questions than answers. The only thing he knows for certain . . . the only thing he can count on are the two words offered repeatedly by his friend and guide . . . “IS BELT.”

    He’s in love with his work colleague Melanie and his only friend Gary is a conspiracy theory nut. His life is going nowhere until he has a Near Death Experience - though Death thinks of it as a Near Dave Experience. He discovers gifts he never knew he possessed and a world he never dreamed existed. A world where the Grim Reaper is a hard drinking, grumpy Billy Joel fan and the undead are bored, lonely and dangerous. This box set contains the first 3 stories in the How To Be Dead series: How To Be Dead Paper Cuts Old Haunts They tell the story of Death and his office staff protecting humanity from ghosts, zombies, vampires and medium-sized apocalypses. After a nice cup of tea and a biscuit. “Dave Turner is a funny man and ‘How To Be Dead’ is a brilliant read.” “If Neil Gaiman and Simon Pegg sat down to write a story together they might come up with something like this.” “Hilarious and unexpectedly moving.” “Laugh out loud funny… It’s been a while since an author has made me laugh more than Pratchett does.”

    Thanks to a technologically advanced machine, detectives have access to the memories of the living, the dying, and the recently dead. But extracting victims’ experiences firsthand and personally reliving everything up to the final, brutal moments of their lives—the sights, the sounds, the scents, the pain—is also the punishment reserved for the criminals themselves.Barnes has had enough. Enough of the memories that aren’t his. Enough of the horror. Enough of the voices inside his head that were never meant to take root…until a masked serial killer known as Calavera strikes a little too close to home.Now, with Calavera on the loose, Barnes is ready to reconnect, risking his life—and his sanity. Because in the mind of this serial killer, there is one secret even Barnes has yet to see…

    Now they’re back. Generational asteroid ship Dawn arrives at its target to find a brutal federation thriving in the embers of empire. Can the engineers and officers of Dawn survive this encounter? What happens when the Robot Empire returns to human space? Could you stand against them? If you like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, you’ll enjoy Dawn Exodus, the first book in the Robot Empire series of science fiction adventures on a galactic scale. “reminiscent of some of my favorite old time SciFi authors. Asimov, Heinlein, Niven. I may have found a new favorite author.” - Mark “The influence of Asimov is quickly felt. An aging colony ship with an agricultural society, robots and a confused crew. The potential is here for inspired world building. I'm ready to read the next book.” - Belle

    Longbottom, the Nebula Award-winning science-fiction and fantasy author and head writer of Mythic Quest. C.W. found literary fame with Inside the Caves of Beneroth and Tears of the Anaren, but even his most loyal fans don’t know that Tears of the Anaren began as a short story he wrote in the early 1970s while interning at Amazing Tales magazine.This never-before-published draft is now yours to discover, complete with C.W.’s (extremely) colorful commentary and an Introduction and Afterword by Ian Grimm, the iconoclastic creator of Mythic Quest. As sparks fly between heroic scoundrel Zeb and space seductress Merrith, we get a glimpse into the mind of a talented young man yearning for greatness. Like early Mozart, it is raw and green — but also magic.From Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, and Rob McElhenney, the Apple TV+ original comedy series, Mythic Quest, goes behind the scenes to follow the game’s creators. In a workplace focused on building worlds, molding heroes, and creating legends, the most hard-fought battles don’t occur in the game — they happen in the office. Rob McElhenney stars as Ian Grimm alongside Charlotte Nicdao and F. Murray Abraham.

    Now, the few remaining colonists on Mars scratch out their living in the worn husk of New Houston, a once vibrant settlement. Outside its walls, a perpetual storm rages - acidic snow and rain - the result of a failed attempt to terraform the planet decades earlier. The human race, once numbering in the billions, has dwindled to five hundred or so souls. David Adler has survived in these circumstances by keeping a low profile and minding his own business. But when he gets a knock on the door from his old flame, Oksana Levi, everything changes. Mars’ lead engineer and Oksana’s current boyfriend, Carl Epstein, has been brutally murdered in his workshop, and Oksana pleads for Adler’s help. Adler soon finds himself pulling at the threads of a conspiracy by a millenarian cult and its bloodthirsty father figure to do away with life on the red planet once and for all.

    Stranded and floating in deep space with no hope of rescue, simply feeding himself has become the most dangerous part of his daily routine. That is, until the Manti show up. Unable to board the alien vessel, Briggs is forced to survive strapped to the hull of their ship as it hurtles through space. Truly on the outside looking in, Briggs finds himself silently pulled into the daily lives of his alien saviors, window by window. Until he witnesses something he shouldn’t…

    . . a solid, rollicking, fast paced, easy to read story." -- TheMartianSite.com". . . an original, deftly written, and thoroughly entertaining novel of action and adventure which can be enthusiastically recommended . . ." -- Midwest Book Review"Adventurous science fiction that takes you back to the days of Robert A. Heinlein . . ." -- firebringer.blogspot.comProduct DescriptionIn 'Resurrection of Liberty' Daniel Foster discovers a family secret that is so shocking, it will affect the future of the entire galaxy. While on an innocent road trip with his two best friends, his grandfather’s old car, almost having a mind of its own, whisks the trio out of the confines of their home planet to a cloaked starship that has remained hidden behind the moon for over fifty years. In trying to return home the three friends plunge deeper into space ultimately meeting the race that had sent his grandfather to Earth on a critical mission a generation before. Yet, to their dismay, they learn that by awakening the old ship they have hastened the peril of their own home. Now, far away from his family, Daniel must accept his destiny and dig deep inside himself to muster the confidence needed to rally his new alien friends to help save Earth—and ultimately the galaxy.From the Publisher- Perfect for all those who love action and adventure - Great for Young Adults An epic science fiction adventure for the 21st century 'Resurrection of Liberty' is written in the best tradition of the classics while still being fun, friendly, and accessible to those new to genre. Young adult friendly and packed with enough action and adventure to spare 'Resurrection of Liberty' is a remarkably entertaining read for anyone who enjoys high drama, sympathetic characters, and a look into a world where courage is the key to survival and the future is just around the corner

    Green's agile imagination constantly wrong-foots the reader. A delight." -Peter Ingham, The Telegraph "The work of a talented writer having lots of very smart fun" -- S F Winser, Booksquawk.com Smallworld is like nothing you've ever read before... truly innovative space opera from Hugo-nominated Brit SF writer Dominic Green. Mount Ararat isn't your average extrasolar agrarian colony. A world the size of an asteroid yet having Earth-standard gravity, Mount Ararat plays host to a strangely confident family whose children are protected by the Devil, a mechanical killing machine, from such passers-by as Mr von Trapp (an escapee from a penal colony), the Made (manufactured humans being hunted by the State), and the super-rich clients of a gravitational health spa established at Mount Ararat's South Pole. But it soon transpires that the Devil is harbouring an ancient and deadly secret. Enjoyed Smallworld? Its sequel Littlestar hugely expands on the universe established in the first book, with a story arc that follows troopers Beguiled-of-the-Serpent and Only-Begotten as they become embroiled in the second star-spanning war against the Made. Find out more about the Smallworld and Littlestar universe in our 3D publisher room at: http://inkflash.com/Fingerpress

    Most citizens are immune to it, but a few, always born with physical disabilities, can bend it to their will. For fifty years, the ruling Eagle Knights, who fly on the back of giant birds, have killed these Imperfects, fearing the return of the old royal family, who used icefire to cut out people's hearts, turning them into ghostly servitors. The old king's grandson Tandor only sees the good things icefire brought: power and technology now forgotten while the people of the south live in dire poverty. He's had enough of seeing his fellow kinsfolk slaughtered by ignorant Knights, of Imperfect babies being abandoned on the ice floes to be eaten by wild animals. His grandfather's diary tells him how to increase the beat of the Heart the first step to making the land glorious once more. Arrogant as he is, he sets the machine in motion. All he needs is an army of Imperfect servitors to control the resulting power.Isandor is Imperfect, an ex-Knight apprentice, betrayed by his best friend and running for his life. The queen Jevaithi is Imperfect, living like a prisoner amidst leering Knights, surviving only because the common people would rebel if their beloved queen were harmed. Both are young and desperate and should be grateful that Tandor wants to rescue them from their hopeless situations. Or so he thinks. The youngsters, however, have no inclination to become heartless ghosts, but while they defy Tandor, the Heart beats, and he alone cannot control its power.