Especially when a prince from the Jervai Province offers him a case on a dangerous colony world in exchange for clues that may lead him to his family's murderer.

    Ever since he and his treasure-hunting friends struck it big and called it quits a decade back, it seems like things have slid downhill.It’s hard enough to scrape by in a sprawling mountain city in which elves and dwarves live higher than humans in every way. It’s worse at night, when the groans of the zombies laying an eternal siege to the city provide a ceaseless reminder that the Dragon Emperor himself is the only thing that keeps the hordes of hungry dead from storming the walls.When Max is called in to help invesigate the wholesale slaughter of a long-dead dwarf friend’s family, he thinks maybe he’s finally hit bottom. Then the love of his life — the elf who left him when their careers as adventurers ended — walks back through his door, desperate for his help and with nowhere else to turn.It’s not getting any easier. That’s for sure.Hard Times in Dragon City is the first novel in the Shotguns & Sorcery setting.

    Substitute the occasional romp about the city for the books and plenty of games of crutchit for the smelly alchemicals, and Shanna is just fine with that, too.Their routines—and their lives—are thrown into chaos when an elemental attack is launched against their home. Aaron thinks Shanna killed, while Aaron himself is forced to flee for his life. For Shanna, who survives that fateful night, the greatest adventure of her life is about to begin. Only the worst of nightmares awaits Aaron: pursued by dwarves, hell hounds, and a demon who will not stop until he is dead, the only thing keeping him alive is his own resourcefulness and an eslar mercenary whose reputation as a killer might make him the worst threat of all.Though Aaron and Shanna travel different paths, their purpose is joined when they individually learn of the mysterious Fifth Element. Shanna sees it as the final piece in the puzzle that is her destiny. To Aaron's logical mind, it is an impossible ambiguity. Whatever the answer, the Fifth Element draws them back together and into a final confrontation not as allies, but as adversaries.

    . .Danny Michaelson, sixteen, just wants a little time away from his troubled home in Nashville. So when he joins a group of teens in the Canadian Rocky Mountains for a ten day hiking excursion, he's primed for adventure.Breyona Lewis, sixteen, is a beautiful rich girl from Chicago. Outwardly cheerful, she conceals a dark secret. One she denies even to herself.. . . the encounter of a lifetime . . .Danny and Breyona come face to face with a creature of legend--an eight foot tall beast they tag as "bigfoot." But it's no missing link, no mere animal. And it does not want humans knowing its secrets. Because there are thousands of them here on Earth, living in a hidden city deep beneath the mountains, waiting for the day humans are "ready.". . . friendship, love, and loyalty . . .Separated from each other and told they may never return home, Danny, Breyona, and the others race to escape. To survive.One is made more than human, one is made less.One must fight, one must surrender.Both must face the truth of who they are.

    Little does the populace know that the Guild hides sinister secrets...For Tate Sullivan, life in her small, coastal town is far from glamorous. The affluent lives of the Guild members and their servants isn't something she has ever wanted. But all sixteen year-olds must take a simple test, and Tate's result thrusts her into the Guild's world, one where they hide horrible plans for those they select. Tate must fight the relentless General Dagon for control of her mind, body, and soul to keep the one precious thing she has always taken for granted: herself.Her only ally is the same handsome boy she is pitted against in General Dagon’s deadly game. Quinn desires nothing more than to end the life of General Dagon who has taken over Tate's mind. While romance blooms between Tate and Quinn, General Dagon plots to eventually take over Tate's body, and love might end before it even begins.

    A young hero overcomes implacable foes to lead a planet fallen into a dark age back to the high point of its lost technological civilization. Contains The Anvil and The Steel in the General series.  Series relaunched in The Heretic and continuing in The Savior.After the collapse of the galactic Web, civilizations crumbled and chaos reigned on thousands of planets. Only on planet Bellevue was there a difference. There, a Fleet Battle Computer named Center had survived from the old civilization. When it found Raj Whitehall, the man who could execute its plan for reviving human civilization, he and Center started Bellevue back on the road leading to the stars. Now Raj Whitehall has come close to reuniting the entire planet of Bellevue. Because of his victories and because of the way he won them, Raj is loved by the people—and his army would follow him to Hell. Even those closest to him, his band of sworn companions and his wickedly subtle but utterly loyal wife, hold him in awe. And that's the problem. For though Raj battles only in the name of his emperor and has proven his loyalty again and again, still the half-mad jealousy and fear of that emperor Clerett is about to give Raj no choice but to revolt or face death and the loss of all he has gained for freedom.About prequel omnibus volume, Hope Reborn:"The various battles and intrigues–all of them very clever and some of them very unexpected–make up the core of these extremely well-written and unabashedly fun books. And really, the action never stops. I highly recommend them to you as they’ve come out in a tasty trade format that’s very easy to hold and lug around (they are, in other words, backpackable)."—Amazing Stories About the Raj Whitehall series:“[T]old with knowledge of military tactics and hardware, and vividly described action. . .devotees of military SF should enjoy themselves.”—Publishers Weekly“[A] thoroughly engrossing military sf series. . .superb battle scenes, ingenious weaponry and tactics, homages to Kipling, and many other goodies. High fun.”—Booklist

    She’s learned to put her trust in her knives, and her confidence in her fighting ability. When the Skinnies attack her compound, she's the lone survivor.Injured and near death, Wendy is rescued and nursed back to health by mysterious strangers. Her saviors offer her a place among them, but trust has never been one of Wendy's strengths, and suspicion soon leads to evidence that these people might be the group who killed her family. The decision to get her revenge, and take the settlement down from the inside out is easy. Keeping her distance from those she must befriend in order to make it happen proves to be much more difficult.

    Desolate, she nursed her stricken neighbors. But the few who would survive the sickness were doomed anyway. Every survivor would be cursed, and each would become outcast, for the curses were more deadly than the plague itself. Some survivors would gain powers of healing--and equally the power to inflict disease at the merest touch. Some would see the future--and it would drive them mad. And some curses were even worse . . . Under the law, no one could shelter the Cursed, but Gwin took in a young girl. Who could predict that her simple act of outlaw kindness would change her life--and her world--forever?THE CURSED is an epic tale of mortals swept up in the maelstrom of destiny, of unforgiving fate, and of new beginnings. Journey with Dave Duncan into the world of THE CURSED.

    As his parents leave, Kealin and his siblings stay behind to continue to train for the inevitable bloodshed that will reach their shores. For all their lives they have been persecuted for being half-elf. Kealin has never questioned his mother's true lineage but she has been in hiding and he will soon discover why. A prophecy is revealed that foretells doom for all the warriors who departed. In order to avert the disaster, Kealin and his half-blood siblings embark into the frigid seas of the north aboard an enchanted ship. In a perilous journey, Kealin discovers a power not at all elven in nature. He is changing. As the blood of the race of a long dead people surges in his veins, a power awakens within his mind tying him to a lost and powerful culture. But what else is waking in the long frozen north, will risk all of them and Kealin is playing into the hands of a master deceiver. He must learn to control this ancient power before a hidden plot destroys all he seeks to save.

    Her body is different, she has new magical abilities, and she’s told that the fate of known civilization is in her hands.An alien Darkness is corrupting entire worlds.Elle and a team of magically enhanced companions embark on an interstellar quest to seal the Master Archive—the only hope of restoring the infected planets.Ancient relics may hold the key to salvation.With only vague clues to guide them, Elle and her new friends must gather legendary artifacts to protect the Archive. But if they can’t unravel the ancient secrets in time, their worlds and loved ones will be lost in shadow forever.

    The mission was simple. Steal a journal from Fairfax Breckinridge, one of the greatest alchemists of the time. However, he hadn’t expected to find Fairfax himself, with a dagger in his back. Nor had he expected his automaton daughter, Liliana. Suddenly entrenched in a mystery too great for him to fully comprehend, he must rely on the help of a wayward detective, and an automaton who claims she has a soul, to piece together the clues laid before them. Will Arhyen uncover the true source of Liliana’s soul in time, or will London plunge into a dark age of nefarious technology, where only the scientific will survive?

    Her escape leaves her with no option but to rely on Seth, a former lover, for help.Unfortunately, she realizes that they are now on opposite sides of an escalating war between the Commonwealth Union of Planets and an increasingly dangerous rebel organization.In trying to find who is threatening her life, they discover a plot to destroy a distant planet - a world inhabited by creatures that are the key to Nova's survival - and a conspiracy that threatens the stability of the Union Commonwealth.Can Nova go beyond her strict military training to cooperate with people whom she is sworn to destroy?

    He walks the land of Calthoria alone andthirsty for vengeance. He hunts the creatures down one by one,showing no mercy.But Searon is a one-man army—and no match for the legions ofmurderous draeyks. Lucky for him, the powerful wizard Karceolesfinds him during his travels and enlists Searon in this coming war.Karceoles believes Searon can unite the races to defeat the draeyksonce and for all.Searon discovers he can do more damage with Karceoles and aband of warriors they find along the way. But as the war ragesin earnest, Searon must make a choice: Is it more important todestroy the draeyks at all costs, or will his quest for vengeanceendanger the lives of his new brothers and sisters at arms?

    To protect her, Jaden leads a rebellion against the Night Terrors, but when he is captured in battle and dragged before the demonic queen Ashra, he realizes that he has seen her face before...every night in his dreams.Ashra is fighting her own battle for survival against enemies without and treachery within. But when Jaden stumbles upon Ashra's darkest secret and uncovers the truth about the city of eternal night, he realizes that nothing may be what it seems...including himself. "...A stunningly original take on post-apocalyptic science fiction and fantasy!" ONE CLICK to enjoy this award-winning series today!

    The last humans fled to the stars in search of a new home. In the darkness, they fought to survive. Now the fleet decays, and their hope of finding a better world is fading. Era Corinth works to preserve the archives, but viewing them herself would be treason. When she's faced with the possibility that her unborn child may be aborted due to a genetic defect, her fascination with ancient secrets escalates to obsession. Brutal conspiracies and devastating betrayals threaten to fracture the fleet. And the colonists have forgotten the most important lesson their ancestors swore to remember: It only took one wrong choice to destroy life on Earth. Will their descendants make the same mistake? "Had me hooked from the first paragraph." Amazon Reviewer