This is a story about the legions of Inferno invading the Earth. If we can enter AlterWorld, why can’t AlterWorld enter our home? Do you like to watch Chaos unfold? Beware, for one day you will feel its gaze upon you…- Call of Duty. Doc’s long awaited story. Did Doc make his dream a reality and save the doomed children? And what will the authorities do once they see the empty beds and the overfilled freezers in the hospice morgue?

    Follow Max on his lifelong quest to produce the perfect novel. Touching, irreverent, hilarious and sad. Every writer should read this story. Every writer will relate to Max. please note: This is a SHORT STORY consisting of 2,500 words.

    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.

    In this strange place, only a select few people ever leave the city limits and even then, they leave reluctantly. This is what fifteen and a half year old Benjamin Granault faces as, through a string of amazing events, he finds himself living in a town where he can never talk about modern technology or current events, a place where being an outsider can cost a person his life and being part of the community may very well cost more. Follow the adventures of Benjamin Granault in ‘50sVille, the strangest town Indiana has ever been unaware of.

    Towers of wizards rise high into the air, shrouded in the mists of magical smog. Poor sleep in the alleyways, becoming deformed by pollution. Life is short for many.Throughout all of it, the cunning and dangerous members of the City Guard do their best to keep evil and crime from destroying the citizens of Dralin. Trained to fight in streets that make no sense, they keep wickedness from taking over completely.A young woman fleeing her past makes Dralin her destination. A young Guardsman with his own dark history hopes to make a difference in a city that is without hope. Are sorrow and despair their only destiny, or can love redeem them? Two young girls raised in this city learn life's hard lessons early. Will they be defeated by its evil?Underneath the city lie hidden dangers even more terrible than those that lurk in its dark streets. Ancient ruins of civilizations past still hold onto the memories of how grand they once were, while menacing creatures hope for a tasty meal to venture into their domain.The Dralin Trilogy is a dark, swords-and-sorcery fantasy series following the lives of a few unusual individuals as they desperately try to survive in the sinister city of Dralin.Dralin is a full-length novel of approximately 96,000 words, which would be about 400 printed pages.

    First they cured the genetic diseases. Then they selected for the best natural traits. Then they made completely artificial genes. As the test children reached puberty, abilities that had always been lost in the random background noise were suddenly obvious. Telepathy, telekinesis. At first their creators sought to strengthen these traits. Then they began to fear them. They called them gods, and made them slaves. Wolfgang Oldham was sixteen when the company laid claim to him. He escaped, and stayed free for three years. When he was arrested, identified and returned to the company, they trained him to be useful. They didn't realize that they were training him to be dangerous

    These stories explore everything from artificial intelligence to parallel universes to video games, and each story is accompanied by an author’s note exploring the background and genesis of each story.   Howey’s incisive mind makes Machine Learning: New and Collected Stories a compulsively readable and thought-provoking selection of short works—from a modern master at the top of his game.

    Landing dead center at a college campus swarming with zombies, the aliens soon realize that their abduction mission is going to be quite a bit more complicated than they'd imagined. The presence of vampires only makes the situation worse.Will the human race prevail or be forced to relocate to an alien planet? Is there any way to reverse the zombie plague? Is the plague contagious to aliens and can an alien be turned into a vampire? What if a vampire alien became a zombie, then was bitten by a radioactive spider and then possessed by the ghost of a robot werewolf? That last part doesn't happen in the story, but what if it did? Find out what becomes of humanity in this hodgepodge of dystopian absurdity.

    Imagine if you had the ability to change your appearance at will. To alter the color of your hair, eyes, lips, and nails; maybe even your skin? Perhaps give yourself a tan, freckles, or a tattoo. And then swap it again, all in the blink of an eye.What if you could change your clothes to anything you wanted – that dress you saw in the window; those boots you just couldn’t afford – all with a simple thought?Suppose your senses were perfect. Better than perfect. You could see and hear and smell more acutely than you ever thought possible. On occasion, you could even glimpse into the future.You were stronger. Healthier.You were a Princess. An heir to a Kingdom in a beautiful land.What if the most powerful warriors in the land wanted you dead, and would stop at nothing to kill you?In Princess of the Gods: Descendant, a peaceful Kingdom is turned upside down when a teenage Princess discovers her true lineage: She comes from an ancient bloodline that traces straight back to the Old Gods.But this makes her a threat to the New Gods.After an attack on her home destroys the world she knows, every moment of her life becomes a fight for survival.Armed with a pair of energy weapons powerful enough to cut into solid stone – and the ability to change her clothing and appearance with a simple thought – the girl fights back, knowing that it's the only way she’ll ever be able to save her Kingdom.But will her energy blades and superhuman powers be enough to save her from the forces that want her dead?

    Full ebook also available on GoodReads.Since the 1970s humans have forced supernaturals to live in caged cities known as habitats. Each habitat is themed and organized by a particular religion. All supernaturals are tagged at birth with silver brands embedded in their foreheads identifying them by species: a full moon for Vampires, a crescent moon for Shifters, a pair of wings for Fairies, an X for Mixbreeds, and the list goes on, for each supernatural species has been tagged and categorized by humans. This short story collection is set in the Santeria habitat. The first three short stories are in the point-of-view of MeShack, Zulu, and Lanore, from the novel Fire Baptized, and serve as a prequel to that story. The last short story is from the point-of-view of Cameo, who lives in the Santeria habitat, and is from the upcoming YA novel Chameleon. Love lost, Love found (Point of View: MeShack)MeShack's mother has been missing for several weeks. Lanore and MeShack search the Santeria habitat for her, only to find something that changes his life forever. The Heart Ripper’s Song (Point of View: Zulu)All in Santeria speak of Zulu the Heart Ripper. Drug dealers fear him. Women swoon at his feet. Too bad the one woman he wants is not impressed at all by his heart-ripping antics. He’ll have to dig deeper to get her attention. The Vicious Circle (Point of View: Lanore)Lanore stumbles from one self-destructive choice to another as she struggles to align her mind’s decisions with her body’s wants.An excerpt from Chameleon (YA Paranormal Romance novel set in the Santeria habitat) Cameo lives in a caged supernatural city where all species are tagged at birth with silver brands embedded in their foreheads. Her X brand identifies her as a Mixbreed, but she’s so much more. Like a chameleon, she can shift from one person’s image to another. It’s a great way to make money for a habitat street kid, or Cage Punk as most people call them. Wiz, her street partner-in-crime, finds her jobs to use her abilities. Some jobs entail changing into people to take academic tests. Others require more skill and involve higher risk.So when Wiz asks Cameo to stand in for a Were-wolf teenager who doesn’t want to go to her debutant ball, it seems like just another job, until a corpse is discovered and Wiz is singled out as the killer. Now Cameo has to prove her innocence or lose the only person who’s ever shown her any love and respect.

    Every year, supporting members of WorldCon nominate their favorite stories first published during the previous year to determine the top five in each category for the final Hugo Award ballot. This is an anthology collecting more of the stories from that nomination list to get them to more readers The Long List Anthology Volume 3 collects 20 science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories from that nomination list, totaling over 500 pages of fiction by writers from all corners of the world. From intelligent appliances gone feral to Lovecraftian detective noir, from tech-enhanced wilderness races to Egyptian science fantasy steampunk, from hard science fiction to fairy tale to humor and more. There is a wide variety of styles and types of stories here, and something for everyone. The stories included are: "Red in Tooth and Cog" by Cat Rambo "A Salvaging of Ghosts" by Aliette de Bodard "Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0" by Caroline M. Yoachim "Razorback" by Ursula Vernon "We Have a Cultural Difference, Can I Taste You?" by Rebecca Ann Jordan "Lullaby for a Lost World" by Aliette de Bodard "Terminal" by Lavie Tidhar "Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands" by Seanan McGuire "Things With Beards" by Sam J. Miller "The Venus Effect" by Joseph Allen Hill "The Visitor From Taured" by Ian R. MacLeod "Blood Grains Speak Through Memories" by Jason Sanford "Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea" by Sarah Pinsker "A Dead Djinn in Cairo" by P. Djèlí Clark "Red as Blood and White as Bone" by Theodora Goss "Foxfire, Foxfire" by Yoon Ha Lee "Forest of Memory" by Mary Robinette Kowal "Chimera" by Gu Shi, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu and Ken Liu "Hammers on Bone" by Cassandra Khaw "Runtime" by S.B. Divya

    She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.Three short lines, fired over social media in response to questions of why Senator Elizabeth Warren was silenced on the floor of the United States Senate, for daring to read aloud the words of Coretta Scott King. As this message was transmitted across the globe, it has become a galvanizing cry for people of all genders in recognition of the struggles that women have faced throughout history.Three short lines, which read as if they are the opening passage to an epic and ageless tale.We have assembled this flash fiction collection featuring several of the best writers in SF/F today, including Seanan McGuire, Charlie Jane Anders, Maria Dahvana Headley, Jo Walton, Amal El-Mohtar, Catherynne M. Valente, Brooke Bolander, Alyssa Wong, Kameron Hurley, Nisi Shawl and Carrie Vaughn. Together these authors share unique visions of women inventing, playing, loving, surviving, and – of course – dreaming of themselves beyond their circumstances.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    From humanity's first contact with alien life, to the challenges of space travel, to colonies established light years from Earth, this anthology celebrates the wide sweep of space opera at its most sublime. There are worlds beyond worlds out there to explore, and millions of stories spinning across the galaxies. So sit back and be transported ... to the dark beyond the stars.Contents: * Foreword (Dark Beyond the Stars) • essay by Julie E. Czerneda * Containment (2015) [Stories of Singularity • 2] / novelette by Susan Kaye Quinn * Nos Morituri Te Salutamus (2014) / short story by Annie Bellet * Protocol A235 (2015) / short story by Theresa Kay * Winner Takes All (2015) / novelette by Elle Casey * Carindi (2015) / novelette by Jennifer Foehner Wells * Animal Planet (2015) / novelette by Patrice Fitzgerald * The Event (2015) / short story by Autumn Kalquist * Dragonet (2015) / novelette by S. M. Reine [as by Sara Reine] * Lulu Ad Infinitum (2015) / novelette by Ann Christy * To Catch an Actor (2015) / short story by Blair C. Babylon * 2092 (2015) [The Chronos Files] / novella by Rysa Walker .

    Covering over a quarter of a century, from his first two published stories both of them Nebula finalists to his most recent, these works bear witness to one of the most vivid and far-ranging imaginations in contemporary fiction. From the hardest of hard science fiction to the purest of core fantasy, from the heartwarming to the despairing, these are works incandescent with literary brilliance. In these pages, Janis Joplin is worshiped as a god, teenagers climb down the edge of the world, zombies are commodified, a vengeful man tracks a wizard across the surface of a planet-sized grasshopper, dinosaurs invade Vermont, a train leaves New York City bound for Hell, and those lovable Post-Utopian con men, Darger and Surplus, seek their fortunes in Buckingham Labyrinth.Michael Swanwick is one of the most acclaimed and prolific writers of his generation, as well as being the only person ever to win five Hugo Awards for fiction in the space of six years. All five of those stories are included here plus much, much more, all of it beautifully written, critically acclaimed, and deeply satisfying to read.Contents1 • Introduction (The Best of Michael Swanwick) • (2008) • essay by Michael Swanwick13 • The Feast of Saint Janis • (1980) • novelette by Michael Swanwick43 • Ginungagap • (1980) • novelette by Michael Swanwick75 • Trojan Horse • (1984) • novelette by Michael Swanwick111 • A Midwinter's Tale • (1988) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick125 • The Edge of the World • (1989) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick139 • Griffin's Egg • (1991) • novella by Michael Swanwick213 • The Changeling's Tale • (1994) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick229 • North of Diddy-Wah-Diddy • (1995) • novelette by Michael Swanwick249 • Radio Waves • (1995) • novelette by Michael Swanwick269 • The Dead • (1996) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick281 • Mother Grasshopper • (1997) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick297 • Radiant Doors • (1998) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick313 • The Very Pulse of the Machine • (1998) • novelette by Michael Swanwick333 • Wild Minds • (1998) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick343 • Scherzo with Tyrannosaur • (1999) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick355 • The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O • (2000) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick371 • The Dog Said Bow-Wow • [Darger and Surplus] • (2001) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick389 • Slow Life • (2002) • novelette by Michael Swanwick413 • Legions in Time • (2003) • novelette by Michael Swanwick437 • Triceratops Summer • (2005) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick449 • From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled • (2008) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick (variant of From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled ...)

    (Previously published in 2011 Anthology - Every Witch Way But Wicked)