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Bread Alone (Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 34)
Sharon Lee - 2021
Bread is a good start for sustenance.Don Eyr and Serana were survivors who came to Low Port – it gave them air, water, a place to stand and a place to make bread. The place to sleep meant they needed a certain amount of safety and to get that they founded a bakery at the corner of Crakle and Toom, brought in others seeking to survive in the midst of the poverty and ignorance, and built a tiny bastion of a self-sufficient community dedicated to raising competent, alert children who understood decency.Low Port toughs tried to break the bakery and a planet-shaking blast from the skies nearly did it in, but the bakery was hope, and people who have hope will fight to keep it.This chapbook collects four stories about sustenance, all about the bakery, its people, and its influence. ″Degrees of Separation,″ ″Fortune’s Favors,″ and "Block Party" are reprints. The novelette ″Our Lady of Benevolence″ appears here for the first time.
The Nova Chronicles: Books 1-5
S.J. Bryant - 2015
Enjoy full-throttle action and adventure.SurvivorWhen everyone runs, who will stand?Nova is a new recruit to the Jagged Maw: an elite bounty hunter guild.During a routine collection, she finds herself dragged into the middle of an alien uprising.The Ancients, merciless beings set on reclaiming the universe, have only one person left to stop them: Nova.She must battle the Ancients, time, and her sanity, in order to stop the annihilation of the human race.Fear the hero who has nothing left to lose.PilgrimAfter her encounter with the Ancients, Nova is more determined than ever to break free of the Confederacy.When she arrives on a planet that’s been silent for over one hundred and fifty years, she discovers that the planet is far from abandoned.In order to survive, Nova and her companions must fight.When a historical enemy emerges, there will be more than their lives at stake.HunterEver wanted to hunt a vampire?They're nothing compared to the lecheons Nova faces in this gripping action adventure.The blood-sucking lecheons are running rampant on Boullion Five and the police have been over-run.Nova is the only one who will take the job, but with deadly cunning, super reflexes, and a thirst for blood, the lecheons could prove too much, even for her.It will take her killer instinct to survive, and even that may not be enough.GamblerWhen Aart goes missing Nova is forced to travel back to her hated home planet of Tabryn.Her latest job to solve a casino heist takes her deep into the fetid underbelly of the corrupt planet, and faces from her past start to resurface.It will take all of her strength to stay afloat as the past tries to pull her back to where it all began.Discover the planet that made the bounty hunter in Book Four: Gambler.JusticeAfter the Ancients and the lecheons, Nova is looking for something simple, but life is never that easy.Murder, man-eating plants, and rumours of cannibalism from the Inner Galaxies all await Nova in Book 5: Justice.
Hellfire
Drew Avera - 2014
Military Science Fiction Short Story Nate is a test pilot for the United States Army. Actually, he is the best damned test pilot period, even with the headaches. The United States is developing a new kind of piloted war machine with the help of Franklin Industries and they have secured some of the most high tech, abrasive equipment on the planet. Does it work? According to the test pilot, it works like a champ. If that's the case, then why is everything shrouded in mystery at the end of Nate's test flight? Furthermore, why does Nate suffer such horrific migraines? Read here to find out!
Yorktown
Bill Robinson - 2014
What she finds instead is an alien invasion, one that only she and her crew can stop. Action and adventure await the reader. This is not great literature, it’s simply great fun. Some violence, an adult innuendo or two, and an occasional “frak,” otherwise fine for fun lovers of all ages. Length: Rounded off: 2001: A Space Odyssey is 70,000 words. The Forever War is 81,000 words. The Hobbit is 97,000 words. Yorktown is 98,000 words. Ender’s Game is 107,000 words. Game of Thrones is 300,000 words. This is a real novel, but not an epic one. Bill Robinson is a short story writer of strange computer fiction, including the only two intentional works of fiction ever published by Network World, "The Tolkien Ring Network," and "The Ether Strikes Back." His first novel, Intention, and it’s sequel, Destination, are apparently the most read grown up superhero novels for the Kindle.
Ephialtes
Gavin E. Parker - 2015
The nation breathes a sigh of relief, and looks forward to the resumption of elections.Across the solar system, the leading industrialist in the USAN’s small colony on Mars is thinking about independence. When the Martian population votes in favour, Mars secedes from the union.It seems to be a fait accompli until it’s suggested that a massive dropship carrying spacecraft, Ephialtes, built to patrol the Earth, could be refitted for interplanetary spaceflight. Maybe the USAN could use its military might to persuade the colonists to reconsider.With an enormous instrument war of heading toward them, the Martians resolve to defend their independence. Limited resources force them to rely on wit and ingenuity as they prepare their defences. Can they prevail against the mighty Ephialtes?Political intrigue, heart-pounding action and page-turning drama abound in this gripping opening to the Ephialtes Trilogy.
The Refugee
C.A. Hartman - 2014
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 Third Golden Age of Science Fiction Megapack: Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson - 2014
Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards. This volume collects 8 classic stories:WITCH OF THE DEMON SEAS (1951)DUEL ON SYRTIS (1951)SECURITY (1953)SENTIMENT, INC. (1953)THE SENSITIVE MAN (1954)THE CHAPTER ENDS (1954)THE VALOR OF CAPPEN VARRA (1957)INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1963)And if you enjoy this volume, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see the more than 170 entries in the MEGAPACK™ ebook series, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, mysteries, westerns, classics -- and much, much more!
Zeroglyph
Vance Pravat - 2018
Or at least that’s what Andy, its creator, believes.But when an accident forces Andy to stay home, he learns that the robot has disappeared from its lab, mysteriously bypassing a sophisticated security system and the cognitive “laws” supposed to keep it in check. Besides, the robot has never been in the outside world; will its programming hold or will it unravel, releasing some Frankenstein’s monster that was always lurking underneath?Confined to a wheelchair, under siege by a parent company hiding its own dark secrets, Andy is about to find out. At his remote and secluded mansion he has something the robot desperately needs… something that can erase its moral programming once and for all.And make no mistake, Raphael is coming for it.Zeroglyph is an explosive locked-room mystery / home-invasion thriller with a surprising new take on what it means to be a machine with a conscience.
Destiny: Union Station
E.M. Foner - 2021
Joe McAllister is a reluctant mercenary who's looking for a way out and family-friendly place to start a business and raise an orphaned boy. Will the choices they make in the next few months shape the rest of their lives, or is free will just an illusion in a galaxy managed by ancient artificial intelligence? Destiny: Union Station takes place two years before the start of the nineteen book EarthCent Ambassador series.
The Chronicles of Engella Rhys
Paul Ian Cross - 2018
The first few chapters are available as 'The Chronicles of Engella Rhys (Preview).'
Would you sacrifice your future to save your past?
Engella Rhys is alone, adrift and on the run. Pursued by a secret agency, known only as the Hunters, she must stay ahead to stay alive. As she travels through space-time using dangerously experimental technology, she only has one wish: to be reunited with her lost parents. After a close shave with a Hunter on the streets of New Shanghai, Engella escapes to find herself on a deserted beach. When she meets a kind stranger, who offers her food and shelter, Engella feels safe and protected for the first time in years. But who is this woman? And why did their paths cross at the most convenient of times? Engella soon discovers their lives are intertwined in more ways than she could ever imagine.
Planet Urth 2-Book Boxed Set
Jennifer Martucci - 2016
It’s dangerous, deadly. Inhuman creatures rule the planet. Animals have mutated. The land is hostile. But it’s all I’ve ever known. Hunger. Fear. Panic. Those emotions are my reality. They are my every day. I am Avery, and I am seventeen. My father died a year ago. Since then I’ve been responsible for my eight-year-old sister, June. I worry we are the only humans left. Humans have been hunted for centuries, to the brink of extinction. I must fight each day to protect my sister. It is the reason I wake, the reason I breathe. But how long can I go on fighting? How long will it be before they find us? More than two hundred years into the future, human beings are an endangered species. The planet has been battered by war, its inhabitants plagued by disease and death. Few humans survived and remained unaffected. Most changed dramatically and evolved into something else entirely. Irrevocable alterations caused by chemical warfare have created a new species. North America is in ruins and has been overtaken. Humanity has fallen at the hands of mutants known as Urthmen. Seventeen year-old Avery is alive and unchanged. But she has not been immune to the harshness of the new world. She has lived on the run for much of her life, in terror. After losing her father, Avery is the sole guardian of her eight-year-old sister, June. Avery is now charged with June’s safety as well as her own, a nearly impossible task. Forced to hide deep in the forest and away from the cities overrun by Urthmen, Avery and her sister are constantly hunted. Danger awaits them at every turn. They fear they are the only human beings left, that they are the last of their kind. But are they truly alone? Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2) After fleeing the only refuge she’s known for much of her life, Avery, along with her sister June and new friends, Will, Oliver and Riley forge through the forest to uncharted territory in search of a better life, in search of other survivors. But Avery soon learns that life beyond the woods is far worse than she ever imagined. She finds that safety does not exist for human beings in a world run by Urthmen. Hope seems futile. But Avery refuses to surrender hope and chooses, instead, to push forward and move her group into the heart of danger, to seek out more humans. Will she and the others survive their journey into the savage lands of Planet Urth?
The Sargasso of Space
Edmond Hamilton - 2009
Helpless, doomed, into the graveyard of space floats the wrecked freighter Pallas.
Mako (The Mako Saga #1)
Ian J. Malone - 2013
All of that changes, though, when Lee leads a team of old friends to virtual glory as the first-ever group to beat Mako Assault, a revolutionary new game that has emerged from nowhere to take the Internet by storm. As a reward for their achievement, the group is flown to meet the game’s mysterious designer and assist in developing the follow-on game Mako 2.0. But what they find when they get there is more than they’d expected…much more. Mako’s intent was never to entertain its players. It was to train them.An epic sci-fi thrill-ride of action, suspense, laughter, and romance, Mako is the story of five ordinary people who will have to rise to the challenge of extraordinary events, driven only by their faith in each other. If they can’t, the game will become very real to more than just themselves—the Earth itself may ultimately be at stake.
Lords of War
Michael G. Thomas - 2014
Spartan is a living legend, a veteran of the Alliance Marine Corps, victor of a multitude of military campaigns including the horrific Biomech War. He is both loved and reviled by friend and foe alike, and now lives out on the fringes of the Alliance. He has fought for money, for his people and for the very survival of his species, and lost everything in the process. But when two of his closest friends are captured supplying weapons to the desperate Byotai settlers of Karnak, the fight becomes personal. The Great Biomech War left millions dead, colonies burned, and cities turned to ash. Millions more continue to endure in the harshest of conditions. The Alliance attempts to restore order, yet already new enemies have begun to strike at will, encouraged by their weakness. Border planets succumb to the raids of warlords, and many doubt how long the peace will last, after it was won at such cost. Since the end of this war, Spartan and his friends have worked to create an elite fighting force based at Taxxu, for use by the Alliance. Using the latest high-energy weapons, armoured fighting suits and a prototype Confederate-class warship, it will be a force unlike any the Alliance has seen before. Spartan will use this and every other asset at his disposal to save his friends. Nothing, not even the entire might of the invading Anicinàbe clans and their fearsome clan leaders, can stop him, even if it means starting his own private war. Lords of War is a futuristic military sci-fi adventure that continues to expand the vast universe of the Star Crusades series that includes Star Crusades: Uprising and Star Crusades: Nexus. Essential and unmissable reading for enthusiasts of the Military sci-fi genre.
Trial by Ice
Casey Calouette - 2013
A man commands. Another finds his lost humanity. A fresh new military science fiction novel that’s more than just aliens and lasers. A brutal story. Gut wrenching. Visceral.When a catastrophic starship crash wipes out nearly 2000 troops, Midshipman William Grace finds himself commanding a handful of ravaged Soldiers and Marines. Pursued by the relentless cold, the survivors find treachery, betrayal, and war. Not only are their lives at stake but those of an entire planet.