Keener senses, heightened awareness and an enhanced physical strength that could be called upon by his sheer will. Erik becomes involved with a team of high profile investigators and local police trying to locate a girl who was kidnapped in the middle of a playground amongst dozens of adults and children. None of the adults saw anything and what the children claim to have seen is too far fetched to be believed. The search evolves into a full-scale manhunt into the dark and desolate woodlands of the Hopedale Mountain. After a lethal encounter and a fatality, Erik, the investigators and police realize that what they're dealing with isn't a man and possibly isn't of this world. What they're dealing with is a sentient evil that has an appetite for young children.

    But when a terrified woman falls through his bathroom ceiling, he's forced back into a life of gunfights, double agents and paranormal research. The secret he's been keeping for nearly four decades might reunite him with his lost love, or kill millions.This new short story by John August falls into the genre of paranoid "spy-fi" popularized by writers like Jorge Luis Borges and shows like The Prisoner and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.== What Others Say =="I really dug the story. Gave it a glance just to see, got totally hooked, and blazed on through to the end."-- Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Yiddish Policemen's Union) "The Variant" is both a good, fun, smart story and an interesting experiment in indie self-publishing for fiction."-- John Gruber, daringfireball.net== About the Author ==An excerpt of The Variant is available at johnaugust.com/variant About the AuthorJohn August is the screenwriter of eight feature films, including Go, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride. He wrote and directed the 2007 movie The Nines.He can be found on Twitter, @johnaugust

    Funded by the biotech firm Genada, Dr. Claus Rhumkorrf seeks to recreate the ancestor of all mammals.By getting back to the root of our creation, Rhumkorrf hopes to create an animal with human internal organs. Rhumkorrf discovers the ancestor, but it is not the small, harmless creature he envisions. His genius gives birth to a fast-growing evil that nature eradicated 250 million years ago — an evil now on the loose, and very, very hungry.

    The powers that be sent the wrong people, underequipped, and antagonized their supporting sometimes-allies. The mission was already slated for unmarked graves and an excuse for war...But they hadn't counted on Annika allying with the support staff, or the sheer determination of their leader, Captain Restin, to accomplish the mission. Together, they will overcome killing weather above and traitors within to fight for the control of the planet itself!

    Advances in science and the resources of countless frontier worlds have brought untold prosperity to its citizens. But how much of this wealth comes from dangerous experiments with alien technology?As an elite intelligence operative, that question plagues Gabriel Thorn constantly. When contact is lost with a mysterious research facility, he is sent to investigate. But he finds a web of secrecy and lies which extends through the corridors of power and industry, and finds himself unprepared to confront the ancient evil buried deep within.

    The mission to destroy a domestic terrorist cell in possession of a nuclear bomb sounds like the opportunity he is looking for, until he realizes that his targets are not terrorists, and that what they have is something infinitely more dangerous than a bomb. On the run with Dr. Grace Llewellyn and the device she calls Prometheus, Markus finds himself pitted against the full might of US intelligence and military forces as they mount the biggest manhunt ever conducted on American soil. He quickly learns that Prometheus represents a technological advancement so profound that it can alter the course of history. But there is another such device already in play, and he, Grace and Prometheus are all that stand between it and the end of human civilization as we know it.

    Then one day her mother vanished, and Sienna woke up to find two strange men in her home. On the run, unsure of who to turn to and discovering she possesses mysterious powers, Sienna finds herself pursued by a shadowy agency known as the Directorate and hunted by a vicious, bloodthirsty psychopath named Wolfe, each of which is determined to capture her for their own purposes...

    (60,000 words.)Meet Parker.In a world devastated by plague, Parker has to fight everything from mutant vermin to the horrific, hissing 'things' that were once human.Parker also looks out for other survivors, all the while trying to keep clear of the vicious, murdering road-gangs known as 'hogs'.Then he saves the life of a young girl, Abigail - and finds that his life once again has purpose and meaning.But with the odds hopelessly stacked against the mismatched pair, how can they possibly hope to survive...?'A nightmare world... Brutal biker gangs, flesh-hungry zombies and also the occasional 'good guy'... Much better written than the usual 'apocalypse/zombie' slush... Get PARKER...' Cliveinsydney

    Everyone around him is dead. He has no idea where he is, or who shot him and his squad down.He soon discovers he’s on one of the moons orbiting Mars, not far from the main colony and his transport back to Earth. Two members of a mining team stationed on the moon come out to investigate. They take Miller back to their base where he manages to send out a call for help.He has ninety minutes to wait for rescue.But those ninety minutes are going to feel like a lifetime.Miller quickly realises that something in the station is wrong.There seems to be more to this place than meets the eye.Strange and unsettling events suggest things are not quite as they appear.As the minutes until his rescue tick by and he begins to finally figure out what is going on, Miller is forced to confront echoes from his past as well as his deepest fears in a situation that is becoming more terrifying by the second.And he soon learns that some nightmares don’t stop when you wake up.

    Now, the Confederation's crises are spawned from within, and one brave woman struggles against all odds to keep mankind united amidst a hailstorm of rebellion, war, and moral declination.* * * * *The Lucani Ibron have yet to return, but all is not well within the Alpha Sector. Internal strife, terrorism, and ever-escalating conflicts with several neighboring species have spread the Confederation's resources dangerously thin. Captain Anastasia Mason, together with an eclectic group of humanity's most decorated heroes, struggles to hold the Confederation together against powerful forces that threaten to rip it apart at its very core. Then, at what appears to be mankind’s most desperate hour, an old enemy returns from a ten-year hiatus, casting humanity to the brink of civil war... and outright annihilation.

    Then the enemies are forced to become allies when everyone becomes lost in an unfamiliar region of the galaxy and must fight their way back through primative planets and against alien fleets. As always with Smith, romance and action are equally mixed. The Seaton is forced back into action to stop a menace that threatens every civilized planet in the galaxy, but to do it he must create the greatest starship ever conceived. Finally read Triplanetary, the story that helped launch the Lensmen series. A brainy man and heroic woman fight against ruthless space pirates for life and love.

     Witch World The first book in the classic Witch World saga by beloved fantasy and science fiction author Andre Norton. Simon Tregarth, a man on the run, escapes from our world into another, where magic still has power. He finds new purpose in the service of Estcarp, whose witches use their ancient knowledge of magic to protect their home. But a new threat is rising: the mysterious Kolder, who possess powers and technology unlike anything known in the Witch World. It will take Simon and the forces of Estcarp all their might, their courage, and their magic to drive back the insurmountable enemy. Web of the Witch World Fantasy and science fiction Grand Master Andre Norton’s Witch World saga continues in Web of the Witch World. After repulsing the Kolder, the land of Estcarp is safe, until a sudden disappearance sends Simon Tregarth and his allies on a quest to stop an enigmatic new danger. Though the Kolder were defeated before, they rise again with a vengeance, and their plot is even more sinister than before. From Karsten in the south to the swamps of Tor to the Kolder’s impenetrable stronghold and beyond, Simon must fight to stop the invaders of his adopted home once and for all. Year of the Unicorn Year Of the Unicorn returns to Andre Norton’s Witch World with a tale of adventure and magic. The orphan Gillan grew up in an abbey in High Hallack, always knowing she was different and never feeling at home. When the lords of High Hallack pledge twelve brides to the Were Riders in exchange for their protection, Gillan is faced with an opportunity few would consider: to take the place of one of the twelve chosen women and go off to parts unknown to marry one of these strange wild men. But Gillan leaps at the chance to leave the only home she has ever known in the hopes of finding something she was meant to do. And her rare gift to see through illusions that fool others will prove vital in a journey where nothing is as it seems.

    

    A vast barren tract of space lying between the besieged stars of the Kingdom of New Avalon and their distant allies. And it is the latest battlefield in the war burning across the void.Admiral Valin Sarven of the Hegemony fleet is as cunning as he is ruthless. A master tactician commanding the most powerful vessel in space, the battleship Behemoth. He is dispatched into the Reach with a single goal; to sever the long, tenuous supply lines linking the Kingdom to the Liberty Federation.Captain Hal Cutter and his ship, Achilles, join the flagship of the Kingdom’s fleet, the legendary KSS Cronus, in hunting the monstrous vessel lurking in the dark.But nothing has prepared the proud Kingdom Navy for what they’ll face as battleships clash in savage combat. And when Cronus is lost in the first brutal engagement, Cutter must play a deadly game of cat and mouse among the dim stars of The Reach.For these warriors, no quarter will be asked or given.It isn’t just admirals, captains and officers fighting this war, though. It is often those below decks who pay the highest price. And two spacers, one on either side, learn that even amid the fires of war and hatred, an act of mercy may save a wounded soul.Turrets will roar and hulls will buckle in this epic tale of battleships clashing in the night.

    Zahra knew every detail of the plan. House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours. But now it could belong to her people if they were bold enough to take it. All they needed to do was kidnap Jaswinder Bhattacharya—the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship. But what Zahra and her crew could not know was what waited for them on the ship—a terrifying secret buried by the government. A threat to all of humanity that lay sleeping alongside the orbiting dead. And then they woke it up.