Everything was taken from him and he was pressed into military service as a fighter pilot. A few years later, Jace has gotten out of military service and worked on a corporate freighter. He has grown to love space and plans to never return to earth. Dissatisfied with the corporate life, Jace finds the necessary backing to go independent. Thus, he begins the life of an independent freight hauler. This story is inspired by Nathan Lowell's Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series, Firefly, and some anime.

    Lee and his crew travel to a distant planetary system with a habitable moon (named Coyote) with the dream of starting a colony free from governmental and social oppression.The trip lasts 226 years, but while everyone is in biostasis, one of the crew members is accidentally awakened. With his cell permanently deactivated by the ship's AI, communications officer Leslie Gillis is doomed to a solitary life (and death) aboard the starship. When the rest of the crew is eventually reawakened as the ship reaches its destination, what they find is extraordinary. Once the small colony is established on Coyote, they realize just how different their new world is from Earth. Exploration begins, and although a few colonists are killed by predators, the colony survives and even begins to thrive that is, until a strange comet appears in the sky.

    Stirling, Harry Turtledove, Walter Jon Williams, John Birmingham, John Barnes, Jane Lindskold, and more...S. M. Stirling’s New York Times bestselling Novels of the Change have depicted a postapocalyptic wasteland in which all modern technology has been left in ashes, forcing humankind to rebuild an unknowable new world in the wake of unimaginable—and deliberate—chaos.Now, in this new anthology, S. M. Stirling invites the most fertile minds in science fiction to join him in expanding his rich Emberverse canvas. Here are inventive new perspectives on the cultures, the survivors, and the battles arising across the years and across the globe following the Change.In his all-new story “Hot Night at the Hopping Toad,” Stirling returns to his own continuing saga of the High Kingdom of Montival. In the accompanying stories are fortune seekers, voyagers, and dangers—from the ruins of Sydney to the Republic of Fargo and Northern Alberta to Venetian and Greek galleys clashing in the Mediterranean.These new adventures revisit beloved people and places from Stirling’s fantastic universe, introduce us to new ones, and deliver endlessly fascinating challenges to conquer.Contributors to The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth includeIntroduction: The Change as Setting and Secondary World by S. M. StirlingHot Night at the Hopping Toad by S. M. StirlingRate of Exchange by A. M. DellamonicaTight Spot by Kier SalmonAgainst the Wind by Lauren C. TeffeauThe Demons of Witmer Hall by M. T. ReitenBernie, Lord of the Apes by John Jos. MillerThe Seeker: A Poison in the Blood by Victor MilánGrandpa’s Gift by Terry D. EnglandFortune and Glory by John BirminghamThe Venetian Dialectic by Walter Jon WilliamsThe Soul Remembers Uncouth Noises by John BarnesTopanga and the Chatsworth Lancers by Harry TurtledoveThe Hermit and the Jackalopes by Jane LindskoldThe New Normal by Jody Lynn NyeA Missed Connection by Emily Mah TippettsDeor by Diana Paxson

    The anthology opens with a foreword by JEREMY ROBINSON, author of Project Nemesis, the highest selling Kaiju novel in the United States since the old Godzilla books—and perhaps even more than those. From New York Times bestsellers to indie darlings Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters features authors that are perfectly suited for writing larger than life stories.TABLE OF CONTENTSForeword – Jeremy RobinsonBig Ben and the End of the Pier Show – James LovegroveThe Conversion – David AnnandaleDay of the Demigods – Peter StensonThe Lighthouse Keeper of Kurohaka Island – Kane GilmourOccupied – Natania BarronOne Last Round – Nathan BlackThe Serpent’s Heart – Howard Andrew JonesMonstruo – Mike MacLeanThe Behemoth – Jonathan WoodThe Greatest Hunger – Jaym GatesHeartland – Shane BerryhillDevil’s Cap Brawl – Edward M. ErdelacShaktarra – Sean ShermanOf the Earth, of the Sky, of the Sea – Patrick M. Tracy and Paul GenesseThe Flight of the Red Monsters – Bonnie Jo StufflebeamOperation Starfish – Peter RawlikWith Bright Shining Faces – J.C. KochThe Banner of the Bent Cross – Peter ClinesFall of Babylon – James MaxeyDead Man’s Bones – Josh ReynoldsStormrise – Erin HoffmanBig Dog – Timothy W. LongThe Great Sea Beast – Larry CorreiaAnimikii vs. Mishipeshu – C.L. WernerThe Turn of the Card – James Swallow

    Lost worlds where T-Rex and Velociraptors still roam and man is now on the menu. Laboratories at the forefront of cloning technology experiment with dinosaurs they do not understand or are able to contain. The deepest parts of the ocean where Megalodon, the largest and most ferocious predator to have ever existed is stalking new prey. Plus many more thrillers filled with extinct prehistoric monsters written by some of the best creature feature authors this side of the Jurassic period.

    Sometimes the work is legal; if not, Jack simply raises his price. But one day, Jack discovers something cloaked in the hiss of background radiation streaming past the Earth from deep space: a message from an alien civilization. One that's eager to do business with humanity -- and its representative.Before he knows it, Jack has entered into a partnership that will open a Pandora's Box of potential profit and loss. The governments, the multinationals, and mysterious players more powerful still, all want a piece of the action -- and they're willing to kill, even wage war, to get it. Now Jack is entangled shifting web of deceit and intrigue in which no one, not even his closest friends, can be trusted. For Earth's cloak-and-dagger business practices are writ large in the heavens...and hostile takeovers are just as common across light years as they are across boardroom tables.

    Desperate for answers, The Batman follows a twisted trail of perversion from Gotham City to Southeast Asia, where he faces The Ultimate Evil.

    As war engulfs the Dark Imperium this mechanical god of battle arrives to destroy the renegade armies and tech-priests of Nicomedua. At the head of a battlegroup of Titans, Imperial Knights and skitarii, Casus Belli must defeat tainted war engines, Traitor Legionaries and armies of cultists. While apocalyptic battles rage across the planet, a no less deadly battle unfolds within the Titan itself, as Magos Exasus, leader of the Casus Belli’s Tech-guard, must find and defeat the enemy within before their insidious plans come to fruition.

    And it was of himself. As an orc. And of actor and writer Wil Wheaton. As a warrior. In a clown sweater. Astride a unicorn pegasus kitten. What did this singular vision mean? Scalzi didn’t know. But he knew it was clearly too powerful to be ignored.And so, Scalzi contacted artist Jeff Zugale, who used all his skill and art to bring this vision to life. And then Scalzi, Wheaton and Bill Schafer, head of Scalzi and Wheaton’s mutual publisher Subterranean Press, called to the world of writers to answer one question: Seriously, now, what the hell’s going on in that picture?The writers who answered the call were an eclectic group. Patrick Rothfuss, author of the smash-hit fantasy novel The Name of the Wind, and Catherynne Valente, who had leapt to the front ranks of modern fantasy writers with the Hugo-nominated novel Palimpsest, were the first on board. Hugo and Nebula nominee Rachel Swirsky and video game industry legend Stephen Toulouse then offered up their own interpretations. Science fiction and fantasy balladeer John Anealio put the vision to music. New writers Bernadette Durbin and Scott Mattes competed against hundreds of fellow writers to tell their spin on the tale. And, finally, Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi were of course obliged to share their own take on the thing.But to what end? Surely a vision of this magnificence — and the stories it spawned — were meant to do something for the benefit of humanity. And so it was decided the stories of Wil, John and the Unicorn Pegasus Kitten would be bound together in a special electronic chapbook, and that this chapbook, entitled Clash of the Geeks, would be used to help those who suffered from lupus, the autoimmune disease which afflicts 1.5 million Americans and five million people worldwide (including Gretchen Schafer, Bill’s wife).And so it was.And so here it is: Clash of the Geeks, featuring eight stories (and one song) about the warrior Wheaton, the orc Scalzi, and the Unicorn Pegasus Kitten. From us. For you. And for the fight against lupus.

    ReeveThe biter bit / Wilkie CollinsMissing : page thirteen / Anna Katherine GreenA scandal in Bohemia / A. Conan DoyleThe rope of fear / Mary E. and Thomas W. HanshewThe safety match / Anton ChekhovSome Scotland Yard stories / Robert Anderson.

    Now stuck in the worst post in the Fleet, she should keep her head down. But when a Cerulean passenger is found decapitated, and Liz is framed for the murder, she has no choice but to fight for her life. No easy feat when she's facing kidnapping, ship-eating whales, horse-sized spiders and corrupt fleet officers with personal vendettas. And in the middle of the intergalactic murder drama, her ex-fiancé reappears. Captain Liz needs to clear her name--and fast.

    Readers can experience Dredd strips that haven't been reprinted in over 30 years. This collection of classic strips in a must-read for any comic fan!

    McKillip and Connie Willis.Much Ado about (Censored) - Connie WillisWho's Gonna Rock Us Home? - Nancy SpringerLose Now, Pay Later - Carol Farley A Quiet One - Anne McCaffreyMoby James - Patricia A. McKillip If I Had the Wings of an Angel - Joe Haldeman You Want it When? - Kara Dalkey Ear - Jane Yolen The Last Out - Resa Nelson and David Alexander Smith Free Day - Peg KerrBeggarman - Susan ShwartzOld Glory - Bruce Coville

    Back on the planet, a group of students discover a mysterious object in space in an impossible orbit. The crew of the Lighthouse space station are shocked by a devastating accident that throws their routine into chaos as they strive to get their ships safely home. Cut off from Earth, the sub-surface Martian Colony of New Providence suddenly finds itself in peril from something hostile and unknown. Is it alien? Is it an AI from Old Earth? After five generations enduring the harsh conditions on Mars, will the 50,000 citizens of New Providence survive this new and terrifying threat?

    Captivating and entertaining. If Breaking Bad were a science fiction novel, it would be Alien Abduction... A fresh and original science fiction story. (An) irresistible mix of smart plotting, great characters, and compelling twists." -- Must Read Novels Review Eddie Hart couldn't have lost his job at a worse time. His family has been hit with a medical emergency and his son's and daughter's college tuition is looming over him. He's broke, too old to start over, and desperate--until he discovers an unexpected solution to his troubles. An extraterrestrial solution.